Hardware & Technical Computer Build to run Elite Dangerous

Squicker · Dec 10, 2013

Rochester said:
2gb NVIDIA GTX 770
4gb NVIDIA GTX 770
3gb NVIDIA GTS 780
2gb AMD Radeon R9 270x
3gb AMD Radeon R9 280x
4 gb AMD Radeon R9 290x

Radeon are not rubbish as cards, but driver support has always been behind NVidia. I have two friend with the r9 290 however and they both say it's an awesome card and no problems at all. I have a GTX 780 in my gaming machine but if I'd not bought recently, I'd at least be investigating the 290.

Erimus Kamzel · Dec 10, 2013

Rochester said:
Hi,

Hoping anyone can recommend a good memory card capable and reliable to run Elite D?My 5 year old PC just bit the bullet with what I suspect a duff graphics card; here are the basics of my rig:

Processor Intel Core 17-860 (2.80G) 8MB cache
RAM 8gb corsair dual DDR3 1600mhz
Graphics: 2gb ATI Radeon 4870x2

Potential new cards I have been recommended by PC Specialists for my rig are as below, cost wise I’m thinking of the 2gb or 3gb NVIDIA as here Radeon are generally rubbish. Any recommendations?

2gb NVIDIA GTX 770
4gb NVIDIA GTX 770
3gb NVIDIA GTS 780
2gb AMD Radeon R9 270x
3gb AMD Radeon R9 280x
4 gb AMD Radeon R9 290x

Depends on how much you want to spend

I think all those cards will run Elite perfectly well. I did a bit of research into the GTX 770 2GB and the 3gb AMD Radeon R9 280x recently and decided to go for the Radeon R9 280x. The GTX scored slightly better in benchmarks but he 280X may be the better long term card once AMD release Mantle support next year.

Maxeren · Dec 10, 2013

Squicker said:
Radeon are not rubbish as cards, but driver support has always been behind NVidia. I have two friend with the r9 290 however and they both say it's an awesome card and no problems at all. I have a GTX 780 in my gaming machine but if I'd not bought recently, I'd at least be investigating the 290.

If youre going for the new radeon cards (290, 290x etc.) then wait for aftermarket coolers unless you like sitting next to an airplane turbine.

And in fear of starting an nvidia vs amd war here, i would have purchased an amd 290, but couldn't wait for the aftermarket coolers to arrive, so i went with an gtx 780 which im very pleased with

Greeboski · Dec 10, 2013

Maxeren said:
If youre going for the new radeon cards (290, 290x etc.) then wait for aftermarket coolers unless you like sitting next to an airplane turbine.

And in fear of starting an nvidia vs amd war here, i would have purchased an amd 290, but couldn't wait for the aftermarket coolers to arrive, so i went with an gtx 780 which im very pleased with

an alternative is to get an MSI twin frozr version of one of the Nvidia cards , they are quiet to start with

Dr Wookie · Dec 10, 2013

Greeboski said:
wah wah wah wah wah wah

I recognise some of those words, but find it hard to believe they go together

! This is why I favour a pre-packaged pc!

Squicker · Dec 10, 2013

Dr Wookie said:
I recognise some of those words, but find it hard to believe they go together ! This is why I favour a pre-packaged pc!

This is what I'd do:

Core i5 CPU 4670K
8GB 1600MHz RAM
R290 AMD card OR Nvidia GTX780
500W PSU
128MB SSD hard drive for boot and key applications
2TB normal hard drive for data and secondary applications

Punch that lot into the link the other guy sent where you choose they build and see what it costs..

Greeboski · Dec 10, 2013

Dr Wookie said:
I recognise some of those words, but find it hard to believe they go together ! This is why I favour a pre-packaged pc!

not to be rude in responce , that coment was to someone else.

''quiet'' and ''low cost pre-built'' are mutualy exclusive with respect to powerful machines.

Dr Wookie · Dec 10, 2013

Greeboski said:
not to be rude in responce , that coment was to someone else.

''quiet'' and ''low cost pre-built'' are mutualy exclusive with respect to powerful machines.

Sorry if that offended you, I was making fun of my own ignorance

Squicker · Dec 10, 2013

Squicker said:
This is what I'd do:

Core i5 CPU 4670K
8GB 1600MHz RAM
R290 AMD card OR Nvidia GTX780
500W PSU
128MB SSD hard drive for boot and key applications
2TB normal hard drive for data and secondary applications

Punch that lot into the link the other guy sent where you choose they build and see what it costs..

1600USD for that little lot in a nice case. I guess that's less\same as the Alienware judging by UK prices? You'd need keyboard, mouse monitor etc. If you lessened the graphics card and dropped the SSD you would save a few hundred $.

KING5TON · Dec 10, 2013

Dr Wookie said:
Sorry, I've not read the thread in detail, because while I can understand things like GB and GHz, these numbers don't really mean anything in today's computing when combined with other numbers.

I'm assuming you've not read my previous post where I said that I have no interest in building my own machine ?! I've done a bit of research, but gaming isn't my main hobby. This article here shows that in real terms that the difference between a $5000 gaming pc and $700 gaming pc is pretty small.
.

I read it, I hear you, you don't want to build it yourself.
What you didn't do is actually read my post that says you don't have to, you can pick parts and get certain retailers to build it for you.

You go waste your money though.

Dr Wookie · Dec 10, 2013

Squicker said:
1600USD for that little lot in a nice case. I guess that's less\same as the Alienware judging by UK prices? You'd need keyboard, mouse monitor etc. If you lessened the graphics card and dropped the SSD you would save a few hundred $.

As I said in my first post, the alienware one is about $1200, but that doesn't give me a SSD. And I can get a version with a (reduced power) GTX 760 for an extra $20. The main attraction though is small form factor (not much bigger than a 360); this is also a weakness for upgradability.

KING5TON: thanks for your concern

. I am looking at other options. However, at the moment I have more money than time , so I might chicken out and just pay more

!

Squicker · Dec 10, 2013

Dr Wookie said:
As I said in my first post, the alienware one is about $1200, but that doesn't give me a SSD. And I can get a version with a (reduced power) GTX 760 for an extra $20. The main attraction though is small form factor (not much bigger than a 360); this is also a weakness for upgradability.

So yes, if you chop back the GPU and remove the SSD, then you can do a better job for the same money with the link the other poster sent. If money is not a particularly bothersome thing, go the whole hog and get the GTX780 and the SSD.

SSD is a very noticable performance boost for loading and Windows start. Once I'd put one in my desktop I had them stuck in every machine I regularly use because I could not abide waiting for a normal drive!

Dr Wookie · Dec 10, 2013

Squicker said:
So yes, if you chop back the GPU and remove the SSD, then you can do a better job for the same money with the link the other poster sent. If money is not a particularly bothersome thing, go the whole hog and get the GTX780 and the SSD.

SSD is a very noticable performance boost for loading and Windows start. Once I'd put one in my desktop I had them stuck in every machine I regularly use because I could not abide waiting for a normal drive!

While money isn't particularly bothersome, space is. Do you know of any way to make the tower less ginormous?

Cody · Dec 10, 2013

Dr Wookie said:
Do you know of any way to make the tower less ginormous?

That website someone linked to earlier build customisable micro-systems too... worth a look, perhaps?
I think I've seen other members favourably mention the Fractal Design Node case before too.

FS3DPete · Dec 10, 2013

My system is no slouch (although my HD's are the primary bottleneck right now), but if money was no object, I would replace the MB, CPU and GPU with an Intel-based UEFI MB, an Intel Core i7 6-core or Xeon 8-core, and a GTX 780.

But then again, I also dabble in 3D rendering, which with the software I use, relies heavily on multithreaded floating point performance that scales up with number of cores (a weakness of the FX series unfortunately).

Gingerpride · Dec 10, 2013

Erimus said:
Depends on how much you want to spend I think all those cards will run Elite perfectly well. I did a bit of research into the GTX 770 2GB and the 3gb AMD Radeon R9 280x recently and decided to go for the Radeon R9 280x. The GTX scored slightly better in benchmarks but he 280X may be the better long term card once AMD release Mantle support next year.

Does anyone know if ED will utilize the Mantle API? I hear SC will be doing...? This could have a serious impact on deciding AMD over NVidia for me...:S

Erimus Kamzel · Dec 10, 2013

Dr Wookie said:
While money isn't particularly bothersome, space is. Do you know of any way to make the tower less ginormous?

Mini-PC build is what you're looking for. Its what I've ordered since space is an issue with me too.

Off the website I linked you can get this for $1,300

Fractal Design Node 304 mITX Gaming Case
Intel® Core™ i5-4670 3.40 GHz 6MB Intel Smart Cache LGA1150
120 GB Kingston HyperX 3K SATA-III 6.0Gb/s SSD - 555MB/s Read & 510MB/s Write
1TB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 32MB Cache 7200RPM HDD
8GB (4GBx2) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (Corsair or Major Brand)
GIGABYTE Z87N-WIFI mITX w/ 802.11n WiFi+Bluetooth, Display Port, Dual GbLAN, 1 Gen3 PCIe x16
AMD Radeon R9 280X 3GB GDDR5 PCIe 3.0 x16 Video Card (HIS IceQ X2 Edition w/ Double Fans)
650 Watts - Thermaltake SMART Series SP-650PCBUS 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

Its pretty much the same spec I got from dino-pc in the UK. It has a better graphics card than the Alienware 51 too. Although you'd need to add peripherals like mouse, keyboard, monitor, etc if you don't already have those.

Lestat · Dec 10, 2013

I am looking at a odd setup. A EUROCOM Panther laptop. Intel LGA 2011; i7-3xxx, i7-4xxxm, XEON E5-1600 and E5-2600 series v1 and v2. With a dual NVIDIA: GTX 780M. I know OVER KILL

I know I love strange setup. I also look at the Battery life as a Emergency UPS power source not mobile power source.

Now what I want to know. Will elite support 6 to 12 core cpu? (12 to 24 treads)

I looking at future upgrades not High end upgrade.

Ben Parry · Dec 10, 2013

A "Panther Laptop"? I hope that's as big and square as it sounds.

Lestat · Dec 10, 2013

Ben Parry said:
A "Panther Laptop"? I hope that's as big and square as it sounds.

If I could I would build a Xeon desktop computer with dual xeon cpus. But my family want me in the living room due to Epilepsy. So I have to use high end laptops. With the option to upgrade the laptop over time. I already rebuilt my Alienware laptop about 2 times. new gpu, Hard drive soon to be i7 940xm.