Hardware & Technical Computer Build to run Elite Dangerous

Zieman · Jan 16, 2014

blibbka said:
Apologies if this has been answered before but this thread is way too long to read all the posts!

So I don't really know much about current PC standards since I stopped paying attention to that kind of stuff when I had my 486. I probably don't have the patience or time to build the PC from scratch.

What PC should I buy to play ED? I'm taking monitor + PC ideally in one package.

Perhaps two options - a £1,000 to £1,500 option and £1,500 to £2,000 option.

Would be useful for me as doubt my 3 year old laptop will provide a satisfactory experience

Thanks!

You could check some sites that assemble PCs, pick one or two in both price categories & post links to them here, there are several knowledgeable & helpful persons here who can dissect those systems & give good advice.

A couple of UK based (popular) companies:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=43&catid=2474
http://3xs.scan.co.uk/custom/professional-gaming
https://www.vibox.co.uk/

blibbka · Jan 16, 2014

Thanks Zieman will check those out.

Calico Jack · Jan 16, 2014

Much thanks to the chaps who suggested I get an aftermarket cooler even though I don't have a K series CPU.

Totally fixed my overheating issue - it's about 5 degrees cooler at idle, but a whopping 30 degrees cooler under load! It also no longer sounds like a blocked hoover. £20 very well spent.

Flavio · Jan 16, 2014

Calico Jack said:
Much thanks to the chaps who suggested I get an aftermarket cooler even though I don't have a K series CPU.

Totally fixed my overheating issue - it's about 5 degrees cooler at idle, but a whopping 30 degrees cooler under load! It also no longer sounds like a blocked hoover. £20 very well spent.

What cooler did you go for as I was looking at Zalman coolers and is it quiet?
Just in case you didn't hear me - IS IT QUIET?

Calico Jack · Jan 16, 2014

SPEAK UP, I CAN'T HEAR YOU!

I went for an Arctic Cooling Freezer 13, mostly because the price of the Hyper 212 had gone up to over £30 when I was looking, and I wanted a sub £20 option.

I think it is quiet, but then I am comparing it to a stock cooler. It has certainly done the trick for me, though I think it's probably better for people that only want a modest overclock or none.

Couple negatives - It wasn't obvious from the advert or reviews that it was a push-pin cooler, I would have preferred something with a back plate. It also came with the thermal paste pre-applied and I would probably have rather done it myself. That said, I didn't bother removing it...

Bruce Turnbull · Jan 17, 2014

Well, I got my new computer, or rather my computer bits. All arrived over about a week. Put it all together, couple of days......... By God it boots fast. press the button and inside 18 seconds, windows 8.1, live mail and firefox are all up and running.

What is a good benchmark program that we can use to do a compare?

Zieman · Jan 17, 2014

Bruce Turnbull said:
Well, I got my new computer, or rather my computer bits. All arrived over about a week. Put it all together, couple of days......... By God it boots fast. press the button and inside 18 seconds, windows 8.1, live mail and firefox are all up and running.

What is a good benchmark program that we can use to do a compare?

This spreadsheet has links to several:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...MTRSUUF6UWdGNWJrZjgyTTlibWc&usp=sharing#gid=0
And quite many results.

NeilF · Jan 17, 2014

Bruce Turnbull said:
Well, I got my new computer, or rather my computer bits. All arrived over about a week. Put it all together, couple of days......... By God it boots fast. press the button and inside 18 seconds, windows 8.1, live mail and firefox are all up and running.

What is a good benchmark program that we can use to do a compare?

Has it got one of these new BIOS thingies where the BIOS loads up super quick?

Bruce Turnbull · Jan 17, 2014

NeilF said:
Has it got one of these new BIOS thingies where the BIOS loads up super quick?

I guess so, it does everything super quick.

jabokai · Jan 17, 2014

NeilF said:
Has it got one of these new BIOS thingies where the BIOS loads up super quick?

UEFI.

Bruce Turnbull · Jan 18, 2014

Thank you

Just a quick post to say thank you for all the help and advice you guys gave me with my computer build.

Ref Minor · Jan 18, 2014

Would anyone know if Elite would run on a laptop with low/med settings (I assume higher settings are well beyond it) with the following stats
i5 M460 2.53GHz
GeForce GT420M 1GB
4GB Ram

Zieman · Jan 18, 2014

Ref Minor said:
Would anyone know if Elite would run on a laptop with low/med settings (I assume higher settings are well beyond it) with the following stats
i5 M460 2.53GHz
GeForce GT420M 1GB
4GB Ram

Original Elite would run like hell!

There's a spreadsheet of Alpha (& Beta) testers' system specs, benchmarks & (only Alpha so far) E: D FPS here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...MTRSUUF6UWdGNWJrZjgyTTlibWc&usp=sharing#gid=0
There I spotted one i7-2630QM with GeForce GT540M, who got 20 FPS at 1366x768 with low settings. His GFX had only 512 MB, but still I think your laptop will struggle badly.

Si Waters · Jan 18, 2014

Well, I've been really toying with an upgrade idea for a while now, not sure what to do.

I've got an asus p5k, with q6600 overclocked to 3.2ghz and 6gb of ddr2 at 800mhz

My gfx card is woefully out of date ( gt7600) so needs an upgrade.

So, limited budget means I'll either be getting a gtx760 to run with my current rig, which I'm not sure is a good idea due to it's age, or upgrading to a i5 4670k with gigabyte z87z-d3h with 8 or 16gb of 1600mhz ram. But use the hd4600 onboard gfx on the CPU, because I won't be able to get a GPU as well with my budget.

I saw some vids on YouTube with the hd4600 and it looked ok.

I'm not a pc gamer, I use my xbox, so this is money spent really only on elite...

Any input appreciated

Are we still on for a March release?

Zieman · Jan 18, 2014

Si Waters said:
Well, I've been really toying with an upgrade idea for a while now, not sure what to do.

I've got an asus p5k, with q6600 overclocked to 3.2ghz and 6gb of ddr2 at 800mhz

My gfx card is woefully out of date ( gt7600) so needs an upgrade.

So, limited budget means I'll either be getting a gtx760 to run with my current rig, which I'm not sure is a good idea due to it's age, or upgrading to a i5 4670k with gigabyte z87z-d3h with 8 or 16gb of 1600mhz ram. But use the hd4600 onboard gfx on the CPU, because I won't be able to get a GPU as well with my budget.

I saw some vids on YouTube with the hd4600 and it looked ok.

I'm not a pc gamer, I use my xbox, so this is money spent really only on elite...

Any input appreciated

I'd go for the 4670k -route. And start saving some money for buying GTX660/R9 270X or better GFX later.

Si Waters said:
Are we still on for a March release?

Recent FD communications give the impression that we're not on for March release, at least not retail and I'm beginning to think that not even gamma testing phase.

Cody · Jan 18, 2014

CPUs (and mobos) don't drop much in price, but GPUs do - no harm in waiting.

The Space Pirate · Jan 18, 2014

Bruce Turnbull said:
Just a quick post to say thank you for all the help and advice you guys gave me with my computer build.

I'll second that - you guys are very helpful, especially Faerie.

Flavio · Jan 18, 2014

Si Waters said:
Well, I've been really toying with an upgrade idea for a while now, not sure what to do.

I've got an asus p5k, with q6600 overclocked to 3.2ghz and 6gb of ddr2 at 800mhz

My gfx card is woefully out of date ( gt7600) so needs an upgrade.

So, limited budget means I'll either be getting a gtx760 to run with my current rig, which I'm not sure is a good idea due to it's age, or upgrading to a i5 4670k with gigabyte z87z-d3h with 8 or 16gb of 1600mhz ram. But use the hd4600 onboard gfx on the CPU, because I won't be able to get a GPU as well with my budget.

I saw some vids on YouTube with the hd4600 and it looked ok.

I'm not a pc gamer, I use my xbox, so this is money spent really only on elite...

Any input appreciated

Are we still on for a March release?

I am doing something similar with an i7 as that has the same on board gfx but will hopefully upgrade to a proper gfx board at a later date. If it runs well I will upgrade the monitor first (if touch screen is supported, I may go for that).
I am also basing my ideas on the videos and what one person said when he tried it and I believe that you will be able to run it at a decent speed on a medium setting with a good enough screen resolution (1024 x 728).

Faerie · Jan 18, 2014

Si Waters said:
Well, I've been really toying with an upgrade idea for a while now, not sure what to do.

I've got an asus p5k, with q6600 overclocked to 3.2ghz and 6gb of ddr2 at 800mhz

My gfx card is woefully out of date ( gt7600) so needs an upgrade.

So, limited budget means I'll either be getting a gtx760 to run with my current rig, which I'm not sure is a good idea due to it's age, or upgrading to a i5 4670k with gigabyte z87z-d3h with 8 or 16gb of 1600mhz ram. But use the hd4600 onboard gfx on the CPU, because I won't be able to get a GPU as well with my budget.

I saw some vids on YouTube with the hd4600 and it looked ok.

I'm not a pc gamer, I use my xbox, so this is money spent really only on elite...

Any input appreciated

Are we still on for a March release?

It's a tough call. Your current setup *might* be OK with the GTX 760, but I suspect it will bottleneck because the card is much more powerful then the CPU.
On the other hand, your proposed new rig is a better investment if you're planning to add a decent GFX card when finances allow. Apparently, the HD4600 will play Skyrim on medium settings at around 30 fps, so I expect you would get playable frame rates in ED on similar settings, but I doubt you'd be happy with it on a permanent basis.

Just my opinion, but if money is tight then you could go for a less ambitious GFX card, because those that cost around £50 less than the GTX 760 are perfectly capable of running the alpha on high settings at very good frame rates. However, if you upgrade the rest of the rig later you may wish you'd gone for the better card.

huwthomas · Jan 18, 2014

Si Waters said:
I've got an asus p5k, with q6600 overclocked to 3.2ghz and 6gb of ddr2 at 800mhz

My gfx card is woefully out of date ( gt7600) so needs an upgrade.

So, limited budget means I'll either be getting a gtx760 to run with my current rig, which I'm not sure is a good idea due to it's age, or upgrading to a i5 4670k with gigabyte z87z-d3h with 8 or 16gb of 1600mhz ram. But use the hd4600 onboard gfx on the CPU, because I won't be able to get a GPU as well with my budget.

I saw some vids on YouTube with the hd4600 and it looked ok.

I'm going to differ from the other replies ... the current system requirements call for a quad core 2GHz, your CPU is elderly but it still delivers 50%+ more than that. It's your graphics card that falls short. ofc your proposed solution does get rid of that card ... but what if the onboard graphics aren't satisfactory with the full game?

Personally I'd wait