Using a TV instead of a monitor?

Kris_90

Kris_90

Kris_90

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Hi

I'm looking to buy a new desktop that I can connect to my TV. I've never used a TV as an output for a pc before and I've never had a good graphics card to play games. I'm getting a surround sound system so I'm hoping I can output the sound through that.

I've been looking at this:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-237-OK&tool=3

Upgraded to a GTX 560 1024MB and 8GB RAM.

I've looked at the gpu and it seems to be one of the best cards on the market (I may be completely wrong tho :p)

My questions are:

Will that gpu be able to play games at 1920x1080 on very high settings?

Will using a 42" TV effect frame rate or gaming in any way?

Will I able to connect the pc through my surround sound system (through hdmi)?

Is that i3 good enough for gaming? I don't know much about pc hardware in general. I'll be using it for web browsing, watching movies and gaming. I won't be using image/video editing software so I don't think I'll need an i7.

Any help appreciated :D
 
Are you confident enough to build your own PC? By doing so you save a lot of money.

If it is a gaming build then an i5 2500K will destroy that i3. What is your budget?

I don't know about the TV, someone else will have to answer that.
 
building a PC is surprisingly easy. if you have all the right parts is is very difficult to put them in the wrong place. as long as your careful with them then your unlikely to break anything either (ie, dont build on top of a nylon carpet wearing tracksuit trousers whie rubbing a ballon on your head).

i would say the only moderatly difficult bit of building a computer yourself is fitting a custom cooler, but even that is simple
 
Kurby said:
Will that gpu be able to play games at 1920x1080 on very high settings?

Will using a 42" TV effect frame rate or gaming in any way?

Will I able to connect the pc through my surround sound system (through hdmi)?

Is that i3 good enough for gaming? I don't know much about pc hardware in general. I'll be using it for web browsing, watching movies and gaming. I won't be using image/video editing software so I don't think I'll need an i7.
Click to expand...

it will be about 10% worse than the results shown here:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/330

size of the TV doesnt matter, its only resolution that matters, yours being 1920x1080

it depends on what sound output your motherboard has. you may need a soundcard but i am pretty confident your surround sound system will work with most motherboards onboard sound

intel i3 processors in general arent the greatest for gaming as they have two cores with hyperthreading. most games run best with three or more cores, and cant make use of hyperthreading, so an i5 would be best. the i5 2500k is the best gaming processor out there by far
 
I think I am most qualified to answer this for once :)

I use my PC on a 42" Panasonic Plasma TV.

I can say that everything works fine. A few people told me it was a bad idea due to input lag and that reading words would be difficult but don't listen. I sit about 3-4 metres from my TV and without zooming in at all I can easily read the OcUK forums. I never seem to have any trouble with games. If you are used to a monitor then you may be able to see some difference but I am using a TV from the start and have run into no problems.

My original plan was to use the TV and buy a monitor later on but I enjoy having the large TV so much for playing games and watching movies that I don't think I will bother as it just will not be used.

Also about sound, I have headphones plugged into the front of my PC and a 2.1 speaker system in the line out at the back. I can switch between headphones, the speakers or just through the TV easily using the playback devices interface :)

Hope I have put your mind at rest :D
 
Thanks for all the replies.

Well it looks like I'll have a go at building my own :D

Can someone help with what components to buy?

CPU - i5 2500k
I have a 60gb crucial m4 ssd for the os.
1 TB HDD will be fine (2TB if there's not a big difference in price)

I haven't got a clue with the rest :D
 
I've looked at the following components, would someone be able to tell me if they would be compatible? Also if there are better components I could use (within the same sort of price range).

CPU - Intel Core i5 2500k
Mobo - Asus P8P67 Intel P67 Mainboard **B3 Revision**
Memory - Corsair XMS3 8GB(2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel
Graphics Card - MSI GeForce GTX 570 OC Twin FrozR III Power Edition 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express
HDD - Samsung SpinPoint F4 ExoGreen 2TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM
Optical Drive - Sony DDU1681S-0B 18x DVD-ROM (Black)
Sound Card - Asus Xonar DG 5.1 PCI Sound Card
Power Supply - Antec High Current Gamer 750W Quad Rail '80 Plus Bronze'

£810 so far.

I'm not sure what case to get. I don't know what sort of cooling I need. I'm not sure what controller cards are (I'm guessing I need one).

Do I need anything else?

Cheers
 
Last edited:
sk82jack said:
So your budget is around £720 inc delivery?

Edit: Apparently not...whats your budget? You gonna need a case?
Click to expand...

Well I was hoping about £800 max, I'll go to £900 but I don't want to pay anymore than that.

Yeah I'll need a case. I'm not sure which one to get.
 
MSI GeForce GTX 570 OC Twin FrozR III Power Edition 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £263.99

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £173.99

MSI P67A-GD53 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £114.98

XFX Pro 850W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £89.98

Samsung SpinPoint F4 EcoGreen 2TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD204UI) £53.99

Antec 100 One Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £43.99

Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £34.99

Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £28.99

LiteOn IHAS124-19 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99

Total : £838.39 (includes shipping : £13.75)

That will allow you to add in another 570 at a later date should you wish to.

Space in the budget to upgrade to 8GB if you want.

Decent case for the price but there are better ones, I'm not really in the know about cases all that much though so I'd ask for some other options, I just chose the cheapest good one.

Also, you don't need a sound card, the onboard sound will be good enough unless your into audio editing etc in which case you should be spending more than £20 on one :) lol
 
Reaper 392 said:
building a PC is surprisingly easy. if you have all the right parts is is very difficult to put them in the wrong place. as long as your careful with them then your unlikely to break anything either (ie, dont build on top of a nylon carpet wearing tracksuit trousers whie rubbing a ballon on your head).

i would say the only moderatly difficult bit of building a computer yourself is fitting a custom cooler, but even that is simple
Click to expand...

I second everything that's been said here. Custom coolers are a pain in the arse. No one is the same. The rest really is easy. Like super easy.

If you can put up a shelf, you can build a computer!

You have to laugh at these people who rave and bang on about how they can build pc's. Big deal, and when there friends say.... "ooohh, my mate builds computers." It really isn't difficult.

Now diagnosing and repairing them. That's the hard bit :D
 
 
sk82jack said:
MSI GeForce GTX 570 OC Twin FrozR III Power Edition 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £263.99

Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £173.99

MSI P67A-GD53 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £114.98

XFX Pro 850W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £89.98

Samsung SpinPoint F4 EcoGreen 2TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD204UI) £53.99

Antec 100 One Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £43.99

Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £34.99

Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £28.99

LiteOn IHAS124-19 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99

Total : £838.39 (includes shipping : £13.75)

That will allow you to add in another 570 at a later date should you wish to.

Space in the budget to upgrade to 8GB if you want.

Decent case for the price but there are better ones, I'm not really in the know about cases all that much though so I'd ask for some other options, I just chose the cheapest good one.

Also, you don't need a sound card, the onboard sound will be good enough unless your into audio editing etc in which case you should be spending more than £20 on one :) lol
Click to expand...

Thanks. Yeah I'd like 8GB RAM and I think I'd choose a different case but now I know everything I need to get :D I presume thermal paste and cable ties are the only other things I need?


Buchanan0204 said:
I second everything that's been said here. Custom coolers are a pain in the arse. No one is the same. The rest really is easy. Like super easy.

If you can put up a shelf, you can build a computer!

You have to laugh at these people who rave and bang on about how they can build pc's. Big deal, and when there friends say.... "ooohh, my mate builds computers." It really isn't difficult.

Now diagnosing and repairing them. That's the hard bit :D
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's probably not that hard once you've done it.

chris_holmes said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x XFX ATI Radeon 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £203.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £167.99
1 x Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £144.98
1 x OCZ Agility 3 60GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive (AGT3-25SAT3-60G) £91.99
1 x Antec Dark Fleet Series DF35 Gaming Enclosure - Black £86.99
1 x XFX Pro 750W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £79.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31000524AS) £39.98
1 x Akasa AK-CCX-4002HP Venom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366/AM2/AM3) £38.99
1 x Samsung SH-S222AB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £886.00 (includes shipping : £11.75).
Click to expand...

Thanks. Isn't the GTX 570 better than the 6950? I was looking for something that will be able to keep me playing the top games at high settings for the next year or so. I know the 590 and 6990 are better but they are almost half the price of the pc :p

I have an SSD so I would probably switch that out and add another HDD + a case.

Thanks
 
You can use the TV but input lag can be an issue, more so on some TVs than others. If the TV has a "game mode" in the menu the enable it. There is a noticeable improvement on my xbox 360 with my TV by using a VGA lead (tvs often have an RGB or DVI port for computers).

Most mid to high end mobos will have an optical output (digital) as well as the standard analogue ports. Cheaper speaker setups will use analogue but it's nice to have the option on the mobo to use digital so your not limited in choice when buying your speakers.

An i5 (quad core) CPU is really preferable for gaming. Games will be optimised more and more towards quadcores as time goes by.

If you are struggling on the budget you could consider not buying a 5.1 surround system and just use HDMI for audio output to the TV (stereo). Many TVs have a "surround effect" mode for audio which works ok, you could add dedicated speakers later.

Good luck with the build.
 
I haven't seen a lot of TV's with a DVI port... if any. Almost all flat panels in the last 6 years have VGA inputs.

No idea why you would think VGA is better. DVI and HDMI are digital signals and capable of producing higher resolutions when used with a TV. A TV wont go above 1366x768 when using the VGA. HDMI will do the full 1920x1080.
 
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