Let's make a gaming PC - The Bear and Badger

beano

I've used scan.co.uk for most components.

Install invisible hand, it's a browser plugin and will tell you if what you're looking at or what you've searched for is cheaper elsewhere.

beano

You could buy an xbox1 and hack it. But it might be such a fuck of a system that even windows 8 won't have the drivers for the gubbins. In it.

[Deleted User]

Gonzo wrote:

Can I build a decent PC for 429 pounds? Or buy it off the shelf?

You can build a truly great one for £800 sans monitor and OS. If that seems too expensive remember that Xbox charges you £40 a year to use the fucking internet. I don't even pay my ISP as much as that. And how much are games again?

[Deleted User]

£350 will buy you an i5 and a 7950. You'll also need a case, PSU and a motherboard. A Z77 motherboard will cost you about £80. The cost of the case and PSU will vary depending on how long you'd like them to last, but under a hundred for both is more than feasible.

It's always cheaper building your own and it's worth it for the thrill of shitting yourself when you do it.

hunk

Many techsites publish a bi-annual speclist of possible components when building a gaming pc.
A quick google returns Lifehacker but also Maximum pc.

Yes,they're yank sites but tech should be the same.
Tbh, I've never built my own pc but I can imagine this being a real time sink/hobby.

Bollockoff

I can now identify most components inside my PC by looking where as before yesterday I couldn't name most bits. That was nice. Still a few bobbins that throw me though.

Cheers @beans that's installed and I'll put it to work.

beano

No woes bollo.

@Gonzo - http://www.scan.co.uk/todayonly/index.aspx

Number 1 - That's everything cept for a GFXcard

- 2TB Seagate 6GB/s HDD
- 500W PSU
- 8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3
- Gigabyte GA-Z87-HD3, D-Sub (VGA) DVI-D HDMI, Motherboard
- Intel Core i5 4670K, S 1150, Haswell, Quad Core, 3.4GHz, 3.8GHz Turbo, 1200MHz GPU, 34x Ratio, 84W, Retail CPU
- NZXT Lexa S, Slick Case with Side Window with USB 3.0

425pounds

Today only, hmm, you'd want a decent CPU fan too and the motivation to put it together, like bollo.

edit: there these too http://www.scan.co.uk/3xs-overclocked-bundles that let you add everything apart from the kitchen sink/case.

vicinity_of_pie

^ That's a really nice system, add a graphics card for ~£100 and you'll easily play day z and titanfall at 1080p, add a £200 graphics card and you'll be playing 1080p for years to come. It does seem a lot more expensive than buying a console but as mentioned, no online fees, much cheaper games and not being restricted to buying expensive peripherals means you'll easily save money in the long run (and again, all in 1080p).

beano

You must be saving around 200quid on it already, I'd guess.

edit: nope, bar 43quid!

beano

I'm just trying to force gonzo's hand, TODAY ONLY!

beano

I'm sticking with PC and PS4, as Xbox really fails to have any exclusives at the end of the day.

I prefer console gaming mind so I tend to buy big games for a console.

Practical.

Also, I think this gen is going to go out of date faster than fresh bread.

isanbard

I've a mind to making a system that will play ball with the bastard heavy requirements of VR in a year or two when it finally drops.

The specs keep notching up and up so I'm leaving it 'till Oculus/Gabe get something less vomitty established. Seems like it'll need 100+Hz, 1millionP resolution, 200gig RAM yadda yadda..

Wait and see for me.

Bollockoff

beano wrote:

No woes bollo. @Gonzo - http://www.scan.co.uk/todayonly/index.aspx Number 1 - That's everything cept for a GFXcard - 2TB Seagate 6GB/s HDD - 500W PSU - 8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 - Gigabyte GA-Z87-HD3, D-Sub (VGA) DVI-D HDMI, Motherboard - Intel Core i5 4670K, S 1150, Haswell, Quad Core, 3.4GHz, 3.8GHz Turbo, 1200MHz GPU, 34x Ratio, 84W, Retail CPU - NZXT Lexa S, Slick Case with Side Window with USB 3.0 425pounds Today only, hmm, you'd want a decent CPU fan too and the motivation to put it together, like bollo. edit: there these too http://www.scan.co.uk/3xs-overclocked-bundles that let you add everything apart from the kitchen sink/case.

Almost tempted to get that. The rig I've got planned at the moment is £650 so that's miles cheaper even factoring in the card. I'm forking out another 60 for a boot SSD on top of a 500gb hdd.

Card choice is giving me the most cause for deliberation. One I've decided on is a £90 Geforce 650 but I'm really tempted to go crazy and get this. Would the difference be that significant?

The Daddy

Have you read this?

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-nvidia-geforce-gtx-750-ti-review

Awesome performance from 60w, sime good budget recommendations in the text too so well worth a read.

Bollockoff

Chunky article but I'll devour it, cheers!

I'll tweak shiz and probably post a final shopping list on Friday. In time to order it and build for Titanfall hopefully.

[Deleted User]

Lovely benchmarks for an entry level card, which might not be a bad idea because I think the next gen cards are going to be very fast indeed, so it might be worth going cheap now and going mental next year.

beano

Oh yeah- that 750 is rather kick arse, eh.

[Deleted User]

I found picking a graphics card the absolute hardest part of building my PC and I wasn't even going big.

If I was @Gonzo I would decide on what I want to spend (by the hundred) then check out reviews and benchmarks to match. You can easily double the price of a PC on the g card.

Incidently I have just fired up my PC and started using it for the first time in about a year. Just doing some 3d work.

Blue Swirl

Just out of curiosity, any one on here built a gaming PC and then put SteamOS rather than Windows on it?

djchump

The Daddy wrote:

Have you read this? http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-nvidia-geforce-gtx-750-ti-review Awesome performance from 60w, sime good budget recommendations in the text too so well worth a read.

Wow! A half-decent GPU that only uses 60W and, more amazingly these days, runs off the PCIe power?!

I'm tempted to do a rebuild, just because of that - I guess NVidia's mobile efforts are starting to pay off. Very encouraging what with the whole ridiculous size and noise of the high-end GPUs.

Bollockoff

In my excitement to build I've actually forgotten I need to buy Windows 7. Ouch.

[Deleted User]

Fuck that.

[Deleted User]

Windows 7 is free to use. I've bought the bastard twice and I'm not doing it again.

*Awaits Igor's look of disapproval*

Blue Swirl

SpaceGazelle wrote:

Windows 7 is free to use. I've bought the bastard twice and I'm not doing it again. *Awaits Igor's look of disapproval*

I think that's OK as long as you only have it on one machine at a time, right? I've installed my copy of Windows 7 across multiple machines, but only after the last one died or summat.

And fuck it, if you install a copy of W7 licensed for one machine on two or three, you're not exactly Al Capone. Go for it.

mistercrayon

Is there a way of setting up a super hot pc and then throwing that stuff to a dumb terminal (like a shit laptop) for work purposes. Would like a new lappy for school but would prefer a pc for tv if I can get It to throw word etc over wifi.

[Deleted User]

Fuck Word. Google docs does the job.

Blue Swirl

Building your own gaming PC, the fantasy:

The reality:

[Deleted User]

You really should. You'll enjoy Steam without loving it because it does it's thing with intelligence and fairness that really should be the norm. Sadly, you'll hate all the rest for the same reason.

Bollockoff

Gonzo wrote:

I will buy titanfall on steam.

Sadly, EA are bastards and deny most of their newer games on Steam. They have their own version called Origin instead.

JMW

And it's shit.

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