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
!!
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
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?
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
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
!!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
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?
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
