PC Tech Thread

Speccy

Its been a bit of a dream of mine to build a wooden case, I figure it wouldn't be so hard to get something basic knocked up as long as you had the motherboard standoff screw sockets in the right places. All been inspired by bit-tech too, great site!
Not a PC, or wooden, but this is a favourite:
http://www.bit-tech.net/modding/2011/12/23/mod-of-the-year-2011/27
Also:
http://www.bit-tech.net/modding/2011/12/23/mod-of-the-year-2011/8

Yeah, I've started sketching... lets see how this pans out.
Not too sure about those links though, neon lights and hair gel, not my kinda vibe.

edit: Idea sorted. not even going to be hard. (famous last words).

It's a long transition to true PC gamer, you'll get there eventually

HAAA. Careful, I might.

I'm actually thinking building a case will be easy as hell. Apart from maybe the on off switch and bits but I can prob work that out later. Thinking starting off with putting everything in line along a plank of wood... why would that not work?

@chrisbmx116 you can use Windows 7/8/8.1 keys to activate W10 now I think... need one?

Edit: whoops, just noticed that was 10 days ago. thought I was up to date

It's a long transition to true PC gamer

Had a look at computers in different stores today, and discovered those "hadcore gaming laptops"..
..they look mean!

Test-bench style? Can't see any reason why it wouldn't...
If you wanted to keep it narrow you can get PCI-e riser cables, meaning you can rotate the graphics card 90 degrees.
I reckon the switches/hdd & power LEDs will be available to buy from maplins etc to just plug into the motherboard

pfffff laptops >>>>>>>>>

Can I use an old Samsung NC10 as a home server, connected to an external HDD enclosure and serving files to my PS3 (connected to my TV via PS3 media server?)

Ha, no worries, thanks for the tip, I might have an early key... still not properly activated.

Yeah, but also as a frame to build on. Yeah, that PCI-e riser cable sounds a good idea too.

I could use a key if you have a few spare mate?

Cheers.

Actually, just checked, no luck, I do indeed need one if you know of anyone wink wink nudge nudge etc.

You could, not sure whether it would be any better than a Raspberry Pi. May struggle to transcode incompatible videos.

Was up until 1:30 am last night with some random lad from Reddit using Team Viewer to trouble shoot my Hack. Now have patchy HDMI Audio which is a massive step forward, hopefully be able to get it solid this week then my dual boot budget gaming beast is fully functioning!
Time to get sketching custom case designs...

Wouldn't the ps3 be doing the transcoding, though?

I haven't used a PS3 for this but normally the machine doing the displaying can only accept a certain number of video formats so, if it's incompatible, the machine running PS3 media server (the laptop) has to transcode them first.

If all the files are in a compatible format then that wouldn't be an issue

@gillies

You can use Plex for that. Run Plex server on the N10 and it will transcode there. Streams to the Plex app on the PS3 (or 4, or phone, or smart tv or whatever)

https://plex.tv/playstation

Quiet PC Nofan A480S Skylake Silent Desktop 4.0GHz 16GB 512GB
£1,711.48

Configured as follows:
Nofan CS-80 Fanless Computer Case
Gigabyte GA-Z170XP-SLI LGA1151 ATX Motherboard
Intel 6th Gen Core i7 6700K 4.0GHz 91W HD 530 8MB Quad Core CPU
Corsair DDR4 Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) 2400MHz Memory Kit
Nofan CR-95C Pearl Black IcePipe 95W Fanless CPU Cooler
Nofan P-500A Silent 500W Fanless 80+ GOLD PSU
Quiet PC IEC C13 UK Mains Power Cord, 1.8m (Type G)
Samsung 950 PRO M.2 512GB NVMe SSD
Quiet PC Front 3.5 Bay Card Reader and USB 3.0 Port Akasa AK-ICR-14
Pioneer BDR-209DBK Blu-ray, DVD and CD Reader/re-writer
Creative Sound Blaster Z PCIe High Performance Sound Card
Asus Geforce Fanless GT730 2GB GDDR3 Graphics Card
Intel 7260HMWDTX1.R Wi-Fi/Bluetooth Low Profile PCI-E card
Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

I've decided I like the idea of fanless so let's stick with that. What out of this lot would you upgrade/downgrade or change out for something different?

I could save maybe £100 if I lost the Asus Geforce Fanless GT730 2GB GDDR3 Graphics Card and the Soundblaster but I always wanted one of the latter and I'm not sure about onboard graphics (even though one site seems to rate it above the GT730 anyway?!)

This is mostly web browsing, Visual Studio .NET dev work and running my cycling apps. I hardly ever play games but that might just be because GTA whatever I bought ran like shit on my machine. It's in the lounge so it needs to be silent.

Might be worth running that lot through PC part picker to see how much they are putting on top for the build, becasue that strikes me as a lot of money for a simple build. The GPU is kinda crap, and 40 quid bought new, and wont play modern games too well.

Yeah, I'm sure peeps said they were a spendy way of buying a machine but I can't be arsed building a machine up. I want it to arrive, I want it working and I want to migrate everything and retire the old machine asap.

Their GPU options are a bunch of stuff I've never heard of...

Motherboard video only (Intel HD 530 graphics / triple display out)- £53.32
Sapphire AMD R5 230 FLEX Fanless 1GB GDDR3 PCI-E HDMI Low Profile ? - £10.43
Palit Geforce Fanless GT730 2GB GDDR3 Graphics Card ? - £5.93
Asus Geforce Fanless GT730 2GB GDDR3 Graphics Card ? [Due in 2 days]
PNY NVIDIA Quadro NVS 300 x16 Dual DVI / VGA Low Profile Video Card ? + £50.38
Palit Geforce GTX 750 Ti Kalmx Silent 2GB GDDR5 Graphics Card ? + £55.69
PNY NVIDIA Quadro K600 1GB GDDR3 Low Profile Video Card ? + £96.23
PNY NVIDIA NVS 510 Quad DisplayPort UHD 4K Graphics Card

I picked the Asus out of familiarity. Never heard of Palit, PNY or Sapphire.

I had never used a PC before let alone built one until I got bored at work and bought all the bits to do so.
It was very very simple, electric lego you could say, and worked first time (Windows 10).
If everything is new there is no reason why it wouldnt just work once put together.
Also, i7 is way overkill.

Never heard of Palit, PNY or Sapphire.

n00b...