Hardware & Technical Wondering what I'll need for dream PC

NathanKerbonaut

N
Hi, I've been looking into getting a new computer lately. I've decided I want it to be able to run Elite Dangerous at maximum graphics settings at 60 fps. What would be a good setup to accomplish this? Since this is just a thought experiment let's say I have an unlimited price limit.

Thanks!
 

winterknight

W
OK, Here's my 2 pennies worth.
Feel free to criticise or reject, I don't care.

Large case with at least 3 front/bottom min size 140mm fans, so internal pressure stops "clagg" being sucked through panel gaps etc.

Kaby Lake 'K' CPU, Quad core but Duo will work for most games. Not necessarily highest clock speed. I need evidence before going to AMD.

Full size motherboard with 4 RAM slots, min of 2 PCIe slots and M" drive connector or two.
RAM 2 x 8GByte DDR4.

ASUS Strix 1080, so GPU temp can be used to control fan speed for 2 of the input fans. Could be paired with a 2nd one in SLI mode.

M2 drive for 'Boot' and most important programs (ED in this case)
SSD for all secondary program executables and program data
Internal HDD for storage of current files.
External HDD for storage of all those things you cannot throw out.
Several memory sticks for installation files, backups and copies of important program installation executables with copies of all those different passwords etc. you have used.

Monitor wide screen 21:9, curved or flat is your choice, you can never have too much real estate. I personally would not go 4K.

Warthog HOTAS with pedals, at moment none of the other designs are convincing.
Keyboard and mouse I consider are very personal choices. What works for me doesn't for my 2 sons (thirty somethings) and vice versa.
 

Jon flint

Jon flint
In terms of GPU, for a solid 60 fps at ultra settings 1080p I'd recommend gtx970 level hardware (or rx480 if you want amd). That's pretty much the lowest level that'll guarantee 60fps everywhere.

If you're building a future proof "dream" machine. Then just go for the best you can afford where it counts, something like a newer i7 cpu and a gtx1080 would be an excellent but expensive starting point. Id avoid i5 processors, the general trend in gaming is seeing them severely bottlenecking newer games, which increasingly require 8 or more threads.
 

Jon flint

Jon flint
Patrick_68000 said:
1070 is more wise
Click to expand...

True, but really depends on the OPs target resolution, at 1080p a gtx1070 is massive overkill for Elite.

In fact it's just about possible to play at 4k/ultra with a gtx1070 with just the occasional drop on planets surfaces.

If the OP really does have an unlimited budget I'd aim for something totally over the top like a titanX pascal, just to be totally sure you're future proof.
 
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Patrick_68000

Patrick_68000
Jon flint said:
True, but really depends on the OPs target resolution, at 1080p a gtx1070 is massive overkill for Elite.
Click to expand...

Consider also the power consumption less important for the 1070 , and the superior power of treatment of the 1070 for a same price ?
 
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Porina

Porina
Jon flint said:
True, but really depends on the OPs target resolution, at 1080p a gtx1070 is massive overkill for Elite.

In fact it's just about possible to play at 4k/ultra with a gtx1070 with just the occasional drop on planets surfaces.
Click to expand...

I've not been so active recently, but unless the graphics engine has been significantly improved on planets in the last year I'd be surprised if 4k at 60fps was attainable on planets. I was typically in the mid 40's with a 980Ti (near enough same performance as 1070) at 3440x1440, which is about 60% of 4k.

Then again my approach to hardware is to try and buy the best you can without getting silly... so without a budget limit then today I'd get a 1080, i7-7700k, and 16GB of fast ram, combined with a large SSD. There are faster GPUs (Titan XP), there are faster CPUs (socket 2011-3 stuff), but I'd draw the line here to keep pricing from getting silly even if unlimited. If you need more than that, you'd already know about it... In a month, Ryzen should be launched and that could mix things up a bit on the affordable higher end.
 

Robert Maynard

Volunteer Moderator
Robert Maynard
Indeed - Ryzen is coming (expected 2nd March) and the 8C/16T chip should give the 6900K a decent challenge (for a much lower expected price).

Vega is also due to be launched in Q2 (May?) and may offer an alternative to the 1080.
 

Jon flint

Jon flint
Porina said:
I'd be surprised if 4k at 60fps was attainable on planets. I was typically in the mid 40's with a 980Ti (near enough same performance as 1070) at 3440x1440, which is about 60% of 4k.
Click to expand...


With a founders 1070 I'm getting a pretty solid 60fps on planets surfaces at 4k/ultra, although if I'm parked at one of the larger planet bases it does still drop to mid 50s.

Back when I got the 1070 last summer I did a first impressions review showing the performance across various scenarios in Elite (https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/265218-GTX-1070-and-Elite-first-impressions)

With recent driver revisions the performance has increased quite a bit since then :)
 
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Porina

Porina
If I wasn't so lazy I could actually test this, as I have a system with a 1070, and a 4k TV. Only problem is, the two are about as far apart as they can be in my house... :)
 

Morbad

Morbad
"Ultra" only uses 2k surface and 2.5k galaxy background texutures, as well as 256*265 envmaps.

I run 4k textures and 512*512 environment maps, and I'd probably want to double these if I were playing at 4k resolution. That's almost certainly into Titan XP territory for a single card at 60fps minimum.

Doubling the shadow distances and increasing the HBAO resolution is another wishlist item for when there are GPUs powerful enough to do so without choking.
 
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GJ51

GJ51
Conversation is a bit moot unless OP describes what video display he wants to run on.

Acer and LG are introducing 38" 3840X1600 Fresync monitors,

http://www.anandtech.com/show/11099/acer-launches-curved-xr382cqk-display

I'd start there unless you want to go VR

I'm waiting for 38" 3840X1600 G-Sync for my next build and will probably also run a second monitor alongside.

I'll be looking at Z270 motherboards and I7 Kaby Lake CPU raid M.2 Samsung 960 drives and 1080Ti GPU.

I'm targeting toward end of summer for my next upgrade. Prices should soften a bit (hopefully) and bug swatting the new platforms should be more mature. Probably a few BIOS revisions between now and then should make it an easier time to upgrade, and perhaps a few new boards with better feature integration.

HTH
 

Asp Explorer

Asp Explorer
GJ51 said:
raid M.2 Samsung 960 drives
Click to expand...

You'll absolutely love those little things :D

m2ssd.png


For comparison here's a RAID 0 of the older (but still awesome) SATA 840 Pros

r0840p.png


And just for lulz here is a 7 spindle Microsoft Storage Space triple redundancy on HDD's

7smsd.png


And for even MOAR LULZ here is a ipod :D

ipusb.png
 
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GJ51

GJ51
Pville_Piper said:
Yes, but tomorrows tech will be obsolete next week...
Click to expand...

Tech is always a moving target. It's more about maximizing your investment for useful functionality over a reasonably long time period.

I'm still running a Core i7-950 that performs acceptably well. No. it's not state-of-the art but it has been a good performer over a long time period with minor upgrade to the GPU.

I also have a Toshiba 17" laptop that I bought in 2004 that still runs Windows 7 acceptably well. No, I don't play ED on it, but it runs fine for websurfing, checking email and running Office applications.

Stretching the dollars over time is the real challenge.
 

popuptoaster

P
He said his budget was unlimited, just stick the best of everything in the build and don't worry about value for money, it's obviously way down on the list of priorities.
 
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