Building a custom pc for steam

[Vyse]

Would it be worth building a pc for playing steam games on? I'd like to have a setup like this: A pc hooked up to my living room TV and playing games on it via a XBOX or PS controller.

The reason I would like to do this is because steam games are much cheaper than the other formats but on the other hand building the pc will likely cost more than the price of a console and a few games.

Any of you guys done something similar?

[chris watton]

Yes, I have done this, and it has been great for the past couple of years. it is built around a Silverstone Grandia GD06B HTPC case, and has plenty of graphic and processing power, using an Intel Core i5 2500K and mid-range NVidia GPU. At the time, I bought 3x2TB HDD's to fit into the case, but as I also ended up backing up my entire music and vid collection, I now have an 8 bay external caddy (USB 3) with 8x4TB HDD's! It is hooked up to our 7.1 channel AV Amp, so the sound is great, too.

I would think that more powerful components can be used now.

Even now, for games on Steam, it is great (have over 200 games on Steam)! I use the Bluetooth keyboard and mouse or the X-Box controller. So, it's used for movies, music, online TV (Amazon) and gaming. Not cheap, but as a proper all in one entertainment system, it's great. We have found that we use it a lot more now than Sky.

[strudel]

I'd consider this for the tv aspect:

http://store.steampowered.com/universe/link (out nov)

Then you can keep a pc in an office somewhere for when someone else wants the tv.

As for spec - it entirely depends on what you want to play. Steam has such a wide variety of games, that you might need anything from a grand+ pc down to a ten year old laptop...

What are you playing?

[MissChief]

As above. Steam varies from the latest blockbuster games that need something powerful to play to Indie gems that will happily run on an integrated GPU on a laptop. What are you looking to do?

[Vyse]

Its just me so the TV is all mine.

I play most games but the majority being power hungry games I guess. My budget would probably be about £800 for the components. My last PC was built by me 10 years ago so I've been out of the game (no pun intended) a long time. Will I be able to build a decent rig with my budget?

Obviously the main advantage of a pc over a console is the better graphics this comes at a price but a plus side is that the games are cheaper.

[MissChief]

If you're going to use the TV exclusively as the display then £800 is easily within budget, yes.

[GrumpyTwig]

Just had a brief look for some builds, not one I put together myself but looks pretty decent to give you an idea.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/VMT4Lk

Personally this is nrealy how I use my PC, though I use mouse and keyboard as well for some games along with controller for driving games like Assetto Corsa etc.

[MissChief]

That will do the job nicely. Need to budget for OS though.

[mp3manager]

MissChief said:

That will do the job nicely. Need to budget for OS though.

Not really.

http://store.steampowered.com/steamos

[rsv gone!]

strudel said:

I'd consider this for the tv aspect:

http://store.steampowered.com/universe/link (out nov)

I have a box of components ready for my 'steam box' - which has been gathering dust for the last year or two!

This little unit does look interesting, though. For £40 it looks worth a punt. I'll wait to see firstly, if it appears(!) and secondly, what performance is like.

[GrumpyTwig]

mp3manager said:

MissChief said:

That will do the job nicely. Need to budget for OS though.

Not really.

http://store.steampowered.com/steamos

Too limiting though, linux based OS so anything that relies on DirectX you're up the swanny.

[Vyse]

Can the majority of steam games be mapped to be used with a pad? I probably will have a keyboard and mouse for FPS but for other games a pad would be nice.

[GrumpyTwig]

Vyse said:

Can the majority of steam games be mapped to be used with a pad? I probably will have a keyboard and mouse for FPS but for other games a pad would be nice.

The vast majority of big titles are cross platform with consoles so will work with an xbox controller off the bat. It's rare to come across a game you can't remap keys in to use a controller these days too.

Steam games that have good controller support will say so on their store page too.

[rsv gone!]

Vyse said:

Can the majority of steam games be mapped to be used with a pad? I probably will have a keyboard and mouse for FPS but for other games a pad would be nice.

Most of the big titles like Batman, Witcher, Assassins' Creed etc support the xbox 360 controllers out of the box.