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Thread: £600-£800 Portable Gaming PC

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    £600-£800 Portable Gaming PC

    Hi all,

    I'm trying to make a small form factor medium gaming PC for £600-£800. So far I have the following build together, what do you guys think?

    PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

    CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£169.99 @ Amazon UK)
    Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H170N-WIFI Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard (£109.69 @ More Computers)
    Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£31.23 @ CCL Computers)
    Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£31.23 @ CCL Computers)
    Storage: Samsung 950 PRO 256GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£137.99 @ Ebuyer)
    Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 950 2GB Video Card (£114.99 @ Amazon UK)
    Case: Silverstone SG05BB-LITE Mini ITX Desktop Case (£32.44 @ CCL Computers)
    Power Supply: Silverstone 600W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply (£100.13 @ CCL Computers)
    Total: £727.69
    Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
    Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-05-02 21:05 BST+0100

    I pretty much based my build off of this article: http://www.custompcguide.net/build-a...or-april-2016/.

    Specifically I'm interested to know if you think the components selected will be be appropriate for a small PC and whether the build will be strong enough to play new games at medium settings.

    Thanks in advance for all of your help,

    Varmint

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    Senior Member watercooled's Avatar
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    Re: £600-£800 Portable Gaming PC

    Do you have any specific games in mind? The GTX 950 is a fairly entry-level GPU and seems a bit out of balance against the rest of the system if you're planning to play graphics-intensive titles.

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    Re: £600-£800 Portable Gaming PC

    256gb isn't enough storage, unless you're going to be very agressive with what you have installed. & honestly, for games, you're going to be better with an 1150 processor, DDR3 and a better GPU.

    I'd also be waiting at least till the end of next week, since its rumoured 10XX is being announced. If they're quick to market you might grab a bargain.

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    Re: £600-£800 Portable Gaming PC

    Quote Originally Posted by Varmint View Post
    Specifically I'm interested to know if you think the components selected will be be appropriate for a small PC and whether the build will be strong enough to play new games at medium settings.
    That depends on the resolution of the screen(s) you'll be connecting it to, but given the portable criteria I'm guessing it's a single screen of lower resolution, 1600x900 or 1920x1080. A GTX 950 level card is fine for that, even the next model down a 360/750ti would be sufficient.

    Monitor choice also has a big impact on graphics card choice as AMD are offering the best support for variable refresh rates, so a 360 or 380 is a better choice than any nVidia card if you're likely to buy a new monitor within the life of the build.

    You are wasting a lot of money on the SSD there. For gaming and most other non-specialist use you're not going to see any difference between hardware so you want to be looking at £50 for a 240GB SSD or £90-100 for a 480GB model.

    Ditto the power supply. With a non-overclocking CPU and a mid-range graphics card you don't need more than 300W, maybe 350-400W if you opt for a 380/380X.

    The motherboard seems a touch expensive but Mini-ITX does tend to be. Have you had a look at the Micro ATX cases in Silverstone's range? They're not that much bigger and something like the SG12 comes with a built in carrying handle.

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    Re: £600-£800 Portable Gaming PC

    If you could do away with the M.2 SSD you could get a H110 mITX board for about half the price anyway.

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    Re: £600-£800 Portable Gaming PC

    For gaming you should use a small (~64, 80 or 120) SSD for your OS and a regular HDD for games.

    You can find cheaper, adequate ITX motherboards.

    PSU is overkill.

    Now is a bad time to buy GPUs, the longer you can hold off the better, if nothing else for the sake of better value on that quality. How much quality you want/need depends on what games and resolutions/quality settings you want to play and obviously how much money you want to spend, but you'll often be better off spending more after saving money on your other components.

    Case looks like it has good airflow but I'd consider getting an aftermarket cooler as well, even if you're not planning to overclock.

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    • wazzickle's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Asus H470M-itx
      • CPU:
      • i5 10500
      • Memory:
      • 16Gb DDR4 HyperX Fury
      • Storage:
      • Barracuda 510 1TB M.2, WD Blue 2TB
      • Graphics card(s):
      • Zotac 3070 Twin Edge
      • PSU:
      • Corsair SFX 600
      • Case:
      • Ghost S1 V2
      • Operating System:
      • W10
      • Monitor(s):
      • LG IPS 27" 144Hz QHD
      • Internet:
      • three4g & nighthawk MR1100

    Re: £600-£800 Portable Gaming PC

    Rough and ready build for you:

    PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

    CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£169.99 @ Amazon UK)
    Motherboard: MSI B150I GAMING PRO AC Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard (£79.62 @ Amazon UK)
    Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£31.23 @ CCL Computers)
    Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£31.23 @ CCL Computers)
    Storage: Samsung 850 EVO 120GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£55.59 @ Amazon UK)
    Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.95 @ Amazon UK)
    Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 380X 4GB DD BLACK EDITION OC Video Card (£184.99 @ Novatech)
    Case: Silverstone SG05BB-LITE Mini ITX Desktop Case (£32.44 @ CCL Computers)
    Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Gold 450W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply (£79.97 @ CCL Computers)
    Total: £705.01
    Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
    Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-05-02 22:16 BST+0100

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    Moosing about! CAT-THE-FIFTH's Avatar
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    Re: £600-£800 Portable Gaming PC

    Ebuyer has some interesting mini-ITX cases you might want to consider OP:

    http://www.ebuyer.com/696436-raidmax...e-element101bu
    http://www.ebuyer.com/696434-raidmax...n-element101bg
    http://www.ebuyer.com/663201-zalman-...case-zalman-m1

    I would also be looking at what Pascal and Polaris is bringing to the table. They are both expected to be released next month.

    But even with your build,OP it would be quite easy to make it cheaper and probably better in some ways:

    http://i.imgur.com/dCfPFdH.png



    It is only a quick build list from Scan and the GTX950 is bus powered too.

    It want better performance an R9 380X should do the trick.

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    • wazzickle's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Asus H470M-itx
      • CPU:
      • i5 10500
      • Memory:
      • 16Gb DDR4 HyperX Fury
      • Storage:
      • Barracuda 510 1TB M.2, WD Blue 2TB
      • Graphics card(s):
      • Zotac 3070 Twin Edge
      • PSU:
      • Corsair SFX 600
      • Case:
      • Ghost S1 V2
      • Operating System:
      • W10
      • Monitor(s):
      • LG IPS 27" 144Hz QHD
      • Internet:
      • three4g & nighthawk MR1100

    Re: £600-£800 Portable Gaming PC

    Yeah for the sakes of it being portable I think you need to spend a good amount of time going through your case options and probably up your budget.

    This looks badass:

    https://www.scan.co.uk/products/cors...itx-case-black

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    • wazzickle's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Asus H470M-itx
      • CPU:
      • i5 10500
      • Memory:
      • 16Gb DDR4 HyperX Fury
      • Storage:
      • Barracuda 510 1TB M.2, WD Blue 2TB
      • Graphics card(s):
      • Zotac 3070 Twin Edge
      • PSU:
      • Corsair SFX 600
      • Case:
      • Ghost S1 V2
      • Operating System:
      • W10
      • Monitor(s):
      • LG IPS 27" 144Hz QHD
      • Internet:
      • three4g & nighthawk MR1100

    Re: £600-£800 Portable Gaming PC

    Oh and 16GB RAM is also wasted on your above system, 8GB will be fine

    PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

    CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£169.99 @ Amazon UK)
    CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9i 57.5 CFM CPU Cooler (£31.98 @ Ebuyer)
    Motherboard: MSI B150I GAMING PRO AC Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard (£79.62 @ Amazon UK)
    Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£32.99 @ Novatech)
    Storage: Samsung 850 EVO 120GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£55.59 @ Amazon UK)
    Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£39.95 @ Amazon UK)
    Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 380X 4GB DD BLACK EDITION OC Video Card (£184.99 @ Novatech)
    Case: Corsair 380T Mini ITX Tower Case (£80.04 @ Amazon UK)
    Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Gold 450W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply (£79.97 @ CCL Computers)
    Total: £755.12
    Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
    Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-05-02 23:12 BST+0100

    FYI Scan do the case for a fiver less.

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    Re: £600-£800 Portable Gaming PC

    Quote Originally Posted by wazzickle
    Oh and 16GB RAM is also wasted on your above system, 8GB will be fine
    Thanks for your post Wazzickle. Is there any reason you think the case should be changed? I ask because the one I suggested is smaller and cheaper, but I understand there may be issues with it regarding heat or space. I really like the look of this build, other than that.

    In general, what sort of case should I be looking for? I feel like there is some criterion that I am missing.

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    Re: £600-£800 Portable Gaming PC

    Quote Originally Posted by EndlessWaves View Post
    That depends on the resolution of the screen(s) you'll be connecting it to, but given the portable criteria I'm guessing it's a single screen of lower resolution, 1600x900 or 1920x1080. A GTX 950 level card is fine for that, even the next model down a 360/750ti would be sufficient.

    Monitor choice also has a big impact on graphics card choice as AMD are offering the best support for variable refresh rates, so a 360 or 380 is a better choice than any nVidia card if you're likely to buy a new monitor within the life of the build.

    You are wasting a lot of money on the SSD there. For gaming and most other non-specialist use you're not going to see any difference between hardware so you want to be looking at £50 for a 240GB SSD or £90-100 for a 480GB model.

    Ditto the power supply. With a non-overclocking CPU and a mid-range graphics card you don't need more than 300W, maybe 350-400W if you opt for a 380/380X.

    The motherboard seems a touch expensive but Mini-ITX does tend to be. Have you had a look at the Micro ATX cases in Silverstone's range? They're not that much bigger and something like the SG12 comes with a built in carrying handle.
    Thanks EndlessWaves. I plan to connect my PC to a 1080p screen, not sure what the refresh rate is because unfortunately I don't have access to it right now. I agree that the graphics card may not be strong enough, so I am now leaning towards this kind of build: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/hTKfsY (from wazzickle)

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    Re: £600-£800 Portable Gaming PC

    Quote Originally Posted by watercooled View Post
    Do you have any specific games in mind? The GTX 950 is a fairly entry-level GPU and seems a bit out of balance against the rest of the system if you're planning to play graphics-intensive titles.
    I was thinking about GTA V and Fallout 4. A lot of people have been commenting on the graphics card so I may improve it to an R9 380X, as suggested by CAT-THE-FIFTH.

    Quote Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH View Post

    It want better performance an R9 380X should do the trick.
    Thanks CAT-THE-FIFTH. Do you think that, if I were to improve one component of the build you suggested, the graphics card would be the most crucial? And then the processor?

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    Re: £600-£800 Portable Gaming PC

    Quote Originally Posted by Varmint View Post
    Thanks EndlessWaves. I plan to connect my PC to a 1080p screen, not sure what the refresh rate is because unfortunately I don't have access to it right now. I agree that the graphics card may not be strong enough, so I am now leaning towards this kind of build: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/hTKfsY (from wazzickle)
    Variable refresh rate is a technology that makes the monitor refresh whenever the game produces an image instead of trying to match a fixed refresh rate to a variable frame rate. The effect is to make games run more smoothly without requiring any extra performance.

    nVidia first introduced the technology under the name G-sync, then AMD pushed to get it included in the DisplayPort standard under the name Adaptive Sync/Freesync. Intel have announced they'll be supporting DisplayPort Adaptive Sync but nVidia have so far remained silent on the issue and still only support their own incompatible G-sync version.

    As it doesn't have any drawbacks and is available on monitors from £100 it's well worth considering it if you will be buying a new monitor.

    The Corsair 380T is absolutely massive. Four times the size of the SG05 you were considering, and twice the size of smaller Micro ATX cases.

    I'd go for something along the lines of this:
    http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/2rLh6h

    You can upgrade to the 380X and Noctua NH-L9i if you want* or put a hard drive or bigger SSD in if you need more storage and it'll come to a similar price as the one you're considering, but it offers a more capable motherboard with extra memory and expansion slots and a smaller case.

    *Although XFX cards often aren't the quietest, so I wouldn't bother with a fancy CPU cooler unless you also spend the extra to get the quietest card for your desired GPU. It does put out two or three times the heat of the CPU so it's definitely the priority for cooling in a modern system.

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    Re: £600-£800 Portable Gaming PC

    Quote Originally Posted by EndlessWaves View Post
    Variable refresh rate is a technology that makes the monitor refresh whenever the game produces an image instead of trying to match a fixed refresh rate to a variable frame rate. The effect is to make games run more smoothly without requiring any extra performance.

    nVidia first introduced the technology under the name G-sync, then AMD pushed to get it included in the DisplayPort standard under the name Adaptive Sync/Freesync. Intel have announced they'll be supporting DisplayPort Adaptive Sync but nVidia have so far remained silent on the issue and still only support their own incompatible G-sync version.

    As it doesn't have any drawbacks and is available on monitors from £100 it's well worth considering it if you will be buying a new monitor.

    The Corsair 380T is absolutely massive. Four times the size of the SG05 you were considering, and twice the size of smaller Micro ATX cases.

    I'd go for something along the lines of this:
    http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/2rLh6h

    You can upgrade to the 380X and Noctua NH-L9i if you want* or put a hard drive or bigger SSD in if you need more storage and it'll come to a similar price as the one you're considering, but it offers a more capable motherboard with extra memory and expansion slots and a smaller case.

    *Although XFX cards often aren't the quietest, so I wouldn't bother with a fancy CPU cooler unless you also spend the extra to get the quietest card for your desired GPU. It does put out two or three times the heat of the CPU so it's definitely the priority for cooling in a modern system.
    So the main purpose of using this case and motherboard instead of the mini ITX I suggested is to be able to get better graphics capabilities? Do you think it's possible to get a medium-level gaming PC with the original case I suggested or should I abandon that thought? I'm just wondering because that case still seems to be the smallest.
    Thanks.

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