Considering PC Gaming - What do I need to know?

[TJisA1337NOOB]

Another guy here that wants to get into PC gaming Got a question for you guys. Would that mid-range build in the link that was posted earlier run games like Project Cars, Arma ll Day-Z, and most general games like that fine? Pretty much a newb at PC gaming so wouldn't mind some advice too.

 

[CMvan46]

Another guy here that wants to get into PC gaming Got a question for you guys. Would that mid-range build in the link that was posted earlier run games like Project Cars, Arma ll Day-Z, and most general games like that fine? Pretty much a newb at PC gaming so wouldn't mind some advice too.

It should run all those just fine. That's a pretty standard sub $1000 build. Best thing I've found to do is search YouTube for the game your thinking of and the graphics card. The graphics card is usually going to be your limiting factor so you can get an idea of how smooth a game is with each graphics card. A 560 ti will run any game out I believe but it's not going to max a whole lot of modern stuff.

 

[TJisA1337NOOB]

It should run all those just fine. That's a pretty standard sub $1000 build. Best thing I've found to do is search YouTube for the game your thinking of and the graphics card. The graphics card is usually going to be your limiting factor so you can get an idea of how smooth a game is with each graphics card. A 560 ti will run any game out I believe but it's not going to max a whole lot of modern stuff.

Thanks for the quick reply. So would that be the best setup for that price range and would it give me the ability to upgrade easily in the future?

 

[CMvan46]

Thanks for the quick reply. So would that be the best setup for that price range and would it give me the ability to upgrade easily in the future?

It's not bad but I think it's a bit out of date now. Your going to want a Z77 motherboard instead of the Z68 just because it's more compatible with new Intel CPUs. Some people say the 560 ti is the best card in that price rage but I think it's the 7850. Newer card, more vram and less power draw. Also from that list you may want a bit higher wattage power supply so you have the option to crossfire or SLI whatever card you get. That can save you money upgrading down the road. Other than those changes you can't future proof much more than that.

I'm at work now but when I get home tonight I'll try to remember to throw a list together quickly for you.

 

[SavageCupcake]

www.overclock3d.net <<---- great site for pc hardware one of the most helpful communities i have ever come accross learnt most of what i know about pc's from there

 

[TJisA1337NOOB]

It's not bad but I think it's a bit out of date now. Your going to want a Z77 motherboard instead of the Z68 just because it's more compatible with new Intel CPUs. Some people say the 560 ti is the best card in that price rage but I think it's the 7850. Newer card, more vram and less power draw. Also from that list you may want a bit higher wattage power supply so you have the option to crossfire or SLI whatever card you get. That can save you money upgrading down the road. Other than those changes you can't future proof much more than that.

I'm at work now but when I get home tonight I'll try to remember to throw a list together quickly for you.

That sounds awesome Our 3rd child is almost here so not a whole lot of extra money. That's the only reason I have to stay close to that price range.

 

[sesselpupser]

You need to know that PC gaming is awesome and you probably won't go back to console gaming for anything but exclusives that you like. You should also be aware that it takes some effort to research, building is the easy bit, installing the software is tedious and it's definitely worth doing but if you don't have a lot of self restraint you might find the budget quite... Elastic.

In the UK, suppliers I've used include Aria, Scan and, believe it or not, Amazon. After I'd decided on my parts I compared the prices of all of them from each supplier, adding VAT and P&P (all of this is common sense, of course) and managed to save £45 which was spent on upgrading the SSD from a 64 to 128GB. I think I got most of the stuff from Aria, the graphics card (and the subsequent upgrade) from Scan and bits like the OEM generic DVD drive, SSD, PSU and possibly the case from Amazon, but I think that was because it was out of stock at Aria and Scan didn't have it.

You might find the following useful, they tend to focus on high-end gear but sometimes include options for different budgets. Rock Paper Shotgun's "Hard Choices" hardware advice/review features.

 

[CMvan46]

That sounds awesome Our 3rd child is almost here so not a whole lot of extra money. That's the only reason I have to stay close to that price range.

Oh the $800-900 range is easy but keep in mind that pc doesn't have a monitor, keyboard, mouse or windows 7. Do you have any of that already?

 

[TJisA1337NOOB]

Oh the $800-900 range is easy but keep in mind that pc doesn't have a monitor, keyboard, mouse or windows 7. Do you have any of that already?

I have a 27 inch 1080p monitor that's about 6 months old. I have a keyboard and mouse from a old computer that died on me so not sure if I want to re-use them. I do not have an OS though.

 

[CMvan46]

I have a 27 inch 1080p monitor that's about 6 months old. I have a keyboard and mouse from a old computer that died on me so not sure if I want to re-use them. I do not have an OS though.

Completely personal opinion but I feel like basic mouse/keyboard are fine if it means you can spend more on the actual PC now. Those are simple and fairly cheap upgrades later on. Also something that could be bought as a birthday/Christmas present too. Anyway here is a list I threw together. All of this is from Newegg and I know for sure you could cut costs on the exact parts by looking at some of the bundle deals places have and if you have a Microcenter near you they have some wicked deals there.

Case- HAF 912 - $60

CPU- i5 3570k - $230

Motherboard- ASRock Extreme 4 Z77 - $135

RAM- GSkill Ripjaws 8GB 1600 - $55

GPU/Video Card- XFX 7850 - $255

PSU- Corsair TX 750w (modular) - $110

Hard Drive- Seagate Barracuda 1 TB 7200 RPM - $100

CD/DVD Drive/Burner- Samsung - $15

CPU Cooler- Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo - $35

Windows 7 - $100



All together it's $1100 before tax/shipping. I did originally put this together before I saw you needed windows which meant i kept it at $1000.

To cut costs you could go with a:

i5- 3450 This is still a great quad core processor but you can't easily overclock it. Overclocking is in no way necessary so you could save $30 going with this CPU and because you wouldn't be overclocking you could ditch the Hyper 212 Evo to save another $35. So that's $60 you could easily save there.

I chose that power supply because you said you wanted it future proofed the best you could. With 750 watts you should be able to comfortably run 2 7850s which is why I chose it. If you think you'll only ever upgrade to another new card instead of adding another identical card in crossfire/SLI then you could save some money on the power supply as well.

Something like this 600w from Corsair would do nicely with 1 card and that would save about $40 as well.

RAM always goes on sale as well so I'm sure you could easily find 8 GB DDR3 at 1600 mhz for $40 somewhere. Just make sure you go with a fairly well known company and at that point it's all the same. Just make sure it's 1600 mhz DDR3 instead of the bit slower 1333 mhz or DDR2 (last gen).


Anyway I chose the parts I did because in my opinion almost all those parts are the best bang for the buck components.

-The 3570k is the best gaming processor out there right now

-The motherboard is at the cheaper end of things but still allows for Crossfire or SLI which means easy upgrading later on

-The 7850 is at a comparable price to the 560ti yet it beats the 560 ti in almost all gaming benchmarks, overclocks easier, less power draw, and more VRAM

- The power supply has enough power for an additional graphics card if needed but if your not planning on that route the cheaper option is still of high quality. The $110 one is modular meaning you only plug in the cables you need instead of having them all pre attached. It just allows for easier management of the cables and better air flow since you don't have cables blocking it.


- As for the Hard Drive and DVD Burner those are pretty interchangeable. Go with whatever is cheapest and name branded. You also want a 7200 rpm hard drive without anything "green" in the name. Other than that you can't really go wrong with those two parts.

 

[TJisA1337NOOB]

Thanks a lot for the list man. I will definitely keep that in mind and when I'm actually able to get one I will probably ask some more questions 👍

 

[TJisA1337NOOB]

Ok. Finally got the funds around to buy me a gaming PC. I have around $1100 to spend on one. I was given a build a couple posts ago in this thread which is probably what I'll go with I had a couple question's though for you guy's that have experience in this area. Would it be worth it to spend $50 more and get the 7870 instead of 7850? From the tests and benchmarks I've seen it looks a fair bit better. And if I do that will I need to change the rest of that build at all?

 

[dice1998]

Some might say get the 7850 and overclock it.

I say get the 7870 and overclock that! 👍

As far as needing to change your build, I don't think so. a 600w power supply should do fine for it.

 

[TJisA1337NOOB]

Thing is I most likely won't be overclocking anything for a little while. Just starting in this whole thing so would like to just leave it like it is for now. Reason I was curious about the rest of the build is the 7870 has 2 power connectors and 7850 has 1.

 

[II-zOoLoGy-II]

Thing is I most likely won't be overclocking anything for a little while. Just starting in this whole thing so would like to just leave it like it is for now. Reason I was curious about the rest of the build is the 7870 has 2 power connectors and 7850 has 1.

The 7870 has a higher power draw so two 6 pins are required.

Go to www.overclock.net and start reading and asking questions.

 

[CMvan46]

Thing is I most likely won't be overclocking anything for a little while. Just starting in this whole thing so would like to just leave it like it is for now. Reason I was curious about the rest of the build is the 7870 has 2 power connectors and 7850 has 1.

The 7870 is definitely better but the decision is up to you. For example if you were to go with that build I posted before then you leave open the option to crossfire 2 cards down the road. A 7850 will run all games out right now quite well, although I doubt maxing everything, and runs very cool and with little power draw.

You could go with the cheaper 7850 now and then when you find a game it cant handle well on it's own then grab a second one (at which time the price will have dropped), pop that in and get the nice added bonus.

Or you could upgrade to the next generation card when they come out and sell the 7850.

Or you could go the 7870 route and prolong the need to upgrade and get a nice boost of FPS over the 7850.

Depends what's important to you, when you'll upgrade, and how important graphics are.

The 7800 series especially is clocked very low and are by all accounts very simple to overclock whenever you'd like to. That can be another way to prolong the need for an upgrade down the road too.

 

[TJisA1337NOOB]

In that case I may just go with the 7850. Then do the dual cards thing if i want to down the road.

 

[Shaun]

Thing is I most likely won't be overclocking anything for a little while. Just starting in this whole thing so would like to just leave it like it is for now. Reason I was curious about the rest of the build is the 7870 has 2 power connectors and 7850 has 1.

If connectors are a concern due to PSU limitations just make sure you do your research on the 7850's.
My XFX double dissipation 7850 has duel connectors but my Powercolor 7850 has a single connector.

Cheers Shaun.

 

[TJisA1337NOOB]

I think I'm going to go with the MSI 7870. On newegg its $280 with the mail-in rebate card. And it looks like the Corsair 750W PSU I'm getting will work fine with it. Or are there some of these card manufacturers I should stay away from?

 

[smuffyatfcp]

So I found a build for £481.72 including windows 7 64 bit a gaming mouse and keyboard.


Part specs.

Motherboard
ASUS M5A97 AMD 9 Series

CPU
AMD Phenom II X6 1045T

RAM
Corsair 4GB DDR3 (1333 Mhz)

Video Card
EVGA GeForce GTX 550 Ti SuperClocked (1GB)

Hard Drive
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500 GB

Optical Drive
Lite-On Internal DVD Writer

Case
Cooler Master RC-430-KWN1 Elite 430

Power Supply
Cooler Master Elite Series 460 Watts

You guys seem to understand it all. Would this computer be able to run ARMA 2 Battlefield and iRacing etc, at a decent graphics and fps?

 

[II-zOoLoGy-II]

I would recommend going with 8GB RAM and a beefier graphics card.

http://news.softpedia.com/newsImage...560-Ti-448-Cores-Smiles-for-the-Camera-3.png/

According to that the 550ti manages an average of around 30 FPS at 1920x1080 at high settings (Ultra is highest preset). (Hard to find benches for the 550ti in BF3 since the 550ti is a older card).

Now refresh rate on PC differs from console in the sense that the game is not locked to a certain refresh rate. They state it averages 30 FPS so I can guarantee you that it drops into the teens. Of course, you can always overclock it to squeeze out a couple more frames per second. You could also drop the graphics settings down to medium or low to ensure you stay at a playable frame rate.

But with 1 GB VRAM you are going to run into trouble with AA as well. BF3 will definitely max out 1 GB.

Depending upon what resolution and how much eye candy you want in your games is going to determine what kind of graphics card you want.

Arma 2 is a resource hog so along the same lines as what I stated for BF3.

iRacing is anything but demanding so no worries there.

If you want 1920x1080 and great looking games then I would suggest purchasing an AMD 7850.

If you are going to run a lower resolution than 1080p or don't care about eye candy then go for the 550ti.

I think I'm going to go with the MSI 7870. On newegg its $280 with the mail-in rebate card. And it looks like the Corsair 750W PSU I'm getting will work fine with it. Or are there some of these card manufacturers I should stay away from?

No the Corsair PSU's are top of the line. The MSI cards are great as well. Pick up a Twin Frozr or the HAWK if you want to overclock it (better cooling, PCB, and component design). The 7870's are great overclockers. I have one pushed to 1300/1500 (1000/1200 stock clocks) at 1.3 V max temp 64 C the other is only at 1235/1400. Obviously that is a 30% increase in performance.... Picked up a minimum of 10 FPS in BF3 using only the 1300/1500 card.... I highly suggest overclocking the 7870.


Also, before I forget do not purchase a Corsair H60/80/100 for a couple months. There are issues with the impeller/ pump design that have caused malfunctioning units and an annoying "grinding" noise. It is "mainly," from what the reps have told me, specific with units in certain batches and consistent with PSU's that produce over 12.1-2V on the +12V rail. They have identified the issue but obviously they aren't going pull products off the shelves and restock everyone. Just a heads up.

 

[TJisA1337NOOB]

I would recommend going with 8GB RAM and a beefier graphics card.

http://news.softpedia.com/newsImage/Nvidia-s-Upcoming-GTX-560-Ti-448-Cores-Smiles-for-the-Camera-3.png/

According to that the 550ti manages an average of around 30 FPS at 1920x1080 at high settings (Ultra is highest preset). (Hard to find benches for the 550ti in BF3 since the 550ti is a older card).

Now refresh rate on PC differs from console in the sense that the game is not locked to a certain refresh rate. They state it averages 30 FPS so I can guarantee you that it drops into the teens. Of course, you can always overclock it to squeeze out a couple more frames per second. You could also drop the graphics settings down to medium or low to ensure you stay at a playable frame rate.

But with 1 GB VRAM you are going to run into trouble with AA as well. BF3 will definitely max out 1 GB.

Depending upon what resolution and how much eye candy you want in your games is going to determine what kind of graphics card you want.

Arma 2 is a resource hog so along the same lines as what I stated for BF3.

iRacing is anything but demanding so no worries there.

If you want 1920x1080 and great looking games then I would suggest purchasing an AMD 7850.

If you are going to run a lower resolution than 1080p or don't care about eye candy then go for the 550ti.

No the Corsair PSU's are top of the line. The MSI cards are great as well. Pick up a Twin Frozr or the HAWK if you want to overclock it (better cooling, PCB, and component design). The 7870's are great overclockers. I have one pushed to 1300/1500 (1000/1200 stock clocks) at 1.3 V max temp 64 C the other is only at 1235/1400. Obviously that is a 30% increase in performance.... Picked up a minimum of 10 FPS in BF3 using only the 1300/1500 card.... I highly suggest overclocking the 7870.

Also, before I forget do not purchase a Corsair H60/80/100 for a couple months. There are issues with the impeller/ pump design that have caused malfunctioning units and an annoying "grinding" noise. It is "mainly," from what the reps have told me, specific with units in certain batches and consistent with PSU's that produce over 12.1-2V on the +12V rail. They have identified the issue but obviously they aren't going pull products off the shelves and restock everyone. Just a heads up.

The PSU I got is the TX750 V2 so I don't think that'll be a problem. I bought the MSI TwinFrozr 7870 so definitely can't wait till all this arrives. Thanks for the help guys 👍

 

[Sharky.]

Would this computer be able to run ARMA 2 Battlefield and iRacing etc, at a decent graphics and fps?

Not really, no. ARMA 2's engine is awful so it runs like pants on everything, BF3 certainly isn't the most resource-friendly game out there either.

I'm sure I've said this several times before in various threads here but the best combo in terms of being low-cost is a 2500k+560Ti/7850 and in terms of bang for your buck 2500k+670. This is £512 without OS or peripherals but absolutely wipes the floor with a 1045T+550Ti.