The TBG DIY PC Build Guides

The Builds

DIY PC Builder's Update, January 15, 2020

Welcome to TBG's DIY PC Build Guides and Happy New Year! This is where you'll find all the best PC builds on the 'net, from ultra-compact home office PCs to massive gaming towers. We offer up 24 distinct DIY PC Build guides, updated every month with the latest and greatest components. And while we know a lot of our readers stumble upon PC Part Picker during their research, what we do is completely different: we professionally curate every build based on relationships we have with dozens of manufacturers and our constant testing of the latest products. That means our PC Builds are the most up-to-date builds you'll find anywhere. Do other sites recommend hard drives to you? Yeah, thing about that one for a moment...

On a related note, we attended CES 2020 in Las Vegas in early January, and have put together an enormous amount of content to help bring you up to speed on everything that's coming from the biggest names in the industry this year. Definitely check out our coverage right here!!!

With that said, we've already rolled out some major PC Build updates for January 2020. In short, every single one of our guides now features an AMD processor, other than the Intel-manufactured NUC mini-PC. We seriously would have never predicted a few years ago that AMD's Ryzen and Threadripper lineup would so completely dominate the market, but that's exactly what has happened. Given how far behind Intel is in updating its product lines, and how hard it is to even find any of its CPUs in stock, we simply can't recommend Intel to any custom PC builders at this point. Indeed, the top-of-the-line Ryzen 9 3950X and Threadripper 3960X/3970X processors have finally shown up in stock, so if you're building at the very high end, you can take advantage of these insane 16-, 24-, and 32-core processors!

The SFF Builds

Note that many of the PC builds we profile are Small Form Factor models, and while they are all listed below, you can learn more about SFF PCs by jumping over to our monthly guide to the Small Form Factor PC Market. 

One quick note for long-time readers of TBG: all of our editorial content going forward will be in video form, available on our YouTube channel. This includes all reviews, news, and how-to guides. It's also where we'll be answering all build questions going forward, as we've shut down the old TBG Forum. Post all your questions on full-size PCs here, and Small Form Factor PCs here. And don't forget to subscribe while you're there to make sure you don't miss out! Moving forward, only our very popular build guides will continue to get the "written" treatment, and if you appreciate the work we do on these, don't forget to use our Amazon links to support continued publication of these guides.

Using the TBG PC Build Guides

Whether it's your first, tenth, or hundredth time building a PC, these guides will set you up with the best components you can buy. Our build guides fall into five price ranges:

  • The Low-Cost Builds ($500-$750): if this is your first build, or you have modest needs, these systems will be ideal for home office, home theater, or gaming.
  • The Mid-Range Builds ($1,000-$1,250): you want a PC that will be faster and quieter than just about any off-the-shelf system, but you still want it to be easy to build.
  • The High-End Builds ($1,500-$2,000): you're looking for serious gaming chops, or a very powerful office PC.
  • The Ultra-High-End Builds ($2,500-$5,000): you're looking for cutting-edge technology and extreme gaming performance.
  • The Supreme Dream Machine (~$10,000): you have a truly unlimited budget, or you just want to know what you could buy if you did!

To find the right PC for you, feel free to browse all of the options below, or alternatively choose specific criteria from our filter browser below, which will display just the builds that meet your needs. You can then click on the "View Specs" button to see a quick view of prices, parts, and dimensions, or click the "View Guide" button to jump straight to the full Build Guide for that build. Happy hunting, and good luck with whichever build you choose!

We'd like to express special thanks to SilverStone Technology Co., which sponsors the TBG PC Build Guides. Founded in 2003, SilverStone has made major contributions to PC case design, small form factor PC development, and power supply innovation!

 

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