While it has certainly been (more than) a minute since we worried about personal back-to-school system builds, we routinely do “BTS builds” for friends and family. As this is a rather common question we get not during summer vacation but shortly after school begins (and the off-the-shelf purchase is just not cutting it) we thought it would be a good time to take a moment and go over a few builds that we personally would recommend… and in many cases have recommended recently. With that said, these are not “general-purpose” builds; instead, they prioritize overall value in schoolwork-related scenarios rather than, say, “PC Gaming.” Your priorities may differ, for example, you may be going to college with a major in game design (and a minor in Beer Pong… err… “Social Networking and Collaborative Team Building in the Modern Higher Learning Environment”)—but no matter how different your goals are, the following pages should help, at the very least, get you on the right track and give you insight into how to go about spec’ing out a system that will actually meet your real-world needs.
With all that in mind, it has been our experience that it is best to give a minimum of three solid options at varying price points so that the “end user” gets to feel like they are contributing to their future system. Furthermore, none of these builds are designed around maximizing profit or coming in at the lowest cost; rather, these builds prioritize flexibility as well as future upgradability in their designs so that we can mix and match from two different price points to further optimize a build to best meet the specific needs, wants, and desires of a specific buyer. Put simply, we optimize for the long-term ROI, not the short-term.
As such, while we are giving them titles like “Cost-Constrained,” “Mainstream,” or “Giga-Chad,” there is no one-size-fits-all approach to builds. Flexibility in component selection is key, and the lens through which you choose one part over another may vary from our own. So please, do not take any of these as gospel. Rather, they are simply good starting points with good examples of the underlying key points of consideration that, in turn, should help you get a head start on your upcoming replacement back-to-school build. With this in mind, we have actually gone beyond our typical three-choice menu options and will be giving both Intel and AMD-based options… as some people do care more about being a Team (Red or Blue) Player than a free agent.
