GoKawiilYou might recall that we put out a call for our readers to submit their PCs over on the forums recently, and many of you responded. With dozens of entries and configs to choose from, we whittled down the list to a dozen of the best-of-the-best to crown a winner in the inaugural Tom's Hardware Premium Rig Rundown. There was a bevy of entrants, spanning from dedicated wall-mounted OpenClaw setups, all the way to PC's with all the screens and RGB you could shake a stick at.
Our panel of staff has reviewed your submissions, and we're ready to show you the shortlist that had us in awe. So, thanks to the dedicated community of enthusiasts and PC modders who showed us that dedicated PC building and PC modding are still well and truly alive in 2026, despite the best efforts of AI companies and hyperscalers pricing us mere mortals out of NAND and RAM.
So, without further ado, here are the builds that impressed us the most, with our lucky winner at the end of the article.
The PC Cruiser by MissMercedes
Image 1 of 4 (Image credit: Forum user: MissMercedes) (Image credit: Forum user: MissMercedes) (Image credit: Forum user: MissMercedes) (Image credit: Forum user: MissMercedes)
What do you do when you're a car expert and a PC enthusiast? Take an iconic Chrysler RC Car and turn it into a real, working computer, naturally. Car journalist MissMercedes did exactly that with the PC Cruiser.
A 1:6 scale RC car turns the chassis into a case, but with the nominal amount of space inside, some deep modifications were required by removing the rear seats of the PT Cruiser model to ensure that everything could fit inside. The next challenge was to find the components to actually fit inside. With a budget build in mind, MissMercedes found an Antec H310N ITX PC, sporting an Intel Core i5-9400, and 16GB of (presumably some kind of DDR4) RAM.
MissMercedes wanted to boast that the V8 moniker would also stand true for the number of cores inside, and so the CPU was later upgraded to an Intel Core i7-9700, with the motherboard supporting Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. After tossing in an NVMe SSD, it was off to the races.
One problem remained: the 90W power supply couldn't quite handle the heft of the upgraded CPU, and so MissMercedes locked the clock speed to 3 GHz. For a budget work computer, relying on integrated graphics is more than fine enough for a journalist (ask me how I know), so this build is designed for aesthetics, not pure computing heft.
Builder MissMercedes also has designs on upgrades in the future; Cooler Master's V-series coolers have an engine-like look, but were not yet available to purchase. Other potential additions include small speakers and a healthy dose of RGB. But, the most eyebrow-raising addition is the potential to add a battery, as the RC parts of the PT Crusiser chassis are still fully functional.
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