For my 4th build of 2020, I have my Matrexx Maximus build, named after the case and motherboard. Whenever I see a deal for an Asus Maximus board, I just can't resist getting it and using it in a build. This time was no exception, I got the Maximus VIII Hero and i7 6700k on /r/hardwareswap for only $250 in early 2019. Considering the market prices at the time, I valued the CPU at $200, which meant the motherboard was only $50 shipped to my door. Thus, the Matrexx Maximus build was born.

I usually prefer using blue as my main theme color in my PC builds, so whenever I get anything with red accents, I try to mix it up with red/black themes instead. The motherboard, GPU, case fans, PSU extensions, and red LED strip all work together to accomplish this. I wish I was more patient and waited for some red Corsair Vengeance ram to go on sale, but I already had this black kit on hand so I used these instead. Besides the case, case fans, and SSD, everything else was purchased used from deal hunting local or online deals. The GPU in particular was a really good deal and has held in value over time.

For under $650, this was a really straight forward 1080p gaming build and performed really well in all games. I wish I liked the way the Maximus boards look, but the red/grey just doesn't do it for me. You can probably get better value with Ryzen systems in 2020, but this system still had decent price-to-performance for an Intel build. lI'll be looking forward to when all the newer all-black Maximus boards hit the used market. Thanks for reading!