£600-£800 Portable Gaming PC

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

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.



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?

It depends on the game TBH - but 9/10 the card is more important. I would probably go with a Core i3 6100 at the minimuml,and then upgrade as required although going with a Core i5 first does mean less hassle taking the rig apart.

There is also AMD Polaris which should be out in June or July which might be a better fit,as the cards should have much better performance/watt and you could use the IGP for the time-being.

[EndlessWaves]

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.

The main purpose of going for Micro ATX is that it's more capable for the same price, offering two more memory slots so you can add rather than replace and two more expansion slots should you ever want to add a PCI-Express SSD or similar.

Mini-ITX costs more and offers less so if size wasn't a priority (you'd said you were considering a 380T build) then I'd go for Micro ATX.

A small Mini-ITX case like the SG05/SG06 or SG13 is definitely capable of taking a mid-range gaming system. If you want small then there are other options around that size such as Lian-li's PC-Q04.

[jigger]

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/mr8WnQ

[Fahad78]

Not bothered to go through the entire thread, but what will you be playing games at?

[Varmint]

Thanks everyone for all your advice so far. I'm starting to think that perhaps a small PC may not be worth it, and lugging around even a small computer will prove difficult. If I wish to make a normal-sized PC, I can stay with approximately the same build but just switch for a different motherboard and graphics card, right? Or can I put in more heavy duty components now because I would be less worried about overheating?

[watercooled]

Even without size constraints there's often little reason to go with ATX over micro-ATX unless you need the extra PCIe ports for example. Smaller boards tend to be more energy efficient to boot, but may have less beefy VRMs if you plan on overclocking (for which you'd need a k CPU and Z chipset anyway).

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Thanks everyone for all your advice so far. I'm starting to think that perhaps a small PC may not be worth it, and lugging around even a small computer will prove difficult. If I wish to make a normal-sized PC, I can stay with approximately the same build but just switch for a different motherboard and graphics card, right? Or can I put in more heavy duty components now because I would be less worried about overheating?

I made the switch to SFF Shuttle and mini-ITX rigs over a decade a go and not missed having an mATX or ATX rig.

Also transporting the rigs via train or even by car has been far more easier too.

[wazzickle]

You can make a half-decent portable gaming rig with your budget for sure. Given the range of cases and motherboards and even low-profile and single-slot GPUs available these days, the only reasons to go for a large case are having the equipment in the first hand, knowing you'll never need to move it, or wanting to spend more money on a high-powered, overclocking system. Just spend a while googling cases, putting different search terms in there, reading reviews, reading forums, speaking to anyone you know who has an opinion, and I'm sure you'll find the right setup. PCPartpicker has loads of builds that you can use for inspiration.

[wazzickle]

Here you go http://pcpartpicker.com/part/lian-li-case-pctu100a

[EndlessWaves]

Or can I put in more heavy duty components now because I would be less worried about overheating?

Overheating isn't going to be a factor in that budget. The primary trade-off in that area for a smaller case is that the fans on the card may have to spin a little faster and make a bit more noise.

Put it this way, almost all gaming cards require dual expansion slots and they're the only expansion card that does. Any mini-ITX case offering those two required expansion slots is explicitly designed with gaming cards in mind. It might struggle if you wanted to put a top of the range dual-GPU card in there like a 295X2 but anything mainstream will be perfectly fine.

[Pob255]

I'm just going to throw a few things in to make it more confusing

here's another nice itx case http://www.ebuyer.com/696381-element...er-case-atomic

in smaller itx gaming cases (ie one that can take a large graphics card) an SFX psu is a good idea as they are that bit smaller the one wizzickle suggested is a solid option (Silverstone Strider Gold 450W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular SFX Power Supply)
on the other hand a fully modular psu is also good, esp if you can get short cable kits or feel up to doing your own cables.

temperatures shouldn't be too big an issue unless you're looking at overclocking or higher end graphics cards.

As to how powerful a graphics card you'll want, that's actually very dependent on you, what sort of graphic settings you want to run a game at and what sort of frame rate you can game at.
Some people will happily game at 30fps for some 60fps is the bare minimum, that's actually the big thing about freesync/gsync monitors, they can run far higher refresh rates than most monitors.

[TechZilla]

Do a ssd + hdd combo. that way you can have the best of both worlds. Also there is an offer right now on amazon for a 4gb gtx960 so that could be a good way to go