New Computer In Six Months W00t! :D

[Zeealex]

So, after the biiig disappointment with the next gen consoles, I’ve decided to migrate back to PC gaming, i'm finding ArmA pretty fun, i play it with my friends and own their butts if they dare take to the sky, but the PC seems to get a bit weak at the figurative knees, so, I think it's time to give in and upgrade to a new one, and I've found that I can build a fairly future proofed AMD one for less than £600, (the slightly more precise figure is £540) so in six months time, I'll be able to afford to get this PC built and running.

What it should look like:

Specs:

Motherboard: Asrock 990FX Extreme3

CPU: AMD FX8350 8 cores@4.0ghz

RAM: 8GB

Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 7770 1gb

Storage: 1TB HDD

Connection: 150mbps wireless n PCI-e card

Drives: LG 24x DVD+RW drive

Case: Zalman Z11 (comes with 5 fans)

OS: Windows 7 Professional 64bit (dreamspark edition)

whaddya think?

any improvements to be made? (please don't suggest intel, thanks)

just bear in mind, I’m working in the way of, you call it overkill, I call it future proof, ta

[petsfed]

More ram. Windows 7 does not have the mem. management that Win 8 has, so you'll want more to run on top of what you have now.

[RileyFletcher_01]

I am a newbie when it comes to this kind of stuff, but going by looks alone that is a beast of a machine

You should play some GR1 co-op with our clan sometime

[wombat50]

Fantastic Alex.

[Oelmuvun]

Why are we not allowed to suggest Intel? Overkill is impossible with an AMD CPU. Personally I would spring for an Intel i7 3770k or 4770k. For the past... almost decade AMD CPUs have been very power hungry and do not overclock well. I am gonna go Haswell in a few months, but that is just me.

I would also suggest a beefier graphics card than a 7770.

I know ARMA really likes a fast CPU, but it will use 2GB VRAM on my Radeon HD 7950 3GB in addition to putting some reasonable GPU load. I cannot remember if that is the max settings or not, but my ancient Phenom x4 9950 is bottlenecking everything anyway.

And if you want a future resistant system.. *shrug*

If you can find the cash, a nvidia GTX 770 is a really nice card; a used GTX 680 would be sweet too since it is just a tad slower than a GTX 770 as I seem to recall.

.. or even a GTX 660/Radeon HD 7870/etc is almost if not more than double the speed of a Radeon HD 7770 depending on the benchmark.

If you really want an AMD CPU then that is fine, but please try to stick a faster graphics card in there at the very least.

And tbh, 8GB DDR3 RAM should be fine unless you are doing things other than gaming.

However if you ever think you will need more RAM make sure to buy it before it jumps in price after DDR4 comes out. Once people start switching away from DDR3 it _will_ become expensive. Get it while it is stupid-cheap.

*Edit

OH! and make sure you get a nice high quality power supply. Not much burns more than having a janky PSU kill all your other expensive hardware. Corsair, Seasonic, etc are generally pretty good.

Edited June 6, 2013 by Oelmuvun

[Zeealex]

thanks guys!

@petsfed, 8gb will work well, trust me, it's got to work better than the 3gb I've got XD I will upgrade as of when I need more, but I think 8 will be okay now.

@Riley, i'll try and get on sometime when it's built

@oelmuvun, to be frank about it, AMD fangirls anonymous! so sue me XD

The big reason why is it would cost too much, getting an AMD 8 core processor may not deliver the best performance compared to Intel, but when you think that I won't be overclocking, I don't go any higher than 60FPS in games (because of the vsync limit) and I’m happy with anything above 24, the amount of money I’m spending on Intel seems futile, allbeit, it might provide the best performance at the time.

I suppose as well, I’m a little bit more comfortable with how AMD sockets work and how AMD works, pairing it with an AMD GPU has it's little benefits too which i've seen on my current build.

basically what I'm saying, I don't want MAJOR BIG HUGE POWAAA here, I just want something that is fairly good on a budget, and it blows the boyfriend's PC right out of the water, so that's why I said no intel.

I could see if I could get a 7850, in there I suppose, but the price is slowly creeping up. and i'm wondering if other parts may need more priority,

I've felt the pain of new a new RAM type coming out and suddenly the older RAM is SO much more expensive, my current system runs DDR2 and DDR2 is now twice as much as DDR3, which was one of the pressures of getting a new PC all together. I will probably get the RAM first and store it somewhere safe until I can get the rest of it. I'll only be photo-shopping when I'm not gaming

you'll also (hopefully) be glad to know it's a Corsair Builder series CXM 600w PSU, which SHOULD power the PC with a little room for expansion. this is the part that may need more priority, I’ve run the current specs through power calculators, and it's come out at 350 watts under 90% load but I'm not sure how well I can trust it

[Blame]

Damn, only £540..Prices here are pretty much tripled if I'd build that thing.

[Oelmuvun]

Is it possible to run an ethernet cable through some walls/attic/basement instead of using wireless?

Also, unless you need the HDD space right now I would say to keep the 1TB drive and add another drive later as things get cheaper and you need more space. You should plan for a backup in the near future, however.

From my experience Intel's sockets actually work better than AMD's in some cases. Though that only matters if you use insane thermal compound like IC Diamond where it gets really solid and one little slip will rip your CPU right out of it's socket.

I would like to ask what benefit you are currently seeing from using an AMD CPU with an AMD GPU? I never noticed anything except the loss of PhysX when I switched my GTX 460 out for a Radeon HD 7950 in my AMD rig.

Anyway, your computer should be fine for a few years. Perhaps with a graphics card upgrade halfway through. And let me tell you, if I was still using the Radeon HD 3850 that my current PC started out with I would be a very unhappy guy after this many years. It is not that the 3850 was a horrible card or anything, I liked it but technology progresses over time.

Similarly a card like the Radeon HD 7950 is probably going to be a wet dog in five years.

*shrug* just my opinion, take it or leave it.

[Zeealex]

I can't run an Ethernet cable through the house unfortunately, as the router and PC are on opposite ends of the house, but the wireless card came this morning, I've put it into this PC for now, and it works PERFECTLY, and if it isn't defective/aged when the new one comes into play I will transplant it from this PC to the new one and give this one it's old adapter back.

I currently have an EHDD of 1tb which is storing any files I need quick access to, it's filling up pretty quick as it has old Ubuntu backups in there, but it will tide me over if i need overflow allowance in a hurry. I doubt it, as i've been living with 160gb for about 8 years now, so i'm getting good at space conservation techniques XD

fair enough about Intel, most of my computers, in fact all but one have used AMD processors, so i've grown used to how they work, I used to know Intel like the back of my hand until that Intel PC broke down and I moved back to AMD to build this one.

There seems to be a small performance boost when pairing the two together, not sure if i'm dreaming it or not but running GRAW maxed out seems to be better over the Nvidia card I had in there of the same caliber a while back, before it failed, not saying anything bad about Nvidia there, I've had a few Nvidia cards in my time and they've been pretty good just their price that hurts really XD

I will probably do an overhaul of the GPU the second it starts to lag on games, it's not a problem by me the PC as it stands with the 7770 will run at least 91% of games released within the past 12 months on high settings pretty smoothly, the 9% fall-down being the GPU, and hey, it can't be as slow as my Faithful machine with it's little HD 4550, which is now, rather scarily, on the legacy drivers list

So long as it runs the first ArmA, Battlefield 3 and maybe Arma 2 if I ever get around to buying it, on medium-high settings on an okay (24+) frame rate, I'm happy. I'll probably be up to my eyes in college work to play games seriously for a while afterward anyway, I will probably be on photoshop duties.

thanks for your suggestions

[Oelmuvun]

We are at the point where I am almost tempted to suggest skipping ARMA II and going with ARMA III instead. Though I understand if people do not want to buy into something during an alpha or beta stage. (but it is cheaper if bought before the final release and you get the final version in the end.)

[Zeealex]

Awesome, i'll give Arma 3 a go then I've tried Arma 2 free, and it was a bit annoying, but I thought it would be something i'd get used to, and if i'm in an aircraft, i'm alright, i'm liking the first ArmA though it's quite a lot of fun.

[Zeealex]

Changed the specs a little to provide better performance in the more modern games coming out.

same case...

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 (bought it already)

Processor: AMD FX 6350

RAM: 10gb Gskill Ripjaws 1333MHz (bought it already)

GPU: AMD Radeon R9 270x/AMD Radeon HD 7850 sapphire 2gb OC edition, this depends on the price of the 270x upon release.

it's projected to cost me around £400, which isn't bad considering I was supposed to be paying £140 above that for less power.

it allows me to go and buy some peripherals so I need some suggestions, what devices are good at the moment? i've got the difference to spend on that stuff.

sorted for a headset already.

virtual punch for anyone who says the occulus rift, it's too expensive for a start and it will drive my vestibular cortex mad.

[pz3]

Future proof computer you say? Quantum computers theoritcally could upgrade themselfs from either the past or future. lol.

Nice rig idea though. I was looking at a similare setup althoughhhh... I really like the idea of APUs and mini-atx cases.

Edited October 23, 2013 by pz3

[Zeealex]

haha! XD


The APUs are good, my boyfriend has the A10 5800k in his PC and he says it works like a charm with games. I'm a person who prefers the big cases, not flashy, just big.
It's no longer an Idea, it's sitting on the dining room table awaiting a power supply, and it's actual graphic card as we speak. the power supply's on its way, should be here later on. I’ll be getting its actual graphic card around Christmas time when the prices plummet. for now it will have to suffer with the HD4550 XD

[RileyFletcher_01]

my boyfriend

Boyfriend? He had better like Ghost Recon.....

3,001 posts BTW, I think there should be some kind of reward for that.

Edited October 23, 2013 by RileyFletcher_01

[Zeealex]

does Arma 2 count?

[RileyFletcher_01]

That's even better. I like him already.

[Zeealex]

good good.

It's working now, power supply's in, and it switches on, lights up and does all of that.

got the scare of my life when it didn't switch on initially, i tried everything i could thing of. just as i lost hope, i realised, there are two wires inside the front panel that need connecting... scare over.

just worried about a PCI-E card now, it's a little loose.