Hardware & Technical Computer Build to run Elite Dangerous

[KING5TON]

Starting to get a little bit fanboy-y in here.

As a 7970 owner all I can say is that I went AMD as they offer much better price versus performance that Nvidia.

If money is no option then Nvidia cards such as the 780TI is the best you can get (cheapest I can find is £549.61)

If you'd rather save over £200 and get like 3 less fps on a game then go for a AMD card such as the R290 (cheapest I can find it £319.98).

You've got to ask yourself is Physx (that can be run on the CPU anyway) and slightly more fps (and in some games like ROME 2 less fps) worth £230?
I wouldn't say so (especially since you could double up on the R290's in crossfire for £100 more and wipe the floor with the 780TI by a country mile) but end of the day it's your money.

 

[Pyros]

Starting to get a little bit fanboy-y in here.

As a 7970 owner all I can say is that I went AMD as they offer much better price versus performance that Nvidia.

If money is no option then Nvidia cards such as the 780TI is the best you can get (cheapest I can find is £549.61)

If you'd rather save over £200 and get like 3 less fps on a game then go for a AMD card such as the R290 (cheapest I can find it £319.98).

You've got to ask yourself is Physx (that can be run on the CPU anyway) and slightly more fps (and in some games like ROME 2 less fps) worth £230?
I wouldn't say so (especially since you could double up on the R290's in crossfire for £100 more and wipe the floor with the 780TI by a country mile) but end of the day it's your money.

Just read a couple reviews on the 780Ti and it is a fine, powerful and a bit overpriced card.

I think the fastest standard gaming card at the moment is a watercooled 290x. If there was such a thing, of course

 

[KING5TON]

Just read a couple reviews on the 780Ti and it is a fine, powerful and a bit overpriced card.

I think the fastest standard gaming card at the moment is a watercooled 290x. If there was such a thing, of course

Most people who buy the reference cards are the type of people that take the normal cooler off and put a water block on them.

I think their coolers are the only thing that really let these new AMD cards down as they are apparently very loud and run at high temps.

The loudness doesn't bother me too much my PC already sounds like a leaf blower with the fans I've got in it and I've even got one on those Fractal Designs R4 noise reduction cases. Luckily I play with surround sound headphones on so it only bothers the Girlfriend

Once the 3rd party cards come out then the noise and heat issues the 290 and 290x should go away and these are the cards normal people buy (I think 94% of 7970's bought were custom cards)

 

[Philip Coutts]

Lets be honest about this AMD v nVidia is a bit of a non event. Both make great cards that are more than capable of playing games to a great standard. It's a personal choice between the 2 based on budget and expectations. I would think any reasonably modern graphics card will cope with ED, yes you might have to turn down some details but it's still ED and you get the same gameplay.

 

[Zieman]

Bang for buck AMD seems better choice.
What drove me back to nVidia were AMD's poor drivers, especially OpenGL ones.

 

[Maxeren]

Bang for buck AMD seems better choice.
What drove me back to nVidia were AMD's poor drivers, especially OpenGL ones.

I honestly can't disregard the fact of having a furnace in my computer which sounds like a jet taking off, which is why i'm sticking to nvidia. So i pay some extra for Nvidia, but at least its quiter and cooler.

Why do AMD keep releasing cards with those crappy reference coolers is beyond me

 

[Sparticus]

Comments Please - I will need to buy a new PC to Play ED - as my 6 yr old clunker - well - 6 yrs old.

I am thinking of this :

CPU: Intel Core i7 4770K
CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X60 280mm AIO Liquid CPU Cooler
Motherboard: MSI Z87-G45 Gaming Motherboard
Graphics: 2x MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming 3GB graphics cards in CrossFire
Memory: G.Skill Sniper F3-12800CL9D-8GBSR 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3
Solid State Drive: Samsung 840 EVO Series 120GB SSD
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 2TB ST2000DM001
Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Plus 850W ST85F-P
Additional Cooling: Nexus Real Silent 140mm Case Fan
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro.

+ 2 x 23 " HD LED Monitors ( yet to decide Which )

This fits into my Budget of about $2700 ( Australian Dollars ) ( as I am now not buying the ride on lawnmower - and will be pushing you 1 more yr )

 

[Maxeren]

Comments Please - I will need to buy a new PC to Play ED - as my 6 yr old clunker - well - 6 yrs old.

I am thinking of this :

CPU: Intel Core i7 4770K
CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X60 280mm AIO Liquid CPU Cooler
Motherboard: MSI Z87-G45 Gaming Motherboard
Graphics: 2x MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming 3GB graphics cards in CrossFire
Memory: G.Skill Sniper F3-12800CL9D-8GBSR 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3
Solid State Drive: Samsung 840 EVO Series 120GB SSD
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 2TB ST2000DM001
Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Plus 850W ST85F-P
Additional Cooling: Nexus Real Silent 140mm Case Fan
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro.

+ 2 x 23 " HD LED Monitors ( yet to decide Which )

This fits into my Budget of about $2700 ( Australian Dollars ) ( as I am now not buying the ride on lawnmower - and will be pushing you 1 more yr )

Would suggest a bigger SSD, windows takes 30-40gb of that space, leaving not much for games etc.

Got a 120gb SSD myself and there is barely room for anything.

 

[Philip Coutts]

Comments Please - I will need to buy a new PC to Play ED - as my 6 yr old clunker - well - 6 yrs old.

I am thinking of this :

CPU: Intel Core i7 4770K
CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X60 280mm AIO Liquid CPU Cooler
Motherboard: MSI Z87-G45 Gaming Motherboard
Graphics: 2x MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming 3GB graphics cards in CrossFire
Memory: G.Skill Sniper F3-12800CL9D-8GBSR 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3
Solid State Drive: Samsung 840 EVO Series 120GB SSD
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 2TB ST2000DM001
Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Plus 850W ST85F-P
Additional Cooling: Nexus Real Silent 140mm Case Fan
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro.

+ 2 x 23 " HD LED Monitors ( yet to decide Which )

This fits into my Budget of about $2700 ( Australian Dollars ) ( as I am now not buying the ride on lawnmower - and will be pushing you 1 more yr )

Wow that system will fly.

 

[Abysinth]

Comments Please - I will need to buy a new PC to Play ED - as my 6 yr old clunker - well - 6 yrs old.

I am thinking of this :

...
Motherboard: MSI Z87-G45 Gaming Motherboard
...
Solid State Drive: Samsung 840 EVO Series 120GB SSD
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 2TB ST2000DM001
...

Would suggest a bigger SSD, windows takes 30-40gb of that space, leaving not much for games etc.

Got a 120gb SSD myself and there is barely room for anything.

This motherboard (if I've read it correctly) has Intel Smart Response which allows the pairing of an HDD and an SSD so you install everything to the HDD and let the system place copies of the most frequently used files onto the SSD.

I would do it this way and, if you then find the SSD too small either replace it later or, if possible in this config, raid a couple of SSD as the cache to the HDD.

 

[Zieman]

Comments Please - I will need to buy a new PC to Play ED - as my 6 yr old clunker - well - 6 yrs old.

I am thinking of this :

CPU: Intel Core i7 4770K
CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X60 280mm AIO Liquid CPU Cooler
Motherboard: MSI Z87-G45 Gaming Motherboard
Graphics: 2x MSI Radeon R9 280X Gaming 3GB graphics cards in CrossFire
Memory: G.Skill Sniper F3-12800CL9D-8GBSR 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3
Solid State Drive: Samsung 840 EVO Series 120GB SSD
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 2TB ST2000DM001
Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Plus 850W ST85F-P
Additional Cooling: Nexus Real Silent 140mm Case Fan
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro.

+ 2 x 23 " HD LED Monitors ( yet to decide Which )

This fits into my Budget of about $2700 ( Australian Dollars ) ( as I am now not buying the ride on lawnmower - and will be pushing you 1 more yr )

I'd jump to GD65 for Mobo, to 2x8GB RAM & 240GB SSD if I were you.

And as a personal preference I'd settle for Win7, but that's just my DOSsile roots speaking...

 

[Abysinth]

I'd jump to GD65 for Mobo, to 2x8GB RAM & 240GB SSD if I were you.

And as a personal preference I'd settle for Win7, but that's just my DOSsile roots speaking...

Wouldn't that push it over budget?

How about 1 8GB DDR3, then buy a 2nd when budget allows and, finally, two more later on?

oh, and one other suggestion, the mobo/cpu both have integrated graphics. Could you put up with on-board graphics until Elite is released then buy a graphics card? If you still end up with the same choice, there's a chance it might be cheaper allowing you to budget for that extra RAM.

 

[Pyros]

I'd jump to GD65 for Mobo, to 2x8GB RAM & 240GB SSD if I were you.

And as a personal preference I'd settle for Win7, but that's just my DOSsile roots speaking...

I've just assembled my new spanking system for ED dominance (*cough*) with GD45 - performance and OC features wise they are equivalent (I think). Features differ, but the only feature I was really interested on with mine was the embeded Killer network card.

The jump to a 240 GB SSD is a good choice - besides the always handy extra space I believe it has superior performance also.

Anyway, as I mentioned my just assembled rig (last night) here it goes:

Case: Corsair Air 540 (moded)
CPU: Intel Core i7 4770K
CPU Cooler: EK Supremacy water block
Motherboard: MSI Z87-G45 Gaming Motherboard
Graphics: Gigabyte Radeon R9 290 4GB
Memory: G.Skill Trident X 2400 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3
Solid State Drive: Samsung 840 EVO Series 240GB SSD + Intel 74GB one (oldie)
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 3TB ST3000DM001 + 1TB Samsung F1
Power Supply: Corsair TX850W
Additional Cooling:
Radiator EK XT 240 radiator
Pump: EK 2.2
Fans: 2x Corsair SP silent (rad fans) and 3 x Corsair 14AFL (case fans)

All that with a Dell 2713HM IPS 2560x1440 monitor (and some samsung oldie 23" besides it).

Still to install:
Arctic Cooling Accelero Hybrid VGA Cooler (to take the 290 to 1.1 Ghz - I hope - 320W power target here I go)
Some fan controller (not that there is too much noise - actually more silent than my current system, but the amount of airflow going around in the case is very high with all fans full out).
Oculus Rift (I hope) when comercial version available

 

[Zieman]

I've just assembled my new spanking system for ED dominance (*cough*) with GD45 - performance and OC features wise they are equivalent (I think). Features differ, but the only feature I was really interested on with mine was the embeded Killer network card.

What (little) I've read about it, GD65 has better power management, making it more stable if you're planning to OC. And there's no such thing as GD45, only G45.
But yes, not much difference really, sticking to G45 is ok to save a few bucks.

 

[KING5TON]

Bang for buck AMD seems better choice.
What drove me back to nVidia were AMD's poor drivers, especially OpenGL ones.

That old chestnut.

If you are in the market for a card ignore that as it isn't the case nowadays. The drivers are fine and have been for some time. Do your research on a established website that reviews hardware and don't listen to berks in internet forums (like me, other than that last bit )

 

[Memnoch]

The other old chestnut is that AMD still refuse, as far as I know, to allow you to customise your experience based on the executable name. With Nvidia I can create a custom profile based on the .EXE i.e. Trilinear for this and Bilinear for that.

With AMD the only way to fudge the system and get better performance was to rename the .EXE to something else that used the builtin, and inaccessible, profile that ATI/AMD created so that you can use it.

Is that still the case or have they loosened the reigns somewhat?

 

[Cody]

... don't listen to berks in internet forums

Tsk, tsk... such profanity!

 

[Angus]

FD, just tell me one thing, will it use the blitter?!

 

[Abysinth]

Actually, I've been looking for a while to choose a motherboard and CPU.

I've been trying to decide between socket 1150 and socket 2011 for my brand new computer as those sockets are newest and will be most future proofed.

The trouble is, since the 1150 motherboards can 'only' take 32GB, I've begun to wonder if 32GB will be enough for Windows 9 and beyond.

 

[Slawkenbergius]

AMD drivers are still a bit ropey, in my experience. My last card needed help to get rid of a black border round my screen when I played a game in anything other than native resolution. Something to do with underscan or overscan... I had to set up a profile for each resolution I wanted to use, though once that was done it did at least switch between profiles automatically and I could forget about it until I did a reinstall of Windows.

Also, AMD cards run a bit hot for my liking, so at the moment I'm quite pleased to have swapped to NVIDIA. That may change if Mantle proves its worth with BF4.