Aaron and friends build PCs (help) - Build underway!

kerr9000 wrote:Yeah the biggest sticking points are usually the Processor the motherboard can take and what kind of memory slots the motherboard has... it all depends what you want to aim for, best bet is to look at a programme or game you want to be able to play and aim for that and if you can build something that can play that its a good starting block you have learned more of what your on with and can use or play that thing as a treat for your efforts.

I've thought about this a bit now, and that's really good advice. It's all very well me saying I'd like to play about and upgrade stuff, but it's impossible to give advice with that kind of vague idea, and impossible to ask for advice too, unless you figure out what you really want first.*

I suppose I'd like to build a pc that can do basic everyday tasks, but as far as gaming goes it doesn't need to do loads. I'll still be a console gamer primarily, meaning I'm not going to be using it for high end pc games or FPS's, nor do I really play online much.

So, realistically, something that can handle retro games would be grand, then maybe indie games - stuff like Super Meat Boy and Stardew Valley etc (which are probably deceptively hard to run).

I'm also tempted by the idea that you might be able to transfer your gaming purchases from Stadia to a pc. So, probably as a stretch target at the upper end, something that could run Assassin's Creed Origins, which I've got on Stadia and might be able to transfer across for free if Ubisoft follow through on that.

But that doesn't need to be played at high performance - it'd be on a small monitor rather than needing 4k HD stuff as it'll always be something in my home office rather than the centre of gaming life. Which is why I'm thinking the pimped refurb route might work.

I guess it'd be good if it could stream stuff like X-Cloud, but I've no idea how much of that needs computer gubbins of your own, and how much is done by computers elsewhere.

I'm thinking I'll just press 'buy' on something, then merrily play about with it till I hit a wall.

* NB, I'm an amateur astronomer, and it made me think of people asking for advice about telescopes. I just want something general purpose, they will say, and then I can upgrade later. It's of course an impossible question to answer, and for sanity's sake I've just deleted many paragraphs of irrelevant telescope buying comparisons from this response to keep it on track.

aayl1 wrote:Parts have gone up about $200 dollars since I ordered so feeling happy about pulling the trigger.

That's a great feeling!

I'm really excited to see how yours works out, by the way - I will be cheering from the sidelines

Abacus wrote:

aayl1 wrote:Parts have gone up about $200 dollars since I ordered so feeling happy about pulling the trigger.

That's a great feeling!

I'm really excited to see how yours works out, by the way - I will be cheering from the sidelines

Thanks! Same with your journey, do keep us posted what your find when you start tinkering.

Someone more knowledgeable will have to weigh in, but on your point about running AC Origins as a stretch goal - I reckon you'll find this easier to accomplish than you think. My cursory research showed up that the NVidia GTX 1070 is a really solid older card that's hanging in there (and it seems to be under $70 on ebay over here at least).

In fact that new Dead Space rip off, Callisto Protocol, which comes out next week with it's very realistic and gory graphics, has the 1070 as it's recommended specs card! AC Orogin's min specs card is lower than the 1070 too.

Abacus wrote:

kerr9000 wrote:Yeah the biggest sticking points are usually the Processor the motherboard can take and what kind of memory slots the motherboard has... it all depends what you want to aim for, best bet is to look at a programme or game you want to be able to play and aim for that and if you can build something that can play that its a good starting block you have learned more of what your on with and can use or play that thing as a treat for your efforts.

I've thought about this a bit now, and that's really good advice. It's all very well me saying I'd like to play about and upgrade stuff, but it's impossible to give advice with that kind of vague idea, and impossible to ask for advice too, unless you figure out what you really want first.*

I suppose I'd like to build a pc that can do basic everyday tasks, but as far as gaming goes it doesn't need to do loads. I'll still be a console gamer primarily, meaning I'm not going to be using it for high end pc games or FPS's, nor do I really play online much.

So, realistically, something that can handle retro games would be grand, then maybe indie games - stuff like Super Meat Boy and Stardew Valley etc (which are probably deceptively hard to run).

I'm also tempted by the idea that you might be able to transfer your gaming purchases from Stadia to a pc. So, probably as a stretch target at the upper end, something that could run Assassin's Creed Origins, which I've got on Stadia and might be able to transfer across for free if Ubisoft follow through on that.

But that doesn't need to be played at high performance - it'd be on a small monitor rather than needing 4k HD stuff as it'll always be something in my home office rather than the centre of gaming life. Which is why I'm thinking the pimped refurb route might work.

I guess it'd be good if it could stream stuff like X-Cloud, but I've no idea how much of that needs computer gubbins of your own, and how much is done by computers elsewhere.

I'm thinking I'll just press 'buy' on something, then merrily play about with it till I hit a wall.

* NB, I'm an amateur astronomer, and it made me think of people asking for advice about telescopes. I just want something general purpose, they will say, and then I can upgrade later. It's of course an impossible question to answer, and for sanity's sake I've just deleted many paragraphs of irrelevant telescope buying comparisons from this response to keep it on track.

AC Origins suggested specs (you can get away with less but these are the specs they recommend for a proper experience) are around an Intel 3.5ghz processor with 8gb of ram and a graphics card around a 3GB AMD Radeon R9 280X type or a 4GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760. This is something where you'd have to look into all sorts of bits maybe buy a machine then look for a graphics card etc..

In comparison Stardew Valley needs like a 2 Ghz processor, about 2 GB RAM of memory and a basic graphics card something like this should easily play that and meat boy and emulate old things like the SNES, Megadrive, GBA, Master system, NES, PC Engine Neo Geo some Arcade Games

https://www.amazon.co.uk/OptiPlex-Intel-3-30GHz-Win10-3-Renewed/dp/B08JGX29FT/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=refurb+pc&qid=1669575203&s=computers&sr=1-1

As an Astronomer have you thought about looking into Stellarium ? I think the low end PC above would probably manage this.

https://stellarium.org/#:~:text=Stellarium%20is%20a%20free%20open,intensities%20in%20the%20View%20window.

Thanks both!

And Kerr, I'm amazed something so cheap could play those things, that would be incredible.

So, emboldened by that because I can't make a mistake if that's the case, I just got a renewed Amazon Dell Intel i7-2600 Quad Core 16GB RAM 240GB SSD + 1TB HDD Windows 10 Desktop PC Computer as my toy to play about with. It was about £160. (I would have added a link to it instead of writing it all out, but I don't know how.)

I'll then add a graphics card - sounds like that would do most of the stuff I'm after, and then I'll try and see what else I can do with it and just have fun experimenting.

NB as for Stellarium, I haven't tried that one but have a few similar things on my phone - cheers for the link. I tend to be a bit puritan about this kind of thing - prefer a planisphere and a torch because I think it burns it better in your brain to learn it that way. (Incidentally, if anyone wants telescope advice they can have that for nothing )

Got the motherboard (so could theoretically flash it now as I also have the CPU and a flash drive) so now all I'm waiting on is the GPU!

Me next week:



I'm a liiitle worried that Amazon didn't ship my GPU when they said they would and just pushed back the delivery expectation a week (and now it has gone up $300)so hoping that it actually ships this time around, will be so annoying if that strawberry floats me.

Just had the last of the stuff delivered this evening so tomorrow should be build day! Hoping everything will seem straight forward enough once I have it all unpacked and ready to go. Any last minute tips I should know?

aayl1 wrote:I'm a liiitle worried that Amazon didn't ship my GPU when they said they would and just pushed back the delivery expectation a week (and now it has gone up $300)so hoping that it actually ships this time around, will be so annoying if that strawberry floats me.

That's really annoying, was it through Amazon themselves or a third party company on the Amazon storefront? Fingers crossed for you that it is just a delay and the GPU gets shipped soon.

SpaceJebus wrote:

aayl1 wrote:I'm a liiitle worried that Amazon didn't ship my GPU when they said they would and just pushed back the delivery expectation a week (and now it has gone up $300)so hoping that it actually ships this time around, will be so annoying if that strawberry floats me.

That's really annoying, was it through Amazon themselves or a third party company on the Amazon storefront? Fingers crossed for you that it is just a delay and the GPU gets shipped soon.

It was from Amazon themselves so that's why I wasn't too worried initially. Finger crossed!

I'm excited to see how it turns out, SpaceJebus!

My old banger of a refurbed machine arrived midweek and I've only just gotten around to switching it on.

It was just the box with no cables etc other than a plug, so was quite smug that just by going into that drawer where you put all those cables you think 'might come in handy one day', I've been able to connect it all up and it seems to work just fine with no screeching noises / sparks etc.

You might think that's the least you'd expect, but I'm still taking it as a win.

I'm going to spend a day or so doing basic things and seeing what kind of retro games I can manage on it as it stands, before I start tinkering. Then I reckon the next thing will be jamming in whatever graphics card it can cope with without it catching on fire.

Or maybe just glue a plunger and a circular saw on and then enter it into Robot Wars as "Sir Breaks-A-Lot".

SpaceJebus wrote:Just had the last of the stuff delivered this evening so tomorrow should be build day! Hoping everything will seem straight forward enough once I have it all unpacked and ready to go. Any last minute tips I should know?

Good luck. Take your time. Don’t force anything. You will make a few mistakes, your first build will take a while, take a break, come back. Once the bug gets you, you’ll be back and tinkering soon. So it doesn’t need to be perfect.

Abacus wrote:I'm excited to see how it turns out, SpaceJebus!

My old banger of a refurbed machine arrived midweek and I've only just gotten around to switching it on.

It was just the box with no cables etc other than a plug, so was quite smug that just by going into that drawer where you put all those cables you think 'might come in handy one day', I've been able to connect it all up and it seems to work just fine with no screeching noises / sparks etc.

You might think that's the least you'd expect, but I'm still taking it as a win.

I'm going to spend a day or so doing basic things and seeing what kind of retro games I can manage on it as it stands, before I start tinkering. Then I reckon the next thing will be jamming in whatever graphics card it can cope with without it catching on fire.

Or maybe just glue a plunger and a circular saw on and then enter it into Robot Wars as "Sir Breaks-A-Lot".

Glad to hear you have gotten it, I'm sure you will have loads of fun with it, I'd install steam as well, if you go the humble bundle/ fanatical bundle route you can get lots of indy style games to try for absolute peanuts. I always find myself spending astronomical time on something simple, I got Game Dev Tycoon and lost literal weeks to it lol.

Most of the building is (hopefully) done, just got the PSU to install and then it should be ready for a test run. Some parts have definitely been easier than others thoughts so far:

Case - 'To open the case, pull handle to open the front panel and then open the sides' - 'Well that isn't working, maybe the other way.. no the arrow is definitely pointing that way.... Surely it can't need to be pulled harder than this or it will br... oh that's done it.'
CPU - pop in and handle down, nice and easy
RAM - push in and you're done, this is easy so far
Cooling Fan - this is where it started to fall apart a bit, so many different connectors with not the best instructions ever compounded with panic when I had to remove it and adjust the screws after doing the heat paste.
SSDs - Spent 15 minutes wondering why I couldn't move the stand-offs until I realised the stand-offs were in a separate bag and the part I was looking at was affixed just for holding the covering panels only.
Affixing the motherboard - All the stand-offs already on the case so this was pretty smooth in the end
Graphics Card - little fiddly to get in the right place but hopefully it is in correctly
Case connecters - fiddly little buggers, especially the sing pin connector ones. Not helped by me having installed an extra fan on the base (above where the PSU will go) which is probably not needed and just got in the way.

So far so good I think but powering on will be the real acid test

Some bits are definitely clearer/easier than others, it differs by manufacturer and model as well, some leading brand stuff is surprisingly poorly documented!

Did you clean and reapply the thermal paste after removing the cooling fan to adjust it?

Panel connectors are tricky. Case slides is a knack, and is very case dependent.

GPU has a little clip that pulls in to hold it in, when installed. When removing the GPU, you have to get your fingers in to push the clip out, then in will pull out.

Yes, cpu. If you put the cooler down on it, then aren’t happen and remove the cooler. Always clean and repaste here. Once you pull a cooler off, you get little air bubbles or gaps in the paste, so clean and reapply. When you want to remove a cooler, always heat the cpu and paste with a few cinebench runs to loosen the paste, then when you pull the cooler, twist with a small amount of pull.

Oh, I hadn't realised about the thermal paste. Fortunately I hadn't fully pushed down and was still lining up so hopefully it will be alright.

After some fun with the power connectors (of course the graphics card uses the 6+2 pin and not an 8 pin) the system all booted up fine. Windows was a bit of a pain as I couldn't get a WiFi signal to work, thankfully had home plugs kicking about and that seems to have done the trick.

Everything seems to be detected and ok, including the case panel, so I've closed the case up and now downloading some games to see how they run. Thanks again to all for the help, I'll try and get photos up soon.

Nice one. Yeah. You normally need a hardwire internet connection until you install wifi and motherboard drivers.

Not gonna lie, I'm pretty chuffed with having an actual pc now, even though it's probably less powerful than my phone.

I'm really surprised how much it's been able to cope with, so the next step is probably to try and cram in an OK graphics card, with the assistance of duct tape.

I'm tempted to see if I can get this playing Callisto Protocol now, as a new stretch target.

To that end, I've bought some random steam codes from a dodgy seeming website to see what it can currently handle, and where it starts to chug.

As a side note - what's with all this jiggery pokery with buying Turkish currency on steam? Do I need to pretend to be Turkish and put on a voice or something?

Glad your experiment has worked out well abacus. Hope you get a decent GPU for your new rig soon.

Speaking of, my GPU ended up never shipping from Amazon so after some shenanigans with customer service I've ended up ordering the 12gb 3080 which should be here by next week. Looking forward to getting the build together, if a little nervous!

This is most likely a stupid question but here goes.

The new consoles were all about how many Tflops they have so can we judge the new graphics cards by that metric?
The XSX has 12 tflops, is that being eclipsed now?
Where do 3080 and 4080 cards stand on that front? Is it even a thing PC gamers think about?