Gaming PCs Thread...time for a sticky / running thread?

[garylythgoe]

Thought I'd throw in my recent experience.

Was an avid (competitive) PC gamer years ago, before I discovered women, beers, cars, bikes, etc and since the 360 launch, I've mostly played console online games with my pals (BF, COD, Forza, Borderlands, etc) and generally loved it all. Online gaming is all about playing with your buddies from my experience, and I still play regularly on my Xbox One.

So fast forward to now. I still love gaming, I now work for a pretty big video games developer/publisher, I still play as much as I can, but I still had a hankering for a Gaming PC, and took the plunge to build a machine over christmas. So I bought the following bits, and got stuck in:-

-BitFenix Phenom MATX Case
-EVGA 650w Bronze PSU
-Gigabyte Z170 MATX Gaming spec motherboard
-Intel i5 6400 Skylake CPU
-16GB Corsair Vengeance 2666mhz DDR4 RAM
-ASUS NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 4GB GPU
-Old Samsung SSD I used in another non gaming machine

Put it all together and it was all relatively smooth (a lot easier than I remember), and the bits were all great. I absolutely LOVE the case, the size of it and cleverness is great. I had a restricted space for a case to go, and bit the bullet on a MATX case instead of full size tower. I kind of had no choice, unless I wanted a big ugly tower sat on the desk surface. It's awesome, and super quiet too.

I'm not doing this for mega scores, or any kind of bragging rights, I just wanted a slightly future proof machine, which didn't break the bank, and performed well now (on a 24" Samsung 1080p PC monitor). I installed Project Cars last night, just as a bit of a tester (no pad or wheel in use yet), and I'm over the moon, it was on these settings:-



It ran 99% smooth, with the odd tiny slow down (assuming frame rate?) when it was carnage on screen. It looked stunning (I don't even know why I took these photos ha! I was just happy with how it looked). Even my cat was impressed:-







So the situation is, that my gf has requested that she can have more use of the lounge TV instead of always being banished to the bedroom to watch netflix etc, and I figured I could use this opportunity to reignite my love for gaming on PC. So I'm currently looking to get a small collection of games to play, I've got BF4 downloading, Project Cars installed, all the valve games on steam, Quake Live (brings back memories), and I'm hoping to add another couple in. I also need to get one of my xbox pads working on it.

Anyway, thought I'd throw in my experiences.

Next moves will be:-
-Better cooling
-i6600k i5 skylake CPU
-M2 SSD
-Better monitor

Happy gaming people!

[Guvernator]

I was pretty much in the same boat, an old school PC gamer but then consoles became so easy and polished, especially at the online stuff which is where I was spending a lot of my time that it was a no brainer and I switched to consoles for years. Being able to very easily switch on and play without messing around with drivers, specs, upgrades and partying up\talking to your mates very easily and all from the comfort of your couch is something that the PC gaming experience still can't match.

HOWEVER the PC has pulled ahead in terms of processing power quite considerably over the last few years again and I've got a little tired of playing FPS or action games and on consoles, there really isn't much else. In comparison the PC has a wonderful and eclectic selection of games that you'll never see on a console so the solution of course is to have both and use one or the other as the mood takes you.

I was playing Dawn of War 2 RTS on the PC, a few nights ago, a game that you'd never get on a console, fighting my way through the brilliant offline campaign and then last night I was blasting people to smithereens online on the PS4, playing the new car combat game Hardware Rivals which is free on PSN this month.

[Jinx]

garylythgoe said:

-BitFenix Phenom MATX Case
-EVGA 650w Bronze PSU
-Gigabyte Z170 MATX Gaming spec motherboard
-Intel i5 6400 Skylake CPU
-16GB Corsair Vengeance 2666mhz DDR4 RAM
-ASUS NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 4GB GPU
-Old Samsung SSD I used in another non gaming machine


Happy gaming people!

Well at least my keyboard is better than yours

[garylythgoe]

I imagine a lot of machines are better.

I actually spent more than I wanted to, overall. But I wanted something that had a bit of life in it, and could be upgraded. I hope the Skylake CPU's are around for a while.

It's hard to not get carried away though, as I'm surrounded by video games all day!

[Jinx]

garylythgoe said:

I imagine a lot of machines are better.

I actually spent more than I wanted to, overall. But I wanted something that had a bit of life in it, and could be upgraded. I hope the Skylake CPU's are around for a while.

It's hard to not get carried away though, as I'm surrounded by video games all day!

Only envy on my part (can't justify upgrading from my 3770 yet as it still works fine for all games). In fact at HD resolutions even my R9 270 works well enough at high to ultra settings. My keyboard is new though (Corsair strafe rgb) hence the comment.

[garylythgoe]

I'm like a magpie for new things...

I've just googled that keyboard and nearly fell off my chair at the price

When I last played PC games, there was no such thing as gaming mice or keyboards... So it's a whole new realm for me. I'll crack on with my MS wireless jobbies til I ascertain that I need to get my wallet out.

....although for some reason I want that keyboard.

[Mannginger]

Mmm Mechanical keyboards are wonderful things (Although not if your missus is sitting next to you!)

I've got the Blackwidow Ultimate Stealth (great name!) and I love it although just googling ti and seems they've now released a 2016 version with UK key layout. I really don't need to replace it but I'm happy they've responded to feedback and sorted that out

[Jinx]

garylythgoe said:

....although for some reason I want that keyboard.

It makes other keyboards feel like the dead flesh spectrum 48k keys of yesteryear. Most of the time I don't bother playing with the lights though - just have it set to glow red matching the red glow from my xps8500 (black and white with a glow from the soundblaster z internal card) and my mouse (reddragon lite). Might and try and make it "breathe" in time with my mouse....

[Squirrelofwoe]

garylythgoe said:

....although for some reason I want that keyboard.

I think it's the same one my mate has, last time I was round there it was cycling between all kinds of different colour patterns, including one setup to resemble the Matrix style scrolling green look.

I was caught between conflicting thoughts of;

'what the actual, who in their right mind has time & money to justify on a keyboard with programmable lights'

and,

'that is possibly the coolest thing I've ever seen, I want one immediately'

[Guvernator]

garylythgoe said:

I'm like a magpie for new things...

I've just googled that keyboard and nearly fell off my chair at the price

When I last played PC games, there was no such thing as gaming mice or keyboards... So it's a whole new realm for me. I'll crack on with my MS wireless jobbies til I ascertain that I need to get my wallet out.

....although for some reason I want that keyboard.

I was sort of the same, I knew "gaming" peripherals existed but never saw the point. My thinking being it's a lump of plastic that you hit or move around, how much better can one which costs 3 times the price be? That is until I bought a gaming mouse a couple of months ago and I have to say it's a revelation. So far I've resisted buying a gaming keyboard too but I reckon it's only a matter of time. Either that or it will be a steam controller or some such.

[garylythgoe]

I saw this the other day, super cheap in the sale...

http://www.dabs.com/products/corsair-raptor-lm3-ga...

Not sure if it's just junk though?

I don't know how much these things should cost really.

[Jinx]

my mouse
The DPI selector buttons on the top really help when switching into a vehicle in BF4 and for aiming down a sniper scope. Yes I should spend a bit more and will when this one breaks.

Edited by Jinx on Friday 8th January 12:04

[Squirrelofwoe]

Jinx said:

my mouse
The DPI selector buttons on the top really help when switching into a vehicle in BF4 and for aiming down a sniper scope. Yes I should spend a bit more and will when this one breaks.

Edited by Jinx on Friday 8th January 12:04

The DPI selector is extremely useful for that. I got a Logitech G502 Proteus mouse reduced to £25 in a PC World sale alongside a second hand Logitech G510 keyboard for £40. Couldn't be happier with them, I'd always disregarded 'gaming' mouse & keyboards but having now got these I couldn't go back.

In particular I really like the screen on the G510 and the fact that it has a stack of extra keys that can be bound to anything- with a different profile saved to each game. Being able to change the screen & key back-light colours also lets me have all the mouse & keyboard lights the same colour as whatever I set my LED light strips to that I have behind my monitor

I'd have never paid full price for them but at £65 for the pair it's been well worth it.

[Eddh]

Mechanical keyboards are a joy but bloody loud, coming into work and using a 'normal' one feels awful vs using my proper mechanical one at home.

[Funk]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Did you have issues with the Corsair Link software? I built my machine into a new case with an H100i and the crappy Corsair software wouldn't work. Kept finding new hardware every 3 seconds and wanting to reboot over and over.

The new case was noisy too so rebuilt it all back into the old case which was much quieter.

Unimpressed by Corsair to be honest.

[Funk]

I must've done something very wrong then as the H100i did nothing tov ramp up the cooling when I ran Cinebench. I bottled it when temps headed towards 90 and pulled the plug! Back with the old air cooled heatsink and fan the CPU refuses to go above 60ish even when all 8 cores running at 100%. I thought Corsair link was needed to control the cooling?

Either way I'm back to the old setup and I'll probably stick with it for some time to come as it suits my needs.

Edited by Funk on Friday 29th January 10:19

[Funk]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Yep, breakout cable (splitter) to run the pair of fans. I had the USB plugged into one of the board headers (I even tried different headers).

My pursuit was actually to make it quieter (two larger fans running slower than the one small one on the Coolermaster) and the Corsair should've ramped them up as temps increased (the Coolermaster does, so it's not an issue with the CPU_FAN on the board).

Like I say, I faffed about for ages trying to sort it and went back to the old setup in the end which is quieter overall. The old case has a 200mm front and top, a 230mm on the side and a 140 on the back. They spin quite slowly but shift a decent amount of air. There's also a manual control for the case fans which 'just works'.

This is the case I'm running:



http://www.thermaltake.com/products-model.aspx?id=...

I can turn the LEDs off as well which is how I run it most of the time.

[wolves_wanderer]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I have a Coolermaster Nepton 140 which I have been very happy with. Admittedly I replaced the fans as I have never heard such a noisy object when it was spun up to full blast!

I've just built an HTPC out of some spare bits that I had hanging round, it has a twin tuner card for Freesat (I cancelled Sky recently) and it does all the Kodi streaming and network storage duties as well. The processor is a 4170T which only consumes 35w and barely needs to get up to speed for anything that I use it for and although it only has the stock intel cooler it is inaudible unless I have my ear pretty much flat against it. The case is also big enough to take a decent graphics card if I wanted to replace my Xbox with it.

[pimpchez]

It has been sometime since i posted here.

At the weekend i decided to swap my case for a new one which has superior ventilation .I opted for betfinix again , but i have gone for the prodigy with a mesh face aswel as ventilated GPU side panel.

With my previous case , i as it was totally sealed i was getting GPU temps of 94*+ along with high 60*s CPU temps.

Luckily for me my mate purchased a evo cooler that doesn't fit in his corsair 380t case , so he gave it me.





In gaming with a 50% fan speed with GTA or Asseto Corsa (Heaviest games i have) both running @4k my max temps are CPU 45* GPU 82* which is a lot safer.

New Spec is

Asrock H81 itx m.board
i5 6600 non k cpu
8gb kingston ddr 4 2133mhz
Corsair 212 hyper cpu cooler
120gb sandisk ssd
1tb seagate hdd
Asus R390 radiator GPU
550w corsair gold semi modular psu
Betfinix prodigy case

I also ran the new VR benchtest and got the following.

[pimpchez]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Fits in with about 3mm to spare , i believe its 160mm.