Upgrading your rig? Think twice.

[Echo Seven]

Just some general advice - In light of recent developments, it may be best to just wait. Even today's top-of-the-line rigs are only going to be a mid-range system in 12 months.

Wait until the end of next year if your system will generally support ED well enough. In 2014 we're going to see the release of DDR4 RAM, the first Intel 8-core CPU (Haswell-E) a new motherboard chipset (X-99) and next-gen video cards from both AMD and Nvidia that will eat todays cards for breakfast.

It is currently the worst time to start building a rig, with all these changes coming up.

Edit : Some suggestions for a midway path of upgrading now cost effectively, see my later post.

 

[drew]

It is currently the worst time to start building a rig, with all these changes coming up.

This is always true, regardless of when you make the observation.

Cheers,

Drew.

 

[Echo Seven]

Mmm... I think more so presently however, due to the trifector of changes - CPU / Board and Memory with significant performance gains - more so than the relatively minor change from 1155 to 1150 pin processors.

 

[Twix166]

Ah well, too late. I guess I'll have to upgrade next Christmas as well. Oh, the pain.

 

[Crystles]

Just some general advice - In light of recent developments, it may be best to just wait. Even today's top-of-the-line rigs are only going to be a mid-range system in 12 months.

Wait until the end of next year if your system will generally support ED well enough. In 2014 we're going to see the release of DDR4 RAM, the first Intel 8-core CPU (Haswell-E) a new motherboard chipset (X-99) and next-gen video cards from both AMD and Nvidia that will eat todays cards for breakfast.

It is currently the worst time to start building a rig, with all these changes coming up.

Well... A buncha things to say...

Arnt a ton of things always around the corner in PC development?

Also, they say every next years video cards are supposed eat last years? Usually ends up a 10-25% improvement.

More cores are cool, if the game supports it. Looking at past chips, they usually only do mediocre.

And RAM arguably doesnt matter in videogaming.



Not to play negative nancy, but its always the worst time. The best time is when you KNOW what you need to max out the game you want to play the most, and aim a little above that.

ED doesnt look like a PC eater to me though. The min specs given were very middle of the road on even last year computers. My laptop which is coming up on 3 creams the specs pretty well.

Not trying to derail your post.

 

[Twix166]

Ah well, too late. I guess I'll have to upgrade next Christmas as well. Oh, the pain.

[EDIT] Aargh! Double posted. Sorry about that. Can this be deleted?

 

[Lestat]

Just some general advice - In light of recent developments, it may be best to just wait. Even today's top-of-the-line rigs are only going to be a mid-range system in 12 months.

Wait until the end of next year if your system will generally support ED well enough. In 2014 we're going to see the release of DDR4 RAM, the first Intel 8-core CPU (Haswell-E) a new motherboard chipset (X-99) and next-gen video cards from both AMD and Nvidia that will eat todays cards for breakfast.

It is currently the worst time to start building a rig, with all these changes coming up.

Fact is by the time you build a system it already outdated.

 

[Rubbernuke]

There is always something better on the horizon- all you can do is buy the best at the time and enjoy what you have.

 

[Echo Seven]

I think if you are going to upgrade, you are going to upgrade. If you can afford to wait, you might be able to save a bit in the long run.

I think the biggest changes will be the new boards and the way that they will support crossfire and SLI. The new 2011 boards already allow high speed lanes to the south bridge and can support two cards at 16x/16x.

And dissent is always welcome - With any upgrade, considering a range of views are always good in evaluating circumstances.. I was just saying, if you have not committed yet, think twice..

 

[KING5TON]

Sometimes thinking like that you'll never upgrade as there's always new hardware round the corner. Sure there will be better hardware in a year, but there will be better hardware a year after that and the year after that.

Best thing to do is upgrade when you feel you need to.

If you have relatively older hardware now and you're mad keen on E: D and have the spare cash it's the perfect time to upgrade your PC. Either now or extremely close to the release of the Alpha/Beta/Gamma. Give yourself a bit of time to get your PC in order too, as it sometimes takes a while to get your PC running as it you want it to.

Regarding what to buy you should read through the stickied Rig to Run E: D thread and do some homework on the best price versus performance parts you can get for your budget

 

[Asp Explorer]

If waiting to upgrade hardware was put off because of the "next best thing, soon!" then I'd be out of a job.

You would be absolutely amazed at how much money a company will throw at something to even gain a 1 millisecond advantage over the competition.

With PC's it's just the same, new shiny kit will always be better than a 10-year old black-case, or a 20 year-old beige box, providing the upgrade will provide a tangible benefit to you.

There are plenty of people I know who could function perfectly well online today, on a Pentium 3 1GHz with a 10Gb hard drive running XP.

Upgrade now if you need it, or want it, wait if you don't. As has already been said, even a new build is out of date by the time the OS is installed

 

[Patrick_68000]

I believe that I am going to wait for the end of 2015 to benefit from new technologies of year 2014. While waiting for I am going to continue to use my usual PC

 

[SAB380]

Most companies haven't taken advantage of a 4 core system yet.
What makes you think they'll take advantage of an 8 core system ?

And if modern computers dump most work to the graphics card and most games don't even get close to stressing a 12gig DDR3 ram system, why bother waiting for DDR4 ?

If your goal is to build an ultra machine designed to post the biggest most impressive specs on line then fair enough ....but if its to play Elite Dangerous in max settings, a high end machine right now I'll say will do it with little problem

 

[Patrick_68000]

More seriously, I noticed that when a new generation of components come on the market, they are very dear. And the prices of the previous generation, down little but not many. Then the prices of the new generation begin to fall, and the previous generation disappears from catalogs.

 

[SnowGhost]

DDR4 IS coming but will be significantly more expensive and initially not any faster. So DDR4 isn't a real benefit.

Intel isn't speeding their CPUs up significantly any more, they are aiming at lower power usage, in general and a minor performance increase. But you probably won't notice this difference anyway, unless you have a Core i7-4770 already and will be moving to the next top of the range CPU. But again a big cost increase.

New motherboards, well, again not a major performance benefit but a step sideways.

New video cards ... yeah. OK tis might be a real benefit.

So, as lots of others said, there are always new systems and upgrades coming.

 

[Echo Seven]

Well, it appears we are all settled in our own hearts that we have made the right decision, taking into account our situations and what it will bring us, and maybe that is what counts.

 

[Minti2]

Well, it appears we are all settled in our own hearts that we have made the right decision, taking into account our situations and what it will bring us, and maybe that is what counts.

Yep thats it

Am playing with my two day new rig right now and love it, and as others and myself are in Alpha had no choice but to upgrade now, i think my specs will be for ED at least, but i have no worries for future games for awhile either

but hey always good to hear about new products coming out

 

[Patrick_68000]

Yep thats it

Am playing with my two day new rig right now and love it, and as others and myself are in Alpha had no choice but to upgrade now, i think my specs will be for ED at least, but i have no worries for future games for awhile either

but hey always good to hear about new products coming out

Give us the details of your new rig. Always interesting to read the beautiful technology

 

[Luniticisi]

Most companies haven't taken advantage of a 4 core system yet.
What makes you think they'll take advantage of an 8 core system ?

The fact that the PS4 and X-Box One both use 8 core AMD Jaguar CPU's I think it's only a matter of time before it becomes standard.

 

[Minti2]

Give us the details of your new rig. Always interesting to read the beautiful technology

Dark Reign

Specification:
CPU:
Intel Core i5 4570
CPU Cooling:
Standard Intel Cooler
Operating System:
Windows 8.1 (64-bit)
Motherboard:
Gigabyte Z87-HD3
Memory:
Corsair 8GB 1600mhz Vengeance
Hard Drives:
Plextor 128GB M5S SSD
1TB S-ATAIII 6.0Gb/s
Optical Drive:
DVDRW
Graphics card:
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 4GB
Sound card:
Onboard 7.1
Case:
Coolermaster CM 690 III
PSU:
Corsair CX600
Warranty:
3 Year SureCare Warranty

hopefully it will keep me going for a few years!