Welcome to our biggest round of updates for the main chart in several months!
There are some major CPU (and accompanying motherboard) updates that are coming to the guide, but in this changelog we’ll also list off some smaller changes that are on their way as well. All of these listed changes are either implemented or coming soon to all country versions of the chart.
(Image originally by vperemen.)
A virus! A virus! My PC parts for a virus! Or maybe I’ve got the sentiment backwards there…
Anyway, the global pandemic is affecting all of our lives, with some of us under lockdown, and some affected directly by the virus. Let us take a moment to say that Logical Increments is not going to offer any medical advice: We are not doctors, and we are not qualified to give any medical advice. Instead, get your medical advice from the Ministry of Health, or CDC, or another qualified medical official.
But the virus is affecting the hardware marketplace in general, and Logical Increments in particular.
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears! Also: Greetings.
The topic of this month has been the Coronavirus epidemic, so you are probably expecting some sage advice in this update. We will not give you any medical advice, because… we are not qualified to give medical advice. We research computer parts, not medicine! So please visit the official website of the Ministry of Health (or Department of Medicine, or Center of Disease Control, or etc) of your country, and follow their advice. They are professionals, and they know the best ways to deal with this.
As for us: We are professionals too, we know the best ways to buy PC parts! And this update brings changes to our main chart, mostly in the CPU column.
New to the redesigned site, our mouse recommendations (and explanations) are back, fully revamped for 2020.
The Logical Increments PC Buying Guide helps people pick suitable parts for building a PC, for any budget, large or small. The main guide chart and our many guide articles are available to all users entirely for free, and without filling the site with annoying banner ads.
Over the years, many users have asked for ways to help support this site. For that, we thank you sincerely! If you want to help out, here are three ways that you can do that:
At times there are earthquakes, and at times there are hurricanes. Volcanoes sometimes erupt, and meteors sometimes strike the earth. And when they are in the mood, sometimes AMD releases a 64-core, 128-thread consumer CPU that makes you sit up and wonder if you are in a dream. 64 cores! Sixty (60) four (4) cores (cores)!
Remember when 6-core CPUs became normal barely 2 years ago? “Haha, you foolish weaklings”, says AMD, as it unveils a CPU that is TEN TIMES more powerful. We need to send a letter to Dr. Lisa Su to inform her that this is a mistake, and it is not the year 2030 yet!
A new decade means lots of exciting new technology to spend your hard-earned money on! If you’ve got the itch to upgrade your PC, it might be worth checking these things out. Then you can either wait to see what improvements are in store, or be confident that a purchase made right now won’t be obsolete in six month’s time.
Keep in mind that a lot of the following information is based on rumours, conjecture, and leaked information. Until it comes direct from the manufacturer in question, take this information with a grain of salt.
After many rumours and much debate, the RX 5600 XT has been released. Originally slated to be a GTX 1660 “killer”, AMD re-positioned this card to compete with the RTX 2060.
From the reviews, you can see that it competes well with the 2060, beating it by a tiny margin. The 5600 XT is a $280 card, and the 2060 was a $350 card, so a victory is neat! More than just having high performance and a good price, though—this new card also uses little power, runs cool, and runs quiet. When you check all the main boxes, you have a winner!
But is it all sunshine and rainbows?
MSI has a lineup of MAX (yes, allcaps) motherboards. These differ from the non-MAX editions in that they have a more MAXIMIZED bios, and thus can support a wider range of CPUs. Some have a slightly better heatsink.
The RX 5500 XT by AMD is their latest and smallest graphics card in the RX 5xxx series. The launch is mediocre, so this post is going to be small to match.