PC reccommendation - will this do?
- Thread starter Honecker
- Start date
For Nvidia GTX cards, the 2nd digit is very important (the 1st digit is significant too) but you probably want at least x5x (e.g. 750Ti) for a budget box, better x6x or higher.
The main point is that it's a pc that will last and is up-gradable. With a decent i5 and a 970 he should be set for a couple of years and if he wants to upgrade the mobo he can in future. It's not even a bad mobo, it's cheap because it lacks features not build quality.
My other point is by spending an extra 150 quid now he'll have something that will last far longer than the 500 quid build.
Alright. I will be the one that makes a reasonable budget gaming system. Please note, this is in USD so Euro may varies from the stores you are looking at on where you live.
CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor - $62.99
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9i 57.5 CFM CPU Cooler - $44.99
Motherboard: Asus H87M-E Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard - $71.98
Memory: G.Skill Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory - $59.99
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive - $66.87
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Superclocked Video Card - $124.99
Case: Fractal Design Core 1300 MicroATX Mini Tower Case - $37.99
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply - $39.99
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer - $19.79
Total: $529.58
I throw in a DVD writer for good measure, in case, you need it for install the OS and burning some backups.
CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor - $62.99
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9i 57.5 CFM CPU Cooler - $44.99
Motherboard: Asus H87M-E Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard - $71.98
Memory: G.Skill Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory - $59.99
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive - $66.87
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Superclocked Video Card - $124.99
Case: Fractal Design Core 1300 MicroATX Mini Tower Case - $37.99
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply - $39.99
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer - $19.79
Total: $529.58
I throw in a DVD writer for good measure, in case, you need it for install the OS and burning some backups.
Nice but you do have lower prices for computer parts in the States than we do in the UK. All of your prices are around 30% cheaper than we can get them here.
The superclocked Geforce card you state is 117.49 UK Pounds here for the genuine Nvidia compared to the 80.46 UK Pounds your US Dollars price converts to. The cheapest you can get that card here is from Zotak for 102.97 UK pounds but it's not superclocked. I have the Nvidia one myself.
Intel processors are not often preferred by gamers, majority of high end game rigs use AMD. Also, before I got my new PC, I had a AMD 4 core 3.1GHz with 16Gb Ram and the same GTX 750 Ti graphic card and it still stuttered a bit, dual core processors don't cut it any more for games, you need at least 4 cores now. Finally, Windows has a peculiar problem with drives over 1Tb. It keeps having to scan the drive before it will access it, which can take up 30 seconds or more and can cause lag in your game while Windows does one of it's unnecessary background tasks like suddenly deciding to check if google needs updating. Therefore a boot drive of more than 1 Tb is ill advised. Most people are now using SSD's for boot drives now that the price has dropped and larger disks as data drives, it makes booting faster and also allows Windows to do it's background stuff faster so it causes less lag in games.
My Rig:
AMD FX 6350 6 core 3900 MHz
Team elite 16Gb (2 x 8Gb) DDR3-1600 Ram PC3-12800 CL11 + heatsink
ASRock Fatal1ty 990Fx Killer Motherboard
Aerocool DS200 noise dampening case
Antec Edge 80+ Gold Certified modular PSU 13.5cm FDB fan 750W
Dual output Sata card (motherboards only have 4 Sata ports).
4x 2Tb Sata HDD
1x 1Tb Sata HDD
1x 320gb SSD
Dual drive NAS
1x 2Tb Sata
1x 3Tb Sata
What can I say, I'm a heavy disk user
But I bet I have more disk space than the FD server for Elite.On a side note, you can get by with 8Gb Ram but consider upgrading to 16Gb later to reduce swap file lag and remember that it's also better to have matching memory sticks rather than several of different makes. Each manufacturer has a very slight speed tolerance so you can cause more problems with lots of mixed brand memory than you had with far less memory.
Already answered that question :
You realise you recommended a dual core cpu when ED requires quad
This is a great start for cpu picking :
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,review-32901.html
The equivalent for GP's :
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-graphics-card-review,review-32899.html
You shouldn't need more than 8gb ram for gaming.
My nr2 PC (for Elite Dangerous) has an AMD cpu and Nvidia videocard and run ED very well on 1080p maxed, and its a rather cheap one.
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-AMD 8350 8core @ 4ghz
-Nvidia GTX660 2GB
-8GB Corsair Dominator RAM (no need for more unless you want to enter the video editing profession. People tend to buy too much of this for no reason)
-Standard 500GB HDD (no long loading times in ED for me. Perhaps the small stutter that comes with loading planet textures can be eliminated with SSD. If you can afford it - get it)
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You can get any fairly cheap motherboard that have the cpu socket. Stations in ED are around 50-60FPS except the ones like in SOL/moon/GALLILEO station (bright with trees etc) where it can dip to 35FPS. Its ok though since you just sit there and mock about with the menues. Space is always 60FPS (vsync on - completely smooth) and combat in asteroid belts are usually 60FPS with dips to 50FPS. Its true that AMD is usually a bit weaker for gaming compared to Intel, but if you dont have a big budget then AMD can get you there. It will give you decent power with more cash to spend on the videocard. Luckily ED doesnt seem to be very cpu hungry except for in that station model (lots of model detail). This machine wont be so future proof though, but if its ED you want to play and dont care about other upcoming titles then its not a bad choice. With 500 pounds you can probably get an even better AMD cpu and maybe a little better videocard/RAM/HDD/SSD.
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Just posted this as a mark to aim for/from. That you know how ED plays with this type of system. So if you can step up any of the parts from here you know you will be golden.
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-AMD 8350 8core @ 4ghz
-Nvidia GTX660 2GB
-8GB Corsair Dominator RAM (no need for more unless you want to enter the video editing profession. People tend to buy too much of this for no reason)
-Standard 500GB HDD (no long loading times in ED for me. Perhaps the small stutter that comes with loading planet textures can be eliminated with SSD. If you can afford it - get it)
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You can get any fairly cheap motherboard that have the cpu socket. Stations in ED are around 50-60FPS except the ones like in SOL/moon/GALLILEO station (bright with trees etc) where it can dip to 35FPS. Its ok though since you just sit there and mock about with the menues. Space is always 60FPS (vsync on - completely smooth) and combat in asteroid belts are usually 60FPS with dips to 50FPS. Its true that AMD is usually a bit weaker for gaming compared to Intel, but if you dont have a big budget then AMD can get you there. It will give you decent power with more cash to spend on the videocard. Luckily ED doesnt seem to be very cpu hungry except for in that station model (lots of model detail). This machine wont be so future proof though, but if its ED you want to play and dont care about other upcoming titles then its not a bad choice. With 500 pounds you can probably get an even better AMD cpu and maybe a little better videocard/RAM/HDD/SSD.
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Just posted this as a mark to aim for/from. That you know how ED plays with this type of system. So if you can step up any of the parts from here you know you will be golden.
My recommendation:
Buy a used rig. You get better value for money, and a system that is prebuilt and tested.
Then you can save your money and buy a proper rig later on, instead of rebuilding a system based on year-old standards.
E doesn't really have much system requirements. I play on a Q9550, 8GB RAM, GTX670 with full details.
Buy a used rig. You get better value for money, and a system that is prebuilt and tested.
Then you can save your money and buy a proper rig later on, instead of rebuilding a system based on year-old standards.
E
doesn't really have much system requirements. I play on a Q9550, 8GB RAM, GTX670 with full details.Nice but you do have lower prices for computer parts in the States than we do in the UK. All of your prices are around 30% cheaper than we can get them here.
The superclocked Geforce card you state is 117.49 UK Pounds here for the genuine Nvidia compared to the 80.46 UK Pounds your US Dollars price converts to. The cheapest you can get that card here is from Zotak for 102.97 UK pounds but it's not superclocked. I have the Nvidia one myself.
Intel processors are not often preferred by gamers, majority of high end game rigs use AMD. Also, before I got my new PC, I had a AMD 4 core 3.1GHz with 16Gb Ram and the same GTX 750 Ti graphic card and it still stuttered a bit, dual core processors don't cut it any more for games, you need at least 4 cores now. Finally, Windows has a peculiar problem with drives over 1Tb. It keeps having to scan the drive before it will access it, which can take up 30 seconds or more and can cause lag in your game while Windows does one of it's unnecessary background tasks like suddenly deciding to check if google needs updating. Therefore a boot drive of more than 1 Tb is ill advised. Most people are now using SSD's for boot drives now that the price has dropped and larger disks as data drives, it makes booting faster and also allows Windows to do it's background stuff faster so it causes less lag in games.
My Rig:
AMD FX 6350 6 core 3900 MHz
Team elite 16Gb (2 x 8Gb) DDR3-1600 Ram PC3-12800 CL11 + heatsink
ASRock Fatal1ty 990Fx Killer Motherboard
Aerocool DS200 noise dampening case
Antec Edge 80+ Gold Certified modular PSU 13.5cm FDB fan 750W
Dual output Sata card (motherboards only have 4 Sata ports).
4x 2Tb Sata HDD
1x 1Tb Sata HDD
1x 320gb SSD
Dual drive NAS
1x 2Tb Sata
1x 3Tb Sata
What can I say, I'm a heavy disk user
On a side note, you can get by with 8Gb Ram but consider upgrading to 16Gb later to reduce swap file lag and remember that it's also better to have matching memory sticks rather than several of different makes. Each manufacturer has a very slight speed tolerance so you can cause more problems with lots of mixed brand memory than you had with far less memory.
Yea, I know the price difference between EU and USA but there isn't any EU store that provides an accurate pricing on computer parts. Unless OP provides the country of origin, it is time consuming to go through each country. xD
I only choose this Intel CPU because it is budget based and it have a huge potential on overclocking.
You realise you recommended a dual core cpu when ED requires quadAlready answered that question :
This is a great start for cpu picking :
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,review-32901.html
The equivalent for GP's :
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-graphics-card-review,review-32899.html
You shouldn't need more than 8gb ram for gaming.
Well, extreme budget means sacrifices and recommendation can be exaggerated. In fact, one of my friend have a dual core and still can play ED. I need to check it out to see if it is true.
Adding my 2p, just to reinforce the sensible suggestions.
The OP spec has one major defect, namely the integrated graphics, which may just work but isn't the best use of your money to get the best experience within your budget.
Any quad CPU will be fine, Intel or AMD.
For a 1080p monitor @ 60Hz, the GTX 750 Ti is the lowest spec I would consider for decent no worries performance, and it has the advantage of being cool, quiet, low on power requirements and reasonably priced.
Up a level, with a 600W+ ish power supply, the R9 280 is good value at the moment, or the 280x if there's budget and room in the case.
A higher resolution monitor will always want a better graphics card, 750 Ti or R9 280 will never struggle to cope with 1080p.
So the three components to concentrate on combining properly are power supply (recommend branded 600W, not generic), graphics card (recommend a 2-slot R9 280 for budget, performance, cooling and some longevity), and monitor (1080). If you change one of these, the other two need to be looked at carefully. Bigger monitor resolution means higher powered graphics card means more expensive PSU.
Budget also for a cheap (Logitech > Saitek at the budget end imo) joystick if you don't have one. Save up for an edtracker.
The OP spec has one major defect, namely the integrated graphics, which may just work but isn't the best use of your money to get the best experience within your budget.
Any quad CPU will be fine, Intel or AMD.
For a 1080p monitor @ 60Hz, the GTX 750 Ti is the lowest spec I would consider for decent no worries performance, and it has the advantage of being cool, quiet, low on power requirements and reasonably priced.
Up a level, with a 600W+ ish power supply, the R9 280 is good value at the moment, or the 280x if there's budget and room in the case.
A higher resolution monitor will always want a better graphics card, 750 Ti or R9 280 will never struggle to cope with 1080p.
So the three components to concentrate on combining properly are power supply (recommend branded 600W, not generic), graphics card (recommend a 2-slot R9 280 for budget, performance, cooling and some longevity), and monitor (1080). If you change one of these, the other two need to be looked at carefully. Bigger monitor resolution means higher powered graphics card means more expensive PSU.
Budget also for a cheap (Logitech > Saitek at the budget end imo) joystick if you don't have one. Save up for an edtracker.
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Okay. So I went to my friend's house to look at rig to see if it is true and the answer is yes. I even try it out myself and, although a bit more laggish than one of my lowest quad core spec rig, it is still very playable. I even went by house and set my quad core to a dual core for tha game and the experience is no different from my friend's rig. So can you play the game in dual core and the answer is yes.
My friend's spec:
CPU: Intel Pentium Core i3-2130 Sandy Bridge 3.4 GHz
Motherboard: MSI H67A-G43 ATX LGA1155
Memory: 2 x 4GB G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3-1600
Storage: Intel 730 240 GB SSD (He got a 2TB HDD for storage but that is not important)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti SC
Power Supply: Fractal Design Integra R2 500W 80 Plus Bronze
I'm sure you can but it's not recommended. I was close to maxing out the game on my old rig, an i7930, 6 gig ram and a 660ti or 680gtx. My point still stands though, if you're buying pc parts you want to future proof. That was the reason why I spend the extra few quid on a 930 over a 920 all those years ago.
I can run this game on my system @1080 res on ultra limited to 30fps (and rock steady at 30) and my system is fairly basic; Sandy bridge i5 2400 with a Radeon 260x.
I have a few stats for those interested in terms of loads;
CPU load: 95%
GPU load: 30%
This was in the orbital so they are.much lower when flying around space etc.
Hope this helps to show that this game doesn't need much CPU and can perform sufficiently on a basic mainstream GPU.
It's important to note that this is limiting framerates, if I would unlimited them I would imagine they would dip below 30 occasionally and the CPU would be up to about 40% load.
Might also be worth noting that I have EDTracker running through open track and voice attack listening too, these could affect CPU loads.
I have a few stats for those interested in terms of loads;
CPU load: 95%
GPU load: 30%
This was in the orbital so they are.much lower when flying around space etc.
Hope this helps to show that this game doesn't need much CPU and can perform sufficiently on a basic mainstream GPU.
It's important to note that this is limiting framerates, if I would unlimited them I would imagine they would dip below 30 occasionally and the CPU would be up to about 40% load.
Might also be worth noting that I have EDTracker running through open track and voice attack listening too, these could affect CPU loads.
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That is the problem! This might be his MAXIMUM budget and he can't spread the budget anymore. It is possible that is how much he saved after 5 years or this is how much the family member is willing for him to spend, we don't know but that is the limit and we should respect that. Bombarding "future-proof" and overly-expensive parts is teasing, or even bullying, him. We should really respect his budget and stop giving him a dream he might not get. :/
Or he can wait 2 more years to save additional 100 euro but that is up to him, not us.
Sorry for the late response, but I missed your post yesterday....
Cheap motherboards are designed under the specs required but marginally. Capacitors and cirquits are adequate for a low end cpu. It will post and work for a while with a big cpu and vga, but after some time it will become unstable. Meaning that there will be BSODs and random crashes.
The majority of the PCs that reach our service are megacomputerstore's "OFFERS" that are made exactly like this. With big specs and the cheapest "non-advertisable" parts. They work for some time and depending on how heavily they are used, they start sooner or later to fall apart....
I am not a fan of High End mobos/ parts either. I believe that every part is design for a specific demand and for that it should be used.
As a guideline, I recommend for entry gaming, a computer like our friend who started this thread suggested. For average gaming, an i5 with a 100 euro motherboard and a 200 euro VGA will do nicely and even for a good gaming PC I would suggest a limit of 1000 euro for the whole Unit. A unit more expensive, although desirable, is not a good investment....
If you do want a budget PC bundle there is stuff like this out there:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fierce-PC-C...UTF8&qid=1425055847&sr=8-2&keywords=computers
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fierce-PC-C...d=1425055972&sr=8-7&keywords=gaming+computers
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fierce-Bull...425056208&sr=1-6105&keywords=gaming+computers
Won't break the bank and it will play top end games, but it is not the best you can get by any means.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fierce-PC-C...UTF8&qid=1425055847&sr=8-2&keywords=computers
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fierce-PC-C...d=1425055972&sr=8-7&keywords=gaming+computers
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fierce-Bull...425056208&sr=1-6105&keywords=gaming+computers
Won't break the bank and it will play top end games, but it is not the best you can get by any means.
The third of these looks like it fits the bill, a CPU good enough for Elite while having a good socket for upgrades (will take an i5 etc.) And you have enough money to replace the GPU within the budget! Ideal I would say.
It might be that's the think. It also might not and it's better to educate people on false economy than it is to stick to a strict budget.
As I mentioned before, the price of the mobo wasn't due to being a cheap and cheerful brand it was because of the lack of features on the mobo. It has a single gfx slot, 2 ram slots, micro atx, only 2 sata 6gb, has a serial port as it's old tech and no hdmi. It retailed for a lot more when it first came out and has good ratings on most sites.
http://us.msi.com/product/mb/H81MP33.html#hero-overview
Whilst I don't own a pc shop I've been building pc's since 2000 and been paid to build a lot of gaming rigs and full on video/audio pcs over the last few years so I do know what I'm talking about.
I agree with your concerns about cheap and cheerful parts but in this case I did my homework. I personally would recommend a decent mobo around the 80 quid range but that would bring the cost up to around 700. 700 is still a good build for the price though and would last a good few years.