Portable gaming rig

Lumen

I'm thinking of doing a portable build with my son over Christmas.

I know it's a crappy time to buy with parts availability but he has three weeks off over Christmas due to COVID and after that he's going to need to study hard for the junior cert, so now seems like a good time.

1. What is your budget? About €1200
2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Gaming. Mostly shooters I guess so FPS>quality. The monitor has crappy HDR support so that'll be off.
3. Do you need a copy of Windows? Yes
4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? No.
5. Do you need a monitor? No.
5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? 1440p for now.
6. Do you need any peripherals? No.
7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Yes
8. How can you pay? Any
9. When are you purchasing? Before Christmas, hopefully.

The motherboard seems unnecessarily expensive but it's the cheapest I could find with USB 3.1 gen 2 headers for the front port. Is there an alternative approach with a cheaper mobo and a card? But maybe I don't need 3.1 anyway. Is it useful for backup?

I've specced a big PSU as I might drop a 30X0 GPU in there next gear when availability improves.

CPU and GPU availability is tricky but not impossible.

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/yjVx2V

What do you think? Haven't built a PC in maybe 20 years so I'm clueless!

Samuel T. Cogley

Looks solid, dont pay £90 for windows 10- it's free to install and you can buy a greymarket key for €7 on adverts.

GHOST MGG

Lumen wrote: »

I'm thinking of doing a portable build with my son over Christmas.

I know it's a crappy time to buy with parts availability but he has three weeks off over Christmas due to COVID and after that he's going to need to study hard for the junior cert, so now seems like a good time.

1. What is your budget? About €1200
2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Gaming. Mostly shooters I guess so FPS>quality. The monitor has crappy HDR support so that'll be off.
3. Do you need a copy of Windows? Yes
4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? No.
5. Do you need a monitor? No.
5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? 1440p for now.
6. Do you need any peripherals? No.
7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Yes
8. How can you pay? Any
9. When are you purchasing? Before Christmas, hopefully.

The motherboard seems unnecessarily expensive but it's the cheapest I could find with USB 3.1 gen 2 headers for the front port. Is there an alternative approach with a cheaper mobo and a card? But maybe I don't need 3.1 anyway. Is it useful for backup?

I've specced a big PSU as I might drop a 30X0 GPU in there next gear when availability improves.

CPU and GPU availability is tricky but not impossible.

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/yjVx2V

What do you think? Haven't built a PC in maybe 20 years so I'm clueless!

chances of getting a 5600x processor before xmas are quite slim im afraid..you could be lucky though

minitrue

You know that overclockers do not have that cpu and Amazon will send you that gpu in 1-2 months? The gpu would have been more like £220 up until recently, the cpus true price when stock comes online is probably £280 or less and the ram is slower then you would have got less than a week ago for the same price without the newegg delivery charge on top. It's not a crappy time to buy, it's a disaster area!

I'd question the wisdom of tempered glass if this is really meant to be portable. For example I'd think something like a Q300L would be saner, not very much bigger but takes a standard ATX psu, would let you just go with a micro-atx board (probably getting you 4 dimm slots and 2 M.2 also), breathe much easier with a potential 30x0 (and let you add more fans or go to water cooling) and unlikely to end up with a cracked side panel after you test out the portability. That's just the first case that jumped to mind, not a major recommendation.

Do you have a specific need to a front usb 3.1 gen 2 port? Especially when it's a portable size machine so easy to get to one on the back if you actually end up with a device that can use the extra speed. Not sure there's anything other than an external usb->nvme drive out at this point that will benefit and even the likes of the elgato usb 4K60 hdr device only needs usb 3.0 as even usb 3.1 gen 2 isn't really enough for raw 4k60 so it just sends the PC an already encoded stream.

Lumen

Take the point about the glass, I was mostly attracted to the fancy handle TBH. :pac:

It seems the 5600X is available from Germany but only for €500 shipped, which is just madness for a €300-350 CPU.

Hmmm.

Drewgerger

Kingston drive is slowest of any drive get a different make
Your video card and cpu will not be in stock
Until after March
Any purchases from uk will be taxed 25% vat in January look for products from europe

Lumen

On reflection and after more research, I think for 1440p gaming (excepting MS Flight Sim) that a 5000 series CPU is likely a waste of money anywhere near current prices, bearing in mind that the mobo is pricier.

I think my fixation on the 5000 series is more because I'm considering buying this for myself as a work+gaming PC (and getting Lumen Jr a PS5 when they're available). For my work the improved single threaded performance of the 5000 series would be worthwhile.

So I guess I need to either cut the spec down to a 3000 series CPU (Ryzen 5 3600?) or hang on a couple of months and splurge on a 5000.

JoyPad

Lumen wrote: »

So I guess I need to either cut the spec down to a 3000 series CPU (Ryzen 5 3600?) or hang on a couple of months and splurge on a 5000.

I think your best bet to grab a 5000-series CPU quickly is to order a pre-built system. Your choices will be limited, but you might get it a lot quicker.

Here's an example of a similar system by Scan (3XS). Biggest difference, of course, is the case, Scan doesn't sell Lian Li stuff.

Lumen

JoyPad wrote: »

I think your best bet to grab a 5000-series CPU quickly is to order a pre-built system. Your choices will be limited, but you might get it a lot quicker.

Here's an example of a similar system by Scan (3XS). Biggest difference, of course, is the case, Scan doesn't sell Lian Li stuff.

Thanks, that looks decent. I note, though, that the both CPU and GPU are flagged with ...

*** Due to unprecedented demand this is only available to pre-order. We will confirm an ETA when your order is processed. ***

JoyPad

I have zero factual proof, just my gut telling me that a company like Scan would prefer to sell a system, rather than the individual components. As such, I believe that a pre-order for a system will take precedence over a pre-order for a CPU or GPU.

Lumen

There are 1660 Supers available in stock on Amazon UK, though, so it's only really the CPU that's blocking me.

Going with unlocked i5-9600K, a mobo that supports overclocking and a 600W PSU gets me to £1169 with all parts sourceble, I think:

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/FHm668

Andrew76

You could remove the £90 for the OS aswell and get another Noctua fan or two. If the Windows activation text bothers you then you can always buy a licence cheaper.

I have the same PSU, comes with braided cables and an ITX to ATX adapter just incase it's needed, great little unit it is. Just make sure that the cables are long enough to reach the connection points on the mobo, especially the CPU connection - you'll need PSU extension cable(s) if not (this kind of thing: https://www.scan.co.uk/products/30cm-silverstone-pp07-eps8w-8-pin-to-eps12v-8-pin4plus4pin-extension-cable-male-to-female-braided-wh).

K.O.Kiki

Lumen wrote: »

There are 1660 Supers available in stock on Amazon UK, though, so it's only really the CPU that's blocking me.

Going with unlocked i5-9600K, a mobo that supports overclocking and a 600W PSU gets me to £1169 with all parts sourceble, I think:

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/FHm668

Don't buy a 9600K - 6cores without hyperthreading is very limiting long-term.

Some changes:

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-10600KF 4.1 GHz 6-Core Processor (£223.86 @ CCL Computers)
CPU Cooler: Scythe Mugen 5 Rev. B 51.17 CFM CPU Cooler (£49.25 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z490I AORUS ULTRA Mini ITX LGA1200 Motherboard (£209.99 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (£66.00)
Storage: Kingston A2000 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (£89.98 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB SC ULTRA GAMING Video Card (£330.00 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Lian Li TU150 Mini ITX Desktop Case (£92.62 @ CCL Computers)
Power Supply: Fractal Design Ion SFX-L 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular SFX Power Supply (£110.47 @ Amazon UK)
Case Fan: ARCTIC P12 PST 56.3 CFM 120 mm Fan (£5.99)
Case Fan: ARCTIC P12 PST 56.3 CFM 120 mm Fan (£5.99)
Case Fan: ARCTIC P12 PST 56.3 CFM 120 mm Fan (£5.99)
Total: £1190.14
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-12-06 01:39 GMT+0000

CPU: i5-10600KF is pretty much the 2nd-best gaming CPU (after 5600X)
CPU cooler: Get regular Mugen 5 instead of PCGH - fan is better.
Motherboard: The only place where you can't cheap out UNLESS you swap the CPU to i7-10700F & B460 mobo (no CPU overclocking) or Ryzen 5-3600XT + B550 mobo.
RAM: Should be €72.59 direct from Crucial.
GPU: Just enough to upgrade to EVGA RTX 2060. If they release 3060 within 90 days you should be eligible for Step-Up programme.
PSU: Fractal 650W is in-stock on Scan. It's SFX-L but fits, guaranteed.
Fans: Noctua fans are dumb. Buy Arctic P12 PWM PST(£5-6 each / £23-for-5 on Scan). Make sure they are PST so you can daisy-chain the power leads.
*edit: Get 4 fans, not 3.
2x intake for GPU
1x front intake
1x rear exhaust

Or 3 fans & swap CPU tower for a 120mm AIO.

Lumen

Fantastic, thanks KOK. That's some part picking wizardry right there!

Unfortunately the two 2060 cards on the Step-Up programme appear to be discontinued.

I might just do the build with whatever creaky old card he's running at the moment until RTX 3070 availability improves.

Lumen

So I followed K.O.K's spec and ordered

Case, motherboard, CPU cooler and fans from Amazon.
CPU, SSD from CCL.
RAM from Crucial.
PSU from Scan.

I'll keep an eye out for GPUs over the next week or so. I have an alert set up with stockinformer.co.uk, so who knows...

What are the odds that I'll need the PSU extension cables Andrew76 mentioned above? Are they easy enough to pick up around Dublin on short notice?

Andrew76

Lumen wrote: »

So I followed K.O.K's spec and ordered

Case, motherboard, CPU cooler and fans from Amazon.
CPU, SSD from CCL.
RAM from Crucial.
PSU from Scan.

I'll keep an eye out for GPUs over the next week or so. I have an alert set up with stockinformer.co.uk, so who knows...

What are the odds that I'll need the PSU extension cables Andrew76 mentioned above? Are they easy enough to pick up around Dublin on short notice?

Looking at the link KO posted, you might not need them - it shows a Fractal SFX-L PSU and the mounting position in your case is nice and close to the mobo.

@K.O.Kiki - curious why you say Noctua fans are dumb? You mean the five euro Artic's do just as good a job?

Lumen

Another noob question: when picking upper mid range GPUs e.g. 3070 when they finally appear, do I need to be careful about the number of slots they take up, or other aspects of their dimensions? I see there are 2 and 3 slot versions of many cards.

K.O.Kiki

Andrew76 wrote: »

@K.O.Kiki - curious why you say Noctua fans are dumb? You mean the five euro Artic's do just as good a job?

Arctic P12 fans are 95% as good as Noctuas for a fraction of the price.
Also, their PST connector is more suited to mini-ITX builds where PWM fan headers are at a premium.

Lumen wrote: »

Another noob question: when picking upper mid range GPUs e.g. 3070 when they finally appear, do I need to be careful about the number of slots they take up, or other aspects of their dimensions? I see there are 2 and 3 slot versions of many cards.

2-slot cards should fit together with regular fans.
2.5-slot might be ok with special 15mm "thin" fans.
That case supports up to 3-slot width.

Lumen

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

2-slot cards should fit together with regular fans.
2.5-slot might be ok with special 15mm "thin" fans.
That case supports up to 3-slot width.

Thanks.

The current card is an PALIT 2GB GEFORCE GTX 750 TI STORMX DUAL.

Will that still work in this new setup, at least temporarily?

K.O.Kiki

Yes it's only 2-slot.

Lumen

So I managed to nab myself a 3070 (specifically a MSI GeForce RTX 3070 Gaming X Trio), but in my haste I forgot to check the dimensions and pcpartpicker says it's 3mm too long for the case. :rolleyes:

I have various tools for cutting holes in things, so I don't imagine it'll be a problem.

Obviously I could get a bigger case, but that would be making life too easy :pac:

Also, Crucial is giving me the runaround over memory too; I ordered when it was showing in stock, then they emailed me to say it was out. 2020 still has a bit more bullsh!t to give...

edit: OK, on further research that particular 3070 appears to be not only very long but also a triple slot, so I cancelled it.

K.O.Kiki

FYI I found Arctic fans (non-PST) for €4 on MemoryC.ie

Lumen

Thanks for all the suggestions.

All the parts arrived in plenty of time and we did the build on Christmas morning. Drivers and OS took longer to get sorted than the physical build!

I put in a 3070 Founders Edition which worked out perfectly from an airflow and size perspective. The 3070 FE sucks in cool air from under the case and blows it out through the back, so the two case fans (front and back) are probably only dealing with 150W or so. Found a vid with some tests of different fan configurations which suggested bottom intake fans didn't add anything.

Forgot to take pics during the build, but the CPU cooler looks really sweet twinkling through the glass side panel. PS4 underneath for scale.

I haven't tried any CPU overclocking yet but with everything stock it runs like a dream at 1440p with eye candy maxed out, cool and quiet at over 100fps. The contrast with the PS4 is ridiculous.

Downloaded AC Valhalla but haven't been able to get him off it long enough to play. And now the bloody school restart is postponed!

Might have to build one for myself when the RTX 4000 series comes out...