![]() However, from a future-proofing perspective, B550 is definitely a more sensible option overall. There are also cheaper mini-ITX boards available, too, especially if you opt for a B450 AM4 chipset instead of a newer B550 board. Yes, it costs a whopping £300, but it does come with its own built-in power supply and all-in-one cooler, making things nice and easy from a building point of view. Not only does it stand upright in a very Series X-like fashion, but the hundreds of holes on its sides and rear also mimic the Xbox's top concave vent. There are also considerably cheaper mini-ITX cases available if you wanted to try building your own tiddly Xbox rival, but as I was going for the most Series X-like design I could find, there was really only one choice: NZXT's H1. Instead, I settled for my trusty (if immensely slow) primary WD Green SATA drive for Windows, and my 1TB WD Black 3D NVMe PCIe 3.0 SSD because that's the one with all my benchmark games on it. The closest equivalent to the Series X's 1TB PCIe 4.0 drive would probably be something like Samsung's 980 Pro, but my review sample from last month has long since been returned to the folks at Samsung. ![]() Likewise, my choice of storage also leaves a lot to be desired. Getting a motherboard with built-in Wi-Fi was important to replicate the Series X's wireless capabilities. I did try putting an RTX 3070 in there, but it was just too gosh-darn large to fit inside the case. Similarly, I probably would have chosen AMD's cheaper Radeon RX 6800 instead of the more expensive Radeon RX 6800 XT, but I don't currently have one in for testing. Still, the 3600X is the only Zen 2 I've still got kicking around. For example, while the custom AMD Zen 2 CPU inside the Xbox Series X doesn't have a completely identical desktop counterpart, its 8 cores and 3.8GHz clock speed probably put it closer to AMD's Ryzen 7 3700X than the Ryzen 5 3600X. I've tried to match the Series X's spec as closely as possible, but even I'm willing to admit that it's far from perfect and there are plenty of substitutions I would make if I had more components to hand. The rest was pilfered from other test systems I have in my home office. Motherboard: MSI MPG B550I Gaming Edge Wi-FiĪ big thank you to the kind folks at Overclockers UK and MSI for providing me with the NZXT H1 case and MPG B550I Gaming Edge Wi-Fi motherboard for this feature.SSD: WD Green (250GB), WD Black 3D NVMe (1TB).RAM: 16GB TeamGroup Vulcan TUF Gaming Alliance 3200MHz.Matching it on power, however, that we can do. In short, matching the Series X on price just isn't possible. ![]() That's half your console cost gone already, and then there's still the matter of a 4K capable graphics card, a decent CPU, RAM, a power supply and a case to think about, too. To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Īfter all, most mini-ITX motherboards cost at least £100 these days, if not slightly more, as do most 1TB NVMe SSDs - if not considerably more if you're after one with PCIe 4.0 support. Initially, I was going to try and put together a list of components that cost the same amount of money as the Series X, but as you may have already surmised from the header image of this piece, I quickly realised that was going to be pretty much impossible. It will cost you considerably more than Microsoft's £450 / $500 console box, but throwing price to the wind for the moment, I hereby present: how to build an Xbox PC.Īt its heart, this PC is essentially a mini-ITX build inside the most Xbox-like case I could find. While the Xbox Series X is certainly a lot more convenient than the full-sized tower PC plonked next to my TV, was it possible to build a similarly tiddly PC that could rival the Series X's 4K gaming chops? Readers, it is. While it doesn't provide all the luxuries we're used to on PC, there's no denying that it's an impressive bit of kit for its size and price.īut then I got thinking. In my Xbox Series X review last week, I said Microsoft's new diddy 4K powerhouse console was probably the best and cheapest way of bringing a PC-like gaming experience into your living room as a second machine.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |