Is Such A Thing Possible ?

nheather

nheather

nheather

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Is it possible to build a PC for gaming that would sit in a normal TV stand.

I know how to build tower PCs but here we would be talking something in a box more like the size of a Sky Receiver or XBox and I'm not sure that is possible from a physical size point of view and for cooling for a reasonable performance.

Now when we talk about performance I'm not talking about anything amazing - even on my desktop performance is modest and I run on a single 1080 screen. If I could match that I would be happy.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
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dacads said:
Any specific size the case has to be? Also what is your budget?
Click to expand...

Doesn't have to be tiny - not sure what is possible - say 500x350x150 (WxDxH). Could probably accommodate the taller, narrower type boxes as well. Depth is the real limit - around 350mm.

Budget - say up to £1000.

For the most part, I would effectively be building a Steam Box.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
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Thanks Nigel, I think I've found the perfect case with dimensions of 440 mm (W) x 150 mm (H) x 323 mm (D) :) It is also available in black.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Z97M Gaming - Devil's Canyon i7 4790K CPU & Micro ATX Motherboard Bundle **£12 Saving** £397.98
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 970 OC Silent "Infin8 Black Edition" 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **WorldWide Exclusive** £289.99
1 x Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E250B/EU) £89.99
1 x Silverstone Grandia GD04 Desktop Case - Silver (SST-GD04S USB 3.0) £72.95
1 x EVGA Supernova GS 550W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £64.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2400HC11CDC01) £47.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) HDD £41.99
1 x Raijintek Pallas 140mm Low Profile CPU Cooler £33.95
Total : £1,039.82 (includes shipping : Ex.VAT).




Another option for the case would be the GD06 which is the successor of GD04 & GD05

YOUR BASKET
1 x Silverstone Grandia GD06 Desktop Case - Black (SST-GD06B) £94.99
Total : £104.59 (includes shipping : £8.00 Ex.VAT).

 
nheather said:
Is it possible to build a PC for gaming that would sit in a normal TV stand.

I know how to build tower PCs but here we would be talking something in a box more like the size of a Sky Receiver or XBox and I'm not sure that is possible from a physical size point of view and for cooling for a reasonable performance.

Now when we talk about performance I'm not talking about anything amazing - even on my desktop performance is modest and I run on a single 1080 screen. If I could match that I would be happy.

Cheers,

Nigel
Click to expand...

Sign of the times of how old you are when you see someone who doesn't know about what desktop cases used to look like before towers were available. :D
 
varkanoid said:
Sign of the times of how old you are when you see someone who doesn't know about what desktop cases used to look like before towers were available. :D
Click to expand...

Are you talking about me - I pre-date IBM XTs so I know what they used to look like - though I think they would have been too deep.

I was more worried about cramming everything in and keep it cool.

It's also occurred to me that in my wall storage I could fit a micro ATX tower.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
Well the cases come with 3 fans and room for 2 more. I think the Micro ATX solution you mentioned would be a much better one though! Will save you the hassle of faffing around in a tight case and like you mention keep things cooler as well :)

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Z97M Gaming - Devil's Canyon i7 4790K CPU & Micro ATX Motherboard Bundle **£12 Saving** £397.98
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 970 OC Silent "Infin8 Black Edition" 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **WorldWide Exclusive** £289.99
1 x Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Micro ATX Case - Black £89.99
1 x Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive (MZ-75E250B/EU) £89.99
1 x EVGA Supernova GS 550W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £64.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2400HC11CDC01) £47.99
1 x Toshiba (7K1000.D) 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA100) HDD £41.99
1 x Raijintek Themis Direct Contact CPU Cooler £19.99
Total : £1,042.91 (includes shipping : Ex.VAT).

 
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dacads said:
Well the cases come with 3 fans and room for 2 more. I think the Micro ATX solution you mentioned would be a much better one though! Will save you the hassle of faffing around in a tight case and like you mention keep things cooler as well :)
Click to expand...

Many thanks,

I know I said up to £1000 so you were just following my request.

But now I know the art of the possible - I was thinking I was going to need really expensive power and cooling arrangements, I will probably downgrade my spec somewhat.

CPU - AMD FX - Quad Core is probably sufficient
GFS - Something around the £125 mark, an R9 280X maybe
8GB RAM
A hybrid disk or maybe increase the size of the SDD


Reckon I could get it down to around £500-£600 and have a better machine than I'm happy with at the moment.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
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I would go for a reference cooler GPU as it exhausts the heat out of the case but it depends on what you are using it for.
 
nheather said:
Many thanks,

I know I said up to £1000 so you were just following my request.

But now I know the art of the possible - I was thinking I was going to need really expensive power and cooling arrangements, I will probably downgrade my spec somewhat.

CPU - AMD FX - Quad Core is probably sufficient
GFS - Something around the £125 mark, an R9 280X maybe
8GB RAM
A hybrid disk or maybe increase the size of the SDD


Reckon I could get it down to around £500-£600 and have a better machine than I'm happy with at the moment.

Cheers,

Nigel
Click to expand...

Depends what games you intend on playing, I would strongly recommend sticking with the Intel as it will be far better for gaming. Also if you go with AMD don't forget to buy a suitable motherboard.

GPU - again depends what games, you can pick up a used 280x for around £100.

RAM I specced is 8GB will be fine

SSD you can go with a 500GB instead, wouldn't be a bad idea.
 
Out of interest what makes Intel so much better for gaming.

Most of the PCs I have built have been AMD-based. I have never built the latest and greatest high performance machines but at the same time I have never found them lacking for what I want.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
Xbox size gaming PC

The most suitable cases are Silverstone, with SFX PSU's. Here are a couple of examples in this component list.


YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £199.99
1 x MSI Radeon R9 280 Gaming 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £155.99
1 x Asus Z97I-Plus Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £105.95
1 x Silverstone Strider SFX 600W Fully Modular '80 Plus Gold' Power Supply (SST-SX600-G) £104.99
1 x Crucial BX100 250GB SSD SATA 6Gbps 7mm Solid State Drive (CT250BX100SSD1) £89.99
1 x Silverstone SFX-L 500W '80 Plus Gold' Fully Modular Power Supply £74.99
1 x Silverstone SST-RVZ01 Raven Mini-ITX - Black £66.95
1 x Silverstone SST-ML07B Milo Mini ITX Case - Black £51.95
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2400HC11CDC01) £47.99
Total : £913.78 (includes shipping : £12.50 Ex.VAT).




I have used a Silverstone GD02B and the LS13 Lascala as gaming PC's with MicroATX and ATX, in a TV cabinet before, both were a pain with regard to dust though.

If I was building a PC for under the TV now, I would get the case below, standard PSU sizing, and room for Micro ATX or Full ATX.


YOUR BASKET
1 x Silverstone Grandia GD09 Home Theatre Server Case - Black (SST-GD09B) £49.99
Total : £59.59 (includes shipping : £8.00 Ex.VAT).

 
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