Gaming System Recommendations

Post #350,585 by beepster 11/14/11 3:53:51 PM Reply	Gaming System Recommendations Looking to try and build a "decent" gaming system (I don't need 150FPS on a 60 inch televesion ;-). Would like to try and get in for about 1k...first person shooters, latest versions..need to run at 60fps on a 22 inch flatpanel (or a 720p 30 inch tv)..which he will probably want to do. I've been playing around over at cyberpower...coming in at about 1200. Key questions. Intel i7/i5? or AMD FX series...can I cut here to up the video card? Recommendations. Video Card...he's a windows fanboy...so don't worry about linux compat... Help a brutha out for the holidays. Sure, understanding today's complex world of the future is a little like having bees live in your head. But...there they are.
Post #350,588 by malraux 11/14/11 4:01:44 PM Reply	Bah. That's what consoles are for... ;-) Regards, -scott Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.
Post #350,590 by beepster 11/14/11 4:06:32 PM Reply	I know... but the games are cheaper....and this is what he wants. Plus...he's been on a $250 compaq machine for 3 years...he's due a new machine. Saw this at Target... http://www.target.co...ClickCP_Adjacency Looks like its in my range. Question is, is it any good...I don't game so I am out of my comfort zone. Sure, understanding today's complex world of the future is a little like having bees live in your head. But...there they are.
Post #350,591 by beepster 11/14/11 4:07:14 PM Reply	Oh, and I get the tv back.. Sure, understanding today's complex world of the future is a little like having bees live in your head. But...there they are.
Post #350,639 by altmann 11/14/11 7:02:57 PM Reply	Looks good except the video card That onboard GTS 450 will probably be marginal judging by benchmarks such as this: http://www.tomshardw...z-Gamer,2671.html
Post #350,645 by Another Scott 11/14/11 7:51:07 PM Reply	Take a look at TechReport's "Utility Player". http://techreport.com/articles.x/21876/4 $900. They give options on the next page. My understanding is that most games can only use a few threads, so there's likely no benefit in going above 4 cores for a while, and a fast hyperthreaded 2-core chip might be even better. Intel's probably the better way to go, but a Phenom might be close enough and cheaper. HTH a bit. Good luck! Cheers, Scott. (Who also isn't a gamer, but who may be getting into video editing as a hobby soon.)
Post #350,675 by beepster 11/15/11 9:43:11 AM Reply	Thanks. That answers a key question Looks like I can go lower on processor (i5 vs i7) and put the balance into a better vid card...that may get me down to the number I'm looking at. I can hit the number easily with a garden dell/HP machine...but then I don't get the cool case :-) and that is part of the appeal for the boy. Sure, understanding today's complex world of the future is a little like having bees live in your head. But...there they are.
Post #350,676 by beepster 11/15/11 9:53:27 AM Reply	Next Q - Solid State Main Drive? Machine will have 2...was planning a high rpm main drive but looks like SSD outperforms. And, surprisingly...a 60G ssd is equal in price (at cyberpower anyway) to a 1G 7200rpm and significantly less than a 600G 10k rpm drive Sure, understanding today's complex world of the future is a little like having bees live in your head. But...there they are.
Post #350,679 by Another Scott 11/15/11 10:15:26 AM Reply	Why? I'm thinking about a SSD for my laptop, but mainly because it seems to take forever to boot and because I do lots of stuff that is disk constrained. But I'd want a 500 GB drive and I don't know that I want to spend $800 on something like that right now. :-( For a gaming system, why go SSD? I assume that once the game is loaded in RAM it doesn't touch the disk much at all? SSDs still have some teething issues (lots of BSODs on some newer controllers) and will only get cheaper over time. Why get a 10k drive for a home system? I'm confused. Yes, more than usual. ;-) Cheers, Scott.
Post #350,680 by beepster 11/15/11 10:27:32 AM Reply	Looking to max performance vs cost so a main drive SSD, if it doesn't add tremendous cost can be offset with a 2TB data drive (and I have one now...with backups on it that could be moved to other media). Sure, understanding today's complex world of the future is a little like having bees live in your head. But...there they are.
Post #350,682 by Another Scott 11/15/11 10:32:22 AM Reply	Ok. This might be helpful. Note they want to sell you such a drive, so caveat emptor. ;-) http://blog.corsair.com/?p=3402 HTH. Cheers, Scott.
Post #350,696 by crazy 11/15/11 12:19:31 PM Reply	It's like bacon Everything is better when running an SSD as your main disk. Do it. You'll love it.
Post #350,716 by altmann 11/15/11 7:06:58 PM Reply	Intel SRT The "Intel SRT" feature listed on your MB spec is a driver that allows you to use an SSD as a persistent HD cache. That might be an option if you don't want to bother with having to manage which games get precious SSD space (60GB isn't all that much) and which get relegated to the hard drive. I've decided to skip SSD for now because of the reliability issues (That OCZ drive apparently had alot of problems that were only recently fixed with a firmware patch), but I might try SRT set as a write-through cache on my new system (similarly speced to yours) once I get the base system put together. PS: I'm trying to figure out why mine came out so much more expensive that yours. I think the GTX 580, Antec P193 case, and flood-priced 2TB Sata3 HD might have something to do with it.
Post #350,687 by beepster 11/15/11 11:34:41 AM Reply	Here is where I'm at. BASE_PRICE:[+695] BLUETOOTH:None CAS:Xion Predator 970 Gaming Series Mid Tower Case w/ 2 External Removable HDD Bays [+0] CD:LG UH12LS28K 12X Blu-Ray Player & DVDRW Combo Drive [+41] (BLACK COLOR) CD2:None COOLANT:Standard Coolant CPU:Intel® CoreÂ i5-2500K 3.30 GHz 6M Intel Smart Cache LGA1155 (All Venom OC Certified) CS_FAN:Default case fans ENGRAVING:NONE ENGRAVING_MSG: FA_HDD:None FAN:Asetek 510LC Liquid Cooling System 120MM Radiator & Fan (Enhanced Cooling Performance + Extreme Silent at 20dBA) (Single Standard 120MM Fan) FLASHMEDIA:INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (BLACK COLOR) FREEBIE_MO:None FREEBIE_VC1:FREE Just Cause 2 Game Coupon [+0] FREEBIE_VC2:FREE Game Coupon Batman: Arkham City [+0] GLASSES:None HDD:60 GB OCZ Agility 3 SATA III 6.0Gb/s SSD - 525MB/s Read & 475MB/s Write (Single Drive) HDD2:None IEEE_CARD:None IUSB:Built-in USB 2.0 Ports KEYBOARD:Xtreme Gear (Black Color) Multimedia/Internet USB Keyboard MB_SRT:None MEMORY:8GB (2GBx4) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (Corsair XMS Gaming Memory with Heat Spreader) MONITOR:None MONITOR2:None MONITOR3:None MOTHERBOARD:[CrossFireX] MSI Z68A-G43 (G3) Intel Z68 ATX Mainboard w/ Lucid Virtu, Intel SRT, OC Genie II, Winki 3 & 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, USB3.0, SATA-III RAID, 2 Gen3 PCIe X16, 2 PCIe X1 & 3 PCI (All Venom OC Certified) MOUSE:XtremeGear Optical USB 3 Buttons Gaming Mouse NCSW:None NETWORK:Onboard Gigabit LAN Network OS:Microsoft® Windows 7 Home Premium [+104] (64-bit Edition) OVERCLOCK:Pro OC (Performance Overclock 10% or more) [+19] POWERSUPPLY:700 Watts - XtremeGear SLI/CrossFireX Ready Power Supply [+14] RUSH:NO; READY TO SHIP IN 5~10 BUSINESS DAYS SERVICE:STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT SOUND:HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO SPEAKERS:None TEMP:None TVRC:Advantek Networks PCI ATAC TV Tuner + Remote [+39] USB:None USBFLASH:None USBHD:None USBX:None VIDEO:NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 1GB 16X PCIe Video Card [+156] (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA) VIDEO2:None VIDEO3:None WNC:None _PRICE:(+1068) and it looks like I forgot to add the wireless card. so plus $29. Sure, understanding today's complex world of the future is a little like having bees live in your head. But...there they are.*
Post #350,689 by beepster 11/15/11 11:39:27 AM Reply	and I think it will be ok for a couple years FPS rate at high quality for call of duty 2 is 109 (60 is baseline for ps3 iirc). Sure, understanding today's complex world of the future is a little like having bees live in your head. But...there they are.
Post #350,693 by Another Scott 11/15/11 12:05:33 PM Reply	Dunno if I'd go with the liquid cooling, myself. One of the appealing aspects of Intel chips is their lower power dissipation. Unless he's going to be into heavy overclocking, water cooling probably isn't needed. Liquids like to find ways to get out of even sealed systems... But that's just my gut feeling - no personal experience. The i5 2500K is a nice chip. Note that it doesn't do "hyperthreading" which has its good and bad points. i7 chips do hyperthreading. Just be aware. There are i7 LGA1155 chips so one could potentially do an upgrade, but check the details if you think an upgrade might be in the future. The i7 2700K is about $125 more on Intel's page - http://ark.intel.com...-Cache-3_5-GHz%29 Beware of churn in Intel's parts list. 2 years from now they might not be available. Try to find out more about the power supply. You'd like one that is efficient and has high-quality components. Crappy power supplies are very common, unfortunately, and can cause lots of gremlins. With all that said, it sounds like a nice box. I would think you wouldn't need to do anything to it for a couple of years. Good luck. Cheers, Scott.
Post #350,698 by beepster 11/15/11 1:32:16 PM Reply	i7 adds 100...worth it? Looing for impact on game performance... Sure, understanding today's complex world of the future is a little like having bees live in your head. But...there they are.
Post #350,707 by Another Scott 11/15/11 2:19:25 PM Reply	Dunno. Here's a long thread on the topic - http://www.tomshardw...246-28-2500k-2600 Most there say get the i5 and use the rest for a better graphics card if it makes sense. If it takes $200 more to get 10% better frame rates, then it might not be worth spending more on the card. But, if the point is to get the kicking-est machine for $1000, then, well, maybe leaving out everything except the fastest essentials makes sense ($500 graphics card, 1-2 GB RAM, fast CPU, no optical drive, no wireless, no sound card, etc.), and add the rest later. I dunno. The CPU is one of those rarely swapped things (that happens after hard drives, more RAM, etc.). IME, by the time you're thinking about a new CPU, motherboards have moved on so you end up replacing a lot more than the chip. So my general philosophy has always been to get the best CPU for my price-point (which used to be $200, but I haven't bought a new PC in a while). And I'm not a gamer. :-) Presumably if frame rates and latency and all the rest matter most, you can turn down the graphics effects and so forth to prolong the system life for another few months. Bottom line: You're probably set as you outlined the system above. HTH. Cheers, Scott.
Post #350,711 by beepster 11/15/11 2:39:16 PM Reply	Looking like not worth it the hyperthreading won't impact game performance...and I think the vid card should get me through the next gen of games, given its current performance levels...so I think I'm settled. Sure, understanding today's complex world of the future is a little like having bees live in your head. But...there they are.
Post #350,700 by malraux 11/15/11 1:44:32 PM Reply	Gaming might suck over wireless... Latency is everything. Regards, -scott Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.
Post #350,704 by beepster 11/15/11 1:56:55 PM Reply	Thought of that... and definitely have spec'd in a card that is better than the connectivity of the ps3...if its really not so good, I could buckle and run cable through the attic. Sure, understanding today's complex world of the future is a little like having bees live in your head. But...there they are.
Post #350,705 by beepster 11/15/11 1:58:46 PM Reply	Hmm..could also relo the router to his room. and pull that card and put it in my machine. I don't game, so it wouldn't phase me a bit. Sure, understanding today's complex world of the future is a little like having bees live in your head. But...there they are.
Post #350,706 by jake123 11/15/11 2:00:18 PM Reply	You'll prolly want to do that wireless really blows for gaming.
Post #350,772 by beepster 11/16/11 1:15:34 PM Reply	Ordered. Will review on arrival Sure, understanding today's complex world of the future is a little like having bees live in your head. But...there they are.
Post #355,693 by Another Scott 3/22/12 5:50:30 PM Reply	How did it turn out? I've been playing around with a list of parts based on this: http://techreport.com/articles.x/22513/5 Upping it to an FX-8150, more RAM, cheaper video card, 256 GB SSD for OS, etc., gets it up to around $1300. A roughly similar box from Cyberpower seems to be around $1250 - http://www.cyberpowe...er_Scorpius_9500/ (zooks that's a horrible web page). It's tempting, especially when reading about motherboard reviews that talk about having to use a different CPU to flash the BIOS and so forth (while recognizing that motherboard reviews are all over the map). :-/ Thanks. Cheers, Scott.
Post #355,694 by folkert 3/22/12 7:35:04 PM Reply	AS, e-mail me.
Post #355,697 by Another Scott 3/22/12 7:51:38 PM Reply	Done. Check your Gmail. Thanks.
Post #355,698 by folkert 3/22/12 7:58:35 PM Reply	Replied.
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