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http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/90348/buying-or-building-a-gaming-pc/p1
I ended up with i5 8gb RAM and a 1050ti from Dino PC, tweaked one of their builds and got a better spec for less than the standard one
Well, the last time I built a PC was over 10 years ago- a K7 Athalon.
I know how computers work, in terms of the components required and how they are pieced together but O don't know anything about what is current- I've only really been using Macs.
I want to build a dedicated gaming box.
Want it to be high-ish performance but I don't want to spend more than a grand.
It doesn't need to have anything other than games installed on it- I won't be using it for general computing type duties.
Would rather it be quiet and take up less space than more.
Only want solid state drives (maybe just one).
Do people still put DVD drives in computers, or has that disappeared?
I play a mixture of FPS and strategy type games on Xbox and PS4.
Is it better to buy a bare bones system and add in the other components, or construct something from the ground up?
I assume buying a complete system is still not desirable- it never used to be.
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Football is rubbish.
Checks the parts work together, and finds the cheapest places to buy them.
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That's got quite a bit more grunt than mine - upgraded graphics (unsure how stable that is tbh), everything else is pretty top end.
There are several others on ebay, for less money too, with still-good (ie same or better than my own) specs. But obviously second hand... Buyer beware etc. I also don't know whether the Dell customer care transfers, but mine certainly did so...
It is a crap looking thing. I hate the alien head on it... Bleurgh.
It's also less upgradeable than a build-your-own option, but I don't see that a 16gb ram, Pci-e ssd and i5/i7 would need upgrading. The graphics card can be switched for a newer one that consumes less energy anyway, so that's kinda neat.
In your situation... I think I'd probably lean towards a home build or custom build. It would cost more for the same spec but probably be easier to upgrade and have a more standard case that can be used in the future. But I'm not an expert at all - this is based off advice I'd received when I was shopping (£1k budget, got this as it saved me a few hundred quid and let me get a wide colour gamut monitor).
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/nvidia-pascal-graphics-drivers-released-buyers-guide-updated.219153/
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/nvidia-releases-alternate-graphics-drivers-for-macos-sierra-10-12-4-378-05-05-05.218005/
I've also found some refurb Alienware Alphas (M470X, 8Gb of RAM, 1Tb drive and an i5) for about the price these things ought to be. They look decent propositions.
It's also not 100% right with compatibility issues - motherboard with 8 SATA ports, throw on an M.2 drive and a spinning HDD and it throws up the error that the parts are incompatible because the M.2 uses up a SATA port... it might (in SATA mode) but that leaves 7 more ports...
Generally speaking though it's a quite good way of building a PC and helpful to stop you forgetting a CPU cooler, or power supply - just once you're sure you have what you want to get, double check and then price check each part prior to ordering
I am quite taken with the Alienware Alpha idea though. They're tiny, sensibly powerful, somewhat upgradeable and run Windows. And the factory refurbs go from about £350 up to about £550 - the top end ones being able to run Fallout 4 at Ultra settings and full HD. Which is probably as demanding as my requirements will get; in practice it's probably more Fez, Stardew Valley, Rogue Legacy sort of stuff as we've got an XBone and a PS4 too.
There've been a few reports that the boot time isn't great, in which case I can add an m2 drive for the OS, and it seems to have a single 8Gb stick of RAM, but that's also up gradable if necessary. I suspect it'll be fine as-is.
The seller has another so has offered either a full refund or a swapsie; the hardware itself is very nice so I've opted for the swapsie. Bit of a shame but no disaster.
Let's hope the workshop PC (also arriving today) fares better!
Ouch, that's not good.
Hopefully Mark ii will fare better! Mine has very, very rarely crashed and its used fairly heavily - long run times, doom is a heavy game, lots of photoshop and Lightroom, with and without plugins.
Make sure you register with Dell - you'll get a bios update probably, as well as drivers etc and alienware computers get dell's premium service thing, which is ace.
The workshop PC is up and running. Slight faff with the motherboard needing drivers for USB straight off and no CD drive, but there's a tool to sideload the drivers on a USB installation stick.