The Lucid Dream

In Jarred’s Tech Talk this issue (see page 19), he went into great detail about the shortages we’re seeing in the industry right now. Thanks to a multitude of different factors, the world of computing is fragmented in terms of stock, and it’s only snowballing further. There’s a massive disconnect between the RRP and the actual price you can buy these components for now, and it’s all due to demand far outstripping supply, with some unscrupulous agents in the middle to boot.

We live in unprecedented times, and in a world so connected to its technology, especially for enthusiasts, professionals, and hobbyists like ourselves, we’re suffering because of it. That’s why we continue to publish the current street price you could theoretically buy the parts for today.

Now let’s just start by saying this: do not buy this today at its current price. Encouraging scalpers only leads to more of it happening in the future, further driving up costs for us all and putting what are meant to be affordable parts way out of reach of the everyday enthusiast. What we’re looking at here is an example of what can be built and achieved when stock finally comes back into existence again – something that should hopefully occur by this summer.

This build’s also a bit of a special one for us, for a number of reasons. You’ll also notice that there’s a ton of Corsair stuff in the build too. Corsair sent us the 5000D Airflow long before the NDA was due to lift. In fact, the whole idea was that we’d have this killers AMD build ready, colour-coordinated, and illuminated in the mag, right on time for the case’s NDA to drop. If you work in print media, let us assure you, meeting an NDA is like gold-dust, and something we almost always pursue. Obviously, that didn’t quite go to plan, but that’s not stopping us from putting this epic build together for this issue.

This time around, again due to that