The magnetic field configuration of magnetron sputtering has an important influence on films' properties. Here, two kinds of magnetic field configurations, Sm2Co17(outer)/Sm2Co17(inner) and Sm2Co17(outer)/Ferrite (inner), were used to deposit amorphous carbon (a-C) films. Tribo-meter, Nano-indentation, Raman spectros copy, XPS, high resolution transmission electron microscopy as well as OPERA-2D for magnetic field simulation were employed to study the influence of the magnetic field configuration on the mechanical and tribological properties of a-C films. Our results show that higher coefficients of geometrical unbalance induced a higher deposition rate and a higher hardness of a-C films. However, the friction coefficient shows an inverse trend, and the wear life is short, which can be ascribed to saturation effects via adsorption of H, O, and OH and corrosion wear, which would accelerate the wear rate. Our work will booster interesting to study the magnetic field configurations influence on a-C films properties via magnetron sputtering.