Tom's Community Contest: Build the Best Budget Gaming PC for Fortnite

The Tom's Hardware Best PC Builds competition is back! We're asking for the best budget gaming PC for Fortnite. Submit for your chance to win Fortnite Limited Edition.

It's official: Fortnite is the new king of battle royale. With over 3.4 million concurrent players, Fortnite tops PUBG, H1Z1, and the rest of the royales. To celebrate, we're hosting a very special Best PC Builds Competition around designing a budget Fortnite Gaming PC. All it really takes to run Fortnite is a modern CPU, 4 GB of RAM, and well, a drive to install it on.

Given the current climate for the PC-building industry, that's a good thing. These days, you'd be hard-pressed to find--let alone purchase--anything faster than a GeForce GTX 1050 Ti or a Radeon RX 550 without throwing down several hundred-dollar bills. And, frankly, this game doesn't need anything more than that, which is why were limiting this edition of Best PC Builds to a budget of $500 or less.

Now, that doesn't mean you have to hit $500. While you can't go over that budget, you can certainly go under. We're looking for the best-performing builds with the greatest value impact, so builds that come in at a budget of $400 or less will get bonus points when under consideration.

To sweeten the deal, we're running a concurrent giveaway for a copy of Fortnite Battle Royale Limited Edition. The Limited Edition (a $149 value!) has everything you need to get started playing Fortnite, including tons of goodies like two exclusive legendary heroes, an exclusive legendary weapon, two extra copies of the Standard Edition for your friends, an exclusive founder's chat channel, and much more. Two runners-up winners will each receive a $50 Steam gift card. To enter the giveaway, simply follow the instructions on the giveaway widget located in the forum thread.

A submission to the Best PC Builds competition grants an entry, so what are you waiting for? Head to the forums to join the competition and enter the giveaway.

May the Best PC Build win!

Rules

  • Builds must have a total cost of $500 or less
  • Only one build submission per user. Multiple build submissions from a single user or duplicate accounts will be disqualified.
  • Do not go over budget.
  • Use only Amazon OR Newegg to source parts.
  • Use list prices only: Coupons, rebates, bundles, or any other limited-time offers will not be accepted.
  • Do not include shipping or tax in your final budget.
  • Do not include the Operating System, Monitor or VR Headset, Keyboard, Mouse or Gamepad in your config.
  • Do not put your forum handle in the name of your build, and avoid unusual capitalization and symbols.
  • Provide links to the Amazon or Newegg product pages of each component. We encourage users to use PCPartPicker's System Build function for speedy construction. Do not post a link to your build, but rather please export it as BBCode for a quick copy/paste to the forums.
  • Tomos Woolley
    moved
    Reply
  • quilciri
    *moved to correct thread
    Reply
  • Jsimenhoff
    20772316 said:
    do her upper
    basic build with options to upgrade later
    PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
    CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 2200G 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($99.99 @ Amazon)
    Motherboard: MSI - B350M PRO-VDH Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($76.98 @ Amazon)
    Memory: Team - T-Force Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($101.99 @ Newegg)
    Storage: ADATA - Ultimate SU800 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($44.99 @ Amazon)
    Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($57.99 @ Amazon)
    Case: Cooler Master - N200 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($44.20 @ Amazon)
    Power Supply: Rosewill - 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.99 @ Amazon)
    Total: $496.13
    Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when availableGenerated by PCPartPicker 2018-03-08 05:18 EST-0500

    Sorry if it wasn't clear, but can you please post this in the forum thread. Here's a link.

    Reply
  • Jsimenhoff
    20773017 said:
    Ominous Ficus
    PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
    CPU: Intel - Pentium G4560 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($62.69 @ Amazon)
    Motherboard: ASRock - B250M-HDV Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($59.99 @ Amazon)
    Memory: GeIL - EVO POTENZA 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($81.99 @ Newegg)
    Storage: Western Digital - RE3 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($29.98 @ Amazon)
    Video Card: Asus - GeForce GT 1030 2GB Phoenix Fan OC Video Card ($110.97 @ Amazon)
    Case: DIYPC - Solo-T1-R ATX Mid Tower Case ($24.98 @ Newegg)
    Power Supply: Antec - Basiq 350W ATX Power Supply ($28.71 @ Amazon)

    Total: $399.31
    Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when availableGenerated by PCPartPicker 2018-03-08 10:22 EST-0500

    Sorry if it wasn't clear, but can you please post this in the forum thread. Here's a link.

    Reply
  • derekullo
    Honestly I see most people just going to pcpartpicker and setting the filter to the recommended requirements and hitting go.

    My way was much more imaginative ... and illegal.
    Reply
  • poochiepiano
    20773341 said:
    Hide in a refrigerator in Best Buy till they close.
    Sorry, parts must be sourced from Amazon or Newegg.
    Reply
  • alextheblue
    The only problem with PCPartPicker is that you have to click on the links to see if the price given (especially on Newegg) is a sale price. So you have to look at Newegg's regular price, and if it is a reduced price then you have to override the price and/or switch vendors. Half of the submissions violate the rule against sale pricing, and it's an easy mistake to make - PCPP just shows X price, it only really differentiates rebate pricing.
    Reply
  • arobinson.13b
    PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
    CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 2200G 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($99.99 @ Amazon)
    Motherboard: ASRock - AB350M Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($66.95 @ Amazon)
    Memory: G.Skill - NT Series 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($42.99 @ Newegg)
    Memory: G.Skill - NT Series 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($42.99 @ Newegg)
    Storage: SanDisk - SSD PLUS 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($69.99 @ Amazon)
    Case: Raidmax - Vortex V4 ATX Mid Tower Case w/450W Power Supply ($24.99 @ Newegg)
    Optical Drive: Samsung - SH-224GB/BSBE DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Amazon)
    Total: $362.89
    Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when availableGenerated by PCPartPicker 2018-03-08 23:56 EST-0500
    Reply
  • ThCTLo
    CPU AMD Ryzen 3 2200G 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor $99.99 Amazon
    Mainboard ASRock - A320M Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard $48.26 Newegg
    RAM GeIL EVO POTENZA 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory $88.99 Newegg + USD $10 off w/ promo code EMCPSPY27, ends 3/15
    SSD ADATA -SU800 128GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive $49.99 Newegg
    Video Card MSI - Radeon RX 560 - 1024 4GB AERO ITX Video Card $168.98 Newegg
    CASE Thermaltake - Versa H21 Window ATX Mid Tower Case $19.99 Newegg
    Power Supply Corsair - CX (2017) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply $23.98 Newegg

    Total: $490.18
    Reply
  • MCMunroe
    Buy a used Alienware Alpha R1 for $200. Done. Probably comes with included Steam or Xbox wireless controller.
    Reply