Build Your Own: Introducing Tom's Hardware's BestConfigs!

Brilliant idea, maybe this will remove a little clutter from the forums

Nah... I wouldn't count on that. Stickies don't work there... so why are you expecting anything different with this?

Sorry for double post, but maybe you should include Windows 7 in those... and newegg combos really cut down prices, so that can be used for future builds, IMO

Thanks for the feedback eklipz--an optional operating system at the bottom is certainly do-able, especially on the gaming builds which are probably going to be running 7.

...sorry for triple post, but why is budget amd build have a dual core where as the budget intel has a i5??? there is a $100 difference, enough to throw in a phenom II 965...

MicroATX Gaming Build Configuration priced at $1337 ... no way that is chance

A "budget" gaming PC with 2 x 1TB drives and 2 graphics cards?? You know that there is a limit to how many FPS the human eye can see? These recommendations contradict those in "Best Graphics For The Money" articles in that a single GPU solution is now considered sub-budget.

Lol, HTPC, 5750, SSD, .... can you say overkill. how many movies are you going to store on that ssd?

I completely agree. 1TB is enough storage for a "budget" system and the 5000 series cards can give you a little future proofing.

wow people easy with the harshness, you don't have to be dicks about EVERYTHING, just make a suggestion instead of complaining, it'll be less stressful for all of us, thank you, drive thru!

on that note, may i suggest putting a limit on the respective builds, like $1,000.00 for the HTPC and $2,000.00 for the High-end builds, & so on & so forth...

None--I use a 4TB media server for that, which handles BR images with ease! The HTPC, ideally, should just be your interface, IMO.

I have 3 beefs so far. For a budget office build, go with a case / power supply combo. The Antec NSK 4480 series with the built-in 380w 80 plus power supply can be found for around $80. That's cheaper than the case you have listed without the power supply and it's a very decent case. I've built plenty of office-oriented systems using this case and it looks pretty good.
2nd beef... Go with 2GB of RAM instead of 4. I know that 4GB would be nice but RAM is really overpriced right now and the average office user won't see the difference, especially if you go with a 32-bit OS.
3rd beef... Plextor is overrated and unnecessary these days, especially for an office PC. People just don't use the optical drive like they used to since everything is available online and storage is in the form of USB devices. You can get a nice Lite-On which is pretty much the same drive with a different box for less money.

Here's the skinny...
Your Case, PS, RAM, DVD drive combo total = $280
My suggestions...
Case + PS= $100 ($80 + shipping)
RAM = $43
DVD Drive = $27

My Total = $170
Savings = $110

I like that the MicroATX total is: $1,337

I see what you did there.

For the high-end workstation, I understand why you chose a workstation graphics card, but as someone who does a good amount of 3D development, I really can't recommend a quadro or firepro just because of how horrible a value they are.

The markups are extreme compared to the exact same hardware gaming equivalent.

a 5870 would likely run faster, despite the special workstation-class drivers, and still cost way less.

A 1TB HDD and a DVD burner are definitely not necessary for your standard office machines.

250GB HDD and a DVD reader over the course of a few hundred office machines will save a company thousands. In most office machines an 80GB OS drive is all that is needed because there is usually a file server anyway.

You can take the spare change and beef up machines that actually need it like IT.

I think this is a great idea.

Is there a forum thread somewhere to post our ideas for changes or is this the place to do it?

I agree with most of what Computer_Lots is saying. Antec NSK case/PSU combos, cheaper DVD burners (who needs lightscribe on every office PC?) or just DVD readers.

Single HDDs on bargain machines. Is hitachi up to 500GB platters yet? If not why not switch to the Samsung F3?

I dont believe you can really get a 5750 for $100, maybe a 5670.

I dont like the "budget" gamer build with twin 512MB 4850s. Going with a single 4890 or 5770 lets you save money on the case and PSU. Also an antec 900 as a budget case? I think an Antec 200 or 300 are more appropriate for budget gaming builds.

Hahaha, a 750W PSU recommendation for a single GPU "budget" gaming system. Get a power meter and you'll see that that kind of setup will never go over 250W even if moderately overclocked. The same Earthwatts 430 as the office systems would have been better suited.
Also, the HTPC would be better off using the H55/57 rather than the 5750 unless this is a GAMING HTPC. Maybe you should add the provision that if you don't have a dedicated home server, tossing in a 1-1.5TB drive for storage would be a good idea.

It would be nice to do this in a forum thread so we could edit.

I also dont think the normal HTPC builder wants to build a separate media server. That defeats the purpose of a cheap HTPC machine.

Oops, I think I was looking at the wrong page for that one. Why would you recommend 2 older, hotter and less efficient vid cards for a budget system? It should have something like a 5850 :S

$950 seems pricy to be calling something a "budget" system (referring to the budget AMD system). You can easily save $270 cutting a HDD and video card (though you might want to bump up the single card) and getting a single PCIex16 mobo. You could also get away with a cheaper less powerful PSU at that point, bringing it closer to the $650-700 range

I think there should be more to the workstation, office, and HTPC category, like you did with gaming, low, med, high. Each with their respective budget. Ex. on the low end workstation instead of quadro you would put their gaming equivalents geforce cards? Just an idea.

In general, the budget PCs should not have dual GPU solutions, as you can assume that its unlikely a budget system would be trying to play beyond 1920x1200, and would be willing to sacrifice some eye candy at those settings. Most budget PCs will be played at 1680x1050, if you can get everything smooth at that resolution, its enough performance for a budget system.

Suggestions about the suggestions section: You can't comment on each build individually, can only comment here in the master list section. It would be easier to sort the comments if they are with the build itself - if that can be done.

Will look into this, thanks Jared.

Keep the suggestions coming guys--the feedback is appreciated.

If, as you say about the HTPC, you want it to run as quietly as possible, why not go with a fanless 5750 or ditch it in favor an i3 with its IGP.

granted you can do that, but thats just another piece of hardware to add to the system cost. Also, you list the 5750 at $99, but click on the link for it shows $134, typo?

Isn't the point of an htpc to keep the noise and cost as low as possible since it will only play moives and browse the internet? If so, 4gb memory is overkill as well.

Also, on your budget gaming AMD pc, you have already shown the x3 athlon can beat the x2 550 at $15 cheaper. http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 52-10.html

Last, what high end gamer is going to run 2 high end video cards on a 1156 socket? If your spending $850 on 2 video cards, do you really want to gimp them 2-10% by saving $80 on the cpu?

Well in that case could you also include a home server set up. I've been looking around and can't decide on the parts, or what OS to use with it.

someone likes to spec out systems lol

shouldn't workstation uses 2x 5520/5570s?

and the ssd setup should include a NAS solution if you are going with SSD, that SSD is going to fill up fast and chances are the snappy feeling isn't going to translate well when you are navigating menus

and why not a itx build using that case that can hold a 5870 and a full size PSU with the new dfi offering lol?

Instead of doing it like this, create a little program that let's you do a little thinking. Not everyone wants to spend exactly $2000 or $700 etc. Instead, you start off by picking a CPU by choosing if you want the highest end (i7) down to the low end for Core 2s (same thing with AMD). From there, you are given a list of video cards that would be a good match with that processor. A motherboard can automatically be recommended based off needs for SLI/Crossfire. RAM can be suggested based off system chosen so far. The case would be an easy addition. The PSU can be calculated by roughing out how much power the system needs.

This would be an amazing feature.

Seems like a great idea. Of course, it is yet to be seen if it will get out of hand .