Posts in Category: pc builds



Sample PC Builds for Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood

In a recent Letter from the Producer LIVE from Square Enix’s Naoki Yoshida, we found out that graphics improvements are coming to Final Fantasy XIV. These will be a part of the new expansion Stormblood, releasing June 20, 2017.

With such a change in PC requirements, I wanted to design a PC build to handle it. So in this article I take a look at both the minimum and recommended system requirements and try to build the best PC for your money. So read on to find out more.

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Building a PC to Beat Project Scorpio

project scorpio

The truth is out there: Earlier this month we learned the specifications for Project Scorpio, the new 4K Xbox from Microsoft. I couldn’t really just let such knowledge pass me by, so I sat down to see just what sort of PC would be needed to beat it!

This article will propose two sample builds capable of standing toe-to-toe with Project Scorpio for roughly the same price. Read on to see for yourself.

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Building a PC with the Ryzen 5 1500X and 1400

This week, AMD released its exciting new Ryzen 5 series of CPUs, which includes two 6-core models (the 1600X and 1600) and two 4-core models (the 1500X and 1400). These new CPUs are giving Intel’s offerings some serious competition in the mid-range CPU space.

Yesterday, we put together some builds for the 6-core 1600X and 1600, and today we’ll be doing the same for the 4-core 1500X and 1400.

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Building a PC with the Ryzen 5 1600X and 1600

The 6-core Ryzen 5 1600X and 1600 are an interesting pair for PC builders.

For both gaming and content creation, having a 6-core/12-thread CPU for the $220-250 price point is excellent. As such, we’re going to create two powerful example builds to give you an idea for what you can make yourself.

The 1600X and 1600 can be used interchangeably with the two builds, so feel free to swap as you see fit!

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Building a PC with the GTX 1080 Ti

NVIDIA has just released the GTX 1080 Ti, with the company claiming that their new card is up to 35% faster than the already beastly GTX 1080 in some instances. If you’re going for an all-out gaming PC, look no further.

We’ve crafted three different PC builds to take advantage of NVIDIA’s new powerhouse graphics card: One with an ATX Full tower, one with an ATX Mid Tower, and finally a small form factor build. The ATX builds are using AMD’s newly released Ryzen 7 1800X and 1700X chips to make well-rounded workstation builds, while the SFF build will be using an i7-7700K, still the best gaming CPU.

All the builds are targeted at 1440p or 4K gaming, which is where the lower single-threaded performance of the Ryzen CPUs is less of an issue. Click on the links to go directly to the product page.

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$2,185 Multitasking Monster PC Build with the Ryzen 7 1800X

R7 1800X

The Ryzen 7 1800X is AMD’s flagship CPU in the new Ryzen lineup. We have put together an example PC build  that should get the most out of this monster 8-core CPU!

With blistering multi-core benchmarks, including reports of crazy 8-core overclocking records, this PC should give you an impressive editing workstation or a gaming beast. Below are parts recommendations, along with budget options or more powerful alternatives. The standard build totals $2,185.

[Note: As we were preparing to publish this article, we saw that many of these parts are now temporarily out of stock. Ryzen fever has hit, and we hope that parts are available again soon.]

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