Best PC Builds (Archive)

[Guest]

Here are nine gaming PC builds that are recommended by the Tom’s Hardware community. These builds range from $500 to $2,500 and include three VR-ready systems.

Best PC Builds : Read more

 

[shrapnel_indie]

Here are nine gaming PC builds that are recommended by the Tom’s Hardware community. These builds range from $500 to $2,500 and include three VR-ready systems.

Best PC Builds : Read more

Just for clarification: is this for the 2017 Q1 builds or the 2017 Q3 builds? It links to the 2017 Q1 builds.

 

[why_wolf]

I think it's just an error. The main page hasn't posted the results yet either. I'm guessing they meant to post this once the results were in but hit post to soon.

 

[Karadjgne]

Or decided to consolidate the posts, since this article clearly shows the winning results. Since the builds have lengthy commentary, which wasn't in the original build posting, the winners have known for a few minutes that their build was chosen, but asked not to reveal that info. Which is cool, I like surprises.
Considering all that the mods go through on a daily basis just keeping a lid on posters etc (say big thank you or this forum would quickly resemble reddit!) a shortcut here and there is more than understandable.

 

[eldrome]

How is this $750? Am I missing something?

 

[Karadjgne]

What probably wasn't explained too well is that prices change. Invariably you'll get builds that at the time came in at a hairs breadth under budget cap, but a change in pricing could very well change all that in a matter of hours. Newegg setting something like the Seasonic 520w S12-II for $40 might only have been an overstock clearance, going back to regular $50 at the turn of the month. If you look on pcpartpicker.com at the pricing graphs, there's some items that'll drop as much as $50 for a month, then bump up passed the starting price. All this adds up to a starting $750 (at time of build) build, that can cost $800 at today's prices.

 

[Dugimodo]

Yes but if you click on the $750 build and add up the listed prices it comes to nearer to $1200 - bit more than a price change error.
Does it link to the wrong build or are we not supposed to count half the components?

 

[Karadjgne]

Look at the $1000 build. The Zotac mini 1070 is priced now at Amazon for $998 and change. As I said, those prices do not reflect the prices at the time of the build. At that time, the $750 build was squeaked in at just under $750. Changes in prices have since doubled in some cases. There's also errors in thinking, because there's simply no way a 1070 mini from Zotac will ever be $999, but that's the advertised price at Amazon at the time of the link.
https://www.amazon.com/GeForce-Compact-Graphics-ZT-P10700G-10M-Virtual/dp/B072FH22T6?tag=bom_tomshardware-20&ascsubtag=THUS23671508094342529&SubscriptionId=AKIAJLYKPRLXUSF4GDIQ&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953

 

[why_wolf]

Congrats to the other winners.

 

[shrapnel_indie]

Congrats to the other winners.

I was going to say something because it was pointing to the Q1 stuff, and about stating winners early... but... I can see that it has been updated to the Q3 builds. so... I'll join you in that same statement:


Congrats to the other winners.

 

[why_wolf]

Congrats to the other winners.

I was going to say something because it was pointing to the Q1 stuff, and about stating winners early... but... I can see that it has been updated to the Q3 builds. so... I'll join you in that same statement:


Congrats to the other winners.

yeah the comments are confusing now since we we're all arguing about why the link originally went to last quarter.

 

[Lucky_SLS]

Congrats to the winners!

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Am I missing something here, or rather seeing something!? In the 2000 build, you have a fractal design cpu cooler (which looks nice by the way), and then a 1700x bundle for 429 with a Corsair H110!? Drop the price of that spec and drop one of the two liquid coolers!!

edit: same with the 2500 build. Seriously!! Who checks this stuff? great builds.......

 

[shrapnel_indie]

Am I missing something here, or rather seeing something!? In the 2000 build, you have a fractal design cpu cooler (which looks nice by the way), and then a 1700x bundle for 429 with a Corsair H110!? Drop the price of that spec and drop one of the two liquid coolers!!

edit: same with the 2500 build. Seriously!! Who checks this stuff? great builds.......

It has to be in the Tom's links then. There was no Ryzen 1700x - Corsair H110 bundle in the build. Tom's has had issues like that pop up before. There is only the one AiO: the Fractal Design cooler.

Original pcpartpicker.com link: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/ZgzjTH
Original Tom's Link: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3502686/builds-2017-000-budget-category.html#20099290


[EDIT] Prices/availability of parts have changed since the lists were assembled and hit their submission deadline.

[EDIT 2] Corrected direct PCPP link to build.

 

[ibjeepr]

Congratulations to the winners!

 

[Karadjgne]

It's all dependent on the builders taste, not just about maximum performance squeezed into a certain budget. In the $2000 class was also a full custom loop paired with a 7700k and 1080. That's a great setup for 1440p gaming, without sacrificing just to squeeze in a sli. Would have looked awesome, possibly, when finished but the builder didn't name the build, so the vote didn't register it. I would have voted for that based on originality alone, as I did for the Lian-Li build. Not the best performance, but a killer lookin build that'll do the job nicely.

The 7700k does run hot, especially under full core loads and higher vcore and the big liquid coolers have the one thing no current aircooler can touch, the highest TDP ratings. So AIO's in a max performance setup make a lot of sense, especially on something like a 2011-3 setup where ram channels on the back side seriously compromise aircooler mounting.

 

[lorfa]

..but aren't these all +$100 for the OS

 

[Karadjgne]

No. OS is precluded as it's for the build. OS is software, and subject to choices, whomever has a pc isn't guaranteed to use windows at @$100, or win pro at @$140 or freeware Linux. It'd even be possible to hackintosh more than a few. So OS is kinda subjective. There's also no guarantee that any owner will have to pay even $100 for windows, personally my copy of Win7Pro cost me $10, my wife works for the Govt.

 

[FritzEiv]

Am I missing something here, or rather seeing something!? In the 2000 build, you have a fractal design cpu cooler (which looks nice by the way), and then a 1700x bundle for 429 with a Corsair H110!? Drop the price of that spec and drop one of the two liquid coolers!!

edit: same with the 2500 build. Seriously!! Who checks this stuff? great builds.......

It has to be in the Tom's links then. There was no Ryzen 1700x - Corsair H110 bundle in the build. Tom's has had issues like that pop up before. There is only the one AiO: the Fractal Design cooler.

Original pcpartpicker.com link: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/WC9nzM
Original Tom's Link: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3502686/builds-2017-000-budget-category.html#20099290


[EDIT] Prices/availability of parts have changed since the lists were assembled and hit their submission deadline.

Yes. For some reason our pricing system wants to present these 1700X/Cooler bundles. We keep fixing these as we see them. Thanks for pointing it out. It's like playing whack-a-mole. (And yes, prices have changed since the original submissions.)

 

[Matt_550]

My only question is why a slow SSD on a $2,500 build? The M2 Evo 960 is still King of the hill... No idea why you'd handicap your build at that price point.

 

[ibjeepr]

My only question is why a slow SSD on a $2,500 build? The M2 Evo 960 is still King of the hill... No idea why you'd handicap your build at that price point.

The winning $750 build was running only an HDD, no SSD at all. To me that's unacceptable at any price point.
Everyone's priorities will be a little different.

 

[Karadjgne]

Why a slow SSD? Because realistically a gaming rig will see no bonus to an NVMe, so why pay extra for nothing. A plain sata3/m.2 is far faster than a cpus gaming needs. Production apps or other programs using large file transfers would benefit a lot from the more expensive NVMe, but when that builder crammed every bit of gpu performance possible in that build, the priority was gaming, not production, so the NVMe really isn't warranted.

 

[g-unit1111]

My only question is why a slow SSD on a $2,500 build? The M2 Evo 960 is still King of the hill... No idea why you'd handicap your build at that price point.

The winning $750 build was running only an HDD, no SSD at all. To me that's unacceptable at any price point.
Everyone's priorities will be a little different.

I said this in my description that it wasn't possible to fit an SSD in. On $750 you do have to make sacrifices and you can't always fit in everything. Storage performance is something that can easily be sacrificed in order to put in a better GPU and that's usually what happens in these cases.

 

[ibjeepr]

My only question is why a slow SSD on a $2,500 build? The M2 Evo 960 is still King of the hill... No idea why you'd handicap your build at that price point.

The winning $750 build was running only an HDD, no SSD at all. To me that's unacceptable at any price point.
Everyone's priorities will be a little different.

I said this in my description that it wasn't possible to fit an SSD in. On $750 you do have to make sacrifices and you can't always fit in everything. Storage performance is something that can easily be sacrificed in order to put in a better GPU and that's usually what happens in these cases.

My $750 build had an 250GB M.2 and will still crush 1080p gaming which is all a GTX 1060 build will do anyway but I'm not looking to fight with you about who's build is better. I was just pointing out people prioritize things differently.

 

[g-unit1111]

My $750 build had an 250GB M.2 and will still crush 1080p gaming which is all a GTX 1060 build will do anyway but I'm not looking to fight with you about who's build is better. I was just pointing out people prioritize things differently.

Yeah that's the challenge of meeting a strict budget - you have to prioritize. Since this is mainly a gaming rig, I would put emphasis on graphics performance, even though this is a $750 build we're talking about here. If there were other uses involved then I would configure things differently.