Square One It Is Then...

Per the last post I fired up my old computer to see if anything was salvageable. As it turns out nothing was.

When my buddy and I turned the old machine on it gave a constant high-pitched beep, much like one would expect to hear from a flatlining patient in any good hospital drama. We checked online and that noise tends to indicate that there has been some sort of catastrophic failure with the motherboard: something has overheated, melted, and the whole thing is now fucked. Bad Times.

So that means I'm working with a completely clean slate when it comes to this project. Nothing will be used from the old machine; I'm even getting rid of my gaudy, plexiglass-sided case and going for something more living room friendly.

The upshot of this is that it will give a much more transparent view (pun?) of what the build actually costs.

Cost is an important consideration in this project. It's not a limiting factor as such, I have some disposable income each month (yes, it really should be going to the wedding fund and our flat needs a new carpet, but god dammit I want to play The Witcher 3!), however, the whole point of the project is to match/beat XBONE/PS4 performance with a PC for around the same price. This means that while in theory I could afford Nvidia's latest monstrosity known as the Titan, I won't be using it in this build because I could buy an Xbox, a PS4, and take a short holiday abroad for the same price.

So what is my upper cost limit? That varies depending on how much I've been playing about with options on PC Part Picker, but it should really be based on the PS4 and XBONE prices, which are £324 and £278 respectively.

At first I said: fine, £300 is the average between the two, so that's the cost limit. It makes sense, but here's the thing: investing a bit more just now will mean the rig will stay relevant for longer. The current build I have weighs in at £450.00 and should last a good long while. It should vastly out-perform the current gen consoles and when the next gen comes out there is room for improvement, hopefully without having to completely rebuild the whole computer.

Details to follow. I'm finalising the parts list and am aiming to order at the end of this month (after the credit card bill has been paid).

Until then,

Steve

The Challenge

Welcome to The Reasonable Rig.

This blog is about my quest to build a gaming rig that keeps up with the latest console equivalents, and matches or beats them in price.

Why?

Several reasons:

1. I'm a gamer, always have been, maybe always will be, and I want to be able to enjoy the latest games in the best way possible.

2. I like tinkering with stuff.

3. I want to be as financially efficient as possible, which doesn't necessarily mean going for the cheapest option, but going for the option that provides most bang for buck. This includes considerations such as me being easily persuaded to pay a little bit more for the next step up in quality if I can afford it, and including an element of future-proofing.

Why Now?

Because of this bullshit:

As you can see, a PS3, Xbox 360, Gamecube, Nintendo 3DS owner like myself is shit out of luck. I do own a MacBook (I gather that many people will now be navigating away from this blog on the basis of that revelation, so it's best to be up front about it) and it tries hard. I have no problem playing Civ V and Cities: Skylines, but for games where things like graphics and frame rates are important I don't think it will be up to the task.

Why Blog About It?

To document the process, and because I like writing (see sidebar).

Are You Starting From Square One?

Maybe.

A few years ago I had a fairly good gaming PC, but then a part of it broke. I didn't have the knowledge to work out what broke it myself, couldn't find anything online, and didn't have the money to pay someone to check it out. It's been gathering dust at my mum's house ever since.

Since then I have gained a buddy who is much more knowledgable than me in such matters, and I am in employment, so can replace whatever needs replacing, and upgrade whatever needs upgrading.

The tech in the old machine is pretty outdated, so I expect the majority will need replaced (if it still works at all). At very least I'm hoping to be able to salvage the SSD for the new machine's operating system.

So that's my job for today. I'm about to head into work to get caught up on the stuff I didn't get finished last week (a wonderful use of my Sunday) and then head over to see the aforementioned buddy to try and resurrect this bitch.

I shall report back soon.

Steve.