A lot of these have the Intel HD4000 integrated graphics. I know that hard-core gamers will immediately scoff, and I honestly recoil from on-board graphics but there are articles that show that games like Skyrim and Battlefield are playable and still exceed console graphics.
Those Little micro PC’s are good for extending your PC gaming experience to the living room by streaming games from an actual gaming PC. Actually if you wanted to do that, you can go even cheaper than that. I’ve seen micro PC’s capable of streaming 1080p video for half that much.
But they are closed systems and aren’t going to provide you with a good gaming experience on their own, certainly not into the future. Intel HD 4000 level of graphics is on par with last gen consoles in some games, but not in all, and it won’t match a current gen console.
You’re way better off investing in something like a Mini ITX case and mobo. Check out these cute little guys:
Coupled with a modern i3 + say a 750 ti and you’ve got a MUCH more capable machine, one that is currently outperforming the PS4 in most games and shouldn’t cost more than $500-$600. No way will you find that kind of performance on a laptop for less than $900. And more importantly, it remains upgradable. You can pick up a modern i7 and a more powerful GPU in the future for way betetr gaming performance than current consoles.
Before I bought my massive gaming laptop I was running Windows on my Macbook Pro non-Retina with HD4000 graphics (with Ivy Bridge i5 2.5 Ghz processor and 16GB RAM) and I was very surprised at what I could run on it. Batman: Arkham Asylum, Hitman: Absolution, Tomb Raider, all very graphics-intensive games, all ran quite well at low to very low graphics settings (but they still looked good and were very playable). A newer machine with an i5 processor and the newer Haswell integrated GPUs should be able to easily handle any older games you have.
Yeah, I was going to say, even if you don’t want a discreet GPU right now, since you aren’t planning on playing very demanding games yet, with the mini-itx case you can STILL have that option of going discreet at some point in the future. You can have that intel HD gaming now for even cheaper, and have that really amazing discreet GPU gaming experience later on.
As it happens I recently helped a co-worker build out a budget PC. This is mostly what I gave him except for the case (which he already had).
This is just a sample build and comes in at $770 (I was aiming for $750). It is entirely possible to bring that price down further. Particularly on the case and video card (or no video card needed…has embedded AMD HD 3000 graphics on the board) and power supply. If you want to game with anything remotely modern a dedicated video card is a must.
I personally do not believe in building the absolute cheapest thing you can get. You always pay for it in the long run (which is what happened to my co-worker). Decent components for a little extra money go a long way and are, in my view, worth the money.
That said there is reality and if you only have $500 in your pocket to spend then you need to get the price down.
This system should be able to easily handle anything you throw at it.
Yeah, Valve touting those things so early in the console cycle never made sense to me. PC prices were just not competitive, and the OS still had a long ways to go.
I think 2016 is more likely when we’ll see a big push for those machines, and that’s when they will make sense.
Manufacturers should be able to hit something like a $500 price point for a pre-built machine that is easily twice the power of a current console.
That sounds more appealing to me than paying high prices for low end machines of a year ago.
By 2016 $500 will be twice the PRICE of the PS4/XBone. PS4 can already be got for 350. If you don't think it'll shave off some more by 2016…
As a result, they will remain a niche product - valuable to people who want a small, relatively powerful PC, and still worthless to people who want a console.
I think there will be variability in price and performance. I bet you will be able to pick up something with the power of a Ps4 for less money.
And at that price point it might indeed entice the unwashed masses, but I think PC gaming will always mostly be about the hard core gamer, and it is they who are likely to give PC gaming a shot at lower prices, specially when they offer so much more power/performance.
Wow, yeah that definitely looks like the way to go…I showed my wife some pictures and she actually like the way they look too! How old is that mini-ITX format? I don’t recall it being a thing when I built my last one.
That look nice, but it’s more than I need or care to spend. Cost isn’t really a limiting factor; I can spend whatever I want. I just won’t pull all of the utility available from a $2500 machine.
Do I need an 8-core processor? Nah, nor a $200 video card. That said, I probably will not rely on the on-board graphics. Certainly don’t need a TB HD, but damn they’re cheap so why not, right?
I built my last monster with future upgrades in mind, and I upgraded…nothin’.
Ah hell, I’ll probably mostly go with that config after all, I think. Those are screamin’ deals, I’m having a hard time trying to reasonably shave off $$.
Probably go with this case though, because it’s smaller and not have an internal optical drive.
Remember that 8-core is an AMD processor. Frankly it is an outstanding value. You can save a few bucks though on a 6-core if you prefer. With AMD that is not as overkill as it seems (Intel’s 6-core is a premium cost CPU).
$200 video cards are not overkill if you want to play modern AAA titles. That price is the “sweet spot” for video cards. Basically the place where you get the most bang for your $$$. You can certainly go cheaper but will suffer performance issues. You can go more expensive but pay a premium for it.
Low (1080): $100-150
Med (1080): $150-190
High (1080): $190-280
Med (1440): $280-350
High (1440): $350
Max (1440): $580+
SOURCE: Anandtech
As you can see a $200 video card is not splurging. It is a solid card at a good price. The embedded video card is fine if you never game but its limitations will be apparent very quickly if you do game.
I agree about the hard drive but at that price can’t really complain.
And if you built a monster machine it is not surprising you never upgraded…you never had to. My co-worker built a cheap as can be PC and about 1 year later had me add so much new stuff to it that it was no longer a “cheap” PC. If he’d gone with my spec originally he would have paid more but in that year’s time he would have saved about $350.
Just consider heat dissipation can be an issue (one reason I picked that more expensive case). Also make sure that the heatsink and video card can fit the case you choose (particularly true for micro-ATX cases.).
True, make sure everything is going to fit. Try and look on youtube or google for reviews of the case, or even better a build with the same components you want to use.
The good news is that GPu’s are getting smaller, not larger, and they are drawing less power and therefore producing less heat.
O-P-T-I-C-A-L drive? Of what forgotten lore do you speak of sir?
The only time I used my optical drive is when I had to install windows. I ended up just picking up a cheap external slim one and storing that, bringing it out the one time a year I need it cause my mom got all the holiday pictures put into a CD for some reason.
Read up and it has no optical drive slot. You could use a CD drive plugged in with the cover off to do your initial install then unplug it once the OS and whatever else you have on CDs is installed. Unless you have particular need of one it is easy to get by without it. Or just don’t buy the CD drive and get a big USB.
