Viewing 25 posts - 1 through 25 (of 25 total)
  • Putting together a highend PC for peanuts – advice required
  • tpbiker
    Free Member

    I’m looking to pull together a decent pc to use with a tacx VR trainer.

    Apparently min requirement needs to be:

    Processor Intel i3 processor or AMD equivalent
    Min. memory 4 GB
    Free disk space 15 GB
    Graphics card DirectX9 compatible 3D card with 512 MB chipset: ATI or Nvidia

    I’m told by my mate in the pub that 250 quid min needs spending, but a quick google on ebay shows similar sounding parts for 100quid (I only need the memory, processor and graphics card). I already have box, fans etc, and my mate can stick it together for me.

    ie – processor

    Memory

    Card

    Anyone know why this lot wouldn’t work?

    ta

    geoffj
    Full Member

    You’ll need a motherboard and a hdd

    couldashouldawoulda
    Free Member

    Anything is possible: but it may cost more than you think.

    Anyway:
    Will your motherboard take an I5?

    Will its form factor fit your case? Or do you need to buy one.

    CPU fan for i5?

    Windows?

    Will the motherboard support you HD’s (sata etc)?

    Edit – Oh – and your monitors / tv – hdmi/ vga etc.

    parkesie
    Free Member

    Awd-it. Are good for cheap systems and components.

    mj27
    Free Member

    I built my own PC as I figured it can’t be that difficult, did it all for less than £200, though it will depend a lot on your spec, just like bikes I suppose.

    I got all my stuff from CCL, all you will need to do it check that the components are compatible, just ask as I did, most are keen to help. It will take you longer to install the software than build it.

    tpbiker
    Free Member

    ahhh, yep hadn’t factored in the mother board… i clearly have no idea idea what I’m on about.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    That’s not a high-end PC, it’s an entry level PC. The cheapest barebones system you can get from Aria, Scan, Dabs etc will be better than that probably.

    I think you could easily do it for less than £150.

    couldashouldawoulda
    Free Member

    molgrips is tpbikes mate from down the pub! 😉

    The cheapest barebones i3 system from dabs, with 0 ram, 0 hd, 0 graphics, 0 windows is £226.

    I’d be genuinely impressed if you can get the minimum spec above for £150.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Ok fair point, but barebones is the way to go. Or second hand.

    couldashouldawoulda
    Free Member

    I’d agree Molgrips.

    And tpbikers mate in the pub isnt too far off the mark.

    tpbiker
    Free Member

    its highend compared to my laptop, which will barely run word 🙂

    Was considering second hand, but wasn’t that keen on picking up a PC riddled with someone else’s porn…..

    mudshark
    Free Member

    He he I bought a PC in which someone had left a DVD with some pretty dodgy material, loads of it. Took me ages to be sure that’s all that was on it.

    I use an Elite Realaxiom so need a PC for that. Currently using my old work laptop, hoping they will forget I still have it 👿

    couldashouldawoulda
    Free Member

    Refurb’d i3 laptop, cleaned of donkey exotica, £280, incl W8:

    http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/laptops-netbooks/laptops/refurbished-laptops/compaq-cq58-278sa-refurbished-15-6-laptop-21302139-pdt.html

    Or much better (if you’ve monitors etc):

    Dell i3 outlet- as one example (you’ll need to check each day, the daily update stock update time varies):
    http://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/SecondaryInventorySearch.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=dfh&cs=ukdfh1&puid=f556541b

    molgrips
    Free Member

    but wasn’t that keen on picking up a PC riddled with someone else’s porn…..

    Extremely easy to sterilise a hard drive.

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    molgrips – Member
    but wasn’t that keen on picking up a PC riddled with someone else’s porn…..
    Extremely easy to sterilise a hard drive.

    Yep just buy a new one

    tpbiker
    Free Member

    dban?

    brassneck
    Full Member

    I have a retail box i3 (3.02Ghz, never overclocked but should do nicely, Intel heatsink), 4Gb of GSKILL DDR3 memory, and a Radeon HD5750 with 1Gb I’m looking to shift for a reasonable price if you’re interested? Drop me a mail. Should leave room in £150 to get a new 1Tb 7200rpm disk, but you’d need a case + PSU + motherboard.

    All been run happily as a Hackintosh, but the Shuttle mainboard popped and I replaced with a Mac Mini earlier than planned.

    Won’t be cutting edge but will get you running at a decent lick and allow you to update later.

    Northwind
    Full Member

    Why the holy balls does it need so much power in the first place? If you’ve already got the trainer, have you tried connecting it to your existing kit? Hard to imagine why it’s so power intensive

    Stoner
    Free Member

    normally I’d baulk like you Northwind, but I guess the VR software is running fairly rich graphics and assuming it’s not doing that on a superduper graphix card it needs a fairly sturdy CPU and RAM to do it.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Except that even basic graphics cards nowadays are in fact pretty good.

    Stoner
    Free Member

    it doesnt stop software designers from being lazy 🙂

    tpbiker
    Free Member

    Similar sentiments echoed by my mate around why on earth would it need so much power.

    Certainly wouldn’t work on my laptop however, as mentioned that barely runs microsoft office.

    Brassneck, that was like a foreign language! I’ll ask my mate to decript and get back to you!

    benslow
    Free Member

    If you decide to build, I’ve a new VGA card thats better than you’ve quoted – you can have it for postage.

    let me know – d_estall AT yahoo.co.uk

    mudshark
    Free Member

    Recommended system requirements
    Processor Quad core 3.0 Ghz, Intel i7
    Min. memory 8 GB
    Free disk space 20 GB
    Graphics card DirectX9 compatible 3D card with 1 GB chipset: ATI or Nvidia
    Various 1 free USB port, DVD/Blu-ray player
    Operating system Windows 7 (64-bit) or Windows 8 (64-bit)

    Minimum system requirements
    Processor Intel i3 processor or AMD equivalent
    Min. memory 4 GB
    Free disk space 15 GB
    Graphics car DirectX9 compatible 3D card with 512 MB chipset: ATI or Nvidia
    Various 1 free USB port, DVD player
    Operating system Vista or Windows 7

    http://www.tacx.com/en/products/system-requirements

    Northwind
    Full Member

    Skynet has lower system requirements!

Viewing 25 posts - 1 through 25 (of 25 total)

The topic ‘Putting together a highend PC for peanuts – advice required’ is closed to new replies.