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

EvilRedEye

Eurogamer have an article about building a half-decent gaming PC for Â£300 today, don't know if it's of any interest to anybody.

Birdorf

Thanks, just what I need.

Mod74

three1ne wrote:

Have you got mouse, keyboard and cables sorted @mod? I built a pc the other month and completely forgot about a keyboard.

Yeah, I've got half a dozen of the things

regmcfly

Here's the Digi Foundry PCÂ

A good starter -Â

600x-1

Curtis

Nexx wrote:

Curtis wrote:

Is it possible to make a decent rig for around Â£500-600 if 1080p isn't an issue?

Resolution will depend on what you're planning to play/run but you can easily build a decent PC in that price range (some games will run at 1080p, others wont). Â Specs would probably be quite similar to what Mod is building:

CPU - Intel i5 3570k
MB: P8Z77-V
Gfx: GTX 560 Ti

Those would be your core and would come to around Â£450ish (Im guessing there...). Â And then you would spend whatever you have left over on RAM, case, power supply & HDD (sounds like a lot of components but none are too pricey). Â 8gigs of RAM is what, Â£40? Â Won't need more than Â£50 on a HDD. Â I'd recommend getting a decent power supply, you'll probably need around 600-650w so around Â£50-60. Â Case is just personal preference, Ebuyer do some real budget ones for like Â£20.

I'm assuming here that you already have a keyboard, monitor etc.

Cheers. I only said 1080p isn't an issue because my TV doesn't support it. I was tempted to sod the messing about and get an Alienware X51, but I realised you can much more bang for your buck if you build your own.

I'll investigate further over the coming weeks.

Mod74

What did they use for an OS? Fresh air?

Mod74

You know these posh graphics cards, can you connect a screen via DVI and an other screen via HDMI and flip the output between the two? Assuming the card has both ports?

I'm assuming you can but just checking if there's a particular type of card needed to do that.

Alternatively have a lead running of the motherboard and lead out the card, or does the on board graphics become null and void once you put a dedicated card in?

vicinity_of_pie

Yeah you can, or you can output to both at the same time with either a cloned display or two different screens.

On board graphics and output ports will be unusable while using the graphics card.

Mod74

Sweet, thanks.

Sasukekun

I'm tempted to just buy the GPU, CPU and mobo from the Eurogamer article and build a new machine, selling the old parts. The OS is included on a backup drive and would run from there. I reckon it's do-able, but I need to get the money behind me first.

Scotswahey

Eh posted in responce to page 2... this is page 3. I'm lost.

Mod74

I don't know what stock levels Scan run at, I'm assuming small because the motherboard, ram and SSD I placed in my cart two days ago are now out of stock. Harumph.

Could get the mobo from Amazon (for cheaper) and different ram.

For the SSD...I have a plan....

I'm going to take the HDD from that old PC I mentioned and marry it to the new mobo etc. Will that work? I think it will and Windows will just go "Shit! loads of new hardware!" and sort itself out, but does anyone know for sure?

djchump

I vaguely remember doing that kind of thing - just straight swapped in the old system HDD to the new mobo, setup the bios to boot from the correct HDD. Windows obviously pitched a fit but I think it worked with the usual activation/deactivation fiddling.

I think, all hazy now. IIRC the current PC was a new build with a new Win7, so I wanted a completely fresh install without a load of legacy rot and allt he crap I had installed - so was from fresh install and I had the old system and data drives from the old pc added as secondary and tertiary drives, so I could pull data off if I needed.

Kinda depends if you want a spring clean and fresh Windows install without the accreted guff that gets installed over the years.

humantarget

Speaking of Scan, I usually pop in to get stuff but on most times I go/check online I find that www.eclipsecomputers.com/ are cheaper.

Mod74

djchump wrote:

Kinda depends if you want a spring clean and fresh Windows install without the accreted guff that gets installed over the years.

Cheers.

The problem I have is I don't have an install disc for Windows. The plan was to just get the thing to boot then see if I could run the recovery partition.

I guess I could run the recovery partition from the get go. Or put the consumer preview of Win8 on it...hmm.

vicinity_of_pie

You should really do a fresh install as it will generally run better and won't have tons of drivers/software you're not even using. I've never done this but a quick google search shows it's possible to get your windows key using software, then you could just download windows and use your old key.

Mod74

Right. 'bout time I stopped fannying about and just pulled the trigger huh. Funny I'm spending thousands and thousands on this wedding but am struggling to let myself have eight hundred quid for a PC.

djchump

heh - new build and trying out win8 at the same time? Depends how many hours you want to spend faffing with it - that sounds like at least a whole saturday job to me ;-)

I guess it's worth just trying to boot it from the old HDD first - go for the quickest route just to check everything is working, then figure out if you want to spring clean it and fresh install, or just run with it as is.Â
I had a bit of a 'mare last build cos I thought the mobo was dodgy (involved a couple of RMA's and back and forth with Scan for them to flash the mobo etc.), but in the end it turned out the brand new (and decent brand, not cheapy-cheapo) PSU was fucked - eventually everything worked fine after buying a cheapo PSU from a local shop. Â With that in mind (i.e. potential problems with components), getting things running ASAP before investing to much time and energy in the build could help it from getting frustrating if there's any problems. Touch wood though I was just very unlucky and your build will be fine.

Mod74

Done!

Wipes sweat from brow.

djchump

woot - that was quick!

Mod74

Just the order bit.

The whole fit it together shit storm starts tomorrow.

djchump

Aah! Hope the build goes smooth for you :-)

Elmlea

Regarding Windows on an old HD with a new machine, I did this once; dragged out my old HD and bought a "bare bones" system from Novatech, which is just case, PSU, CPU, and mobo. Â Stuck in some memory and a graphics card, and then added the old HDDs and DVD drives from my old machine.

Windows threw a fit as it found a more than 3 configuration changes or something like that. Â It said I could use it for 30 days, but told me to go to Microsoft and download a Windows Genuine Advantage kit or something. Â I did that, and it allowed me to pay a reduced upgrade cost, which turned my OEM copy of Windows XP into a real one.

I should imagine it'll work the same for you with a more modern copy of Windows, it'll either just ask for activation or it'll lock itself, give you a 30 day timer, and let you go to MS to pay your dues.

Mod74

Yeah..if you change too much it thinks it's in a new machine. I thought you could just ring MS and tell them what you'd done and they'd activate it again for you. That's what I'll be trying anyway.

Mod74

Hey, guess what guys, I've just realised it's now up to me to piece all this together and not fuck it up.

Oops.

vicinity_of_pie

Nice, that thing will be a monster.

Should be simple enough to piece together, but keep us updated with photos or any question you might have and let us know when the moment of truth is...

humantarget

I think you should film a video of the first time you press the power button complete with reaction shot, whether it's good or bad.

Brooks

Haha, the RAM is called VENGEANCE.

Bollockoff

humantarget wrote:

I think you should film a video of the first time you press the power button complete with reaction shot, whether it's good or bad.

Mod74

Brooks wrote:

Haha, the RAM is called VENGEANCE.

It shall be mine.

Well, it is mine. I bought it.

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