Hardware & Technical Computer Build to run Elite Dangerous

[Dusty]

Word of advice when buying a gaming machine is to buy a gaming machine or one with the best possible CPU GPU CPU-cooler and power supply upgrading the Hard-drive and Ram can be done cheaply.

Trying to cut corners by buying a home or business PC for gaming and throwing in the upgrades may seem cheaper at first but its a headache and the saving isn't much since your forced to hunt around for low profile CPU cooler fans and small form graphics cards.

If you have a home/business micro ATX cases and want a better or high end GPU your looking at

MSI HD 7850 OC 2048MB
ZOTAC brands
Asus GeForce GTX 670 Mini 2048MB which should fits into a ITX mini form factor as well.

I hope these words of wisdom help

 

[Abysinth]

The 2011 platform with its quad channel memory is rather irrelevant for gaming - actually, many think the z87 chipset is a better improvement than haswell CPU was. Nevertheless, the i7-4960X is probably the most powerful CPU for Extreme performance.

But the added complexity and cost is not really worthwhile for the vast majority.

If you go for a Z87 i7 (4770k@4.6ghz+) with watercooled xfire 290x, 32GB of 2400 DDR3, 2 raid 0 250Gb SSD you are already going so overboard ...

Perhaps I've misunderstood. I understood that dual channel RAM is faster, and therefore, better than single channel. It follows, then, that quad channel will be faster still. Why does that make it irrelevant?

Oh, OK, I read up. It would seem that games tend to be GPU bound rather than CPU or RAM bound. Sigh, there's always the next bottleneck!

So for best GPU surely the 40 lane PCI-e on the 2011 processors will be worth investing in...

 

[Norbert]

Perhaps I've misunderstood. I understood that dual channel RAM is faster, and therefore, better than single channel. It follows, then, that quad channel will be faster still. Why does that make it irrelevant?

Oh, OK, I read up. It would seem that games tend to be GPU bound rather than CPU or RAM bound. Sigh, there's always the next bottleneck!

So for best GPU surely the 40 lane PCI-e on the 2011 processors will be worth investing in...

Well it depends which game. X Rebirth was the other way around, having people with high end machines running the game poorly because of processors being less updated than GPUs on their rigs. Hopefully, ED will do it right!

 

[Shadow]

Welp here goes my build I guess.

HAF XB Cooler Master Case (excellent case if you want to try something new/different(it's not really new))
16 GB 1866 mhz ddr3 RAM
Intel i7 4770k CPU
Asetek 570LX cooling system for the fore mentioned item.
Radeon R9 290x 4gb reference card

The neat thing about my current setup is that the GPUs are side by side, not up and down. Heat rises of course allowing the hot air to go straight out of the case while minimally touching the other GPU I plan on getting. I'm planning on getting a non reference R9 290x to go along with the one I have. The reference cooler will of course be on the output of the non reference, as the reference runs quite hot. I'm also anticipating the new ram coming out soon.. although I'd have to replace my mobo

*side note* If the reference card hinders performance I will slap a accelero xtreme iii onto it (vRAM cooling on coolers like the xtreme iii, prolimatech, gelid icy vision, etc are terrible and can also be a pain.)... Hopefully it won't come to that. Also the accelero takes up a slot so I wouldn't be able to tri-fire in the future if I wanted... but I doubt I would be doing that anyways. If I came to the point where I needed to use 3 GPUs it's time to buy new ones.

 

[SnowGhost]

Perhaps I've misunderstood. I understood that dual channel RAM is faster, and therefore, better than single channel. It follows, then, that quad channel will be faster still. Why does that make it irrelevant?

Oh, OK, I read up. It would seem that games tend to be GPU bound rather than CPU or RAM bound. Sigh, there's always the next bottleneck!

So for best GPU surely the 40 lane PCI-e on the 2011 processors will be worth investing in...

Maybe. But you pay a lot extra for a very small (probably irrelevant) amount of extra performance.

All you need in a new system in late 2013 is
a socket 1150 motherboard
an intel i5 4670 (non k)
8 G RAM
and a R9 280x (or Nvidia GTX 660Ti or there about)
and other bits & pieces to make this work.
I listed a good spec build a page (40 posts long page, mind you) ago.

Yes you can spend more. But you'll end up spending A LOT more for little gain. Unless you know what the benefits of an i7 are and why you would use them, save the money. If you run virtual machines then you need more RAM than 8G. If you don't know what a virtual machine is or if you run them, then you don't need it. It's a waste of money.

Yes a R9 290x is faster. But it's well over the price/performance hump.

Xeon CPU's and the attendant 2011 socket motherboards are aimed at a difference market to this one. You probably don't need it.

 

[Shadow]

Maybe. But you pay a lot extra for a very small (probably irrelevant) amount of extra performance.

All you need in a new system in late 2013 is
a socket 1150 motherboard
an intel i5 4670 (non k)
8 G RAM
and a R9 280x (or Nvidia GTX 660Ti or there about)
and other bits & pieces to make this work.
I listed a good spec build a page (40 posts long page, mind you) ago.

Yes you can spend more. But you'll end up spending A LOT more for little gain. Unless you know what the benefits of an i7 are and why you would use them, save the money. If you run virtual machines then you need more RAM than 8G. If you don't know what a virtual machine is or if you run them, then you don't need it. It's a waste of money.

Yes a R9 290x is faster. But it's well over the price/performance hump.

Xeon CPU's and the attendant 2011 socket motherboards are aimed at a difference market to this one. You probably don't need it.

Also, if you don't overclock don't get a "k" variant.
The i7 4770 runs just as well as the i7 4770k if you don't overclock.
the i5 4670k runs just as fast as the i7 4770k in games, which is what he said. So the i5 4670 is just as good as the i7 4770k if you don't overclock and you're only using it for gaming. Newegg has the i7 4770k on sale, but you'd still save like $80... $130 without the sale.

 

[Zieman]

ouch . an all in one or a custom loop ?

Have a look :
http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showpost.php?p=193460&postcount=241

 

[HaiderGill]

Maybe. But you pay a lot extra for a very small (probably irrelevant) amount of extra performance.

All you need in a new system in late 2013 is
a socket 1150 motherboard
an intel i5 4670 (non k)
8 G RAM
and a R9 280x (or Nvidia GTX 660Ti or there about)
and other bits & pieces to make this work.
I listed a good spec build a page (40 posts long page, mind you) ago.

Yes you can spend more. But you'll end up spending A LOT more for little gain. Unless you know what the benefits of an i7 are and why you would use them, save the money. If you run virtual machines then you need more RAM than 8G. If you don't know what a virtual machine is or if you run them, then you don't need it. It's a waste of money.

Yes a R9 290x is faster. But it's well over the price/performance hump.

Xeon CPU's and the attendant 2011 socket motherboards are aimed at a difference market to this one. You probably don't need it.

Overclocking my Crucial Ballistix Elite from PC3-12800 (DDR-1600) to PC3-14900 (DDR-1866) didn't yield any thing in a number of games...

 

[Commander Mick]

@Mick - what are your goals for your config - as far I can perceive, you are looking for a system that allows you to play ED (and other demanding games) at 1080p resolution with a decent performance and well priced.

IF so, focus on bang for buck.

I do not know the australian PC market, so I cannot recommend any particular supplier. But if you are not very familiar with it, try to get at least two competing proposals, with independent funding. And ditch stuff that you are not going to use first in order to meet your budget (e.g. do you intend to watch Blu ray movies on your PC? if not, ditch the BR drive...).

My new machine is on it's way. Should be delivered by Thursday Night roughly round about 6.00PM and at just about $4000.00 AUD which will be payed off completely over the next following year.

Yeah, I know I have went against at least half the Wisdom given to me on this thread, and for that I give my eternal thanks, but I have also taken advice given to me here as well and you have my eternal thanks for that as well.

They also told me they couldn't get the Blue-Ray Burner and I had to settle for only a Blue-Ray Reader instead. So, I think saved money in that area at least.

Hey Mick, just a thought, but if you absolutely must buy from Harvey Norman, why don't you get something like this:

Asus M51AC-AU006S Desktop

And just buy and slot in a more kick-ass graphics card?

Should be a heck of a lot cheaper than what they're offering.

They actually made the machine with a ASUS P10 (I think that's what it says....) MOTHERBOARD. instead of going with a PYRON which makes me a little suspicious as they had only told me earlier that they were only allowed to build PYRON machines.

 

[Sir.Tj]

Hope you enjoy your new rig Mick. :smilie:

 

[Commander Mick]

Now, They Have Given Me a More Impressive Case....

Actually the case does matter, more on a enthusiast setting - people that change components as time goes by. While I didn't match Geraldine's impressive record of 11 year case, my Coolermaster Stacker did last 8 years (and lived through 3 systems). but that has more relevance for people that select and change specific component in their systems. For people that just change the whole thing, the only relevant thing usually are the looks of the case.

What was once going to be a smallish looking white case is now a big black COOLER MASTER STORM ENFORCER which is about 19 inches length ways and looks like it has plenty of ventilation.

Now, nVidia vs Ati/AMD (Radeon). The short answer (imho) is no, nVidia is not better than AMD - or the other way around. I've had several cards from both manufacturers in the past 20 years, depending on value for money (as well as Sis, Matrox and Intel cards). Sometimes nVidia cards were the best choice, sometimes they were overpriced (or underpowered) compared to the competition. Currently I feel that AMD is providing all round better value, but depends on your requirements also.

(a completely different analysis is that I "feel" that nVidia has better SW and AMD better HW).

On the slip of paper they gave me they just wrote GIGABYTE GTX 770 for my Graphics Card. I do think they meant NVidia, but I'm not sure of the GIGBYTES exactly, but the one they upgraded it from was a 4 GIGABYTE NVidia GT 630 and or the upgraded version was originally going to be FACTORY OVERCLOCKED at 2000 MEGAHERTZ, but they had to scrap the overclocking because it didn't fit within the $4000.00 AUD budget. Besides, they reckon that I wouldn't have noticed the difference with it in the first place. It's only about $70.00 AUD difference in proce. So, If I do notice something lacking in my Graphics Card, I may have that done or/and go to a GTX 780 TI later.

 

[Voyager_NL]

What was once going to be a smallish looking white case is now a big black COOLER MASTER STORM ENFORCER which is about 19 inches length ways and looks like it has plenty of ventilation.



On the slip of paper they gave me they just wrote GIGABYTE GTX 770 for my Graphics Card. I do think they meant NVidia, but I'm not sure of the GIGBYTES exactly, but the one they upgraded it from was a 4 GIGABYTE NVidia GT 630 and or the upgraded version was originally going to be FACTORY OVERCLOCKED at 2000 MEGAHERTZ, but they had to scrap the overclocking because it didn't fit within the $4000.00 AUD budget. Besides, they reckon that I wouldn't have noticed the difference with it in the first place. It's only about $70.00 AUD difference in proce. So, If I do notice something lacking in my Graphics Card, I may have that done or/and go to a GTX 780 TI later.

Obvious confusion: GIGABYTE is also a manufacturer of Graphics Cards, just like ASUS and all the others. Just like ASUS they use NVIDIA and AMD chips to produce cards. Usually these cards are similar to the cards that NVIDIA and AMD produce themselves but they can differ on small but important things such as a better GPU cooler.

 

[Sir.Tj]

Actually the case does matter, more on a enthusiast setting - people that change components as time goes by. While I didn't match Geraldine's impressive record of 11 year case, my Coolermaster Stacker did last 8 years (and lived through 3 systems). but that has more relevance for people that select and change specific component in their systems. For people that just change the whole thing, the only relevant thing usually are the looks of the case.

Now, nVidia vs Ati/AMD (Radeon). The short answer (imho) is no, nVidia is not better than AMD - or the other way around. I've had several cards from both manufacturers in the past 20 years, depending on value for money (as well as Sis, Matrox and Intel cards). Sometimes nVidia cards were the best choice, sometimes they were overpriced (or underpowered) compared to the competition. Currently I feel that AMD is providing all round better value, but depends on your requirements also.

(a completely different analysis is that I "feel" that nVidia has better SW and AMD better HW).

I'm pretty much the same on the Nvidia/Radeon thing.

Just upgraded from a Radeon to a Nvidia GT9800 then to a Radeon 7870 and so far I'm more than happy.

I picked up a Antec 300 case a couple of years ago and it's still doing well. As long as I can slam my Cobra into the Station wall I'll be happy...sort of.

 

[Commander Mick]

Oh Well, Maybe Next Time.......

No, not really. The stores are more like warehouses with a shopfront. Helps with costs and the high turnover - as their stock is not stale like the larger department stores.

These guys are one of the better direct importers in his area with lower costs No money wasted on advertising or smiling salesmen.

Just compare for yourself.

Harvey Norman : Pryon PRY-G7333 Storm Series Gaming Desktop advertised at $4699

CPU i7 4770K
MOBO Unknown (prob z87 variant)
16G DDR3 RAM
3TB SATA
120GB SSD
Blu-ray DVD
GTX 770 2GB nVidia card
ECO II ALC liquid cooler
850W PSU
Storm Series Coolermaster case
1 year warrantee

MSY: DIY Equivalent Specced PC at $2020

$379 CPU i7 4770K
$195 MOBO MSI Z87-G45-Gaming
$165 RAM 16G 1600 Kinston
$133 HD 3TB SATA
$115 SSD 120GB Seagate 600
$59 LG Blu-ray Writer
$419 GTX 770 2Gb Gigabyte
$159 Thermaltake Bigwater 760 Pro
$179 PSU 850W Antec
$185 Case Thermaltake Revo-full
$30 Mouse/kb
$0 1 year warrantee

The PYRON I originally picked out had a KINSTON SOLID STATE 120 GIGA-BYTE DRIVE. Then they gave me choice of replacing that with a CORSAIR and some other brand name. I chose CORSAIR before they decided they would need to build a completely different machine from scratch. Now they told me they are putting a SAMSUNG EVO SOLID STATE DRIVE. They told me SAMSUNG EVO was a lot better and far cheaper.

If you want them to install and test it for you, they can for an additional cost.

So just based on both advertised prices, you save over $2,500.

Still, if money is no issue or you are more comfortable shopping at places like Harvey or Myer then that's cool. As it seemed Mick was talking about getting a bank loan for this, thought this info may help him out.

No, they would never give me a bank loan outside of HARVEY NORMAN giving me $4000.00 credit with GENERAL MONEY and I very nearly didn't get that loan. They made me wait about hour after I gave them a bank statement covering all transaction made within the last 60 days last Monday afternoon. (Yesterday) So, off I went to have a long lunch and when I got back they said I just a little bit longer and then they told me I had to wait another half hour while I just wandered around looking at their software/hardware in the store. I was looking at some expensive software packages I would never be able to afford right now. DRAGON VOICE RECOGNITION. My dad has just told me he has it as he got the box out to show me and said it's very interesting and takes a bit of getting used to. Plus he felt silly just talking to the computer. Three different versions of PHOTOSHOP, two of which require you to prove your a student or teacher to purchase. That really strict. I will be interested in buying one of those some time in the future. Not sure which though. POSER, which is something to do with creating 3D models of people and things and animating them. I wonder if this is what true games designers like the people at FRONTIER DEVELOPMENTS use. To make a longer story even shorter the salesman came out of the back room at the end of those one and half hours and told me it's a deal. I now have my rig to play ELITE - DANGEROUS (Well, not just yet. I will on Thursday night.) in time for the game ALPHA access.

Anyway, I did try to take out a bank loan almost three months earlier (When I was painfully slowly struggling to save for to back this game at JAMESON NAMED COMMANDER level. Then I decided to back the game at NAMED SPACE STATION level so I could afford most of the extras I wanted before they closed the physical rewards to backers.) and I was refused. Because I don't work. I just get paid as invalid pensioner to put it nicely.

 

[Commander Mick]

Commander Mick : Youre getting ripped off terribly by Harvey norman. They are sitting behind the counter rubbing their hands together and grinning like idiots.

Spend NO MORE than $2000AUD If you are spending more than this, you are being ripped off and wasting money.
From scorptech in melbournce (I live in victoria, I've just bought from them but have no other affiliation at all).
I bought
Asus Gryphon Z87
Intel i7 - 4770
32 G Corsair RAM
Gigabyte R9 280X
all up it came to $1425 (But I already had a case, Power Supply and hard drives & DVD drive)

You can cut out nearly $500 by going for 8G RAM and a i5 4670. You won't notice the difference in performance. I bought what I did because I'm an IT enthusiast and I had a healthy ATO return in my hand. If you don't know what the benefits of an i7 are, you don't need them.

You then also need
a hard drive (about $100) OR
a SSD at about $200
A case and a PSU. Get a decent 550 - 600w PSU.

A DVD rom is also a possible requirement for you. But they run around $20 - $40.
Look at these options and see how much Harvey Norman are ripping you off.
http://www.scorptec.com.au/systems/all/

You can also buy from
www.auspc.com.au (I've bought from them in the past, had no issues).

As a test, I went and specced up a good system for you from Scorptech.

ASUS - GRYPHON Z87 $185.00

Corsair - CMP8GX3M2A1600C9 Corsair 8GB (2x4GB), PC3-12800 (1600MHz) DDR3,$135.00

Intel - BX80646I54670 Intel Core i5 4670 $255.00

Gigabyte - GV-R928XOC-3GD $399.00

Antec - SOLOII $155.00

Corsair Corsair 600W CX600M ATX Power Supply, $109.00

Samsung - MZ-7TD250BW Samsung 250GB SSD, 840 Series, $189.00

Windows 8.1 $169
​

Total : $1,596 + Shipping.

You need a monitor as well. Maybe $400 for a 27" dell 1920x1080

That would play any new game extremely well.
Anything more is overkill.

I almost won't be feeling how much money I am wasting because hopefully I will be enjoying it's use over the year and hopefully beyond then.

Next time I buy a computer, I will also hopefully have all the money saved and up front so , I can buy it where I want to and how I want to.

Mick,

I would strongly suggest seeing if you can speak to someone not associated with the company to go through the credit terms before you sign anything, just to check you are not being misled, you could go and see a Australian eq to Citizens Advice here in the UK or maybe your bank might be happy to look over it.

Also with the machine specs why not Google the parts and put a price to each one, that way you can get a good idea on how much profit they are going to make.

It seems to me personally that they are making quite a margin on this.

I'd be very, very careful before signing anything, they are there to make a profit; thats what the sales people are paid on.

You potentially could lose a lot more money that you would by missing the Alpha,

I'm just too impatient to be part of the ALPHA squad.

 

[Surfinjo]

While I completely respect and accept conversation on the merits of various components and such, after 46 pages, that seems to be all there is.

Surely the question is: What are the minimum requirements to play?

That is what should be stickyed, not endless discussions on who has the biggest one.

 

[Commander Mick]

Ergo, the store is way better than the leaflet implied . You see, I like your DYI MSY builder much better than the ones in the leaflets (specifically the crappy RAM, ...). Have no problem with a store with good prices and not so good marketing

@Mick - it is your money and your decision, but if I were to give you an advice it would be to stay clear of those overpriced stores like Harvey Norman. Get one base config like many posted around and go to a couple of specialized stores (or check online) and ask for a price quote (or use online configuration builders if they have one). Get your credit on a independent consumer credit company or at the bank. Spend no more than 2k, less if possible.

I guess that's what I get for completely forgetting about the ELITE - DANGEROUS - KICK-STARTERt late last year (Which I missed!) after receiving prior warning on the 2000AD-ONLINE website (I have been posting there under the login name of ThryllSeekyr.) of it a few months earlier. Then I proceeded to spend all $4000.00 AUD I had left of my current savings on digital downloaded books and game manuals at DRIVE-THRU-RPG. and other KICK-STARTERS. If only I wasn't too careless with my money earlier this year.

A quick sneak peek of where Sparticus will be sitting whilst playing.

Even though, I asked the salesman about this. I just knew I don't have the desk space at 36 X 24 inches. Maybe sometime down the track I can move stuff around in my bedroom and fit a larger gaming desk in.

 

[Greeboski]

Have a look :
http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showpost.php?p=193460&postcount=241

looks nice , my parts should arrive tomorow al last (again ) doubt i will make my loop look as sweet as that. will post it when bench marks are in

 

[Sir.Tj]

Mick,

I've had to merge some of your posts. Could you use the multi quote system? The thread tends to move very quicky at the moment.

Thanks.

 

[Commander Mick]

About Using Windows Eight . One

I'm sorry but I caught a glimpse of a price list in here, too much in shock to go find it again.

Windows 8.1 £189.99

for an operating system, and not a very good one at that.

let me go check how much the latest version of OSX is.... oh yeah, FREE

Even though it's horrible to use, I eventually decided to have added as the OPERATING SYSTEM because they told me that one and WINDOWS SEVENS made no difference to the grand total price and I thought maybe it was time I started using the latest one and get used to it.

Just one question.......is WINDOWS EIGHT . ONE recommended by FRONTIER DEVELOPMENTS for ELITE - DANGEROUS?

I thought, I remember that WINDOWS SEVEN would be acceptable or the only option. Which sounds silly considering it's now old and the other is now currently new.

Another thing, they are only giving me WINDOWS EIGHT . ONE and not the PRO edition. As my dad reckons the PRO edition is needed to upgrade to WINDOWS MEDIA CENTRE to run dvds which means games on dvd as well.

What he read in a computer magazine exactly was that was that to add WINDOWS MEDIA CENTRE you only need to spend about $10.00 AUD. Though, if you had to add WINDOWS EIGHT . ONE PRO in order to use that, you would also be spending about $100.00 AUD.

Do I really need these to run games on dvds as well as other media dvds on top of WINDOWS EIGHT . ONE.

My dad says I do. According to the computer magazine he's reading.

The salesmen (After ringing him again yesterday afternoon) say I don't.

Am I being cheated and lied to here?