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Thread: Gaming PC - how/why/what?

  1. #261
    Banned sideways14a's Avatar
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    BF3 is great but its really the online play that it wins so much on.
    I tend to only play two levels, one of which is metro just because of the carnage in 64 player games.

  2. #262
    Guest MaccyD's Avatar
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    Hawken sounds interesting and cheers for the heads up on BF3. Im pretty much only after online games so its all good. I dont know if i eneded to restart last night but i installed Steam but then it didnt appear to want to run

  3. #263
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    I'm looking to build my own gaming PC soon and hoping you guys may be able to help spec it.

    If you thought DEL was an incompetent overcautious NooB then I'm on a whole different level I'm afraid so please bear with me.

    I only intend on playing racing sims on it so I'm not sure if that changes much.I would like to keep the costs down to a respectable level (shall we say £6-700 max).

    I have absolutely no components to reuse as my last desktop was about 10 years ago with a 20GB hard drive and maybe 256Mb RAM.

    The specs from some of the games are below however its a possible to overspec it a little to make it future proof a bit then that would be great.

    Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8
    Intel Core 2 Duo or Athlon X2?or higher
    NVidia GeForce 7800 / ATI Radeon X1800 or above graphics adapter recommended
    2 GB system RAM
    6 Gb free hard disk space
    Microphone optional, required for voice chat
    -----------------------------
    CPU: 3.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or 3.0 GHz AMD Athlon II x2 or better
    Memory: 4 GB+
    Video Card: nVidia 250 GTS or ATI/AMD 4870 or better
    Video Memory: 512MB+
    Operating System: PC Microsoft Windows Vista 64bit, Windows 7 64bit
    Storage: 4 GB+Notes:
    1 – 2008 C++ Runtimes SP1 required (included with installer).
    -----------------------------
    CPU - 3.0GHz Dual-Core, 2.4GHz Quad-Core
    GRAPHICS - nVidia 9600 GT 512Mb, ATI Radeon HD 4750 512Mb
    MEMORY - 2Gb RAM (3Gb-4Gb recommended)
    -----------------------------
    SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
    MINIMUM PC REQUIREMENTS
    Windows 2000/XP
    MINIMUM
    Intel Pentium 4 1.8GHz Processor
    512MB RAM
    1.7GB Hard Disk Space
    64MB DirectX compatible 3D Video Card

    Let me know if there is any other info i have missed out.


    Thanks in advance


    EDIT
    I guess i should add that i would like a good 5.1 or 7.1 output for either my home AV system or a dedicated PC style 5.1 system.
    I would also like at least dual monitor if not triple monitor (not sure if this is big bucks or not) and also HDMI output for now as i will be using my main TV (47" 1080P 3D LED))
    Last edited by redlinezak; 06-06-2013 at 12:33.

  4. #264
    Banned sideways14a's Avatar
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    Everything you have listed there is low end, in fact its historic in spec.
    All your games with those spec's would run on a modern APU based computer, either one of the new haswell based 4xxx series or better still an A10-6700 or A10-6800
    If you want to spend more and future proof it for modern gaming with higher res/detail then a 2600k/3770/4770k intel chip paired with a good video card like an 7950 upwards (or nvidia 670 upwards).
    4/8 Gb ram, and imho go SSD (drop the cpu spec to afford this if you need to fit to budget)

  5. #265
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    Quote Originally Posted by sideways14a View Post
    Everything you have listed there is low end, in fact its historic in spec.
    All your games with those spec's would run on a modern APU based computer, either one of the new haswell based 4xxx series or better still an A10-6700 or A10-6800
    If you want to spend more and future proof it for modern gaming with higher res/detail then a 2600k/3770/4770k intel chip paired with a good video card like an 7950 upwards (or nvidia 670 upwards).
    4/8 Gb ram, and imho go SSD (drop the cpu spec to afford this if you need to fit to budget)
    Those are all the minimum requirements listed from the various websites.
    Im sure an improved gaming experience could be had by upgrading as you suggest.

  6. #266
    Banned sideways14a's Avatar
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    Yes everything listed in there is ultra low spec these days, for instance
    "Video Card: nVidia 250 GTS or ATI/AMD 4870 or better" - We are now on the AMD 7970 which is ~18 months old and due to be superseded soon, before that we had the 69xx, then the 58xx series and before that the 48xx series like your listing / so thats a 5yr old card now.
    "CPU: 3.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or 3.0 GHz AMD Athlon II x2 or better" - Again very old cpu's, i am writing off a dozen or so pc's today that have sat in our cupboard for 6 months and these are obsolete x2's and first gen core2's.
    "Intel Pentium 4 1.8GHz Processor" - I know of rocks in the garden outside with more processing grunt that this !

  7. #267
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    I guess that will be the absolute minimum requirements to make the game actually work then.
    The first batch of specs are for the iracing game which is probably the most high end racing sim available so certainly not old games.
    i will have a look round and try and get together a spec list and see what you guys think.

    Thanks

  8. #268
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    OK lets try this for starters.

    Gigabyte Luxo X10 Gaming Case £41.32
    Zalman LQ310 Ultimate Liquid CPU Cooler £55.94
    Corsair 700W Gaming Series GS700 2013 Edition 80+ Bronze, ATX, PS/2 PSU £69.99
    Intel Core i5-4670K S1150 3.4GHz 6MB Haswell Quad Core Processor Unlocked £191.66 (comes with GRID2 free)
    ASRock Z87 Extreme4 S1150 Intel Z87 DDR3 ATX £150.66
    Kingston 8GB (2 x 4GB) HyperX Predator DDR3 2400MHz DIMM CL11 XMP £64.99)
    Gigabyte GeForce GTX 660 2GB PCI-Express 3.0 HDMI OC £152.98
    OCZ Technology 256GB Agility 4 SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" Solid State Drive £119.98

    Total of that lot is £847.52 which is a bit more than i was expecting.
    I picked everything kinda at random largely due to what pretty colour it was and that it was towards the cheaper end of the price scale.
    All sourced from Dabs.

    Will that lot work and what would people recommend i changed to reduce costs and/or improve performance?

    Also have i totally forgotten anything ?
    Thanks

  9. #269
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    Just noticed that i have not added an OS onto that which is going to take the price to around £1000 - seems cheaper to buy a ready made one or maybe i have just massively overspecced.

  10. #270
    Banned sideways14a's Avatar
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    Board and cpu are stupid money, yes good but way overpriced.
    the 660 is also not my cup of tea for the money.

  11. #271
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    OK can you suggest a board as i had absolutely zero zero idea of what i was suggesting.
    Went for that processor as you suggested the 4770 so i assumed a 4670 would be a bit cheaper?

    I am actually quite surprised that you havn't said that it wouldn't all work together although that is probably down to luck more than good judgement on my part lol.

    Cheers

  12. #272
    Banned sideways14a's Avatar
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    I5 3450 + board + 8gb of ram (This is just a guideline price, i am not suggesting these are what you should buy) This is a reasonable spec cpu board and processor. £290 inc.
    http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...=43&catid=2512
    7870 video card, again look for something like this. £159 inc
    http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...=56&subcat=411

  13. #273
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    OK cool - gives me somewhere to start

    Cheers

  14. #274
    Guest MaccyD's Avatar
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    I think the spec i built up is pretty good, it seems the only improvement to make it better for gaming would be a stronger graphics card. But my complete build came in at £650 which is a bit more like your price range. Then im sure sideways could point you in the direction of a better card.

    Coolermaster Silencio 550 Tower
    Intel i5 3750 processor
    Arctic cooling freezer 7 CPU cooler (possibly unnecessary but who cares it looks cool lol)
    Gigabyte GA Z77 D3H motherboard
    Corsair Vengeance 8Gb DDR3 1600MHz RAM
    Asus GeForce GT630 2Gb Graphics (this could do with upgrading for gaming)
    Fractal design 500W power supply
    Windows 7
    Wireless card
    Cheap dvd drive
    1Tb HDD

    As i say for the price i think youd struggle to do better, i think it would just need some of the funds jigging around to put more into the graphics if its an out and out gaming pc.

  15. #275
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    Sounds good Maccy.
    I think i would swap out the HDD for a 256 SSD and as you say look at a slightly better graphics card.
    The PC will only be used for gaming so no documents etc or browsing.

  16. #276
    Guest MaccyD's Avatar
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    Sounds like what youd want then. Could probably shave money off the case as well to put towards something else.

  17. #277
    Banned sideways14a's Avatar
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    In a gaming computer i would priorities things like this.

    1: Biggest most important thing, the video card. Dont skimp. If you run 1080p+ then spend on it. £300 quid upwards is where they start being really good and will last a while.
    2: SSD: Get one, thats all i can say. You dont need 2Tb hard drives, if you store that much audio/video then use a nas and stream it (or use cloud services)
    3: Memory, go 8Gb nowadays. no need for 16 to be honest, 12 would be a good compromise if you had a little budget to spare.
    4: CPU. Finally the processor. 90% of cpu's on the market now can max out most single card GPU's. A £150-200 cpu is more than enough for most, in fact you can get away with a 120 quid one for most good gaming. Want crossfire/sli, then spend on a high end cpu.
    5: PSU, get as high an output/quality one as you can afford. Min 650w imho, this leaves you options for additional gpu's and overclocking. A modern 7970 card will use 220w+ on its own when getting some clocks down, an overclocked cpu can easily see 140w+ on its own...
    6: Cooling, this should be higher in the list but... its cheep now to get good cooling. Imho always go for closed loop water on the cpu (its circa the cost of a good air cooler), and as for gpu always go for non reference cards as they are better.

  18. #278
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    Quote Originally Posted by sideways14a View Post
    In a gaming computer i would priorities things like this.

    1: Biggest most important thing, the video card. Dont skimp. If you run 1080p+ then spend on it. £300 quid upwards is where they start being really good and will last a while.
    2: SSD: Get one, thats all i can say. You dont need 2Tb hard drives, if you store that much audio/video then use a nas and stream it (or use cloud services)
    3: Memory, go 8Gb nowadays. no need for 16 to be honest, 12 would be a good compromise if you had a little budget to spare.
    4: CPU. Finally the processor. 90% of cpu's on the market now can max out most single card GPU's. A £150-200 cpu is more than enough for most, in fact you can get away with a 120 quid one for most good gaming. Want crossfire/sli, then spend on a high end cpu.
    5: PSU, get as high an output/quality one as you can afford. Min 650w imho, this leaves you options for additional gpu's and overclocking. A modern 7970 card will use 220w+ on its own when getting some clocks down, an overclocked cpu can easily see 140w+ on its own...
    6: Cooling, this should be higher in the list but... its cheep now to get good cooling. Imho always go for closed loop water on the cpu (its circa the cost of a good air cooler), and as for gpu always go for non reference cards as they are better.
    Can you explain what closed loop cooling is (maybe example) and also what non reference GPU means?
    Is the water cooler i have listed a closed loop design?

    Thanks

  19. #279
    Banned sideways14a's Avatar
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    Closed loop cooler is what you have specced, generally i would go down the root of a water cooler because they tend to dissipate far more heat than big air tower coolers.
    Ok some big air coolers do well but generally need to be huge, heavy and have big fans. Water coolers have a separate rad that you can hang out the back of the case which works better, closed loop just means they are sealed from the factory as opposed to building your own loop (which you can do of course).
    A cooler cpu = more over clocks and more performance generally while being quieter.

    A non reference graphics card is generally one made by an OEM like sapphire,MIS,asus bla bla bla.
    Reference designs are by Nvidia and AMD themselves.

    Generally the non reference models are using better cooling solutions, which are quieter and achieve higher overclocks ect..

  20. #280
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    Great thanks

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