Console, Steam Machine or custom build?

Potential-Monke

Ok, so my nephew uses his fathers pc to play my games through Steam. Works grand, he understands he can only do this when I'm not playing. Grand.

However, his father wants the pc back before it's broke, so some woman in a shop recommended a Steam Machine. Now, ill be honest, I know very little about them. The brother was asking would it be better to get a Steam Machine or a PS4. Of course, I compkicated matters by suggesting a small, custom pc designed to act like a Steam Machine (boot directly into steam big picture - the child is 10).

So, I said I'd ask. I know I probably won't get anyone recommending the PS4 on here, but he has about €400 to spend, what would be his best option? Keeping in mind a custom build would only need to cover the pc, he already has a screen and periphials.

Digital Solitude

€400 isn't going to get you a greatPC tbh, or a Steam machine. Cheapest I can think is

i3 4160 €120
500gb HDD €30
4gb RAM €25
H81M board €50
GTX750 €100
Case €30
350w PSU €35
Total €380

That actually turned out stronger than I thought, it'll be a sound build.

Robert ninja

What was the price of the steam machine you were reccomended?

IvoryTower

I'd prob go for the ps4

Overheal

custom build. the labor is rewarding, and its savings in your pocket.

CeltS_Kavo

Digital Solitude wrote: »

€400 isn't going to get you a greatPC tbh, or a Steam machine. Cheapest I can think is

i3 4160 €120
500gb SSD €30
4gb RAM €25
H81M board €50
GTX750 €100
Case €30
350w PSU €35
Total €380

That actually turned out stronger than I thought, it'll be a sound build.

I'd like the link for the 500GB SSD at that price?
My first PC was a second hand one never had a problem with it in fact I still have it as a second PC have a look on done deal and if he could bring it to €500 you would get a decent one.

Digital Solitude

HDD I would have thought obvious. Corrected the typo

CeltS_Kavo

Digital Solitude wrote: »

HDD I would have thought obvious. Corrected the typo

Cool

Overheal

Digital Solitude wrote: »

€400 isn't going to get you a greatPC tbh, or a Steam machine. Cheapest I can think is

i3 4160 €120
500gb HDD €30
4gb RAM €25
H81M board €50
GTX750 €100
Case €30
350w PSU €35
Total €380

That actually turned out stronger than I thought, it'll be a sound build.

tbh I'd do no less than i5 and a similar GPU. Alternatively if you want to keep it around this budget: get an AMD APU instead and appropriate motherboard. eg. AMD A10-7x.

the_syco

Potential-Monke wrote: »

Ok, so my nephew uses his fathers pc to play my games through Steam.

Any idea what the specs of the fathers machine was?

Digital Solitude

Overheal wrote: »

tbh I'd do no less than i5 and a similar GPU. Alternatively if you want to keep it around this budget: get an AMD APU instead and appropriate motherboard. eg. AMD A10-7x.

Similar GPU being?

Nothing wrong with an i3 for gaming atm, not at all, and its easily upgradeable in future

Skerries

yeah that sounds like a good build as after the initial layout of funds he then has access to a library full of games with no further cost for games unless he sets up his own account and the savings will still be significant over PS4
you could even push that as a reason to up the budget slightly

TerrorFirmer

Overheal wrote: »

tbh I'd do no less than i5 and a similar GPU. Alternatively if you want to keep it around this budget: get an AMD APU instead and appropriate motherboard. eg. AMD A10-7x.

In fairness that is a dreadful idea. An A10 APU is way, way behind an i3-4160 and a GTX750, in processor and graphics performance. Grand if it was just minecraft, but not the latest games.

An i3-4160 is a good solid processor and can easily be upgraded to an i5 in a year or two.

Potential-Monke

the_syco wrote: »

Any idea what the specs of the fathers machine was?

Here's the link to his build. It's only for the kids so i don't need anything massive or overpowered. The one mentioned by Digital Solitude seems to be the winner anyway!

Cheers for all the info folks!

TerrorFirmer

The spec's you were quoted above by Digital Solitude will perform pretty much the same as that machine.

The GTX650Ti boost is about the same speed as the GTX750, the i3-4160 isn't as fast as that Xeon but it's perfectly good and for the most part with deliver the same performance.

lmimmfn

could also go for an alienware Alpha 499Euro ( theres 25euro off with rewards but not sure how that works ) - http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057522718

Its over budget but Digital Foundry uses it as a comparison in their PC vs Xbone vs PS4 comparisons so you can easily see the performance.

Personally i would never build a PC for under 600euro as decent components that will last several builds and combinations of build can be expensive new( PSU and case, HDD ) can easily cost 150-200euro leaving feck all for cpu & gpu out of a 400euro budget, i usually get 5-7 years our of a psu or case.

ScottStorm

As far as steam machines go, from what I understand they are linux boxes so not all steam games will play (even if the specs are ok) also there is no way of searching steam for compatible games.

Ps4 would be easiest but your library of games swings it for building a pc, are you thinking of hooking it up to a tv and adding a controller or getting a keyboard, mouse and monitor?

Robert ninja

ScottStorm wrote: »

As far as steam machines go, from what I understand they are linux boxes so not all steam games will play (even if the specs are ok) also there is no way of searching steam for compatible games.

Ps4 would be easiest but your library of games swings it for building a pc, are you thinking of hooking it up to a tv and adding a controller or getting a keyboard, mouse and monitor?

Ok two things wrong here.

Steam offers to filter games to your platform. If you're on Windows, Mac or Linux it will show only those games in the storefront via filters or automatically in the client from your library unless you tell it not to. Worth noting that linux has more games available for it than PS4 or every 8th gen console combined if the amount of games available is important for you.

ScottStorm

Robert ninja wrote: »

Ok two things wrong here.

Steam offers to filter games to your platform. If you're on Windows, Mac or Linux it will show only those games in the storefront via filters or automatically in the client from your library unless you tell it not to. Worth noting that linux has more games available for it than PS4 or every 8th gen console combined if the amount of games available is important for you.

Just going from information in this video, you may of course be correct.

Edit - just saw your attachment, hadn't noticed that filter before. I wish they filtered by specs but that will never happen.

Robert ninja

ScottStorm wrote: »

Edit - just saw your attachment, hadn't noticed that filter before. I wish they filtered by specs but that will never happen.

I never pay attentiont to specs. There's no bleeding-edge games anymore thanks to consoles. Aside from many something like Star Citizen... in which case you'd already know what kind of machine you need for it.

If you can play modern AAA, open world games at 60fps... you can play pretty much anything. Nothing's going to come out suddenly more demanding than them unless it's a PC exclusive and if so it'll probably have better hardware scaling and still work on lower end machines.

ScottStorm

Robert ninja wrote: »

I never pay attentiont to specs. There's no bleeding-edge games anymore thanks to consoles. Aside from many something like Star Citizen... in which case you'd already know what kind of machine you need for it.

If you can play modern AAA, open world games at 60fps... you can play pretty much anything. Nothing's going to come out suddenly more demanding than them unless it's a PC exclusive and if so it'll probably have better hardware scaling and still work on lower end machines.

You are correct, but currently I'm without a desktop build so my laptop has just an i5 and intel hd 4400 graphics so AAA openworld titles are off the menu currently but that's not really relevant to this thread.
Though having played Doom first time around I am perfectly content with cs:source at 50fps.

Digital Solitude

Sorting by specs would be fairly impossible I think, way too many variables

Potential-Monke

ScottStorm wrote: »

Ps4 would be easiest but your library of games swings it for building a pc, are you thinking of hooking it up to a tv and adding a controller or getting a keyboard, mouse and monitor?

It'll more than likely be a controller, but he will be introduced to kb/m at some stage. He's only 12 so plenty of time for him to become a member of the master race.

The brother reckons he'll go with the build mentioned above, but what i might do is throw it up on here just to make sure i don't have any conflicting/incompatible items. Just have to remember how long it took hardwareversand to deliver now!

Potential-Monke

Item|Price
ASRock H81M-DGS R2.0, LGA 1150, mATX|€42.16
Intel Core i3-4160 3.6 GHz LGA1150 3MB cache Boxed CPU|€114.98
Seagate Barracuda 500GB SATA 6GB 7200's|€44.89
8GB Kit Corsair Vengeance Low Profile Black PC3-12800U CL9|€47.99
ASUS GTX750Ti-PH-2GD5, 750Ti GTX, 2GB GDDR5|€135.30
MS-Tech CA-011 Slimline Desktop uATX red incl. 400W power supply|€35.99
Total|€421.31

Ok, the order is going in today, and this is what i have come up with using the suggestion above as a guide. I believe, if i can interpret the site correctly, that there is free shipping today on orders over €50, so that's why i went with 8gb ram and the 750ti over the 750. Either way, it's only €20, he can stretch that.

So, is everything i have compatible? I think it is, just wanted to be sure before i have a very disappointed 12 year old for Christmas. (I have all the software and accessories, so only need the barebones)

Would you consider adding this on somehow?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00S9Q9VS4?ref_=gb1h_img_m-3_1227_0e1fa6d7&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

Getting an SSD has been the most noticeable change in my recent build. Windows boots in seconds.

Potential-Monke

Deleted User wrote: »

Would you consider adding this on somehow?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00S9Q9VS4?ref_=gb1h_img_m-3_1227_0e1fa6d7&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

Getting an SSD has been the most noticeable change in my recent build. Windows boots in seconds.

He will, eventually, but seeing as it's a 12 year old used to Xbox 360 load times, he'll be grand for now!

TerrorFirmer

You have also chosen a full height graphics card and I think that's a slimline case, it won't fit.

You need a card like this, it also seriously hinders future upgrades.

Better off getting a full size case. €30 on a basic case and €35-40 on a basic but reliable PSU. Any Case/PSU combo for €35 is going to be fairly garbage anyway.

I would suggest this and this if budget is tight.

Potential-Monke

Crap, it's ordered... Will it definitely not fit?? The GPU says 3.9 cm x 18.2 cm x 11.5 cm, and the case says 9.5 cm x 41.4 cm x 31 cm?

Star Lord

Potential-Monke wrote: »

Crap, it's ordered... Will it definitely not fit?? The GPU says 3.9 cm x 18.2 cm x 11.5 cm, and the case says 9.5 cm x 41.4 cm x 31 cm?

Yeah, it won't fit. The card is 3.9cm tall, 18.2cm long and 11.5cm wide.
your case is 18.2cm tall, 31cm long and 9.5cm wide. The card is at least 2cm too wide. 3-3.5 taking into account the motherboard and mounting.

Potential-Monke

3am brain not working! I sent an email to HWV asking if it would fit, they've replied already and offered an alternative. Fantastic service! So they suggested the same card but low profile, which is cheaper, and going by the stats, slightly better?!

TerrorFirmer

Keep in mind that you have incredibly limited upgrade options. At the moment, none actually - there are no faster cards in low profile than the 750Ti and it's a budget card. There'll probably be another budget low profile equivalent in time but you will never be able to use a decent performance card with that case.

I would still recommend getting a normal case and decent power supply.

Potential-Monke

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Keep in mind that you have incredibly limited upgrade options. At the moment, none actually - there are no faster cards in low profile than the 750Ti and it's a budget card. There'll probably be another budget low profile equivalent in time but you will never be able to use a decent performance card with that case.

I would still recommend getting a normal case and decent power supply.

Ah, that can be done down the line. He didn't want something as big as his own, as the lads room is small enough, and when the young lad will start to give out about the quality, we can upgrade to a full size case and mb then.

Cheers for the info though!