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Using heuristic-based optimizers to handle the personal computer configuration problems

Given the diversity of PC hardware components, and the limited compatibility between some of these hardware components, most people are interested to obtain a (sub)optimal configuration for some specific usage restricted by their budget limits and other possible criteria. We firstly formulate the widely occurring configuration problems as discrete optimization problems. More interestingly, we propose two intelligent optimizers: a simple-yet-powerful beam search method and a min-conflict heuristic-based micro-genetic algorithm (MGA) to solve this real-life optimization problem. We built a Web-based personal computer configuration advisor to integrate each of the two optimizers as an individual component to configure PCs for general users. In our empirical evaluation, the heuristic-based MGA consistently outperformed the beam search method in most cases. Furthermore, our work opens up numerous exciting directions for future investigation.