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I personally think LogainOfHaides's build was spectacular 😉 Not many people you see consolidate two builds, in a family that use the same space for their day to day tasks, on one case. Most people think to go for a (basement)server rack and then have long wires running along the crib.

Regardless, thank you to the community for voting for my build in the $1,500 category. I'm very humbled! I also want to congratulate Barty, Techy, Arthur and Logain for winning their respective categories. Ofc, the votes from the community and our reader base had a hand in that 😉

+ We need more of this competition.
 
Nice work by Barty1884....under $500 for a new machine that can handle 99% of what most non-gamers use a PC for.

Using a 3GB GTX 1060 instead of the 1050 would have pushed the cost up another $70, but given it more mainstream gaming capabilities. I've used it to play Total War games at 2K with decent results.
 
I found your SSD choices a bit baffling - given the amount SSDs have dropped recently, I'd assume every PC above the $1000 mark would have a 1TB drive - with a gaming PC, you want your games loading off the SSD, and it only takes a couple of games the size of Witcher III, GTA V, or Monster Hunter: World to fill up a 500GB drive.
 
pardon me but, why pair a 2700x with a ASRock B450M PRO4 While a 2600 with Asus Prime X470-Pro?
shouldn't be the other way around? thanks
 


You're absolutely right. I thought I was future proofing myself by dedicating a 1TB EVO 960 M.2 as a STEAM-only drive on my new build, but really 500GB is the minimum you want these days, and that's assuming it's not also being used for OS or anything else. And I say that as someone who usually only has a dozen or so games installed at any given time.

Nothing dampens your enthusiasm and slows your New Game Roll like having to figure out what previous games to delete first.
 


AMD's StoreMI; loading times of an SSD, w/o consuming all your storage. each build i did with an AMD cpu had this tech in-mind. made sure to use M.2 (if i could afford it) to further the effect. SSDs are much cheaper lately, fo sho - but still not as cheap as the combo (& every penny mattered).

but my builds didn't win anything here, so take advice from me with a grain -lol
 


i can't speak for the winners, can only say why i'd personally do it... i'd normally prefer to let auto-boost do it's thing with an "X" chip, which will be the same on either mobo. but if i'm building with a non-X cpu, then i'm manually OC'g & want the added VRM stability. course, pricing constraints in the competition rarely let me do what i prefer.
 
really enjoyed this! thx Tom's, & everyone who entered/read-along/voted!

i found it odd that the "Mainstream Gaming" system wasn't full of i5 entries/votes, and the "Content Creation & Gaming" winner wasn't a threaded workload monster with massive SSDs. when i saw the $5k dual build, i knew it was over for the rest of us, lol (GJ mate).

(@moderator - shouldn't $500 segment read "Console Killer"? "We are looking for the best performing gaming PC under $500")
 
Wouldn't look here for build advice. This page isn't updated frequently enough, prices are way off compared to online, and recommendations are more expensive than pre-builds even.
 


i can agree with points made on updates to this site's suggestions, & price fluctuation is hourly on components (so differing models with same specs will change the advice) ...but a custom-built PC costs more than pre-builts due to the quality of components.

mainstream OEM systems tend to be a hot tin box filled with the absolute lowest tier junk that actively prevent upgrades so you'll buy another whole PC instead. even many of the the boutique pre-builts (which are normally more expensive for the same hardware) tend to cut corners that i wouldn't, or be configured in ways that diminish value.

people don't build their own unless they are really into the idea, so those who could care less are not the reader a contest like this will attract anyway.
 
Careful: The link for the case on the $2000 gaming that's supposed to be the Cooler Master Silencio 652S goes to the 352 which is for a mini-ATX (and won't hold the ASROCK H370 ATX board...)
Also shows the price for the 352: the 652S on Amazon from a 3rd party seller (NewEgg doesn't even have it) is about double the price too.
Might want to change to a more available ATX case while you're at it.
 
MERGED QUESTION
Question from alinelopesfuruya : "Building a new dream pc"



If you are not gonna build till the middle of the year then wait. A lot can happen in 6 months in the tech industry. Rumors suggest that AMD's 7nm Ryzen CPUs are going to be impressive.
 
Kudos to the winners...

The competition was tough and close. Unfortunately, I got a distinct feeling with the voting, hopefully completely incorrect. I think... one way to alleviate such a feeling, and it's possible others may have felt it too... is this:

1) Submit the builds blind to the competition. This will keep who's build is what quiet. This will also keep someone from just taking a build and changing a couple of things and submitting it as theirs. (Admittedly, this last one can be a problem too if john doe and Mr Smith come up with the same name and/or build on their own. Both would need to be informed so either one or both can change it.)

2) When it comes to open voting, only disclose the name of the build and the build itself, not the builders. If anyone feels that a vote is based on popularity of the builder, this will be squashed in this manner, and still let the chosen and vetted builds be reviewed.

Just something to ponder. I really do like the competition and would like to see it more often.
 
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