Thinking about getting a gaming PC

[Doombrain]

But I don't want to spend silly money that I could be spending on bikes.

I want to play Elite Dangerous, what am I looking at folks? Could I get a 2nd hand rig?

[shaft]

Sure, the minimum specs aren't too bad. If you're not into pc building pick up a 2nd hand that meets the cpu and ram requirements and drop in a value video card (check power supply requirements).

Alternatively you can buy a cheap pc from say dell or Asus and do the same...or get the cheapest Alienware x51 or Alpha Console. Asus makes the G20 and GR8. All of those suggestions are smaller form factor and would probably fit in your media center.

http://www.asus.com/Microsite/rog/GR8_G20/
http://www.alienware.com/Landings/desktops.aspx


Good Luck.

[Doombrain]

sweet.

if you had £600/$800 to drop on a system, which would it be?

[Doombrain]

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/ ... html#cat-0

looks good, but isn't this similar power to my 2014 macbook pro?

[shaft]

Yeah, the mbp's are pretty powerful, have you tried playing with it? I think the Asus GR8 wins in the graphics department, especially if you have the integrated intel graphics in your mbp.

The ones I linked aren't really gaming powerhouses, and the majority of small form factor pc's use mobile components. So I wouldn't expect them to be much better than a 2k+ mbp..just cheaper.

[shaft]

sweet.

if you had £600/$800 to drop on a system, which would it be?

I was really close to buying the Asus GR8 last week for my kids. The small form factor was a big selling point.
Here is a long youtube you can skip through, he shows some games at the end.

[youtube]8S2hrPXZlVM[/youtube]

In the end I decided not to be lazy and build them a pc in a Silverstone FT03-MINI. Its a little bigger, but future-proof.

[Doombrain]

turns out my mac will easily play this game on full settings.

[shaft]

[Doombrain]

not tempted by it?

[shaft]

I'm a huge fan of space scifi, but I watched some videos and some game streams and im not convinced I would enjoy it. Space combat always seemed a bit dull to me. Every time I watched it was some guy just trying to chase down some tiny blip on the screen to fire a few shots at it before it jumped away.

[Doombrain]

It's good, but it's also what you make it. You can't just 'play', you have to hunt for the fun.