Living room PC

times_champion

times_champion

times_champion

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Joined
30 Oct 2004
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364
I'm looking to build a living room PC to replace both my current 3 year old desktop and my Xbox One I am selling. Basically I am looking to build a computer in a smallish case that would fit under my TV and connect via HDMI, as well as being portable enough to carry upstairs to a spare room every so often to plug into a monitor and use for word processing/strategy games etc where I need keyboard and mouse.

My budget is around £500 for just the PC, and I am looking for something that will outclass the Xbox One/PS4 but isnt too costly. I will mainly be playing console ports like Assassins Creed: Unity, Alien Isolation and Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition, but also have some grunt to play upcoming PC titles like Star Citizen and The Witcher 3 at 1080p.

I intend on probably spending £100 or so a month (and a bit more over xmas) to build the PC step by step hopefully before Feb/March time, so I would appreciate it if each individual part cost less than this (apart from the gfx card where I would probably go up to about £175ish)

Thanks guys!
 
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Best advice is to have all your cash at once, technology changes too much to buy small these every month, and means you miss deals/bundles which would otherwise be better value.

£100 this month = Case & Maybe PSU
£100 November = Motherboard & CPU
£100 December = SSD & HDD
£100 January = 8GB RAM
£100 February = Nothing
£100 March = GPU

So better off waiting until March and buy it all together. :)
 
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OK thanks, I might think of doing that, although it might be that I build it in three chunks, before xmas, xmas itself and then March. If you were building it now though with that budget, what kind of spec would you be looking at? And would it be powerful enough to run those games I mentioned at high settings and 1080p, as well as keeping up with multi-format games for the next 2/3 years?
 
 
Excellent - thanks Shivy011! And would that setup run the games I mentioned at 1080p and be relatively high spec for the next couple of years?

Also I was thinking of something a little smaller - would that setup fit into a smaller case?
 
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Shouldn't have too much trouble playing anything on high - ultra settings on that.

If you can save little extra and get one of these then it would be much better. And this case comes comes with 2 x fans, not sure if the one speced above does, couldn't see it in the spec. But this is also cheaper if you want to save a little money.

YOUR BASKET
1 x GALAX GeForce GTX 970 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - OEM (97NPH6DT6XTZ) £249.95
1 x Xigmatek Mach Midi-Tower Black £23.99
Total : £283.54 (includes shipping : £8.00).



I know the GPU is a bit of a hike in price but if you want it to last longer then I would say it's a good move.
 
Ahh, my bad! Case I put is a touch too big to be inconspicuous! sorry

Edit: Just realised it's slightly taller than the cooler master case but smaller in every other dimensions. I'd get a ruler out and see what you think of the size, only you can decide what's too big.
 
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Hmmm maybe, thats an option. Ideally I did want something closer to Xbox One size than my existing tower. I need to fairly easily be able to carry the unit upstairs as and when required as well.
 
Neither of these cases are going to be difficult to carry upstairs. If you're looking for xbox one size then you'll need an ITX case. I have no experience with these so hopefully someone else will be able to help with this but I imagine you'll need to be careful which you choose in case your GPU/PSU/CPU cooler doesn't fit!

So is your TV on the wall? And you're planning on having it sitting underneath? Or do you have a TV unit where your xbox is currently sat where you want it to be?
 
This case is roughly the same size as an xbox one (touch bigger) but you won't fit a GPU in there and the PSU is too big, which makes it useless for your needs! The biggest problem is the width.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Aerocool Qs-101 Micro-ATX Case - Black £22.49
Total : £28.46 (includes shipping : £4.98).



Personally I'd try an come up with a solution of placing it somewhere else and running a cable to the TV.
 
Go for the rig in my sig. :) OR at least the mobo and case. Case is awesomes and fits a 7950 in (just, 7850 would fit better)
All bought from OCUK.
 
Thanks Banzai_Joe, I will take a look at that. The case I use doesnt literally have to be the size of an Xbox One, just not a big heavy tower. I like those cube style cases, one of those would be fine - but obviously not if I cant fit the required components inside. I am definitely looking for a living room PC though, not a tower one that I can put in my living room and takes it over.
 
Width and depth are great but it's 2.5x taller than the xbox one at 176mm, will that still fit in your TV unit? If so then that could be your solution! :)

Edit: Scrap that then! Banzai_Joe's case would suit your needs perfectly. You'll need to change the spec though as you'll need smaller mobo, PSU and cooler.
 
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Well, the m-itx board i have has wifi and everything else you could want really. I've built 3 gaming rigs using this case now. Bit fiddly as might imagine, but when its done, its done :)
I swapped out my 7850 for a 7950 and i did have to 'customise' the front panel a little to get it in ;)
I play FPS games at full settings, no overheating issues.
 
It would probably still fit but I'd have to take some measurements. I like the idea of the Mini-ITX case but the fiddlyness worries me a little! I have done upgrades on my PC before but never built anything from scratch.
 
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