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

[The Nur]

Ok, noob alert before we start.

Been out of the PC game for a long time now and I want to get back in to it. Blame Player Unknown's Battlegrounds.

Looking for a decent system, doesn't need to be massive spec, not looking to spend much over £1000. Just want to be able to play battlegrounds at a decent resolution/framerate and regain access to my steam library for older games but I haven't the first idea of where to start/ where to look having been out of the fold for so long.

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.

Cheers

ETA: Looking at some of the chillblast stuff and the link below takes my fancy. Would this be a sound purchase?

https://www.chillblast.com/chillblast-fusion-gtx-1...

Edited by The Nur on Saturday 10th June 11:46

[The Nur]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I picked up one of these in preperation for the pc purchase. I know it's not up there with the best but it will do for now.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B014RKZ81O/ref=pe_3187...

[The Nur]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Cheers. I know it's not ideal but I'm happy to upgrade components in a year or so when I'm back in to it and comfortable again. This system is just to get me off the ground really.

I'm not really comfortable with self build at the moment and the thought of a warranty to cover the period before i start fiddling is quite attractive.

[130R]

The Nur said:

I'm not really comfortable with self build at the moment and the thought of a warranty to cover the period before i start fiddling is quite attractive.

What you could do is get someone else to build it but then upgrade it yourself going forward. There's a good video here (it's for Ryzen but Intel is basically the same) showing how to build a PC that would be worth watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHAelSOF6f0 I've never checked everything works outside the case like he does in the video but it's not a bad idea if you have time when building from scratch (if you're upgrading you'll know everything else works anyway).

[The Nur]

130R said:

hat you could do is get someone else to build it but then upgrade it yourself going forward. There's a good video here (it's for Ryzen but Intel is basically the same) showing how to build a PC that would be worth watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHAelSOF6f0 I've never checked everything works outside the case like he does in the video but it's not a bad idea if you have time when building from scratch (if you're upgrading you'll know everything else works anyway).

Thanks. That is pretty much my intention to be honest but the attraction to a pre-built for me is that for the time being I can just get straight in to it, get it delivered, have it covered by a warranty for a while until I start upgrading and then have a good base to work on when I get bored.

I went on a spending spree yesterday and bought a desk, monitor, chair, keyboard (already have a Razer mouse) and a headset so I'm good to go. The way I see it when I'm ready to get a bit more serious I can throw a few hundred at an upgraded graphics card/ monitor and the chillblast system will be fine for a while until I get power hungry and want to upgrade the processor.

I've been considering this for probably about 2 years now. Originally my intention was to periodically buy components to eventually assemble in to a full system but my 30th is rapidly approaching and in the last week I just thought fk it

[The Nur]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Thanks but after giving it some thought I bought the chillblast system. I realise that to an extent it is a compromise of convenience over performance but for my intentions I think it's the right decision. It's a good solid base I can improve on as/when I'd like to and running on ultra isn't a priority for me at the moment. I just want to get back in to playing for now.

Thanks for the input though, I'll probably be back in here for upgrade advice when the time comes

Cheers

[Mattygooner]

A quick question, my 980TI Super Clocked all singing and all dancing gcard went pop not long back, EVGA have been great with the RMA as it was only a year and a half in and not massively stressed. Sent the card off last week and have just received the RMA card, its not a 980TI but their FTW 1070. It has 2GB more ram and looks pretty evenly matched, but should I really have received a SC 980ti back?

Is it their mistake or should I be mildly miffed?

was kind of hoping it would be a 1080ti

This is the car I have I think, it wasn't in a proper box.

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/evga-geforce-gtx-1...

[Zod]

Be happy with the 1070 - it's an upgrade!

[Guvernator]

Mattygooner said:

A quick question, my 980TI Super Clocked all singing and all dancing gcard went pop not long back, EVGA have been great with the RMA as it was only a year and a half in and not massively stressed. Sent the card off last week and have just received the RMA card, its not a 980TI but their FTW 1070. It has 2GB more ram and looks pretty evenly matched, but should I really have received a SC 980ti back?

Is it their mistake or should I be mildly miffed?

was kind of hoping it would be a 1080ti

This is the car I have I think, it wasn't in a proper box.

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/evga-geforce-gtx-1...

They might not have any more 980ti's in stock. Tbh a 1070 is a decent substitute although I'd have been happier with a 1080. Don't think you could realistically expect a 1080ti though, they are twice the price of a 980ti aren't they?

[MockingJay]

I bought myself an ASUS Strix last week with a GTX 1060 6GB inside - however I've noticed it's running quite hot under load (80-88 degrees) - should I be concerned?

I've never had a gaming laptop before.

[Mattygooner]

Zod said:

Be happy with the 1070 - it's an upgrade!

Hmm, it is and it isn't really, in gaming the 980ti still out performs it, it has 2 extra GB of RAM, but I have 32gb of RAM anyway, it is better on power but I have 1050 platinum which isn't being remotely used and it came in a pretty stty non official box with no cables making resale a pain in the arse.

The RMA process up to that point had been really good.

[Zod]

Mattygooner said:

Zod said:

Be happy with the 1070 - it's an upgrade!

Hmm, it is and it isn't really, in gaming the 980ti still out performs it, it has 2 extra GB of RAM, but I have 32gb of RAM anyway, it is better on power but I have 1050 platinum which isn't being remotely used and it came in a pretty stty non official box with no cables making resale a pain in the arse.

The RMA process up to that point had been really good.

System RAM and GPU RAM are not substitutes for one another! The extra RAM on the card allows a bigger frame buffer and bigger textures without slowdown. The benchmarks I've seen show the 1070 outperforming the 980Ti.

[Jinx]

MockingJay said:

I bought myself an ASUS Strix last week with a GTX 1060 6GB inside - however I've noticed it's running quite hot under load (80-88 degrees) - should I be concerned?

I've never had a gaming laptop before.

Sounds about right in this weather - make sure you have as much clearance around the bottom and sides as you can. If you think that's hot my first gaming laptop (AMD 64 3000 with ATi 9600 128 MB gpu) used to sit at the low nighties when gaming.......

[Mannginger]

I just updated my rig because a fool and his money...

Now running:

I7-7700k at 4.8Ghz with a very loud closed-circuit Liquid cooling system (FrostFlow 240mm)
Asus ROG Strix Z270H Motherboard
32GB DDR4 Ram (3000 Mhz)
Along with my "old" 980ti

It's pretty punchy now to be fair but does run a lot warmer than my old set-up with temps peaking into the high 70s, low 80s which alarmed me a bit but it ran ME4 on Ultra at an average of 70FPS and was stable around 60-70 degrees so I think it's fine, just the damn fans that are pretty loud but I'll soon get used to them no doubt

[HRL]

Currently flogging my RX480 on eBay as they're going for more than I paid for it at the moment, even after nearly 12 months.

Then I'm either going to pre-order an RX Vega or wait for a 1080Ti to drop in price post Vega launch next month.

Didn't have a 4K TV when I bought the 480, now that I do I need something with a bit more grunt.

[Guvernator]

HRL said:

Currently flogging my RX480 on eBay as they're going for more than I paid for it at the moment, even after nearly 12 months.

Probably because they are all being used for bitcoin mining!

[Art0ir]

The Ethereum boom has seriously distorted the GPU market at the minute, definitely not the time to be buying.

[Rick101]

Just ordered my new PC but made a saving on the GFX card. Figured it was a easy thing to swap out when 2nd hand 1080's come up.

Numerous people say So much cheaper to build your own, but I don't really see it. I don't have the skill or patience for a build nor the time to watch youtube videos. When you are experienced, these things seem easy, much like the many car repair videos available, doing it to your own is somewhat different.

Anyway, went for this £1273 inc warranty
Tried pricing similar on partpicker and it came in around the same price.


Phanteks Enthoo Pro M Acrylic Black Case
ASUS ROG STRIX Z270F GAMING Intel Socket 1151
Intel Core i7 7700 3.6GHz Quad Core (Socket 1151)
16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 2666MHz DDR4
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 Windforce 6GB Card
SK Hynix SL308 120GB 2.5" SATA III SSD
Seagate BarraCuda 2TB SATA III 3.5" Hard Drive
CCL Choice DVD Writer Optical Drive
XFX XT600 600W 80+ Bronze PSU
Cooler Master Seidon 120V V3 Plus Liquid CPU Computer Cooler Kit
Edimax EW-7612PIn V2 OEM 300Mbps PCI Express WiFi
StarTech.com 4 Port PCI Express PCIe SuperSpeed USB 3.0
3 Year Collect & Return warranty
Microsoft Windows 10 Home - 64-Bit DVD (OEM)

[born2bslow]

It can be cheaper if you shop around and buy parts from different places. I've specced my upgrade and managed to reduce the overall cost by £200 by shopping around. All the parts are on my wish lists on 3/4 sites...I've now decided to hang on until Black Friday though.

I think overclockers only charge £60 to assemble a PC from selected components now. They overclockers it for £30.

That's not a bad spec you got, i7 7700 is the cpu I want. You just need an oculus Rift and a wheel now, then you can go testing every weekend on a huge number of circuits

[Rick101]

Nah, get one bought.

Added £400 to my £1200 PC cost yesterday morning
Just glad I didn't order it last week when I did the main order, then I would have been mad!

£400 for the full set up is a good price. I can't see a new Rift for a couple of years yet and even with prices coming down it's going to be at least £500. The old ones will sell for £200-300 I reckon.