Gaming Rig Spec £500-£1000

tsinc80697 · 29 Jul 2014 at 08:40

I've started to get back into PC gaming and my Macbook Air just isn't up to the task. I'm looking for something small to sit on/under my desk that has enough power for gaming.

The one feature I do need though, the ability to use my Apple Thunderbolt Display, not sure whether GPUs these days come with a Thunderbolt port or whether I'd just need an adaptor to DVI/HDMI?

Budget; anything between £500-1000. Lower the better but I was thinking of using a 280x as there are so many of them available 2nd hand due to mining, not sure how they perform on a gaming basis though?

Thanks!

tsinc80697 · 29 Jul 2014 at 08:42

Forgot to say, I don't need an OS, RAM or monitor.

tsinc80697 · 30 Jul 2014 at 17:52

Looks like I can't use my Thunderbolt monitor with a HDMI/DVI etc adaptor as it just won't work.

Is it possible to connect a monitor to an integrated Thunderbolt port but use another GPU for playing games? ie connect monitor to onboard thunderbolt port but use 280x to play the games?

MichaelAwkward · 30 Jul 2014 at 18:48

By all accounts the Apple Thunderbolt Display is just incompatible with all PCs, and most older Macs.

EDIT: It appears you can get it working on motherboards that have Thunderbolt output from integrated Intel GPU, but that's not really what you're after.

And also with the aid of the Lucid Virtu GPU: http://jsndev.net/199/custom-gaming-pc-build-with-apple-thunderbolt-display-and-discrete-gpu/

You'd really be better off either selling it, or getting a more powerful Mac to Bootcamp Windows onto.