Hey guys I am in the early stages of planning my next PC. I will give you a bit of background detail so that you can see where I am going with my next PC. As the title suggests I want to build a portable desktop (think LAN party). Let me explain why. I currently commute during the week so live Mon-Thurs away from home at work and then I am home Fri-Sun. I have a Desktop PC (See specs below) set up at home and use my M11x while away from home, I sometimes work away from my normal place of work (on the road if you like), while at my normal place of work I plug in a monitor and keyboard/mouse that stays in place as I have a complete set up at home, when on the road I just use the laptop as a laptop. My uses for the PC are as the title suggests, gaming, I enjoy all types of gaming, but while most games are starting to remember settings server side I want to have one PC I use at home and at work. On the road I will be happy with my M11x, I generally don't have the time for serious gaming while on the road anyway. My current PC will remain as the family PC. In a recent copy of Custom PC Magazine (I forget the issue and I am away at the moment and to answer my first question it would help if you have seen the article I refer to) I read the how to on building a water-cooled gaming micro system, this type of system would be ideal, however I am not sure that water-cooling would be robust enough being constantly moved between the locations and I am not sure I can always be as careful as I should be while transiting it. Assuming that I can't use water-cooling would air-cooling be enough once I crammed all the components inside it? While I have not gone firm on many details for the build I will complete the copy and paste form to help out with other possible details. Budget:1500 (GBP) I am quite flexible at this stage. Main uses of intended build: Gaming (Online). Parts required: Base PC only, the monitor and other peripherals are sorted. Previous build information (list details of parts): See Signature. Monitor resolution: 1920×1080. Storage requirements: Not decided. Will you be overclocking: If possible I will like to, but am already concerned about heat in this build. Any motherboard requirements (no. of USB, Xfire/SLI, fan headers): Not decided. Extra information about desired system: Portable DESKTOP, I am thinking along the lines of LAN party type of machine. I guess the most important factor at this stage would be to get the right case, with enough cooling, while still being portable enough and big enough to house all the components.
Go mini ITX in A Bitfenix Prodigy it's all the rage right now plenty of potential for cooling water or air. You could easily afford a 3570K cooled by an N HD14 or Phanteks cooler with a 670 in with that budget.
Well if you want portable, you wan't low weight. For CPU cooler, I would think closed-loop watercooling (H80 e.t.c) would be best. I wouldn't want a really big heavy air cooler hanging off my motherboard while transporting my PC.
Thanks for the replies I am not sure water cooling is best in my situation, I have been looking at both those cases, I will probably go for the Bitfenix Prodigy. I should be able to keep the PC upright while I transport it about so there should not be too much pressure on the cooler.
November's issue of Custom PC Mag has a good review of a pre made PC from scan, 3XS FT03 Nanu, it is also reviewed Here
I really love this case. Reminds me of the Phinix nano tower. Might put together a media pc in a case like this some day.
Can I throw a curve ball in already? I know you've said you want a PC but for your needs surely a gaming laptop would be the best way to go? I'm thinking Asus G75 or the MSI GT70 0ND. These two meet your requirements and just a bit up on your budget.
You probably don't even need a cpu cooler. A non overclocked i5/i3 will be fine for games - you can always.
I have had gaming laptops in the past but these tend to be quite large and are not ideal for my on the road use so I now use the M11x R3, mine is fully upgraded with the best CPU and GFX and plays games fine even when plugged into an external monitor. But since last Jan when I got the M11x it is already out of date and unlike a desktop it is not cheap and easy to upgrade. I also find it a problem (annoyance really) having to change my game settings between laptop and pc, hence why I just want to replace my laptop and desktop with one portable gaming desktop. I will still use the laptop while on the road and my desktop at home will get upgraded with its focus being move away from gaming. I like to play them with as high settings as I can, but this does bring me to the point I am now stuck at... I think I am set on a pre built system from Scan, it costs about £1500 and comes overclocked and with a 3 year warranty, so to beat that and build it myself I would need to get the componets at a great price. Here are the selected components I have highlighted areas that I am still not 100% with. Case: Silverstone FT03B-Mini USB 3.0 Fortress Tower Mini ITX Black Motherboard - Z77: Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe - Intel Z77 Chipset USB3 & WIFI Support! CPU: Intel Core i7 3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz Quad Core + Hyperthreading 8MB Cache - I am really tempted by this upgrade from the I5 but is the upgrade worth the £66??? CPU Coolers: Corsair Cooling Hydro Series H60 high-performance CPU water-cooler Overclocking - CPU: Extreme Overclock - 4.4GHz - Tuned to absolute safe maximum - Performance prioritised over acoustics. Memory: 16GB (2x8GB) Corsair DDR3 XMS3 1600Mhz - Do I really need 16GB is 8GB enough. It is only really a £25 so to me it is not a big issue to go for higher now to help future proof the build??? NVIDIA Graphics: 2GB EVGA GTX 670 915MHz GPU 1344 Cores 6008MHz GDDR5 - I am asking them if I can get the 680 installed into this build, if so I will go for that. However I am lead to believe the difference between the 670 and the 660ti is marginal so failing the 680 upgrade I want (due to space issues) would I be better of saving £50 and getting the 660ti. Since reading this link I might be wrong about the difference between 660ti and 670 and the 670 might be closer to the 680 according to Source??? Solid State Drives: 240GB OCZ Vertex 4 Read 550MB sec Write 520MB sec - Everest 2 - I am asking them if they can install the 256GB version of this drive if it exists I don’t know too much about SSD’s, however I might be able to save £50 by going for the 128GB version??? System Drives: 2TB Seagate Barracuda SATA 6Gb s 7200rpm 64MB Cache Optical Drive - DVD Blu Ray: Sony BC-5600S Slot Load Blu-Ray Drive
I see where you're coming from and you're right of course. If you want something future proofed you have to spend a tonne of cash, the GT70 0NE (higher spec) is something I'm looking at but is circa £2.3k. I really like the specs you've got there, I think it's worth asking for the 680 and seeing what the price hike will be (I'd expect £150?), which is what you've said. Apparently the Crucial M4 SSD's are quite good, is that an option?
I think it is an option, I have been told I really don't need to go for the 256GB version as 128GB are enough. I think the only reason I could not get the 680 would be down to space as it is limited in this case. That said I am leaning towards the 670 regardless as I dont think there is much between them. I think the problem with spending £2.3k on a laptop is no matter how much you spend in a few months it will be out of date, so I normally budget at about £1.5k for new laptops (and if I am honest desktops dispite these being easy to upgrade) and then in a few years time when it is really out of date I accept that £500/year is the price I paid and try and sell it normally for about 200-300 and then start over. However said that the price one is willing to pay/year depends on if said laptop is the only PC and on how much that person makes at work, if you earn less or more you might be more willing to pay, if I didn't use a home desktop (or have a wife ) I would consider the more expensive bigger gaming laptops.
Well I have shopped around and I have some shopping baskets ready to go the total price for the build is £1187.86 including delivery. Here is the current build I am planning. Scan.co.uk eBuyer.com Now the guy at Scan has told me I should upgrade the PSU as he is concerned about the power consumption of my components, but the supply I am using is the model up from the one they use at 3XS at Scan to make there custom built FT03 Nanu that my build is designed around. Is the guy at Scan playing it extra safe, trying to make me spend more money or do I really need to worry about my selected PSU? I am also concered as I don't see many other alternatives for this build and its space constraints. On a lesser important issue, is it wise to get rubber washers for most or all my components, I will be moving the PC from place to place and these might help protect things inside a little, on top of reducing vibration and other noise while running the system?
450W is fine, though it won't leave you headroom for SLI if you ever were to want that. Just make sure it's a quality unit. Some, if not most, of those smaller units are really nasty.
Cheers, I doubt I will get a 2nd card into this case lol. What about if I want to add an overclock to this system at a later date think I will have the power? The PSU is a good one, not a cheap nasty one at least. Also I am still keen to know what you guys think about rubber washers in this system?
Yes. You are unlikely to be able to reach 300W, no matter what kind of an overclock. You can measure it yourself with a wall meter once you have the system set up.
