Pre-built gaming PC advice

oldrnwisr

I'm starting this thread to get some advice from the good citizens of this forum.

A long time ago back in the days of Half-Life I was an avid PC gamer but eventually I switched to the dark side and became a lowly console gamer. Now, however, I wish to return to the purity of PC gaming and need a new machine to do it.

My first thought has been the Alienware Alpha. Despite my reservations about Alienware merch in general and the fact that the Alpha has been eviscerated on this forum it ticks a lot of boxes for me. It is small, light, has a nice simple Steam interface as well as a standard Windows environment and is good to go out of the box. However, the top end model is €900+ and only differs from the lower model by processor spec. Plus its running on an Nvidia 860M graphics chip which is decent but not world-beating. So I'm a bit hesitant about investing almost a grand on something I might have to replace within 2 years.

My next thought was the Corsair Bulldog which is semi pre-built and looks like it will be available by the end of the year. This looks closer to the traditional gaming PC but it's one ugly SOB.

As such I would appreciate any recommendations people have regarding a gaming PC which would satisfy the following criteria:

• Be small enough to live in a sitting room, near or under a TV.
• Be upgradable at least in terms of RAM, graphics, HD etc.
• Be at least semi pre-built
• Not be outrageously expensive (~€1000)

Falthyron

Build. Your. Own.

Never buy a pre-made 'gaming' PC.

The Lord GabeN welcomes you into the fold, lapsed PC Gamer.

Digital Solitude

Why Semi prebuilt? PCs are handy to build, and if you're planning on upgrading it then you're going to have to figure out what's what anyways.

As per size, this will be couch gaming I assume? You could get a midi tower and drop it on the floor next to the TV, they're not overly sized for the most part

Ant695

Simplest thing to do if you aren't comfortable building it yourself would be to find a local pc specialist and go through with them what you want and then have them build it for you. You get the upgrade ability you want as well as a wide range of aesthetic choices and it will be built for you.

Digital Solitude

Ant695 wrote: »

Simplest thing to do if you aren't comfortable building it yourself would be to find a local pc specialist and go through with them what you want and then have them build it for you. You get the upgrade ability you want as well as a wide range of aesthetic choices and it will be built for you.

Or a mate, cousin, nearby tech worker

I'm in Rural Leitrim and I know of 4 people within a 15 minute drive who could built a PC for me, we're not hard to find

oldrnwisr

Falthyron wrote: »

Build. Your. Own.

Never buy a pre-made 'gaming' PC.

The Lord GabeN welcomes you into the fold, lapsed PC Gamer.

I'm not sure I have the time or patience for a self-built machine anymore. It's something I used to do quite a lot as a student but as I get older I just like things to work first time. That's why the Bulldog is so appealing to me, most of the work has already been done, it just needs you to add your own HD, graphics card etc.

Falthyron

oldrnwisr wrote: »

I'm not sure I have the time or patience for a self-built machine anymore. It's something I used to do quite a lot as a student but as I get older I just like things to work first time. That's why the Bulldog is so appealing to me, most of the work has already been done, it just needs you to add your own HD, graphics card etc.

You have past experience, so it won't be completely new to you. In terms of hardware (when I build a new PC), I can have the thing up and running in about two hours. Then it is just a matter of installing Windows, and well, it does that itself almost.

Seriously, you will pay significantly less if you build it yourself. Companies like Alienware are ridiculously overpriced. View it as a project; something to spend a Sunday afternoon doing once you have all the parts. Personally, I love building a new PC! The best part, imo!

VinLieger

Build it yourself, go to the pc building forum on here with a budget and ideal specs and the smart people there will come up with a few build options for you. If you order of Hardwareversand i think for an extra €30 they will also put it together for you

Digital Solitude

VinLieger wrote: »

Build it yourself, go to the pc building forum on here with a budget and ideal specs and the smart people there will come up with a few build options for you. If you order of Hardwareversand i think for an extra €30 they will also put it together for you

I always forget HVWS will build it.

Can get a serious machine for €1000 OP, it'd be s shame to waste it on a prebuilt

Kiith

Moved over to Pc Building & Upgrading

ScumLord

Hardwareversands €30 build is worth it. It's so cheap I'd half consider just getting them to put it together myself. I wouldn't though, I love putting a new PC together.

The guys over on PC building and upgrading will help you pick out a good value PC from hardwareversand and you can decide whether you want to build it yourself.

oldrnwisr

Thank you all for the advice. I had been shying away from a self-built PC for a number of reasons including the fact its been over 10 years since I last built one. It does really seem to be the best bet though. Plus the things that have been tempting me back to PC gaming lately have been retro games, games on steam early access like Eidolon or The Long Dark and games with a significant modding community like Skyrim, Fallout etc.
It seems like the way to go is a system with decent but modest specs which I can upgrade later on if I start playing AAA stuff on it.

VinLieger wrote: »

Build it yourself, go to the pc building forum on here with a budget and ideal specs and the smart people there will come up with a few build options for you. If you order of Hardwareversand i think for an extra €30 they will also put it together for you

Thanks awfully for the HWVS link. That's a great website and €30 for the build is crazy good value.


Now that I've decided to go with the self-build option, I'm thinking of locking in certain components with a degree of longevity but cutting back on the upgradeable components for the moment to keep the build price manageable. As such, I'd appreciate any recommendations anyone's got for:

• Processor
• Mainboard
• PSU
• Cooling
• Case

Digital Solitude

Xeon 1231v3 €250
Asrock Pro4 H97 €90
BeQuiet System Power 500w €60
Nanoxia DS3, but might be a bit large €70

GTX 970 €350
Seagate Barracuda 1tb HDD €55
250gb SSD €85
8gb RAM €55

That's a full build for €1015, drop the SSD, or get an AMD graphics card to cut it back to under €1000 if you want

levitronix

oldrnwisr wrote: »

Thank you all for the advice. I had been shying away from a self-built PC for a number of reasons including the fact its been over 10 years since I last built one. It does really seem to be the best bet though. Plus the things that have been tempting me back to PC gaming lately have been retro games, games on steam early access like Eidolon or The Long Dark and games with a significant modding community like Skyrim, Fallout etc.
It seems like the way to go is a system with decent but modest specs which I can upgrade later on if I start playing AAA stuff on it.




Thanks awfully for the HWVS link. That's a great website and €30 for the build is crazy good value.


Now that I've decided to go with the self-build option, I'm thinking of locking in certain components with a degree of longevity but cutting back on the upgradeable components for the moment to keep the build price manageable. As such, I'd appreciate any recommendations anyone's got for:

• Processor
• Mainboard
• PSU
• Cooling
• Case

Get a premium case, don't save money on it for something else and get small if it's in the living room. I ve a bitfenix phenom nobody knows it's a pc , they think it's a speaker the way it fits my home entertainment unit perfect

Digital Solitude

The Prodigy would be a lovely wee case, think they're about €130 so would be pushing you to €1100. You'd need a smaller motherboard so that'd knock a tenner off

levitronix

levitronix wrote: »

Get a premium case, don't save money on it for something else and get small if it's in the living room. I ve a bitfenix phenom nobody knows it's a pc , they think it's a speaker the way it fits my home entertainment unit perfect

Build your system around the case. I used on boards headers for extra usb ports and have the Xbox 360 wireless adapters in the case to make it more minimal , mounted with Velcro