The Midrange Build

Back in the ol Maximum PC days, the understanding was that midrange generally meant "somewhere within the region of $1,500 total, and that's it". In fact, you'll find if you take a look at that last issue that was exactly the price point I was aiming for. 

The logic was simple: the budget build should be under $1,000 if possible, midrange $1,500, and then the Turbo build would land anywhere between 2.5 and 3K. To be clear, those are price points Maximum PC consistently used for well over a decade, and honestly aren't unreasonable ones either.

Unfortunately though, it had become increasingly difficult to find suitable specs at those prices that matched that midrange ethos. Inflation is a nightmare, and the value of the dollar today is nowhere near what it was ten years ago. If we compare 2015 blueprint prices to modern values, using a handy inflation calculator, you get a really clear-cut picture of exactly that. $800 (budget) is around $1,085. $1,500 (midrange) is around $2,034, and $2,800 (Turbo) comes out at about $3,797. It's remarkable, really, how much that value can change in the course of a decade.

To sum that all up, it just doesn't make sense to keep those age-old price points the same anymore, as they're no longer representing budget, midrange, and turbo builds, and given we now include fans and additional cooling solutions and more, I've adjusted the prices accordingly on all three systems. By quite a chunk in some cases. 

The long-term plan will be to slowly whittle away at those price points until we get them closer to where we really want them. For the midrange rigs, that means we're looking at anything from $2,000 to $2,500 for the entire system. Brand new, of course, as well. You can get some outstanding secondhand deals on older parts, mind, so it's always worth checking. 

But enough waffle, let's talk builds. For our AMD rig, I've gone with a Ryzen 7 9800X3D for the CPU, backed up by an X870E motherboard and 32 GB of 6400 MT/s memory. 

The reason I went with the X3D is that it's quite difficult to justify going with a non-X3D chip at this point in time. If you've got the choice, do it. That extra 3D V-cache in-game (and in many, many applications at this point) is invaluable compared to the slower X series. 

That RAM also lends a helping hand boosting the 9800X3D's Infinity Fabric to the redline, and amazingly, Gigabyte's X870E Elite WiFi 7 motherboard (a fairly premium solution) sidles in at just $330 and comes complete with some exceptional connectivity and a pretty slick aesthetic as well.

For the GPU I've opted for an MSI Gaming Trio OC RTX 5070 12GB, one of the best value 1440p gaming GPUs you can find. I'm not dead set on the MSI one; if you can find a cheaper reliable model, I highly recommend going for that instead. Still with 12GB of GDDR7 VRAM and a helpful dose of core hardware, average frame rates sit comfortably at around 78 fps in my testing (you can find the full gaming benchmarks here).

For storage, I've gone with a twin-SSD setup, utilizing the WD SN8100 Black 1TB PCIe 5.0 SSD for the OS (without a doubt the fastest PCIe 5.0 SSD around), along with a 2TB secondary drive from Corsair, the MP700 Elite. The latter's using Kioxia's NAND Flash mixed with Phison's E31T controller and is designed as a more efficiency-oriented PCIe 5.0 solution. It's super cool, far more affordable, and still a solidly fast drive, perfect for secondary data.

As for the case, that's the Phanteks Evolv X2 Mid-tower, an absolute personal favorite of mine that I had the pleasure of reviewing for PC Gamer. It's got a beautiful monolithic obelisk style and packs in some simple yet elegant cooling as well. All the fans are recessed into the roof or the floor, and it operates on a chimney-esque thermal design, drawing cool air up through the bottom and straight up out of the roof, where your AIO will sit. 

It's a bit limited in how you can set it up, but it does support the BTF form factor, and there's plenty of cable management options in there too. It does, however, only support 120 mm fans, so do bear that in mind. I've gone with a Glacier One D30 X2 AIO, at 360 mm for this build, and as a heads-up, it looks stellar with one of Phanteks's premium angled GPU brackets (although I haven't included that in the price).

For Intel, there's not a huge amount of change here aside from the obvious. For the processor, I've gone with the Core Ultra 7 265K, as it's available at an absolutely absurd price right now thanks to some aggressive discounts from Team Blue. I've combined that with ASRock's Phantom Gaming Z890 Nova motherboard and 32GB of slightly lower clocked RAM (to save a touch of cash). Cooling is handled by the NZXT Kraken Elite 360 2024 edition, and the GPU solution is AMD's just as incredible Radeon RX 9070 XT 16GB. Another outstanding value solution that's more than capable at 1440p, delivering on average 87.75 fps at 1440p.

Pricing and availability right now are fairly solid, although how long that will last I do not know. 

AMD BUILD

Total: $2,476 / £2,210
Power Draw: 526W

INTEL BUILD

Total: $2,494 / £2,221
Power Draw: 710W

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