Hardware & Technical Building a PC for E:D

[SpionKop]

Don't forget to include a pen and paper to do your route planning in the cost!!

(runs away)

 

[adoredtv]

When is the last time you used an up to date AMD system?

I build them for a living. I have hand built and sold literally hundreds of AMD systems in the past couple of years.

I used to think intel had better math co-porcessors ,but managing triple digit servers I decided to research the cost savings vs. performance. I discovered through research that AMD held its own even on complex/cycle hungry DB applications....saved a ton of loot over the past few years because of it.

You can pay more if you like but one can achieve equivalent performance and not have to buy the latest/most expensive processor.

Again I am running ED two cores shy of min spec. On a CPU that isn't even made anymore and one can pick up as B stock for 30 or 40 dollars.

I'm not doubting that AMD CPUs run the game fine, however for serious gaming I would always go with Intel. The frame-rate will be higher and the minimum frame-rate will be higher, period. Whether or not that's worth paying almost double for is another matter, but it doesn't change the facts.

 

[cmdr awesome]

This was my bill of materials from box.co.uk for a build in early June. I get 100fps+ at 1080p in most situations (not in Rift - in the Rift DK2 it's quite borderline), and the graphics card now costs a fraction of what I paid. It was based on one of their standard builds which received good reviews, so I was confident it would all fit together properly. You won't need everything on here, and note that I got HOTAS at the same time.

Order Summary
Description Quantity Price Total
Aerocool Dead Silence Orange Gaming Cube Case, 0.8mm, Matx, 2 X Usb3, 20Cm Black Fan 1 £65.71 £65.71
MSI Z87M-Gaming Intel Z87 Socket 1150 Express Chipset Motherboard , 4X DDR3, 8X USB 3.0, 6X USB 2.0 , HDMI,DP,M-ATX , Z87M-GAMING 1 £89.99 £89.99
Kingston HyperX Beast 16 GB RAM Memory Kit (2x 8 GB),DDR3 , 2400 MHz, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CL11, 240-pin DIMM, KHX24C11T3K2/16X 1 £132.20 £132.20
Intel Core i7-4770S 1150 Haswell Processor , 1150, Haswell, Quad Core, 3.1GHz, 3.9GHz Turbo, 1200MHz GPU, 31x Ratio, 65W, Retail , BX80646I74770S 1 £220.19 £220.19
Aerocool Strike-X 800W Modular PSU, 80+ Silver Certified, Twin 12v Rails, 6x SATA Connectors, 2x PCI-e 6+2 Pins, 5x Peripheral Connectors, EN53754 1 £89.28 £89.28
Windows 8.1 64 Bit OS Operating System OEM DVD English 1 Licence,WN7-00614 1 £77.99 £77.99
Msi Dragon Liquid Cpu Processor Cooler 1 £39.99 £39.99
Msi NVIDIA GeForce Gtx 770 Gaming Video Graphics Card N770 TF 2GD5/OC,2 GB,PCI-Express X16, Dual-DVI | HDMI | DisplayPort, DDR5, N770 TF 2GD5/OC 1 £224.99 £224.99
Cashback Offer. Amount : £0.00; Text: *Qualifying GPUs may differ in each region/country; URL: http://www.geforce.com/GETWATCHDOGS 1 £0.00 £0.00
Watch Dogs Game Card - Only with select Video Card purchases! 1 £0.00 £0.00
Thrustmaster Hotas Warthog Flightstick ,PC,2960720 1 £249.00 £249.00
Seagate 1TB 8Gb SSD Solid State Hybrid Hard Drive ,8GB SSD Hard Drive ,ST1000DX001 1 £59.99 £59.99
£3.95 - Upto 2 Days (UK MAINLAND Mon-Fri) DPD PARCEL NEXTDAY (ZZ) 1 £3.95 £3.95
Sub Total: £1,044.40
VAT: £208.88
Total: £1,253.28

 

[Harmoniser]

For £400 you're not going to be able to get very much.
I'd recommend saving up a bit more and getting a better system.

I just got this for my little brother, cost £658. I'd recommend something similar.

1 x 1TB Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 3.5" SATA III Hard Drive - HDD @ 35.94GBP
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail @ 166.74GBP
1 x Sharkoon VS3-S Chrome Black Midi Tower Gaming Case @ 23.74GBP
1 x 8GB Arianet (1x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz DIMM Memory @ 52.79GBP
1 x MSI Z97 PC Mate Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard @ 64.74GBP
1 x Cooler Master B-Series 600W 12V Single Rail Power Supply @ 41.94GBP
1 x Palit GeForce GTX970 4GB (Maxwell) Nvidia PCI Express Graphics Card + 1 FREE GAME! @ 259.19GBP

There's a very good chance that machine will run almost anything on high/ultra at 1080p and will be good for a couple of years at least.
If you buy lesser stuff now you'll probably find your PC just won't cut it a lot sooner than you'd expect and you'll probably have to spend a lot more to upgrade than you would if you spent a bit more now and then maybe just upgraded the GPU in a couple of years.

Since you already have some things you'll make some savings but I'd always recommend spending big on the GPU in comparison to the other components if you plan on gaming.

Agree with this, gtx 970 is a great choice for power to £ and will last you for a few years, if you're sticking with 1080p. CPU is a good shout too.

The good thing about the new nividia cards is that you can use DSR, so if you have head room (in-terms of FPS) you can use DSR to make the game look even better. I used it on my 2.5K monitor to go up to 4k and it was pretty effective (although I had a 980. I now have a 4k screen (and two 980s!) but I can say that DSR did a good job. I reckon with a 970 you can use DSR to get up 2.5k and still get 60 FPS, with everything on max.

Good luck! Oh I use these guys www.overclockers.co.uk

 

[Tassier]

I recently picked up an ATI radeon R280 for £130 from Amazon last month to replace my old 4850, now getting a pretty constant 60fps in the gamma. Definitely worth shopping around for these at the moment as they're being replaced by the r285 cards currently so watch for the bargains...

 

[Robert Maynard]

I'm not doubting that AMD CPUs run the game fine, however for serious gaming I would always go with Intel. The frame-rate will be higher and the minimum frame-rate will be higher, period. Whether or not that's worth paying almost double for is another matter, but it doesn't change the facts.

They do indeed - my FX-8350 is not stretched by the game at max graphical settings with an R9 280X. You are spot on with the cost-benefit issue. In my experience, you get more performance per pound with an AMD CPU but cannot reach the extremes of performance that Intel offer.

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You can pick up win 8.1 for a lot less if you shop around.
If anyone you know is a student you can also get it for even cheaper (e.g. £12).

Got my copy for 25.

Ah - I'm obviously not trying hard enough to locate bargains!

 

[Lestat]

If your short on money aim for a motherboard with integrated graphics with the option to upgrade to Dedicated graphics. At least this way you should be able to play the game on medium until you get a few more credits to buy a larger graphisc card. So you can focus on the CPU Motherboard and Ram. Then when you get funds Buy a dedicated graphics.