System Recommendations: Your BestConfigs Are Online!
After weeks of poring over submissions, setting up polls, and watching the votes add up, the BestConfigs section of Tom's Hardware is finally up to date with your top choices. Thanks to all who participated; feel free to share your favorite builds!
We asked you to build them. We asked you to vote on them. Now we’re asking you to check them out and recommend them to friends and family building their own PCs!
Alright, so it seems like you guys are doing quite a bit of work here, and the entire Tom’s Hardware staff appreciates the heck out of it. Our Q3’11 BestConfigs are finally up to date, and the winners have their props.
A bit of back-story: a couple of months ago, we asked you to weigh in with components for 10 different builds in the Systems section of our forum. The submissions poured in and, after a couple of weeks, we locked those threads. Thomas, Don, Andrew, and I sat down and picked our top three options in each category, trying to mix it up as much as possible to give you some real variety. Our community manager, Joe, took those selections and created a poll for each system, and we turned the contenders back to you for a vote.
Well, the votes are tallied, and we have winners in all 10 categories. They are:
Budget Intel-Based Gaming PC: The community chose techo’s build
Budget AMD-Based Gaming PC: The community chose lunyone’s build
High-End Intel Gaming PC: The community chose sadams04’s build
Intel-Based Office PC: The community chose r0aringdrag0n’s build
High-end AMD Gaming PC: The community chose mjmjpfaff’s build
AMD-Based Office PC: The community chose ice919’s build
MicroATX Gaming Build: The community chose ojas’ build
Home Theater PC: The community chose sadams04’s build
High-End Workstation: The community chose gkay09’s build
Do-It-Yourself NAS: The community chose palladin9479’s build
Don’t worry if your submission wasn’t picked this quarter. We’re going to keep the BestConfigs feature refreshed, preserving each winner on the Update section of the page, but making sure we’re covering the very latest hardware. So, we’ll have a whole new round of famous builds in a few more months for you to recommend to family and friends!
Thanks for contributing, folks. Your collective efforts serve as a resource for less experienced builders looking for the experts’ recommendations on their next do-it-yourself build. And while we experiment around with different parts in our quarterly System Builder Marathon, it’s hard to beat the opinions of the world’s foremost hardware enthusiasts.
Best regards,
Chris Angelini
Worldwide Editor-in-Chief, Tom’s Hardware
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LOL. A $430 dollar difference between the "Budget" Intel and AMD builds? How the hell does a $900 machine even qualify as a "budget" PC? And those of you who voted for it, what the hell were you thinking?
That's one of the reasons many people repeatedly asked Tom's to define the actual budget of the "budget" builds in the first place.
i'm just curious why you'd need a 1200W psu for a workstation with no graphics card or tegra in it. That build must be using around 300W.
Would you need an Intel based office PC with more graphics than the H2000 is able to provide? I know it doesn't even deserve calling it graphics, but a 6700 card is overkill.
cant figure out why anyone would build a high end gaming pc and not get the 2600k, but would get dual gtx580's...
LOL. A $430 dollar difference between the "Budget" Intel and AMD builds? How the hell does a $900 machine even qualify as a "budget" PC? And those of you who voted for it, what the hell were you thinking?That's one of the reasons many people repeatedly asked Tom's to define the actual budget of the "budget" builds in the first place.
Thought the same about it, but if you made an AMD based 900$ PC you wouldn't call it a budget PC anyway.
LOL. A $430 dollar difference between the "Budget" Intel and AMD builds? How the hell does a $900 machine even qualify as a "budget" PC? And those of you who voted for it, what the hell were you thinking?That's one of the reasons many people repeatedly asked Tom's to define the actual budget of the "budget" builds in the first place.
We can change the budgets next quarter, for sure. But yeah, those were the systems that folks built and voted on ;-)
illo- why would you want 4 HT cores for gaming-2600k is more suited for encoding and other multithreaded work-games dont do well on HT
2500k is the best gaming CPU while 2600k is the best workhorse
and a gaming machine is all about the GPUs-2600k is a waste
P07h34d-955 BE is a great chip for the money for GAMING
Best bang for buck gaming CPU out right now
what chip were you thinking?
Nobody pointed out that the multimedia build doesnt have a tuner in it?
Any media PC needs to have a tv tuner.
I have tons to say about the choices voted, but I won't. I will say that this is a pretty good feature. I would likely recommend most of the builds (with my own tweaks of course).
honestly.. these builds are bad really bad... and some people really don't understand the meaning of budget...
I thought I recalled a Tom's Hardware article suggesting that crossfire scaling worked better with two cards, rather than 3?
So perhaps 2x 6950 2GB cards might offer a better bang/buck ratio, at least that's the way I see it.
The "Budget AMD-Based Gaming PC" sucks... IMO, he allocated $10 more than needed to the HDD, and $10 more for the PSU. With that money saved you could get a 6790 which for $10 more gives you quite a performance boost.
The ASRock Z68 PRO3-M LGA 1155 Motherboard has only one PCIE 2.0 Slot, how can it take two 570s?
The ASRock Z68 PRO3-M LGA 1155 Motherboard has only one PCIE 2.0 Slot, how can it take two 570s?
That wasn't in my build. They've added that on their own (check the forums for the original).
Great feature, but I think the term "budget" needs to be a little better defined next time.
I remember putting a $350 computer together for my friend back in the day for light gaming; I want to know what a budget like that is capable of now!
i know this might make me look like a typical hater, but i happen to disagree with
1 budget intel builds, a BUDGET in mind would buy a Core i3 at most and a 560Ti at most i built for my little brother a core i3 witha 6850 and a 720p good quality monitor so no scaling would ruin the image and he is happy with 570 dlls of rig
and
2 i happen to agree that a 955 or any AMD phenom ll with a crossfire config with high end cards will bottleneck
So where are the benchmarks on these things?
Great feature, but I think the term "budget" needs to be a little better defined next time.I remember putting a $350 computer together for my friend back in the day for light gaming; I want to know what a budget like that is capable of now!
How about this?
DVD =19
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827136236
HDD = 40
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822136770
6670 = $100
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814121442
ram = $26
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820161279
athlon ii plus mobo = $100
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Comb [...] mbo.699098
case =$30
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811815006
total 349.88
That wasn't in my build. They've added that on their own (check the forums for the original).
That sounds pretty serious. Chris is busy editing, but I'll ask him to look into it anyway. Fingers crossed!
Hey Crash... While this is totally OT, would you tell Chris that when he's done, he should consider editing Wolfgang's latest HP article? It's chock full 'o mistakes.
That sounds pretty serious. Chris is busy editing, but I'll ask him to look into it anyway. Fingers crossed!
Thanks a ton. Last thing we want on the forums is people asking if it's possible to fit 2 cards in one slot or something as vague (and cursing me for wasting their $330)
^As a follow up, it's been fixed, which is just amazing. You guys really work fast, very impressed.
Proud to be a Tom's member!
Looking at the high end intel, when using dual cards it goes from 16x to 8x... is 8x not a bottleneck for a GTX 580?
Looking at the high end intel, when using dual cards it goes from 16x to 8x... is 8x not a bottleneck for a GTX 580?
No. Haven't you read Tom's Hardware's scaling articles?
The only one I could find is this one from 2010:
http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] ,2696.html
It references GTX 480s and x8 vs x16. I have dual GTX 580s and run at 2560x1600. I'm looking to upgrade from LGA 775 and would like to go to LGA 1155, since I do not want to wait for not only LGA 2011, but a lower end non-extreme i7 to go with it. The 2500k looks perfect, but am concerned with dual x8 lanes. Should I pair it with NF200 to be good to go?
The only one I could find is this one from 2010:
http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] ,2696.html
It references GTX 480s and x8 vs x16. I have dual GTX 580s and run at 2560x1600. I'm looking to upgrade from LGA 775 and would like to go to LGA 1155, since I do not want to wait for not only LGA 2011, but a lower end non-extreme i7 to go with it. The 2500k looks perfect, but am concerned with dual x8 lanes. Should I pair it with NF200 to be good to go?
No, not really.
Hey Crash... While this is totally OT, would you tell Chris that when he's done, he should consider editing Wolfgang's latest HP article? It's chock full 'o mistakes.
Anything specific Raz? I put in 6 or 7 hours every day editing the editorial content, but news is another department. I'm not sure which Wolfgang story you're referring to, but feel free to reach out to Marcus Yam at myam at bestofmedia dot com for any news-related issues. He's the one responsible for the news team
Have a good weekend,
Chris
I'm not sure to which Wolfgang story you're referring to, but feel free to reach out to Marcus...
There. FTFY
Hey Chris. I hope you don't take the above change negatively. I'm just busting your stones.
I'll send you a PM in regards to this, as what I have to say really doesn't belong here.
Guys some serious problems with my NAS build. You specified the wrong components.
Required one is the Mediasonic HFR2-SU3S2 at $199 typically.
Posted one is the Mediasonic HF2-SU3S2 at $140 on the amazon link.
The difference is the top one has built in RAID support, the bottom one doesn't and is only an external enclosure. These enclosures require a FIS based Port Multiplier, the Via Chipset use's CBS Port Multiplier support, they don't work together. The build as posted by tomshardware is non-functional and anyone attempting to build that will run into some serious difficulties.
Can you guys please fix that, don't want someone following the guide to build a non-functional system.
Edit to the above,
I'm stressing the difference between the two array's as I purchased the wrong one thinking it was cheaper. I quickly discovered that it wasn't working and had to go research a list of storage controllers that support FIS based switching. Then had to purchase an eSATA HBA that uses one of those storage controllers to get everything working. Next build was with the more expensive PRO RAID box and everything went much smoother.
palladin,
If the enclosure was the only error, it's fixed. If there's anything else, just let us know!
Best,
Chris
Well close enough I guess. The presented model is now is the delux all-in-one model.
HFR2-SU3S2FW $240
Has USB 3.0, FW-800 and eSATA 2.0
It'll do the job but is a bit overkill seeing as the spec'd system is USB 2.0 and you'll be using the eSATA port reguardless for DMA transfers.
The one I speced out was HFR2-SU2S2 which includes
USB 2.0 and eSATA 3.0, no FW access. Price is usually $199.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6816322003
Newegg lists it as out of stock / deactivated but they have the newer model out already. HFR2-SU3S2
Same as above except this is USB 3.0 and eSATA 2.0, no Firewire access. Price is $199
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] HFR2-SU3S2
Gotta be specific on the model numbers lol.
Weird, that's what the PriceGrabber engine keeps coming up with when I search for the HFR2-SU2S2. Looks like we'll have to go with Deluxe; I updated the model name accordingly.