The TBG DIY PC Build Guides

The Builds

DIY PC Builder's Update, March 25, 2020

CRITICAL COVID-19 NOTICE: On March 22, 2020, Amazon began indicating that PC product shipments would be delayed by one month. Since then they have clarified that Amazon is shipping all currently in-stock product, but will not re-order electronics until April 5th once its warehouses clear electronics products from shelves, due to the need to prioritize the transport of essential goods throughout the US. All products ordered by our readers are still shipping out daily, and if the product is in stock, you WILL get it within a few days!

Welcome to TBG's DIY PC Build Guides! This is where you'll find all the best PC builds on the 'net, from ultra-compact home office PCs to massive gaming towers. This month, we offer up 25 distinct DIY PC Build guides, updated with the latest and greatest components. And while we know our readers stumble upon a lot of other sites 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 obsolete hard drives or Intel CPUs that haven't been available for months? Yeah, think about that one for a moment...

On a related note, we attended CES 2020 in Las Vegas in early January and 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!!!

In other big news, nearly all of our guides now features an AMD processor. We 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 DIY PC builders at this point. Rumors suggest Intel may be releasing a whole new family of CPUs in Q2'20, but we won't know until they're here, but we already know they'll be on the same 14nm process that debuted way back in August 2015 with Skylake. So Intel isn't exactly advancing the ball, but hopefully they'll at least bring down the price per core to compete with AMD! 

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. Another quick note for long-time readers of TBG: all of our editorial content going forward will be available exclusively on our YouTube channel. That's also where we'll be answering all build questions going forward, as we've shut down the old TBG Forum. We'll be rolling out videos for most of our builds over time, but you can 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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