Build Your Own: Introducing Tom's Hardware's BestConfigs!

[Guest]

Hey, I was reading the HTPC config, and I came across the fact that you are suggesting buying the Radeon 5750. I agree that this card is great, but I did want to let others know that the Radeon 5670 is out, and can do the bitstreaming HD, at 100 dollars. I don't know what the benchmark is vs the 5750, but if the 5750 is significantly better, I would go with it. If not, and seeing as the point of an HTPC is for media usually, not gaming, the 5670 would be a better choice in my opinion.

I also have a question. Does anyone know if the GMA HD, the graphics integrated on the Clarksdale processors, can bitstream HD. If so, I would go with getting the i5 661, and skipping the discrete card entirely.

 

[theramman]

Why are the prices off (atleast the high-End intelpc gaming)? The total it says is like 1,900 but the prices are WAY more than the total!

 

[HavoCnMe]

When i think High-End I think $3000+, but what they put together would make any no-working folk (kids) want one. JMO

 

[Guest]

Ok, so you have an out of your mind nerdgasm amd "high end" pc and a bare-bones budget amd pc running a DUAL core cpu? First of all, that should be running a quad core. I used the x2 550 for a while and its awesome, but the x4 955 is amazing and only $75 more...

Also, adding a 5000-series gpu and not a pair of generation-old gpus. a 5850 will outperform those two 4850's from what I've seen (and I could be dead wrong there...). A 5000-series gpu also future proofs the system to an extent. other than that, it looks pretty good (other than the fact that i'm not personally an asus fan ).

 

[bounty]

Based on your real world testing and overclocking etc, whats the highest real world power draw you've experienced on systesm with 2 physical vga cards max? Basically what's the biggest power supply to pair with a P55 motherboard?

As a side note, I'm waiting for my SeaSonic S12D 850 to show up soon.

 

[jgiron]

AMD-Based Office PC
here is my suggestion for the AMD office based PC.
Prices are from Newegg

47.99 - HD - Western Digital Caviar Blue WD3200AAJS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive (an office PC does not need 1TB drive, or even a 320GB drive but it's within budget.)

69.99 MB - MSI 785GTM-E45 AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail


150.00 - PROC - AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Processor Model HDZ940XCGIBOX - Retail


94.99 = MEM - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK - Retail


69.95 - CASE - Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail


59.99 - PSU - BFG Tech GS-550 550W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V V2.8 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Power Supply - Retail


23.99 - DVD - SAMSUNG CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S223C - OEM


My Total 497.89
Your Total 529.00

Savings 31.11

 

[heartburnkid]

I find the budget gamer rigs to be curious beasts...

1: Why the 2x hard drives? 2 TB of space is hardly de rigeur; in fact, most budget gaming rigs I've seen include 500GB or 640GB drives as they're cheaper and perform better (at the cost of capacity, of course).

2: Why the 2x video cards? It seems to me that one 5770 would suffice for the resolutions this rig is likely to game in (1680x1050, 1920x1080), and be cheaper (both in terms of initial cost and cost-of-ownership) than 2 4850s. Plus, with one video card, you can bump the power supply down to 500W (at least), saving even more money.

3: Why the Plextor optical drive? Plextors are awesome drives, but budget-friendly they are not. A high-quality Samsung drive would knock $10-15 off the price, without any detriment to the system's core mission (gaming).

 

[nectroll]

How about energy efficient or low noise output categories? Not everybody wants to spend a fortune on electricity. Some people also like to hear nice sounds from their speakers over the sound of whizzing, chunking, and humming.

 

[shoelessinsight]

[citation][nom]RubberJohnson[/nom]Sorry but you're not getting full-quality audio playback using this method. An optical connection cannot carry a Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master audio signal due to insufficent bandwidth.[/citation]

You are entirely correct on that point, actually, and I'm not sure how I messed that up when typing it out, considering I've actually done the setup myself. =\

The reason I chose the Geforce 8300 is because the signal can be decrypted and decompressed on board and then sent out over HDMI as an uncompressed eight-channel LPCM signal. There are also several other integrated graphic solutions offered by both AMD and Intel that can do the same.

The optical connection is used for a different workaround on older Nvidia chipsets when there is no better option.

Thanks for pointing out my error; I didn't catch my mistake in mixing things up.

 

[kittle]

you also need a category that spans several of the other categories -- call it a "All around PC" or "do everything PC" its not something that excells at gaming, or excells at HTPC or hosts 15TB of disk, but a system that does a little of everything. Not everyone has gaming as the end-all for their PCs.

So a category for PCs that work 'good' with gaming, movies, sound and such. No its not going to play crysis at 1,000 FPS, but the game will be very playable. Swap the extra GPU for a faster/larger HD, or more memory or differnt burner.

And something else that would be REALLY handy is to actually assemble these setups and run common benchmarks.

 

[heartburnkid]

[citation][nom]kittle[/nom]you also need a category that spans several of the other categories -- call it a "All around PC" or "do everything PC" its not something that excells at gaming, or excells at HTPC or hosts 15TB of disk, but a system that does a little of everything. Not everyone has gaming as the end-all for their PCs.So a category for PCs that work 'good' with gaming, movies, sound and such. No its not going to play crysis at 1,000 FPS, but the game will be very playable. Swap the extra GPU for a faster/larger HD, or more memory or differnt burner.And something else that would be REALLY handy is to actually assemble these setups and run common benchmarks.[/citation]

That would pretty much be any of these with the exception of the office PCs. Each of them has their specialties, but they'd do fairly well at anything else you'd care to throw at them.

 

[awaken688]

Love the idea. I read all the comments and want to 2nd a couple of the ideas:

1) Definitely would prefer comments at the bottom of the build.
2) I personally like the idea of a purpose machine with a measurable goal like the "1680x1050 gaming machine." While a set $700 budget or whatever is common for younger kids/teens/adults, many of the readers need it to do something and want to get that goal accomplished well at the lowest price.

 

[resu]

Thank you so much for this Toms Hardware. While the full length reviews are excellent they can be a bit overwhelming for those that want to know what's good out of the bunch right off the bat, and what devices play well with others. Thank you!

 

[resu]

[citation][nom]jgiron[/nom]AMD-Based Office PChere is my suggestion for the AMD office based PC.Prices are from Newegg47.99 - HD - Western Digital Caviar Blue WD3200AAJS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive (an office PC does not need 1TB drive, or even a 320GB drive but it's within budget.)69.99 MB - MSI 785GTM-E45 AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail150.00 - PROC - AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Processor Model HDZ940XCGIBOX - Retail94.99 = MEM - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK - Retail69.95 - CASE - Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail59.99 - PSU - BFG Tech GS-550 550W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V V2.8 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Power Supply - Retail23.99 - DVD - SAMSUNG CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S223C - OEMMy Total 497.89Your Total 529.00Savings 31.11[/citation]

Props to you for putting something together. I'm glad to see someone took the time!

 

[Onus]

Most business users would do well to simply buy a Dell. However sad you think that is, Dell would not be so large and successful if that were not true.
That said, the SOHO business user probably wants a machine that can handle some gaming, media hosting/streaming, and other non-business tasks, so here we get to be a little more helpful in the forums.

 

[lunyone]

Seems like were getting away from a "Budget" machine. I'm thinking that a "Budget" computer is around $350-450 or so. Maybe under $500 would be a budget build. Going to the $700 limit is favoring poor decisions, IMHO. This kind of extra spending ($200 or a 40% mark-up) isn't financially sound, IMHO. Why don't we build a true budget PC. Tom's used to have a $500 Budget build a couple of years ago, but because Intel couldn't compete, the SBM's were changed to allow them back into the picture ($550 was the first installation build).

 

[Luscious]

[citation][nom]cangelini[/nom]None--I use a 4TB media server for that, which handles BR images with ease! The HTPC, ideally, should just be your interface, IMO.[/citation]
True Chris, but then you need to include the price/specs of that media server in your HTPC build, otherwise you only have a half-solution.

That said, I would have liked to see a category for home server, especially considering the steady growth of DIY WHS systems.

 

[sheol]

Here's my view of an AMD budget system:

Phenom 550
4gb ram
500gb hdd
radeon 5770
asus m4a79xtd evo
"some" okay 500w power supply.

Total: quite cheap machine that can game all games(except crysis and stalker ) at max.

 

[pertshire]

Wouldn't Athlon X4 620 better suited than AMD x2 550 for a gaming PC? I understand that you don't want to use to the same cpu for both gaming and workstation but quad is the future right?

 

[JohnnyLucky]

Being able to make comments in each build category instead of one large section is a great idea. I second that request.

Could you please add a budget workstation category. We sometimes have questions in the forums asked by college students, 3D graphics designers, and engineers who are on a tight budget. They can't afford a $4,000.00 work station.

 

[awaken688]

[citation][nom]JohnnyLucky[/nom]Being able to make comments in each build category instead of one large section is a great idea. I second that request. Could you please add a budget workstation category. We sometimes have questions in the forums asked by college students, 3D graphics designers, and engineers who are on a tight budget. They can't afford a $4,000.00 work station.[/citation]

Agreed. At that price, you'll see people just grab a Mac Pro and dual boot if they need Windows. The use Xeon doesn't have to be a given either. There are plenty of firms that are fine using the high end consumer CPUs.

 

[orion76]

[citation][nom]awaken688[/nom]want to 2nd a couple of the ideas:1) Definitely would prefer comments at the bottom of the build.2) I personally like the idea of a purpose machine with a measurable goal like the "1680x1050 gaming machine." While a set $700 budget or whatever is common for younger kids/teens/adults, many of the readers need it to do something and want to get that goal accomplished well at the lowest price.[/citation]
The resolution idea is great, I would like to see a 1920 x 1200 for the most common games (Crysis can be an option) rather than high end or $2000 build. i am currently planning on such a system and i wonder if the 2 x 5870's is over kill for most games.

 

[N19h7M4r3]

I would

 

[N19h7M4r3]

I would like to know where did my post go? i had a huge post that took me more then half an hour to write comenting on the builds and making suggestions, and now its gone...

 

[N19h7M4r3]

PS: sorry about the double post dunno what happen there lol, if you can by magic find the post somewhere i posted it after this article was released 2 days ago before it even had any coments... :S if you cant find it guess i'll just have to right it up again :S should take less then half an hour now at least now :S lol