Perhaps it is the Pentium family that has undergone the greatest changes among all Kaby Lake processors. Unlike the old Pentium Skylake, which were dual-core and differed from Celeron only by a slightly higher frequency and cache volume, the new Pentium Kaby Lake received support for Hyper-Threading technology and became four-threaded, like Core i3. The youngest and cheapest Pentium G4560 costs only $70 and it is now worth starting with it when assembling an entry-level gaming PC.

The integrated graphics accelerator of the Pentium G4560 is the same as that of the Celeron – Intel HD 610 – you will not be able to play new games on it. But if you add a discrete graphics card, the situation changes dramatically – the processor easily handles with the average graphics settings even in the newest games. For high settings, four virtual cores are not enough – four physical cores are required.

Even if you do not plan to play on a PC, we still strongly recommend opting for a four-threaded Pentium G4560 instead of a dual-core Celeron. Even seemingly simple applications are now multithreaded and, as a result, demanding on the number of processor cores: web browsers, table editors and database management systems.

Despite the release of Intel 200-series chipsets, all motherboards on 100-series chipsets without exception received support for the new Kaby Lake processors. The only condition is that a preliminary update of the BIOS firmware is required (in some cases, you may need a Skylake processor to use it to launch the motherboard for the first time). And if the chipsets B150, H170 and Z170 lose in everything to the similarly priced representatives of the 200-series, then the younger H110, thanks to its minimum price, remained uncontested. Most likely, updated revisions of H110 motherboards with an already flashed BIOS will be on the market in the near future.

One of the most affordable and at the same time functional low-cost LGA1151 is the ASUS H110M-R. By the way, like other ASUS motherboards with the index "R", it comes in a regular white, not a painted box to minimize cost. Unlike similar-priced motherboards with one or two video outputs, the H110M–R has three at once — HDMI, DVI and VGA.

The ASUS H110M-R should also be praised for the thoughtful arrangement of PCI-E x1 slots, as a result of which they do not overlap with a multi-slot graphics card. As a result, we get a good low-cost motherboard with support for modern Skylake and Kaby Lake processors, and DDR4 RAM, albeit with a frequency of only 2133 MHz. The best choice for building an office, home multimedia and even an initial gaming PC.

MSI GeForce GTX 1060 3GT OC is one of the most affordable dual–fan graphics cards on a GTX 1060 chip, which is cheaper even than many single-fan models. Recall that the 3-gigabyte GTX 1060 modification has 1152 microkernels, while the 6-gig one has 1280. However, the difference in the number of microkernels is small and is easily leveled by overclocking.

In the case of the MSI GeForce GTX 1060 3GT, you do not even have to resort to manual overclocking, because it is overclocked at the factory, as evidenced by the marking "OS". The power consumption of the graphics card is 120 watts, so even with overclocking, one 6-pin power connector is enough for it (even a second-rate brand PSU is suitable). A pair of fans handles with cooling perfectly, but it does not work silently. If you need complete silence, take a closer look at similar models MSI GTX 1060 Armor 3G OCV1 and MSI GTX 1060 Gaming X 3G Price from 4 385 up to 5 110 ₴.

You should not worry about the GTX 1060 video memory volume, which is small by modern standards: large game textures are easily transferred to RAM. If for the first time after the start of sales of the GTX 1060, when the amount of video memory was exceeded, FPS drawdowns occurred due to driver inconsistency, now everything works quickly and smoothly. As a result, a graphics card worth only $230 handles without problems even with the latest games at FullHD resolution at high graphics settings.

The most interesting, in our opinion, representative of the AMD Zen family is Ryzen 5 1400. This eight-threaded chip is an accelerated one and a half times replacement for AMD FX-8000 octa-cores, but at the same time it costs even a little cheaper than the younger quad-core Intel Core i5 Kaby Lake i5-7400 BOX Price from 1 450 up to 4 219 ₴.

After manual overclocking to 4 GHz, the Ryzen 5 1400 processor becomes the best solution for its money for a gaming PC with a graphics card of the Gigabyte Radeon RX 480 GV-RX480G1 GAMING-4GD , GeForce GTX 1060 and even GTX 1070 (see the article "Overview of GeForce GTX 1050, 1050 Ti, 1060, 1070 and 1080 graphics cards"). After all, only one single game can load more than eight threads so far – Doom 2016.

In addition, all Ryzen 5 processors have hidden potential. Internally, they are all sixteen-threaded, with the only difference being that a quarter or half of the threads are blocked. Remembering the successful practice of unlocking cores from AMD Deneb chips, I would like to hope that this will become available for Zen in the near future. Thanks to this, the 170-dollar Ryzen 5 1400 would sparkle with even brighter colours.

Motherboards with an AM4 processor slot on a younger A320 chipset, in my opinion, are not worth buying. They do not support overclocking of the processor and RAM, while both of these functions are quite important for the Ryzen platform (groups of cores interact with each other through RAM). Therefore, a mandatory minimum is the Asus PRIME B350M-A motherboard on the B350 chipset.

This AMD chipset is the answer to the Intel B250 (motherboards cost the same). They both support the increasingly popular M.2 SSD drives (see the article "Speed up any PC: the five best SSD drives of 2017"). That's just the Intel B250 processor and memory overclocking does not support, so the Asus PRIME B350M-A looks more advantageous.

Made by Asus PRIME B350M-A with an emphasis on reliable and durable operation. The power subsystem is protected from power surges, the Ethernet socket is protected from a lightning strike (from a direct hit, for example, in a private house, of course, will not save), and the printed circuit board is protected from delamination due to high humidity. The HDMI, DVI and VGA video outputs on the rear interface panel of the motherboard are made with a margin for the future, because so far all the released AM4 processors are devoid of integrated graphics. Zen hybrid chips will go on the market at the end of 2017 or at the beginning of 2018.

You can scold the Asus PRIME B350M-A except for the lack of radiators on the processor power circuit. Because of this, it is unlikely to overclock the 16-stream Ryzen 7 to the limit. Otherwise, it is a good–quality and relatively inexpensive motherboard for eight- and twelve-thread Ryzen 5 processors.

Inno3D graphics accelerators are traditionally overclocked at the factory more than competing solutions (see the article "Which brand? We buy a graphics card from the best manufacturer"). GeForce GTX 1070 Gaming OC was no exception. Moreover, in the Inno3D assortment there is an even higher frequency version of the GTX 1070 – INNO3D GeForce GTX 1070 ICHILL X4 with three large and one small fan.

But for a moderately hot GTX 1070 with a heat dissipation of 150 Watts, two fans are enough, the main thing is that they should be of a large diameter – 10 cm like Inno3D Gaming OC. And thanks to a massive radiator made of aluminium ribs and copper heat pipes, in idle time this graphics card is generally cooled passively, without making even the slightest noise. In addition, it prolongs the service life of the fans.

As much as 8 GB of video memory allows you to play on the GTX 1070 not only at FullHD (for this resolution it is even, perhaps, superfluous), but also in 2K and 4K resolution. In addition, a large amount of video memory allows you to easily manage only 8 GB of RAM. Game textures will definitely have enough video memory and they will not take up RAM.

HyperX Fury is a junior series of gaming RAM from Kingston. The epithet "gaming" should not be taken literally: this memory will not increase FPS in games compared to non-gaming, it only has a higher overclocking potential and a spectacular appearance.

The HyperX Fury series includes RAM of both the old standard DDR3 and the new DDR4. The first one can be useful for upgrading existing PCs, while the second one is for building from scratch. Optimal for new PCs, in our opinion, is DDR4-2400 MHz. For Intel Kaby Lake processors without an unlocked multiplier, this is the maximum. And for AMD Ryzen chips, 2400 MHz memory can be overclocked to 2666 or even higher.

It is in the case of overclocking that metal memory radiators will be useful. Fortunately, HyperX Fury has low-profile ones and does not interfere with the installation of tower processor coolers at all (see the article "Silence and overclocking: the top five processor coolers"). As a result, we can recommend HyperX Fury to absolutely everyone, because it costs only a little more than DDR4-2133 MHz modules without radiators.

Last year, the most popular SSD controller on the market was the Phison PS3110-S10. This year it was replaced by the updated PS3111-S11. It would seem that disks based on it should have become faster. But firstly, there is simply nowhere to increase the speed of linear reading, since it has long rested on the bandwidth of the SATA III bus. And secondly, the main trend in the SSD market is a total reduction in price. As a result, the Goodram CX300, one of the first drives with the S11 controller, turned out to be even simpler than the previous model CX200.

The CX300 is built on a 15nm Toshiba TLC planar flash memory. Its connection with the S11 controller is also used in other popular SSDs, for example Kingston A400 SA400S37/240G 240 GB Price from 1 049 up to 1 770 ₴ and Patriot Memory Spark PSK256GS25SSDR 256 GB . By the way, the claimed memory capacity of 240 GB for the CX300 and A400 instead of 256 GB for Spark is not at all a disadvantage. It's just that the companies Goodram and Kingston indicated the volume of disks without taking into account the backup 16 GB inaccessible to the user, and Patriot – taking into account. The actual capacity of all three disks is the same.

Unlike SSDs on a bundle of SMI-Hynix, Goodram CX300 and similar disks have buffer RAM. However, it is only 32 MB and it is built right into the Phison S11 controller. For comparison, the SSD on the S10 controller had from 128 to 512 MB of ultrafast buffer. The CX300 also has a virtual SLC cache, and at the end of it, the write speed is also significantly reduced — from 460 to 80 Mbps. However, Toshiba's TLC memory is still one and a half times faster than SK Hynix. That is why we recommend the Goodram CX300 to build an entry-level gaming PC.

It is not difficult to find a more or less decent computer case on the market at a low cost. If only the metal was not too thin, so as not to rattle from the vibration of hard drives, and the front panel would not be made of easily scratching glossy plastic. The rest is secondary. It is much more difficult to find a cheap case with a high-quality power supply included. But we still managed it – Frontier Darth Vader with a 500W PSU.

Frontier Darth Vader is a full–size FullTower enclosure that will fit motherboards up to the ATX format (seven expansion slots). There are two seats for 3.5- and 2.5-inch drives and one more for 5.25-inch. There are no fans included: for cheap cases, this is typical, hot air is blown through the power supply located on top. If desired, a 12-cm propeller can be placed in front, and only 9–cm in the back. Also, the case has a window made of transparent plastic for fans to admire for themselves and show off to friends the PC hardware.

The main advantage of the case is the power supply supplied with it. Although it is labeled as Frontier, it is built on CWT circuitry. Ready-made solutions of the same company are used in junior models of PSUs of such world-famous brands as Chieftec, Corsair and be quiet!. Along the +12 V line, this PSU outputs 450 watts, which is more than enough to power even the most voracious processor and graphics card with 8-pin power (GTX 1070, RX 470, RX 480). There is only one drawback of the Frontier PSU – it can't be called quiet in any way.

As a result, thanks to the high power of the complete PSU, we can recommend Frontier Darth Vader for assembling not only initial, but also advanced gaming PCs. In addition to Darth Vader, other Frontier models are available for sale, differing only in the design of the front panel:Jedi, Yoda, Qui-Gon and Warlock. Perhaps you will like some of them more in appearance.