Steam Library - Budget Machine to Play Them?

Kintarō Hattori

Hey Folks,

After having a baby she's taken over what was our bedroom and we've moved into what was the spare bedroom which was in effect a 2nd living room. It was within here that I had my PC. Realistically there's no room for it in the living room so I have a collection of a few hundred steam games that are languishing in a no-man's land. I had been mulling over the idea of a machine that was powerful enough to play what's currently in there, rather than the latest and greatest- so I was thinking about making it a budget machine.
Space is tight so it'd need to be a small machine. Is it possible to build a gaming machine on a mini-ITX platform? Games wise, here's a selection of what's in the library:

Wolfenstein
Farcry 4
Spintires
Skyrim
Project Cars
GTA 5
Call of Duty: Ghosts
Most of the Assassins Creed series
ARMA 3
Metro series
Styx

The system would be connected to the TV so they'd be playing at a 1080p res. Any idea on potential costs?

challengemaster

Sounds like a perfect candidate for a steam link tbh. Leave the PC where it is, Steam link in the living room connected to the TV. Save yourself $$$ of buying/building a new ITX system.

K.O.Kiki

Get a Dell or similar ex-office machine with an i7-3770 (under €350)

Add a 240Gb+ SSD (€75) and GTX 1050 (€120) or 1050 Ti (€160).
Just make sure to buy a low profile model if you get the smaller form factor machines.

Remouad

I second the steam link suggestion.

Pair it with a set of home plugs for lower latency and you'll be laughing.

Maybe wait until the steam sale to buy. Last sale they were €5 ish + delivery(delivery is €13 so works out under €20)

I love the one I have and I'll be picking up a second one when the steam sale rolls around. (Think next sale is due Feb 16th)

Kintarō Hattori

challengemaster wrote: »

Sounds like a perfect candidate for a steam link tbh. Leave the PC where it is, Steam link in the living room connected to the TV. Save yourself $$$ of buying/building a new ITX system.

Remouad wrote: »

I second the steam link suggestion.

Pair it with a set of home plugs for lower latency and you'll be laughing.

Maybe wait until the steam sale to buy. Last sale they were €5 ish + delivery(delivery is €13 so works out under €20)

I love the one I have and I'll be picking up a second one when the steam sale rolls around. (Think next sale is due Feb 16th)

I have it but can't use it really. The PC is in our bedroom and I couldn't have it whirring away at night as the missus is the world's lightest sleeper.

Remouad

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

I have it but can't use it really. The PC is in our bedroom and I couldn't have it whirring away at night as the missus is the world's lightest sleeper.

Is there any other room you could put it in?
You don't need the monitor, keyboard, mouse etc. if you're just going to be streaming.
Just need a socket.

Kintarō Hattori

Remouad wrote: »

Is there any other room you could put it in?
You don't need the monitor, keyboard, mouse etc. if you're just going to be streaming.
Just need a socket.

Realistically no. The kitchen has a sofa in it (Polish thing), living room wouldn't have enough room for it and the attic isn't converted.

TerrorFirmer

For those games and older, a matx system (mitx will be more expensive) based on something an Intel G4560 + GTX1050Ti would be pretty solid and relatively cheap....at a guess €500 would get you a nice system.

Depending how tight the budget is, you could do it with a 2nd hand Dell Optiplex SFF with an older 2nd/3rd gen i5 with 8GB ram for about €130-150, add a low profile GTX1050Ti for €160 and you're sorted at €300 or so.

Less upgrade potential with the latter but it's a lot for a little, plus could always be upgraded to 2nd/3rd gen i7 for a boost which are still very good.

Kintarō Hattori

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

For those games and older, a matx system (mitx will be more expensive) based on something an Intel G4560 + GTX1050Ti would be pretty solid and relatively cheap....at a guess €500 would get you a nice system.

Depending how tight the budget is, you could do it with a 2nd hand Dell Optiplex SFF with an older 2nd/3rd gen i5 with 8GB ram for about €130-150, add a low profile GTX1050Ti for €160 and you're sorted at €300 or so.

Less upgrade potential with the latter but it's a lot for a little, plus could always be upgraded to 2nd/3rd gen i7 for a boost which are still very good.

Many thanks for that chief. What do you think about the following:

https://www.adverts.ie/desktops/dell-optiplex-790-dt-intel-i5-8gb-ram-500gb-hdd-win7-10-display-port-dvdrw/14281446

https://www.adverts.ie/graphics-cards/msi-gtx-1050ti-4gb-lp/14757880

OR

https://www.ebay.ie/itm/Dell-Optiplex-990-USFF-i5-vPro-8GB-300GB-Windows-10-Office-2016/202214300363?hash=item2f14e95acb:g:Ri0AAOSwsBtaL8ST

I'm wondering if it's better to buy the main unit locally as opposed to on eBay?

challengemaster

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

I have it but can't use it really. The PC is in our bedroom and I couldn't have it whirring away at night as the missus is the world's lightest sleeper.

Move the PC in with the baby? They love white noise :pac:

Is this still your current PC or did you upgrade that time?

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300
Asus P5E Deluxe
4 GB of Corsair XMS DDR-II (4 x 1GB Sticks)
Sapphire Radeon R9 270x
Various Sata HDD
EVGA 750W PSU
Antec 900 Case

Kintarō Hattori

challengemaster wrote: »

Move the PC in with the baby? They love white noise :pac:

Is this still your current PC or did you upgrade that time?

Haha I don't think the missus would let that fly.

Indeed that's still the current machine. At some point in the near future I plan on building a whole new proper gaming machine but I need to wait and see what way things are going to work out. Currently I don't get that much time to game so it'd be silly to spend a lot for a new machine which wouldn't get used. Plus the missus hates having the PC, even when it's not in use, in the bedroom.

K.O.Kiki

https://www.adverts.ie/desktops/dell-optiplex-sff-9010-i7-3-4ghz-16gb-ram-500gb-hdd/14659546
Offer €220, better PC than that i5-2400

https://www.adverts.ie/desktops/dell-optiplex-7010-i7/14752868
You could swoop in on this one, too.

TerrorFirmer

That bottom one is exceptional value. The first option isn't really viable as it's actually too small to fit a LP GTX1050 or 1050Ti. Might get a GT1030 in there though.

They really need to be the 'full size' SFF models (as ironic as that sounds) to comfortably fit the LP range of cards. Your current GPU (270X) isn't horrible but unfortunately your CPU is hopelessly oudated!

It would make sense to just buy a new motherboard/cpu/ram and just keep everything else?

TerrorFirmer

EG for LP cards you would want the one 2nd from the right.

Kintarō Hattori

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

https://www.adverts.ie/desktops/dell-optiplex-7010-i7/14752868
You could swoop in on this one, too.

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

That bottom one is exceptional value. The first option isn't really viable as it's actually too small to fit a LP GTX1050 or 1050Ti.

I had seen the i7 machine earlier but my concern is room- I have to hide it somewhere either behind the TV stand or underneath a display case. Any idea what the depth/height dimensions might be? Are they a micro-ATX case?

I appreciate all the help/advice chaps, I really do.

TerrorFirmer

You can lay them flat, so it can either sit flat on a shelf on a stand, or else could stand upright behind the TV. I have one behind my TV in fact. Roughtly about 16" tall and 5" wide looking at one here now in front of me.

K.O.Kiki

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

That bottom one is exceptional value. The first option isn't really viable as it's actually too small to fit a LP GTX1050 or 1050Ti. Might get a GT1030 in there though.

They really need to be the 'full size' SFF models (as ironic as that sounds) to comfortably fit the LP range of cards.

Au contraire ; that model Dell is the "regular" SFF size. It would fit a Low-Profile GPU no problem.
An easy way to tell is that the Dell logo is rectangle instead of square.

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

I had seen the i7 machine earlier but my concern is room- I have to hide it somewhere either behind the TV stand or underneath a display case. Any idea what the depth/height dimensions might be? Are they a micro-ATX case?

I appreciate all the help/advice chaps, I really do.

CNet are great for dimensions of PCs, e.g. https://www.cnet.com/products/dell-optiplex-9010-sff-desktop-computer-3rd-generation-intel-core-i7-3770-processor-quad-core-3-40ghz-8mb-w-hd4000/specs/

So the Dell 9010 is 3.7"x12.3"x11.4" (WDH)

Plenty of how-to videos on upgrading:

Kintarō Hattori

All sounds good so... I might get that i7 machine and the MSI card I linked to earlier. My only real concern is the PSU... would it be powerful enough with the added graphics card?

K.O.Kiki

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

All sounds good so... I might get that i7 machine and the MSI card I linked to earlier. My only real concern is the PSU... would it be powerful enough with the added graphics card?

Yeah no problem.

They ship with 240-300W PSUs but you'd be pushing around 200W or less (disconnect the DVD drive if you're really worried )

TerrorFirmer

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Au contraire ; that model Dell is the "regular" SFF size. It would fit a Low-Profile GPU no problem.
An easy way to tell is that the Dell logo is rectangle instead of square.

You can but only single slot LP cards really, which is limiting and means heat can be an issue. Most decent cards are double slot LP cooling, which wouldn't fit in that original Dell you linked.

I had one before with a GTX750Ti in it, and it was so tight there was about 1mm space between the GPU cooler and PSU. Not impossible, but not idea and some cards won't fit.

There are 4 types - Mini Tower (full size card), SFF (full size LP card no issue), a smaller SFF (single slot LP card, some double slot will fit but bad airflow), and then USFF (no card).

You can see from a picture here what I mean, this is the smaller SFF version as per that adverts add. That CNET link is the full size SFF model.

TerrorFirmer

Actually I still have a photo of another model I had - I think it's the older 7010 but physically and layout it's identical size wise to that first 9010 i7 linked to.

You can see here how tight a fit the card is, and this was one of the smaller double slot coolers as well. There are length and width limitations.

Then the next photo is the full size SFF model, which has plenty space for any LP card. (card in picture is a sort of 1.5 slot LP GT1030 though)

A good way to tell if they're the full size SFF or smaller SFF Optiplex on first glance is by the USB port arrangement. The latter has two rows of two, the full size SFF tends to have one straight line of four. Then the smallest one tends to just have a single row of two.

K.O.Kiki

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

You can but only single slot LP cards really, which is limiting and means heat can be an issue. Most decent cards are double slot LP cooling, which wouldn't fit in that original Dell you linked.

I had one before with a GTX750Ti in it, and it was so tight there was about 1mm space between the GPU cooler and PSU. Not impossible, but not idea and some cards won't fit.

There are 4 types - Mini Tower (full size card), SFF (full size LP card no issue), a smaller SFF (single slot LP card, some double slot will fit but bad airflow), and then USFF (no card).

You can see from a picture here what I mean, this is the smaller SFF version as per that adverts add. That CNET link is the full size SFF model.

The dual-fan MSI LP model should fit fine; it's only 35.3mm across (so 5-8mm clearance) and the cards only reach 65C in a regular case anyway (80-85 is max for Pascal)

Kintarō Hattori

So just to be clear on this:

Possible machine:
https://www.adverts.ie/desktops/dell-optiplex-7010-i7/14752868

I'm assuming the below card will have no issue fitting in:

https://www.adverts.ie/graphics-cards/msi-gtx-1050ti-4gb-lp/14757880

Or would that machine take a regular 1050ti?

TerrorFirmer

None whatsoever. That's a full size desktop so any model GTX1050Ti will fit.

Kintarō Hattori

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

None whatsoever. That's a full size desktop so any model GTX1050Ti will fit.

Seems he won't post it so I'm on the look out for another machine.

K.O.Kiki

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

Seems he won't post it so I'm on the look out for another machine.

i5-3470
https://www.adverts.ie/desktops/dell-core-i5-8-gb-1-tb/14641530

i7-3770
https://www.adverts.ie/desktops/dell-optiplex-7010-tower-intel-i7-8gb-ddr3-500gb-hdd-vga-dvd-rw-win10/14409464