The year opens, as usual, with the news introduced by the recent one CES 2020 and with the many announcements, especially at AMD, which will make up the hardware proposal in the coming months. Just from the Las Vegas stage, Lisa Su confirmed the arrival of the much talked about AMD high-end video card, nicknamed "Big Navi", presumably based on the new architecture RNDA 2 and which should natively support ray tracing.
To fuel the rumors about the new AMD GPU, some manufacturers, in particular AFOX, contributed with the registration of the RX 5950 XT, RX 5950, RX 5900 and RX 5800 XT marks on EEC registers.
AMD has also decided to attack the mid-range, presenting the new RX 5600 XT, a video card capable of competing with the RTX 2060, with lower costs.
Intel is preparing to launch the new series of processors Comet-Lake S, whose flagship will be equipped with 10 and 20 threads and will take advantage of the LGA 1200 socket: the Core i9-10900K it promises frequencies that touch the 5 GHz, in the face of considerable consumptions that touch peaks of 300W at full capacity.
Intel recently admitted that it encountered more than one problem during the development of the new processors, confirming the slowdowns on the whole new 10 nanometer line. Problems only partially compensated by the presentation of the first Xe graphics card, a prototype from which an entire family of solutions for the mid-range should be born.
The latest technology giant to consider is NVIDIA, which has decided to respond to the attack on the mid-range of AMD with a cost cut on the RTX 2060 line. Although in the absence of official announcements, the first information has emerged in the last few days on the technical specifications of the GPU Ampere and in particular of the RTX 3080 and 3070 models that promise astounding performance.
After the recap for this beginning of the year, let's move on to the monthly configurations, once again with three proposals for the relative low-budget, gaming and high-end configurations.
Low Budget configuration (620 Euro)
The low budget range is aimed at all players who approach the PC world for the first time or experienced users who want to renew their machine without necessarily spending a fortune.
Beyond appearances (and cost), this configuration guarantees that play 1080p without too many worries. We have chosen the Ryzen 5 2600X which, although not the latest on the market, still manages to provide noteworthy performance even when compared with much more recent products. In the video sector, the XfX Radeon RX570 performs well, even if the 4 GB of VRam will start to be a limit with the approach of next-gen games. In any case, an excellent starting point, easily upgradeable (and prone to overclocking).
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X – 139 Euros
MB: Gygabyte B450 Aorus M – 84 Euros
GPU: XfX Radeon RX570 4GB – 139 Euros
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 3000 16GB – 81 Euros
HD: Kingston SSD A400 – 59 Euros
HOMES: Cooler Master MasterBox MB510L – 58 Euros
POWER SUPPLY: Cooler Master MasterWatt 450W – 60 Euros
Gaming configuration (1252 Euro)
The Gaming configuration sees the entrance of the Ryzen 5 3600 with Zen 2 architecture and with all the technological innovations that accompany the X570 chipset. Choosing the graphics card in this range is more complex and affects everyone's tastes and personal needs.
If you want to experience the thrill of ray tracing the obligatory choice is the RTX 2060 Super, which guarantees the game in 1080p with Ultra settings but also allows you to go up to 1440p. If instead you prefer the fps, we recommend the XFX Radeon RX 5700 DD Ultra (at a cost of 350 euros), practically comparable to the performance of an RTX 2070 but with a much lower cost. If you are looking for a new compromise RX 5600 XT is the card for you, with performances similar to the RTX 2060 at around 300 euros.
CPU: AMD Ryzen 3600 – 205 Euros
MB: MSI MPG X570 Gaming Pro Carbon – 229 Euros
GPU: Gigabyte RTX 2060 Super Windforce 8GB – 446 Euros
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 3200 16GB – 90 Euros
HD: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500GB – 112 Euros
HOMES: NZXT H510 – 81 Euros
POWER SUPPLY: Corsair TX650M – 89 Euros
High End Configuration (2696 Euro)
In this range there are no compromises. The hardware configuration is identical to that of last month. Once again the Core i9-9900KS reigns in game performance, especially in 1080p, as the resolution increases, the gap with AMD solutions becomes close to zero. Obviously AMD is around the corner and if you are interested in multitasking the Ryzen 9 3950 X is the jewel to choose (always paired with an Asus Crosshair VIII). For the RAM we have chosen a contained content of 16 GB but you can always opt for the 32 GB, useless in the game but important for example for those who make graphics.
Change the case instead: this month it's up to Corsair with a really elegant ATX Tower that can become aggressive thanks to the wide RGB equipment. Accompanied by the iCUE liquid cooler, the show is guaranteed.
CPU: Intel Core i9-9900KS – 672 Euros and Corsair iCUE h150i – 176 Euros
MB: Asus Rog Maximus XI Hero – 249 Euros
GPU: Asus Rog Strix RTX 2080 Super OC – 868 Euros
RAM: Trident Z RGB 3200 16GB – 172 Euros
HD: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1TB – 218 Euros
HOMES: Corsair Crystal 570X – 216 Euros
POWER SUPPLY: Corsair RM 750X – 125 Euros
