Voting Time! Choose This Quarter’s Best Configs

Wow... a budget gaming build in my mind is sub $800. A high end gaming rig is above $1000. I mean, a $1200 gaming rig IS NOT BUDGET, which I priced most of the Intel rigs around.

There's always this month's $400 System Builder Marathon setup to consider if you want to go true budget!!

On top of that, none of these include the OS which always costs about $100. Even though no one adds it on, almost everyone buys it so it needs to be considered. Some people already have a mouse/keyboard and a monitor, but OS is bought again for every build. That means a lot of those rigs cost close to $1100. That's not a budget build.

i saw one rig that I would define as a budget PC (athlon x3 + ATI 5770) and I agree, $1200 is a full blown gaming PC. Might not be high end but your sacrifices are few.

Depends on the OS. Windows has a wide range of prices and it depends if it is retail or OEM. Ubuntu and other Linux distributions are free. It makes sense to not include it because of the variability. Operating costs like power efficiency also affect TCO.

I don't like that some of these builds include products CPU's from Microcenter. Microcenter is not available everywhere and these build should be available to purchase by everyone in the price range. Not everyone can get the $199.99 i7 930.....Combos should not be included as well.

You can always choose to use a linux operating system, its free.

be honest with yourself, if you are building a gaming machine, it's gonna have windows. as much as people hate M$, the best games on pc are made for windows.

Not all of the configurations are gaming machines. Many game servers run on Linux even if the clients are only available on Windows.

I'll make sure my next build is designed to run a game server. You know, because I like to watch others play. =P

I was mainly referring to the budget gaming PCs. We all know gaming PCs are going to have Windows 7 on them. That means it is a minimum of $100 for OEM Windows 7 and that $100 takes a part of people's budgets. If someone is trying to build a budget gaming PC under X, the OS is still one of his costs. Even if it isn't listed as part of the price in a build, it just puts those $1000 "budget" gaming PCs even farther away from people actually trying to build a budget PC.

My gaming system doesn't use Windows. You're also assuming that builders are going to actually buy Windows instead of using the widely available OEM ISOs and SLP/VLK hacks. Then there are those XP holdouts... I still think it was best not to include the OS in the prices (and ISP services as well).

guis dese arnt acurate cuz u havent inkluded the price of da desk that u put the computer on and/or the chair u sit on when u play it.
and don't forget about the games themselves. wats da point of having a gaming pc if u don't have at lest a few hundred dollar worth of games. so each budget system is actually like $2000+

I also agree that the OS should not be included because Windows comes in many editions. If someone is building a PC they would know to take the OS into account (or they should not be building a PC). It's also quite possible that they will use a copy of Windows from a previous PC.

The Office PCs can just run a Linux distro

Good point. Unless you only want to play Farmville you'll need money for games (or at least buy an account on a server).

I find only two of the selections in the high end Intel gaming PC category satisfactory.I'm not saying this because my recommendation was not chosen, but because Tom's did not choose them properly.

but really, I only voted for the budget systems that were actually budget systems.

Big, slow, cheap hard drives are increasingly popular because folks have a lot of data much of which may result from 24X7 P2P activity. Why is there no category for frugal home file server with redundant disks (i.e. software raid 5 or better)?

i'm most excited about ScrewySqrl's media pc, its a good build and wcould be built cheap... with a very stylish case

Most people do not use nor understand the concept of a Home Server. They will rather install seperate hard disks and pile their data onto these. Redundant disks is just that to the general public, redundant and therefore they would rather spend their money elsewhere.

that budget X3 445 + 5770 build is what i was shooting for on my future build. but with a slightly larger PS so i can xfire 5770's at a later date. they do have it right with the price tho. 1000$ is not budget and most people cant swing that. but the 490$ one was sweet. especially considering i have a leftover intel 80gb ssd from my laptop to use.

I'm a self-proclaimed expert build planner who has monitored the market for one and a half years. With that comes a lot of wisdom, and also ability to perfect builds.

While I reckon Tomshardware along with Arstechnica doing proper builds, they have rarely if ever been ideal packages. It is surprising, whether you opt for Crossfire and SLi without considering microstuttering and the likes, or when you go with something new because you felt like being original.

Reality is in fact that monthly builds can never become perfect. Newegg runs combo packs which expire one after another, and you have to grab the moment there and then to get the best offer. Most of the time, 50 dollars or more can be saved.

the budget gaming rigs was rather dissapointing, i just recently built a rig with the following:
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDZ955FBGMBOX Item #: N82E16819103808 $139.99
ASUS M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3 AM3 AMD 880G SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard Item #: N82E16813131646 $119.99
Crucial 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model CT2KIT25664BA1339
Item #: N82E16820148262 $89.99
WD Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive Item #: N82E16822136319 $64.99
SeaSonic S12II 520 Bronze 520W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS 12V V2.91 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply Item #: N82E16817151094 $59.99
1 ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM
Item #: N82E16827135204 $18.99
Scythe SCMG-2100 Sleeve CPU Cooler Item #: N82E16835185142 $39.99
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM Item #: N82E16832116754 $99.99
XFX HD-577A-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
Item #: N82E16814150447 $144.99
Rosewill Blackbone Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Item #: N82E16811147023 $39.99

After a $55 worth of newegg combo deals, Subtotal $763.90. $784.33 shipped to my door. yeah, doesn't own as much as a similar rig with ssd's and a 5870, but seriously if i dropped another 500 on graphics and hard drives it wouldn't be a "budget" build

Case: Thermaltake V9 Black Edition
Motherboard: MSI 870A-G54
Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 955
Graphics: Zotac GeForce GTX 460
Memory: OCZ Black Edition 1600MHz CL8 4GB
Hard Drive: Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB
Burner: Sony Optiarc AD-7261-S
Power Supply: OCZ ModXStream 600W Modular

Combo 1 = PSU + Burner
Combo 2 = Processor + RAM
Combo 3 = Case + HDD (16$ coupon code too)
Standalone 1 = Motherboard
Standalone 2 = Graphics Card

Cost: 590 USD (saved 160 dollars on rabates & combos)

Here you got a build with USB3 and SATA3, a fast quad core, a slightly overclocked GTX 460 which will play most games exceptionally well on 1920x1080, fast RAM, the fastest 7200RPM drive, a modular PSU and a sexy case that has granted great reviews.

Beat that, Tomshardware. ;-)

One of the most useful things one of my high school teachers said (over 30 years ago), is that someone who calls himself an "expert" is not one.

I got a stickied national thread where I've managed the ideal build for 1 and a half year, and I have on numerous occasions corrected both Tomshardware and Arstechnica in their selections. In other words, I'm a hunch above professional tech sites in competence for "build planning". Is expert not a covering word, you'd say?

And unlike those promises built on hot air, I've already provided my CV through the build right above. The one who put a minus clearly got no idea whatsoever about computer components. If there is some real criticism, I'd be more than happy to discuss it.

IMHO, the SBM articles are often useful precisely because they almost always contain shortcomings that become apparent in their benchmarks. I'm sure I can think of at least a dozen regulars here who I'd trust to come up with a competent build at any given price point; I'd like to include myself in that list. We'd probably niggle each others' (and our own!) builds half to death, but in the end, any of them would suit their intended purposes, with real differences probably visible only in benchmarks; none of them would contain any glaring deficiencies. While I am not about to make any claim that you are not our peer, I think you would do well to not suggest you are our better.

Then prove me wrong by posting a better build. Cheeky, but fun. =D

I doubt the 460 will play half of the latest games at the highest settings @ full HD. It is widely known that a single 460 is already inadequate in general to handle that load, sli is what makes it so potent. And that board cannot do sli. So yeah, for that price it's good value, but will give average gaming performance.
You know for an expert, you're not so hot.

That would miss the point. There are too many variables, and how they should be weighted makes too much difference. For example, I'd probably use an i5, because a benchmark that is important to me is power usage. Others could not care less. If you look at http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/88?vs=144 those two CPUs trade swats, but really how big are the differences in real-world use? What about overclocking, a highly variable influence?
We're all too varied, and the term "expert" is too one-dimensional. There are kids on here who have never earned a paycheck and have no clue what "TCO" means; but they would smoke my tail in an overclocking contest. Others might rattle off detailed specs of the last two or three generations of GPUs, but may not know the difference another CPU core makes to someone actually seated at the machine. RAID is another whole can of wrigglies, and the list goes on.

@ Ksampanna: Being underestimated brings a grin to my face, don't worry.

An analysis of SLi and Crossfire would tell you that depsite offering higher framerate count, there evolve significant spikes between exceptional highs (great scaling) and lethargic lows thanks to issues with syncing and lag. It's called microstuttering. Trusting the FPS score blindly can provide dire results in worst case scenarios using a dual card configuration. Not only does a similar score with a single card provide a smoother playability, but in the problematic titles even a higher score would suffer of bieffects you by no means fancy, rest assured.

Further weak links can be related to:
- Need power supplies with 4 PCIe connections. These are way expensive, and while you can wire one of the cards on the normal rail, it's not recommendable.
- Demands a motherboard with support for SLi. Most budget LGA1556 boards only offer a x16/x4 configuration, whereas budget AMD 8xx boards features 8x/8x solutions. None are ideal, although the latter is not too bad, but point and case is that these cost more once again. Seen in the light of the remaining weak links, is it worth it?
- More audible / hotter / energy craving than one card.
- Occupies more PCIe slots.
- Potential problems occur if one of your cards go RMA, and you can't get a supported replacement due to the model being discounted.
- Performance loss in games that do not scale.

Whether these happens, or the degree in which it happens, varies according to the rest of your rig. As for the GTX 460, I agree with that the games should preferably run at a higher FPS count than the update frequency of your monitor, most commonly 60FPS (if you look aside from the 120Hz brand-new monitors). Do mind though that 30FPS also brings a completely playable smooth image. Everything in between is an okay. In GTX 460's case, you can check out for yourself whether the cards apply to that through Tomshardware's own round-up. They bench the 1GB version, but it's not all that different since the Zotac card referred to is initially overclocked. 3-5 FPS at most, with reservation in that new drivers will nullify and even improve on top of these scores. If you tweak the graphics settings, with anti alaising among other factors, you can boost your score significantly, and even an old 9800GTX would be able to hold up pretty well in many modern (though not most) games.

Building with value is making the compromises as small as possible. There might be a very few cases where you have to moderately adjust the settings for the GTX 460 to perform adequately (in the sense you yourself notice lag), yet that's a whole lot better than spending 180$ more on something with the ruling flaws as discussed. For your information, Metro 2033 can strangle most SLi configurations even with flagship cards. Seeing things in perspective and setting a limit just above what's casual gaming, is all but insignificant.

Yes, I'm teasing, but I do happen to know my stuff.

@ jtt283: Meh, thanks to the onboard IMC/GPU on package, the idle draw of the i5 650 is not any better than that of the i5 760. It's alright that the power draw is higher on the latter, since that draw will only be utilized when there actually is a demand for it. The 650 not great unless you're running a passive cooled low-profile cooler, but then again you could undervoltage the i5 760 if you truly want to. =/ For most people, the gap in power draw will not really affect their decision at all.