Here's January's winner of the PC Gamer Best PC Build contest

Cyberpunk 2077
(Image credit: Cyberpunk 2077)

Building a PC is usually a balancing act between price and performance. There will always be sacrifices made to make sure you’re within your budget. Nowadays, thanks to competition from bots, crypto miners, and cell phone manufacturers, there is the added challenge of making sure your parts are in stock and available at a reasonable price. It can be a bit intimidating picking out components with so many variables and choices, especially if you’re a first time builder.  

Sometimes then it’s better to seek others' expertise when assembling a parts list, which is why we have asked the PC Gamer Community to share their Best PC Builds in our latest competition. Periodically, we put our readers and forum users to the test, showing off their PC building skills in a friendly competition designed to distill their vast knowledge into various budget categories. 

Our community has a natural talent for finding the best PC games and the best quality components at the lowest prices, and this competition was no exception. We asked for the community to submit the best Cyberpunk 2077 builds under $1,500, and you all delivered. 

Most of your submissions would make for a great PC, but there can be only one best PC build.

This is why we’re proud to announce MaddMann, and their Cyber Slasher build as the winner of this Best PC Build Competition. Congratulations MaddMann! As the winner of this Best Cyberpunk 2077 Build, MaddMann will be getting a GeForce RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO 10G courtesy of our friends at MSI. In case you want to build the Cyber Slasher, we’ve included the parts list below and a little explanation of the thought process behind the build, courtesy of MaddMann himself. 

Build Name: The Cyber Slasher 

 PCPartPicker Part List 

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.

Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-12-28 22:15 EST-0500

“Thank you so much! I've loved being a part of the PC Gamer Community. My thoughts behind this build were thinking practically about what is available right now. My approach to this was if a friend asked me to build this computer tomorrow, I could make it happen. It showcases how high tier performance rigs are actually more available than ever; you have to look for the right parts. Of course, there was a healthy amount of "will it run Cyberpunk" running in my head, which is what inspired the name.”

Want to take part in the next Best PC Build Contest? Join our forums and stay tuned! We plan to host these competitions throughout the year.