Hardware & Technical Help a luddite get back into gaming with some new PC advice.

alfrichort · Jan 28, 2015

Dear all,

I've been following the progress of the launch of ED with great interest, wasting a good few hours reading the forums and watching some game play on Twitch. The original Elite was one of my all time favourite games when I was a wee lad. So I definitely want to get back behind the throttle.

The problem is I have not bought a new PC for about 10 years, I have not been gaming due to the pressures of life and the world of PCs has passed me by, I honestly believe i would have more luck building a custom car from scratch than a PC now.

I have done a little research, basically I want something that will last a few years before being outdated, with potential to upgrade components as they come on the market. Have sourced a pre-built with the following specs, is this something good to start with, have £1000 budget, main concern is whether I need a better card or whether a GTX750 ti is fine for now. Any advice would be great. Thanks

CASE BUILT IN	Corsair Carbide Spec-01 Gaming Case With Side Window
MOTHERBOARD	Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 5
MOTHERBOARD EXPANSION SLOTS	1x PCI Express x16, 1x PCI Express x8, 1x PCI Express x4, 3x PCI Express x1, 1x PCI
CPU TYPE	Intel I7 4th Generation Haswell
CPU MODEL	Intel Core I7 4790K 4.0ghz 8mb Cache 4th Gen Haswell
CPU SOCKET	Intel 1150
CPU CLOCK SPEED	4.0 Ghz
CPU MAX TURBO CLOCK SPEED	4.4 Ghz
CPU COOLER	Standard Intel Cooler
MEMORY	8gb Corsair Vengeance Pro DDR3 2400Mhz Performance Ram
HARD DRIVE SIZE	1tb Seagate Barracuda Sata 6Gb/s 64mb Cache 7200rpm
OPTICAL DRIVE	Samsung 24x Sata DVD Writer
GRAPHICS CARD	Nvidia Geforce GTX 750TI 2gb GDDR5
PSU SIZE	Corsair CX600 80 Plus Bronze Certified 600w Power Supply
OPERATING SYSTEM	Windows 8.1 64bit With License / Disc Installed and Ready to go
FRONT / TOP CASE PORTS	1x USB 2.0, 1x USB 3.0, 1x Headphone Jack, 1x Microphone Jack
REAR PANEL CONNECTIONS	2x PS/2 ports, 1x optical S/PDIF Out, 1x D-Sub, 1x DVI-D, 1x HDMI, 4x USB 3.0/2.0, 4x USB 2.0, 1x RJ-45, 5x audio jacks
MOTHERBOARD FEATURES	EasyTune, EZ Setup, Fast Boot, Smart TimeLock, Smart Recovery 2, Support for Q-Flash
PC SPECIAL FEATURES	1x 12cm Cooling Fan Included, Additional Case Cooling Optional, Fully Upgradeable, Overclocking Potential, Side Window Panel, Water Cooling Support
WARRANTY	1 Year Collect and Return Warranty Included with all our Computers. Buy with confidence knowing if anything goes wrong we will pick up the Computer and repair it at no cost to yourself during your warranty period which shows the faith we have in the products we sell.
ALSO INCLUDES	Free 60 Day Trial Norton Internet Security ( OEM ) Monitor 27" Asus 1920 -1080

Alcran Zularn · Jan 28, 2015

Hello,

That system is fine. My rig is 3 years old, i have a 780GTX, with a 2700k processor,MAXIMUS IV EXTREME - ASUS, 8 gig 2100mhz memory, my pc has no problem with elite.

I can imagine that 750ti is a decent card,

Have you priced these up or are they a package from a company?

Surfinjo · Jan 28, 2015

Not sure where that is being sold but strongly suggest you tell them you don't want Norton or any bundled extras.

You might even consider paying a bit extra for a retail copy of Windows rather than their OEM.

If I may, I will also suggest you have the DVD drive disconnected and use and external DVD drive. Internals start each time with Windows, using up resources and power. More importantly, it will be needlessly accessed many times, even if you do bother to turn it off in the BIOS. Eventually it will wear down and use even more power and resources. Most only use their DVD drive occasionally. Currently, the only time I use my external DVD drive is to play DVD movies.

Your machine is pretty powerful, possibly in the top ranks. But that won't last for ever as newer stuff comes onto the market. Mine, when I bought it was the fastest around. I had many people saying I had wasted my money of quad core since there is nothing out there that uses it. Now, quad is more or less obligatory.

alfrichort · Jan 28, 2015

Surfinjo said:
Not sure where that is being sold but strongly suggest you tell them you don't want Norton or any bundled extras.

You might even consider paying a bit extra for a retail copy of Windows rather than their OEM.

If I may, I will also suggest you have the DVD drive disconnected and use and external DVD drive. Internals start each time with Windows, using up resources and power. More importantly, it will be needlessly accessed many times, even if you do bother to turn it off in the BIOS. Eventually it will wear down and use even more power and resources. Most only use their DVD drive occasionally. Currently, the only time I use my external DVD drive is to play DVD movies.

Your machine is pretty powerful, possibly in the top ranks. But that won't last for ever as newer stuff comes onto the market. Mine, when I bought it was the fastest around. I had many people saying I had wasted my money of quad core since there is nothing out there that uses it. Now, quad is more or less obligatory.

Thanks for the reply. Being sold by a custom supplier, they have many different options so can easily knock out the items you have suggested, the PC is £793.00 and would get the monitor elsewhere for £169.98, I think the motherboard will take 5th gen intel so there should be a bit of future proofing built in. Good advice on the DVD.

alfrichort · Jan 28, 2015

Surfinjo said:
Not sure where that is being sold but strongly suggest you tell them you don't want Norton or any bundled extras.

You might even consider paying a bit extra for a retail copy of Windows rather than their OEM.

If I may, I will also suggest you have the DVD drive disconnected and use and external DVD drive. Internals start each time with Windows, using up resources and power. More importantly, it will be needlessly accessed many times, even if you do bother to turn it off in the BIOS. Eventually it will wear down and use even more power and resources. Most only use their DVD drive occasionally. Currently, the only time I use my external DVD drive is to play DVD movies.

Your machine is pretty powerful, possibly in the top ranks. But that won't last for ever as newer stuff comes onto the market. Mine, when I bought it was the fastest around. I had many people saying I had wasted my money of quad core since there is nothing out there that uses it. Now, quad is more or less obligatory.

Thanks for the reply. Being sold by a custom supplier, they have many different options so can easily knock out the items you have suggested, the PC is £793.00 and would get the monitor elsewhere for £169.98, I think the motherboard will take 5th gen intel so there should be a bit of future proofing built in. Good advice on the DVD.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

Alcran Zularn said:
Hello,

That system is fine. My rig is 3 years old, i have a 780GTX, with a 2700k processor,MAXIMUS IV EXTREME - ASUS, 8 gig 2100mhz memory, my pc has no problem with elite.

I can imagine that 750ti is a decent card,

Have you priced these up or are they a package from a company?

Thanks for your reply.

The PC is made to order and coming in at £793.00, actually cheaper than I have seen the parts on their own.

Riktar · Jan 28, 2015

I will echo the suggestion about Win 7 retail over OEM.

Ditto on Trialware when it comes to antivirus software. Ask the builder for their suggestion on freeware AV software. Bitdefender has a "decent" freeware version.

The GTX 750ti will work with Elite. Expect (using sync/frame lock settings) 60 fps in open space with framerates dropping to 30 in crowded (inside stations, approaching systems in space) scenarios. This can be helped by not maxxing out or reducing the graphics settings.

I run the same power supply you have listed and it can run a single Radeon R9 290 (that is what I have installed) at stock speed without issues. Not that you have to get that card. Just letting you know what you could "upgrade" to without power issues.

alfrichort · Jan 28, 2015

Riktar said:
I will echo the suggestion about Win 7 retail over OEM.

Ditto on Trialware when it comes to antivirus software. Ask the builder for their suggestion on freeware AV software. Bitdefender has a "decent" freeware version.

The GTX 750ti will work with Elite. Expect (using sync/frame lock settings) 60 fps in open space with framerates dropping to 30 in crowded (inside stations, approaching systems in space) scenarios. This can be helped by not maxxing out or reducing the graphics settings.

I run the same power supply you have listed and it can run a single Radeon R9 290 (that is what I have installed) at stock speed without issues. Not that you have to get that card. Just letting you know what you could "upgrade" to without power issues.

Thanks for the suggestions, I have done a bit more looking online and have found a near identical custom set-up which is actually a little bit cheaper in the main and would allow me to upgrade the GPU to a GTX 970 4gb instead of the 750 ti at an additional cost of £63.00 Would this help with the frame rate drop in crowded play? Would I be ok still on the power demand?

Riktar · Jan 28, 2015

The power requirements for the GTX 970 are LOWER than the R9 290 so yes, you would be good to go with that.

Performance wise, the GTX 970 is about the same (fanboy opinions aside) as the R9 290. So yes, it would absolutely crush the requirements for ED. With frame sync enabled, it should pin at 60 fps in all phases of the game.

Just a note about frame sync: Make sure you do enable it to the spec of your monitor. Most mainstream monitors run at 60Hz so anything above 60 fps is a waste anyway. Not to mention you can get screen tearing (The picture literally tears on the screen) if you try to push a 60Hz monitor above 60 fps.