Have you ever come up with your own idea for a killer rig? Don't forget to tell us about it on the Tom's Hardware forums. The following ten setups were configured by forum members and chosen as winners in the Q4 2013 BestConfigs Poll.
Every quarter, three of our editors (Paul Henningssen, Thomas Soderstrom, and Don Woligroski) build systems at certain price points in our System Builder Marathon. But what about the systems you configure?
Enter BestConfigs.
Over the past several years, we’ve periodically asked the community of readers on Tom's Hardware's forums to submit their own favorite builds for various intended usages. The ten current BestConfigs are:
- AMD-Based Office PC @ $500
- Intel-Based Office PC @ $500
- Home Theatre PC @ $700
- NAS PC @ $1000
- Budget AMD-Based Gaming PC @ $1000
- Budget Intel-Based Gaming PC @ $1000
- Micro ATX Gaming PC @ $1200
- High-End AMD-Based Gaming PC @ $2000
- High-End Intel-Based Gaming PC @ $2000
- High-End Workstation @ $4000
Each build must include every component needed for a complete system (processor, motherboard, memory, storage, power supply, and enclosure). Optional components like coolers, discrete graphics, SSDs, and optical drives are also included in a number of setups, though peripherals like monitors, keyboards, and mice are not.
Builds are submitted for consideration by our forum members. The community then votes on their favorites and narrows the field to configurations showcased here. From start to finish, these setups are the product of our readers, and we’re happy to shine a spotlight on your favorite picks.
Note that prices and availability may have changed since these builds were originally configured. Current prices can be found on the BestConfigs shopping pages.
With that out of the way, let’s check out this quarter’s winners. First we’ll take care of business with a couple of low-cost office PCs. Then we’ll kick back in the living room with an HTPC and NAS-oriented PC. Then it’s time to game with a duo of budget-minded gaming builds, a well-equipped mATX rig, and a pair of high-end gaming PCs. Topping it all off is the most exorbitant build of all, a professional workstation with a price ceiling of four grand!
The office PC has a better GPU than the HTPC? Flashy case for office use. I get that the CX430 is used here since it's a solid PSU, but branded memory?
1000USD for 'budget' gaming builds? you should at least aim to be a little closer to console prices since we're talking about budget gaming
The office PC has a better GPU than the HTPC? Flashy case for office use. I get that the CX430 is used here since it's a solid PSU, but branded memory?
1000USD for 'budget' gaming builds? you should at least aim to be a little closer to console prices since we're talking about budget gaming
Your system mistakenly links the Amazon page for the MSI AMD Radeon HD 7770 1GB. Fix your system Tom's.
Is it still a budget PC if it can max out every game you own at 1080p? if it costs a lot of money (relative to the gaming market) and places well in the top 10% of peers?
All builds underestimated SSDs and had just an HDD.
Ok, I get this. There are a lot of hardware prejudices.
DVD burners in 2013? From what country are you? I spent 4000 euros on my PC and the Asus BD usb3 I got came 6 months later...
Also most games now are starting to push more than 2GB VRAM. Hence this is where the extra 1GB RAM of the 7970 would be much more useful.
Just an opinion..
40% people chose "AMD" Radeons build... wich happens to use.... an INTEL!
Toms is starting to be my favorite humor page.
Your system mistakenly links the Amazon page for the MSI AMD Radeon HD 7770 1GB. Fix your system Tom's.
Ha ha! Now's my chance!
Also most games now are starting to push more than 2GB VRAM. Hence this is where the extra 1GB RAM of the 7970 would be much more useful.
[citation needed]
2GB seemed to be fine for 2550x1600 in the gtx 770 review.
'Grats on your entries, BTW!
Other than that, pretty standard choices, which makes them good choices, I guess.
Cheers!
But seriously speaking, there is 1 in a 100 office PC that would use OpenCL accelerated software. Most of them never go beyond Excel and connecting to the Internet or some Database software. So, 7770 is of no use there.
I would have liked to see Jinayhvora's build win that one, but nevermind...
The stock photo of the video card used by Tom's is not the model listed in the build. The build uses a low profile card that will fit in the MILO.
On a side note, the home theater system forum member didn't get credit.
Other than that, pretty standard choices, which makes them good choices, I guess.
Cheers!
Yeah I don't get that one at all. I'd use an AMD A10-6800K, a Samsung 840 Evo (which mine had), and a Bitfenix Prodigy Red (as a tribute to Milton's red stapler from the movie Office Space), also a Seasonic PSU.
If you can, specify that please (it IS actually pretty hard for me to look personally on the forum and linked threads, because I'm at the moment using only a 2001 PC, that's a 12 year old PC, so even browsing is hard ._.)
But anyway, it's still a good build that got selected, congrats!
@anbello262, what's ur configuration of your 12-yr-old rig? I'm quite curious how slow it could be. For now I still have an 12-yr-old laptop which has a Pentium III CPU and 384MB RAM, but I feel it runs still OK (w/ XP SP3 OS)
Also, I just don't see the benefit of the case; it's huge for what this machine is. If you were loading up on RAM for ZFS then why not go for a case with lots of external bays? A case with enough 5.25" bays can load hot-swappable back-planes, which would be ideal for expanding/repairing always-on storage, and would seem more reasonable for this kind of price point.
I guess I'll just have to try to come up with my own offering for the next best configs result =)