WORK OUT WHAT YOUR PC IS FOR BEFORE YOU PIECE IT TOGETHER
PC BUILDING is a personal endeavor. Ask each member of the Maximum PC team to build a system for a given task or to a certain budget, and you’d get completely different systems from each one, as personalities and experiences come into play. One may focus on storage throughput, another on processing power, graphics performance, or connectivity. That’s before we even consider personal touches, such as case, lighting preferences, and so on.
Despite these variations, there are general trends, and there are two broad camps when it comes to PC building: One revels in putting the latest technologies to task, while the other is focused on how the machine is going to be used. Both methodologies have advantages and disadvantages (not least of which is cost), but for most practical cases, we advise going for the middle ground. Use the best hardware for what you need, while leaving some room for future developments.
As an aside, this is one of the reasons why it’s been difficult to unreservedly recommend Nvidia’s new Ge Force RTX graphics cards, even though we’re fans of improving the rendering quality of games. They’re just a bit too close to the exciting new tech side of things, and don’t do enough for how they’ll currently be used. Well, that and the fact that the cards are incredibly expensive….
This issue’s cover feature looks at building a mainstream gaming PC. When you build a games PC, there are lots of things you need to weigh up to produce a quality machine. It’s also worth pointing out early on that even when we’re talking about a “games PC,” we envision that it’ll be used for more than that. PC gaming is in rude health, but one of the reasons why it is, and why the PC has weathered so many console-based storms, is because PCs do other things, too. Whether you’re editing photos and videos, writing your magnum opus, or simply surfing, the multi-faceted nature of the PC is what keeps us going back day after day.
Balance is key when putting this machine together. It doesn’t have the fastest graphics card money can buy (indeed, an Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti costs more than this entire machine), but if you’re looking for a system that will throw the latest games around at 1080p, with the effects maxed out, you’ve come to the right place. And it’ll handle most normal things you could want from a modern PC as well—you know, just in case you get tired of gaming.
As ever with our builds, these are recommendations that we know work (we do build them, after all), but if you want to use it as the basis for something different, please do so, and let us know what you come up with. And if you’d prefer to pick components from Intel, AMD, Nvidia, or whoever instead of what we’ve used, by all means do so— it’s your rig. Enjoy your build! Alan-Dexter is Maximum PC’s executive editor and a punish er of hardware. He’ s been atech journalist for over 20 years, and has no problem up setting the PC industry as a whole.