Hardware & Technical Horizons PC build.

Garbarrage

Garbarrage
First Off... Merry Christmas all. Hope you all got what you wanted, and are lucky enough to have people to keep you off of here, and out of the game for a day.

Part of my Xmas pressie from the wife is a budget to build a PC. I'm currently playing on a laptop with integrated graphics, so you can imagine how exciting this prospect is for me.

Anyway. I've decided to try a build. What I'm looking for, is a build on partpicker (or similar), that can play this game on high or better settings, for between €600-800. That has potential for further upgrades etc. No need for peripherals. Will get those outside the budget.

I realise, this has been done a lot, and there is a search function, but I am a precious and unique snowflake, and would like to know I'm being pointed in the right direction for me specifically. I'm a little overwhelmed looking at the choices out there, and the compatibility issues etc. I am however, confident of being able to assemble compatible parts.

Couple of things though. There seems to be a lot of issue with AMD cards on here, so would prefer nVidia, if that helps narrow things down. Also, I won't be going the VR road at any stage. I get immersed enough looking at a screen. I'm not keen on having something stuck to my face for as much time as I spend in game.
 
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Surfinjo

Surfinjo
Garbarrage said:
First Off... Merry Christmas all. Hope you all got what you wanted, and are lucky enough to have people to keep you off of here, and out of the game for a day.

Part of my Xmas pressie from the wife is a budget to build a PC. I'm currently playing on a laptop with integrated graphics, so you can imagine how exciting this prospect is for me.

Anyway. I've decided to try a build. What I'm looking for, is a build on partpicker (or similar), that can play this game on high or better settings, for between €600-800. That has potential for further upgrades etc. No need for peripherals. Will get those outside the budget.

I realise, this has been done a lot, and there is a search function, but I am a precious and unique snowflake, and would like to know I'm being pointed in the right direction for me specifically. I'm a little overwhelmed looking at the choices out there, and the compatibility issues etc. I am however, confident of being able to assemble compatible parts.

Couple of things though. There seems to be a lot of issue with AMD cards on here, so would prefer nVidia, if that helps narrow things down. Also, I won't be going the VR road at any stage. I get immersed enough looking at a screen. I'm not keen on having something stuck to my face for as much time as I spend in game.
Click to expand...

My PC was around that price.


May I suggest you start with a good motherboard.


ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Hero Intel Z170 (Socket 1151) ATX Motherboard

Look around for an ATX case that looks the way you want it to. Plain or flashing, it's up to you.

A good, 750W Modular PSU,

Then add as you like and can afford.

I would suggest you save a load of the lower speed DDR4 memory though, but some may disagree.
 
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Googol

Googol
You said you have a distinct component preference re GPU, but how do you feel about CPUs?
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Personally I would second a socket 1151 mobo, as my preference is Intel. This would hopefully see you through the Cannonlake die shrink and into 2017. If you are prepared to manually overclock (or buy a mobo that will do it for you) then an i5-6600K might be the best value for money given your budget. I'm a big Asus fan where mobos are concerned (my last two builds, including my current ED machine, have them) but my decision in each case was based on them hitting the sweet spot for the features I needed - don't be seduced by features you'll never use but make sure essentials (e.g built-in Wi-Fi if you can't run a cable to your router) are there.
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One other piece of advice - don't go cheap on the case, get a solid one that you can re-use and save money the next time you build or upgrade. My Antec P190 (now obsolete) is 8 years old and houses my legacy XP machine, but I will use it for my next build as it is as good as on the day I bought it - OK it doesn't have USB 3 on the front panel, but I'm happy to use the backplane for that.
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Can't advise on graphics cards, although I'm an nVidia fan as well, as I'm using an overclocked GTX760 and waiting until the Rift CV1 comes out before I upgrade.
 

Hell Razor5543

H
While I cannot make any major suggestions, when I am asked I always tell people to get the best motherboard you can afford. As it is the backbone (and nervous system) for the entire PC, it can massively affect the performance of the PC. A good motherboard can be built on later (without major consequences normally), while a bad one will necessitate a rebuild in the near future.
 

Garbarrage

Garbarrage
Thanks for the replies.

So, what I'm taking from this so far, is that as far as components are concerned, the mobo is the key, and a 960/970 is the way to go with gfx.

It still seems tough to put a build together. I start looking at pc building websites and by the time I've selected the "essentials", I'm coming in at €1200, whether it's pre-built or not.

For example, should I expect to knock much off the price of this build if I shop around for parts. The Euro being weak atm is working against me, a bit. I could probably stretch a bit beyond 800, but would need to come in a bit less than 1200. Could possibly stretch it to 1000 with a bit of work. Hopefully, 1200 with keyboard and extras (excluding monitor) would be the upper limit.

http://www.custompc.ie/index.asp?function=CART

Edit... oops... forgot to link the build
 
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Surfinjo

Surfinjo
Hell Razor5543 said:
While I cannot make any major suggestions, when I am asked I always tell people to get the best motherboard you can afford. As it is the backbone (and nervous system) for the entire PC, it can massively affect the performance of the PC. A good motherboard can be built on later (without major consequences normally), while a bad one will necessitate a rebuild in the near future.
Click to expand...

The Motherboard and the case. It may sound obvious but get a case which you want to look at and with the sort of expansions and maintenance options you want. Personally I spent ages looking at the available cases and even reading reviews or looking for them on Youtube.

My graphics card is a GTX 760. At the moment, it can be found for under £100. It seems to run Elite, as it currently stands, perfectly.

I would have upgraded when I bought the other stuff, (I bought the GTX 760 about a year ago), but next year the 3D stuff is going to be the big thing. I'd really like to get in on that so I saved my cash and stuck with with my GTX 760.

Just saying, a graphics card is essential. But if you can get by for a bit with something limited, you may save some cash to get add to and get something a lot better, next year.

Even if it doesn't pan out, which seems unlikely, you can still upgrade later.

That's just some thoughts from my scheming mind. You should do what you think best.
 

Garbarrage

Garbarrage
Surfinjo said:
The Motherboard and the case. It may sound obvious but get a case which you want to look at and with the sort of expansions and maintenance options you want. Personally I spent ages looking at the available cases and even reading reviews or looking for them on Youtube.

My graphics card is a GTX 760. At the moment, it can be found for under £100. It seems to run Elite, as it currently stands, perfectly.

I would have upgraded when I bought the other stuff, (I bought the GTX 760 about a year ago), but next year the 3D stuff is going to be the big thing. I'd really like to get in on that so I saved my cash and stuck with with my GTX 760.

Just saying, a graphics card is essential. But if you can get by for a bit with something limited, you may save some cash to get add to and get something a lot better, next year.

Even if it doesn't pan out, which seems unlikely, you can still upgrade later.

That's just some thoughts from my scheming mind. You should do what you think best.
Click to expand...

What settings and fps do you get with your 760 in Horizons. I only play ED really. And I can't see the requirements jumping much before atmospheric landings, probably in a year or more likely 2, so a 760 with a decent motherboard and case, could be upgraded to a 9xx in time if need be?
 

Hell Razor5543

H
Surfinjo said:
The Motherboard and the case. It may sound obvious but get a case which you want to look at and with the sort of expansions and maintenance options you want. Personally I spent ages looking at the available cases and even reading reviews or looking for them on Youtube.

My graphics card is a GTX 760. At the moment, it can be found for under £100. It seems to run Elite, as it currently stands, perfectly.

I would have upgraded when I bought the other stuff, (I bought the GTX 760 about a year ago), but next year the 3D stuff is going to be the big thing. I'd really like to get in on that so I saved my cash and stuck with with my GTX 760.

Just saying, a graphics card is essential. But if you can get by for a bit with something limited, you may save some cash to get add to and get something a lot better, next year.

Even if it doesn't pan out, which seems unlikely, you can still upgrade later.

That's just some thoughts from my scheming mind. You should do what you think best.
Click to expand...


I would not disagree with the case, it is just that I have a case over 10 years old that is (for my needs) the best I have come across (so I did not think of it). Room for 13 drives (4 x 5.25 front, 2 x 3.5 front, 7 x 3.5 internal), and the motherboard bracket comes out with all cards in situ. Stainless steel and aluminium, and (even now) no stripped threads or sharp edges.
 

Surfinjo

Surfinjo
Garbarrage said:
What settings and fps do you get with your 760 in Horizons. I only play ED really. And I can't see the requirements jumping much before atmospheric landings, probably in a year or more likely 2, so a 760 with a decent motherboard and case, could be upgraded to a 9xx in time if need be?
Click to expand...

To be honest, I rarely if ever look. I'm not entirely convinced that turning on the monitor for those details doesn't affect performance. Sort of Heisenberg on PCs!

I'm more interested in what I can see. Especially, any stalling, cutting or any other visual distortions. With my GTX 760 and my new Motherboard with i7, I can say on the current Elite, no, none at all.

Now if I could just find a decent card that would make me a better player!



Hell Razor5543 said:


I would not disagree with the case, it is just that I have a case over 10 years old that is (for my needs) the best I have come across (so I did not think of it). Room for 13 drives (4 x 5.25 front, 2 x 3.5 front, 7 x 3.5 internal), and the motherboard bracket comes out with all cards in situ. Stainless steel and aluminium, and (even now) no stripped threads or sharp edges.
Click to expand...

If you have a case that suits you then that is all you need there. Don't go buying anything just be be new.

My old case, needed replacing. I'd done a bit of hacking over the 7 or so years I had it, cutting bits to do things and taping bits up. It looked pretty neat in some ways to be honest, but I was kinda looking for something a bit less conversational, if you see what I mean.

Thanks for getting back. :) Good luck and keep us posted on what you get and how it all works out.
 

Patrick_68000

Patrick_68000
Garbarrage said:
I only play ED really. And I can't see the requirements jumping much before atmospheric landings, probably in a year or more likely 2, so a 760 with a decent motherboard and case, could be upgraded to a 9xx in time if need be?
Click to expand...

In one or two year, you will purchase "Pascal" the future GPU of Nvidia which will released in 2016. 9xx will be forgotten

:)
 
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Googol

Googol
Garbarrage said:
Will it be compatible with this motherboard though?
Click to expand...

The comment in this report seems to answer your question (taken from the last sentence at the bottom of the page).
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"... while consumer PCs will stick with PCI-Express form factor and full-length cards as they are the best solution for high-end gaming rigs and professional usage ..."
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Zenith

Zenith
I got some PC components from Santa Claus for Christmas! i5-6600, MSI Z170A mobo and 8GB Corsair RAM
On Boxing Day I went out and bought a Zalman case and SSD and started putting it together.

Based on your €600-€800 budget (about £460-£615), it compares with the PC I built this weekend.
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/W6P7K8

The only difference from what I actually have and what I suggest is that I currently have my old GTX 760 instead of the 960, and I don't have the blu-ray drive.
Everything else is what I actually have running altogether now.

MSI Z170A PC Mate motherboard. Affordable, basic OC capability, Skylake architecture and compatible with all LGA1151 CPUs. It has the scope to grow with upgraded CPU and RAM.
Intel i5-6600. Notice it isn't the K version (clock unlocked). It's 3.3GHz by default but turbos up to 3.9GHz with the provided stock heatsink/fan cooler. You can upgrade to an i7 CPU if you want in the future.
Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB DDR4-2400 RAM. Single stick which you put into DIMM slot 2. You can add more sticks as money allows in future.
OCZ Trion 100 SSD. Cheap SSD that doesn't seem to skimp on read/write speeds. I have this for Windows, programs and frequently played games. All my media and documents are shunted onto an already existing spinning iron drive to save the SSD getting filled up or worn out too quickly.
Gigabyte GTX 960 4GB gfx card. This is about value for money. 4GB will help with the textures in game, while the card itself is more than capable of running the game on high/ultra settings at 1920x1080 and good framerate.
Zalman Z11 Plus case. I got this from my local Maplin for £50 and it is really nice to work inside. Plenty of room for the components, almost completely screwless, and comes with 3 fans fitted, 2 of which are blue LED lit. The top is also louvred and vented and the intake fan has a dust filter that you can take out and clean. I also like that you can attach your SSD to the back of the motherboard baseplate, however it picks up passive heat from the CPU so it's up to you if you want to use it. It has 2 USB2 and 2 USB3 headers on top as well as the headphone/mic, reset and power buttons.
Corsair 600W PSU. This may be lower rating than some people suggest, but the important info is that it provides 46A on the 12V rail... more than enough to meet the needs of your graphic card, CPU and components.
The blu-ray player is just to fill out the build with something that's not useless.

PC Part Picker says just over £604 total which works out to less than the €800 limit you stated.

Now the important stuff.
Installing Windows took a bit of trial and error. You need to enable a setting in the BIOS to allow Win7 to install without a problem. Then if you upgrade to WinX you need to change the BIOS to be UEFI only, no legacy.
Once I got past that hurdle the OS installation was no problem.

Temperatures while playing ED:H and running around on a planet with 2 planets in the sky (from CPUID)...
CPU: Idle 30c, max 59c ... on stock cooler that comes with the retail boxed CPU.
System: Idle 25c, max 40c
Gfx: Idle 30c, max 63c ... no additional cooling to the GTC 760, just the fans that are on it.
Drives: spinning iron were ambient 20c-25c, SSD was 37c due to proximity to CPU through the baseplate and motherboard.

Basically I've thrown ED at this system and it's taking it. The GTX 760 isn't quite up to running Horizons on planets as you get 60+ in space, 50+ around stations, 30+ on planets, 15-20 on planets with other planets in the sky. A GTX 960 along with this PC should take everything Horizons throws and keeps on smiling with good framerates.
 

Garbarrage

Garbarrage
Zenith said:
I got some PC components from Santa Claus for Christmas! i5-6600, MSI Z170A mobo and 8GB Corsair RAM
On Boxing Day I went out and bought a Zalman case and SSD and started putting it together.

Based on your €600-€800 budget (about £460-£615), it compares with the PC I built this weekend.
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/W6P7K8

The only difference from what I actually have and what I suggest is that I currently have my old GTX 760 instead of the 960, and I don't have the blu-ray drive.
Everything else is what I actually have running altogether now.

MSI Z170A PC Mate motherboard. Affordable, basic OC capability, Skylake architecture and compatible with all LGA1151 CPUs. It has the scope to grow with upgraded CPU and RAM.
Intel i5-6600. Notice it isn't the K version (clock unlocked). It's 3.3GHz by default but turbos up to 3.9GHz with the provided stock heatsink/fan cooler. You can upgrade to an i7 CPU if you want in the future.
Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB DDR4-2400 RAM. Single stick which you put into DIMM slot 2. You can add more sticks as money allows in future.
OCZ Trion 100 SSD. Cheap SSD that doesn't seem to skimp on read/write speeds. I have this for Windows, programs and frequently played games. All my media and documents are shunted onto an already existing spinning iron drive to save the SSD getting filled up or worn out too quickly.
Gigabyte GTX 960 4GB gfx card. This is about value for money. 4GB will help with the textures in game, while the card itself is more than capable of running the game on high/ultra settings at 1920x1080 and good framerate.
Zalman Z11 Plus case. I got this from my local Maplin for £50 and it is really nice to work inside. Plenty of room for the components, almost completely screwless, and comes with 3 fans fitted, 2 of which are blue LED lit. The top is also louvred and vented and the intake fan has a dust filter that you can take out and clean. I also like that you can attach your SSD to the back of the motherboard baseplate, however it picks up passive heat from the CPU so it's up to you if you want to use it. It has 2 USB2 and 2 USB3 headers on top as well as the headphone/mic, reset and power buttons.
Corsair 600W PSU. This may be lower rating than some people suggest, but the important info is that it provides 46A on the 12V rail... more than enough to meet the needs of your graphic card, CPU and components.
The blu-ray player is just to fill out the build with something that's not useless.

PC Part Picker says just over £604 total which works out to less than the €800 limit you stated.

Now the important stuff.
Installing Windows took a bit of trial and error. You need to enable a setting in the BIOS to allow Win7 to install without a problem. Then if you upgrade to WinX you need to change the BIOS to be UEFI only, no legacy.
Once I got past that hurdle the OS installation was no problem.

Temperatures while playing ED:H and running around on a planet with 2 planets in the sky (from CPUID)...
CPU: Idle 30c, max 59c ... on stock cooler that comes with the retail boxed CPU.
System: Idle 25c, max 40c
Gfx: Idle 30c, max 63c ... no additional cooling to the GTC 760, just the fans that are on it.
Drives: spinning iron were ambient 20c-25c, SSD was 37c due to proximity to CPU through the baseplate and motherboard.

Basically I've thrown ED at this system and it's taking it. The GTX 760 isn't quite up to running Horizons on planets as you get 60+ in space, 50+ around stations, 30+ on planets, 15-20 on planets with other planets in the sky. A GTX 960 along with this PC should take everything Horizons throws and keeps on smiling with good framerates.
Click to expand...

The problem with pcpartpicker, is that I live in Ireland. It seems that this site only tells you where to get the parts. So for example, the Motherboard it linked to is currently out of stock. The next cheapest one is £10 more expensive, and £9.95 to ship to Ireland. When you've added the delivery costs to the rest of the components, and include a monitor and keyboard etc, there isn't much difference in price compared to the pcspecialist site.
 
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