Help out an old timer...!

SirChumpalot

SirChumpalot

SirChumpalot

Associate
Joined
31 Oct 2012
Posts
290
Hi all,

Firstly, I'm actually not that old, I'm 29 (and a half). Back when I was a teenager I did nothing but build PCs. I remember my huge Lian Li PC-70 case with its 3 120mm fans, neon LEDs, an AMD processor of some sort...

All has changed now.

I grew tired of tinkering around with my PC just to get those extra few 3D Marks. I was spending more time benchmarking than actually using the thing, it was big, cumbersome and made a racket. So you know what I did? I swapped it for a laptop, and a few years later bought an Xbox 360 to satisfy any gaming needs I had. It worked well, to a degree.

I'm a contractor. Which means I don't have much time to play games and mess about with things. I work whenever I can. I still keep on top of games reviews etc and decided to get myself a copy of Skyrim for the Xbox. What a great game! I've played it for a few hours and thoroughly enjoy it. That was until I saw it running on a colleague's PC... Holy :eek: !!

This got me thinking (which is kinda dangerous). I'd love to go back to PC gaming and play beautiful games like Skyrim for an hour or so a week. I could just go and buy a PC, or put one together. That'd be fine except I don't have the space for a dedicated PC. What I'm after is some sort of compacted solution. Same capabilities, just smaller. Is this even possible I'm asking myself, it's been so long since I've put hardware like this together. I'm aware that there are going to be issues with cooling, and perhaps noise. I need to strike a balance of power, and convenience. I can't be watching a blu-ray with fans audible in the background.

So I'm on a quest. A quest to build a small, sleek, relatively quiet gaming PC, capable of running the latest games at decent quality. In doing this I would use the PC for other things too, Blu-Rays, media streaming, web browsing etc. An all singing, all dancing box of magic :p

I've spotted some components I think I'd like to include but I'm not sure if they're going to fit in the case I'd like. Perhaps you guys could lend a hand in identifying some bits and pieces for me? :D

For the case, I was thinking a Silverstone. Not sure what one yet but something slick and black. I'm planning on having the PC rest under the TV on a glass shelf so it can't be too 'boxy' or cube-like.

I'm going Intel with this one, an I7 3570k perhaps? What it's going to sit on I have no clue. I think I need a Mini-ITX motherboard, any suggestions?

8GB of Corsair memory or equivalent. RAM seems pretty cheap these days!! If 16GB is more feasible for the long term then happy to do that.

Graphics.... well.... back to Skyrim. I'd love to play this game on Ultra, with everything maxed out. I want it looking beautiful. I realise there are cards out there that will do that no problem, like the Radeon HD7900 series or an Nvidia GTX680/685/690 but I'm not sure if:

a) these cards will fit and,
b) I'll have the power available given the case I'm using.

I'd like to future-proof for at least a year or so. I realise things move so quickly so again, I need to strike a balance with value for money in mind.

A solid state drive is a must I think. I'd only be loading the OS and Skyrim on it for a start. Space is going to be at a premium.

That's about as far as I've got. I'm in desperate need of some assistance as you can see. I'm going to have fun whilst I do this though, that's for sure. If someone tells me that it's not even possible and i have to make some sacrifices then so be it. I'm just grateful for any advice you can give an out of touch enthusiast.

Thanks for reading guys

David
 
I realise I didn't mention anything about a budget. There isn't one as such but I'm not going crazy on it. I'm thinking around the £800 mark, give or take £100 maybe.

:)
 
Doomedspeed said:
Nice looking case but you stuggle with a gaming rig in there. It only accepts low profile expansion cards, Gpu's. None of those that come in LP will come near running Skyrim on Ultra. Lian Li do some simular looking cases with full expansion slots.

The prodigy is a popular Mini ITX case.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice.

I had a feeling the case wouldn't fit certain components. I don't mind the BitFenex prodigy case but it's not really going to fit.

I'm off to scour the internet :)

Keep the suggestions coming please!

Thanks again.
 
Bacon? said:
Stock cooler is not the quietest ones around, especially if you overclock. However you would have to then look for a CLC to fit in the cases. and thats if they can support any form of proper cooling at all! I too would reccomend the Prodigy but if you havent got the space for it ;)

Also any reason for the i7? The only advantage it has over the i5 is Hyperthreading which only a limited number of apps and no games take advantage of.
Click to expand...

No reason at all now that you ask. I was merely futureproofing. I've been out of the game so long as haven't got round to looking at the differences between the 2... if I could save some £££ all the better. What would you suggest instead?
 
Bacon? said:
I've gone slightly over and have used the prodigy but thought I could give an idea of what you can fit in it:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £184.99
1 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7850 OC Windforce 2X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card w/ FARCRY3, Nexuiz, Sleeping Dogs & Dirt Showdown PC Games £149.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77N-WIFI Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £98.99
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Desktop Series SATA 6Gb/s KIT with Norton Ghost - (MZ-7PC128D/EU) £89.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) £66.66
1 x BitFenix Prodigy Mini-ITX Cube Case - Arctic White £64.99
1 x PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III Series 500W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply - White £59.99
1 x Antec Kúhler H2O 620 CPU Watercooler (Socket Intel LGA 775 / 1155 / 1156 / 1366 / AMD AM2 / AM3 / AM2+ / AM3+) £55.98
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £25.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £829.66 (includes shipping : £11.75).

Click to expand...

Any reason for the CPU watercooler? :p

Thanks for the suggestions.
 
Thank you all for the suggestions so far, I now have a far better idea of what I'm aiming for. It's hard coming back to it all and being faced with so many choices.

I know I keep banging on about Skyrim, but I'm using this game as somewhat of a benchmark. I realise it's not the most demanding of PC games out there, but it's a start.

Is the 7850 capable of doing such a thing?
 
Indie said:
I have the 1GB of the 7850 in my Prodigy i3 build, got it on sale the other week for like £110 or something. It plays Skyrim on ultra without any bother. Silent too.

I'm going to see if I can get any texture packs for it tonight to make it a bit more demanding, i'll let you know how it goes :)

Its certainly a good stable card.

If anybody has any ideas of where to get them from then feel free to hook me up!
Click to expand...

Nice, I'd prefer 2gb on the card if possible but trying to keep the budget as low as possible.

Let me know how you get on with the texture pack though.
 
Me again :) Can anyone foresee any problems with attaching a 40" 1080p Sharp TV via HDMI to this setup? (Don't know exact model) I mean in terms of picture degredation etc?

Thanks

David
 
Indie said:
Got mine attached to a 42" Toshiba TV via HDMI, running at 1080p - I need to tweak it a little so it fits the screen perfectly, currently runs off the edge slightly, but other than that there aren't any problems.
Click to expand...

Thanks Indie. Appreciate the reply.

The 3770 arrived today :) I'll keep you updated!
 
honosuseri said:
Google the nexus mod manager. Their webpage has LOADS of mods, you have to sign up (its free) to get the large files. Idleman has put links showing some of them.

High res textures is a must, remember it's basically a console port, it can be improved greatly. The improved water makes a big difference to the look of the game too. SkyUI is a better interface for sorting through your loot. There are improved "realistic" ********** that also make a big difference, as the stock ********** are basically blobs lol
Click to expand...

Thanks for that :)
 
rids57 said:
Been using my 32" Samsung TV as a monitor for ages and I can't see much difference between it and my 24" Samsung monitor - apart from being bigger and more immersive for playing games that is :)
Click to expand...

I have a 32" Samsung 1080p screen, there's a possibility that the PC could go in another room onto this TV rather than the Sharp.

Do you notice any difference in picture quality between the 24" and 32"?
 
Me again :)

I'm busy gathering the components... The I7 arrived yesterday. I let out a little squeak of excitement ;)

I've been trawling the internet and youtube for reviews on cases and motherboards etc. The Silverstone GD05 seems quite hard to get (OcUK don't have it in stock) so I think I'm going for the GD06, it's got a nicer front to it with an access panel which I quite like.

With regards the motherboard, I think I'm going for the Gigabyte Z77N Mini-ITX as recommended by some of you guys earlier. The problem I think I face is the fact that I want to keep noise to an absolute minimum with this setup. The GD06 has room for 3 120mm fans (I'll replace the stock ones as they come in at around 40db apparently). I'm just thinking about the CPU cooler.

Bacon? suggested a watercooler. Would this be sufficient if I don't plan on overclocking (which I definitely don't)? Or could someone please recommend a nice quiet cooler I could use.

The ASRock Z77E ITX's socket is extremely close to the PCI-E slot and I'm worried that certain cooler wont fit. If I can get away with just the watercooler block then great.

Thanks again for your help

David
 
OK, so I just checked out the watercooler as suggested by Bacon? and realised that the fan is situated remotely. Nice. I thought it was just the block, silly me....

Some further suggestions would be great though.

Thanks again.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom