147 replies to this topic

[ShinobiHunter]

I'm looking to upgrade from my budget-grade laptop to something with a bit better gaming power, but I'm basically clueless when it comes to computers. So I'm hoping for a bit of advice. MWO is the #1 game I play, but I also have Borderlands, Just Cause and Minecraft that I would be running from time to time. What should I look for in a computer to run these? So far I'm looking at these:

http://www.ebay.com/...=item3cf1c1e6d0

http://www.ebay.com/...=item3f46a11c52

http://www.ebay.com/...=item5b0c28808c

Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated

Edited by ShinobiHunter, 08 February 2015 - 08:11 AM.

[ninjitsu]

Do you have a budget? Avoid AMD processors for MWO.

[ShinobiHunter]

$500 is about the most I want to spend on it.

[Lord Letto]

ShinobiHunter, on 08 February 2015 - 08:10 AM, said:

I'm looking to upgrade from my budget-grade laptop to something with a bit better gaming power, but I'm basically clueless when it comes to computers. So I'm hoping for a bit of advice. MWO is the #1 game I play, but I also have Borderlands, Just Cause and Minecraft that I would be running from time to time. What should I look for in a computer to run these? So far I'm looking at these:

http://www.ebay.com/...=item3cf1c1e6d0

http://www.ebay.com/...=item3f46a11c52

http://www.ebay.com/...=item5b0c28808c

Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated

NO, NO & NO!
I'd say Build your own and build at least this:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($63.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H81 Pro BTC ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($51.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($74.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Thermaltake VL80001W2Z ATX Mid Tower Case ($19.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($88.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $499.80
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-08 11:43 EST-0500

if your budget is higher than $500, Let us know.

after having a look at them, I'd say the $365 MAY Be OK depending on the Mobo (Not Listed), although they screwed up 1 thing I noticed in Description, FX-4300 With ATI HD 3000 Onboard Graphics?
1) FX Series CPUs got no Onboard Graphics so that's a Lie
2) It's now AMD, Not ATI
3) HD 3000 Series is OLD!

the other 2 Listed is APUs and not the greatest for Gaming, at least not for MWO. For MWO, Intel>AMD and Quad Core>Dual Core, though if on a Budget, the G3258 Pentium Anniversary Does VERY Good for it's Price!

Edited by Lord Letto, 08 February 2015 - 08:55 AM.

[ShinobiHunter]

What's up with AMD processors?

[Summon3r]

avoid AMD cpu's if MWO is the main focus here. go to pcpartpicker.com looks as if your budget is maybe 600? get yourself and i5 based system, people think building a pc is SUPER hard its not. i just did it and i could not believe how simple it was no joke probably easier then some lego i had as a kid. and YOUTUBE is a god send

you just need to tower itself u have all teh peripherals?

Edited by Summon3r, 08 February 2015 - 08:48 AM.

[Basskicker]

ShinobiHunter, on 08 February 2015 - 08:44 AM, said:

What's up with AMD processors?

They have lower single thread performance vs the newer intel chips, and MWO is a heavy single threaded application. Higher end AMD processors can be made to work very well with this game when overclocked and a good user.cfg file, but for the most part AMD falls far short of what intel can offer right now.

That build that Letto posted would be a good place to start if you feel up to the task of putting together a PC yourself. It is not as daunting of a task as some people might think. Really all you need is a couple of screwdrivers, and you are good to go.

Edited by Basskicker, 08 February 2015 - 08:53 AM.

[KhanJames]

for rather low budget prebuilts those seem mediocre at best, along with iffy warranty / repairs. If you are relatively competent with legos and can read you could go on Newegg and buy a kit and build it yourself, or if you know what you want just buy parts seperately.

I have used AMDs APUs and although they arent bad if your on a serious budget they arent really good for proper gaming (especially MWO) and as a result its moved to my "work" desktop. For my current rig I have a 8 core FX clocked up to 4.5, 8 gigs 1600 mem, 850 pro ssd, and a R9 270 clocked to 270x speed. With the latest patch my FPS has been around upper 70s in regular and mid to upper 60s in CW. thats with most on high except particles/smoke, and post low.

MWO is the most "taxing" game i play the rest (battlefield, Borederlands 2 and presequel, warframe, Civ, etc...) all do atleast as good if not better. (Although for mwo Intel > AMD) (and FX despite being far older blow the current apus out of the water)

Personally i get what you mean about budget and i tried to do that myself and now i would say its worth it to spend the money once so you dont end up spending even more on upgrades/ new builds later. (Currently almost done with my X99 build)

[Sarlic]

What's your budget? I would save up a little bit more if you 'only' got 400 dollars.

The best range for a good computer starts about from 800 dollars. Atleast bang for the buck components.

[ShinobiHunter]

Summon3r, on 08 February 2015 - 08:47 AM, said:

avoid AMD cpu's if MWO is the main focus here. go to pcpartpicker.com looks as if your budget is maybe 600? get yourself and i5 based system, people think building a pc is SUPER hard its not. i just did it and i could not believe how simple it was no joke probably easier then some lego i had as a kid. and YOUTUBE is a god send

you just need to tower itself u have all teh peripherals?

Peripherals? I'm not very computer-savvy lol. You mean mouse and monitor? I do have those.

Sarlic, on 08 February 2015 - 08:54 AM, said:

What's your budget? I would save up a little bit more if you 'only' got 400 dollars.

The best range for a good computer starts about from 800 dollars. Atleast bang for the buck components.

$500 is the most I can justify right now on what will basically amount to a toy.

[ShinobiHunter]

This is what I currently have. Although I didn't pay anywhere near that for it

http://www.amazon.co...#productDetails

Is there a way to upgrade this and just skip the desktop? Would that be better for the money?

[KhanJames]

do you have a relatively modern desktop you could "parts" out, could save $ there.

As I said above I would avoid APUs there made for people who wont be getting a dedicated graphics card. (IE people who do minor gaming not proper games( Minecraft would be fine but MWO bad))

If not I would reccomend building your own its the only way to get decent build for the price. (plus as i said warranties etc which are definately worth it) (my XFX gpu has a lifetime warranty, my 850 pro has 10 year (IE warranty will cover beyond the compenents usefulness)) and with prebuild you have to get a "known" company to be relatively assured of a decent warranty.


Laptops are extremely difficult to upgrade and I wouldnt reccomend trying to do much more than memory or hard drive unless your highly competent at building PCs and electronics.

[KhanJames]

Also look on Newegg at there Kits

http://www.newegg.co...t=Combo.1903331

Is $570 but has I5 (3.1ghz quad core) cpu, a decent MSI 1150 mobo, evga gtx 750 ftw, 8 gigs 1600 mem, plus case power supply and 1tb hard drive. (aka Everything you need) Its not the best but Mwo will be playable.

[Basskicker]

KhanJames, on 08 February 2015 - 09:19 AM, said:

Also look on Newegg at there Kits

http://www.newegg.co...t=Combo.1903331

Is $570 but has I5 (3.1ghz quad core) cpu, a decent MSI 1150 mobo, evga gtx 750 ftw, 8 gigs 1600 mem, plus case power supply and 1tb hard drive. (aka Everything you need) Its not the best but Mwo will be playable.

Nice find. Only thing it is missing, unless I missed it, is an operating system. Would be great if the OP has an operating system he can repurpose for another PC.

[ShinobiHunter]

Basskicker, on 08 February 2015 - 09:31 AM, said:

Nice find. Only thing it is missing, unless I missed it, is an operating system. Would be great if the OP has an operating system he can repurpose for another PC.

Unfortunately I don't.

[ShinobiHunter]

I really do appreciate the help everyone I'm looking around at components some, are there any parts that are better than other/ ones I should stay away from? What do I look for in any given component? Sorry for being a bit of a pain, I'm just not quite sure what I'm looking at here.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

$500 is a starting point not an end point.

A couple of options

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($63.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($19.88 @ OutletPC)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste ($6.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock H81 Pro BTC ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($51.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($74.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Thermaltake VL80001W2Z ATX Mid Tower Case ($19.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($39.99 @ Micro Center)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($88.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $536.57
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-08 13:56 EST-0500


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($63.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($25.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus Z87-A (NFC Express Edition) ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($58.50 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($43.79 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R7 260X 2GB Core Edition Video Card ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case ($28.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ NCIX US)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.75 @ OutletPC)
Total: $505.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-02-08 14:00 EST-0500

[ShinobiHunter]

I don't know if it's possible, but do you have any guesstimates on what FPS I would get in MWO with these setups?

[Oderint dum Metuant]

ShinobiHunter, on 08 February 2015 - 11:23 AM, said:

I don't know if it's possible, but do you have any guesstimates on what FPS I would get in MWO with these setups?

Overclock the pentium K to 4.5ghz (easy peasy) and you'll be looking at 1080P Medium/High at playable FPS 40+

I use the pentium K and an older 560TI 448 and you can see my settings and performance in these two posts in this thread

http://mwomercs.com/...ost__p__4167186

http://mwomercs.com/...ost__p__4167208

[OTC-Tumbleweed]

Shinobi,
In spite of what everyone says about AMD procs, I play ONLY MWO with one a have no problems at all. My box uses a Phenom II X4 965 BE slightly overclocked by my MSI mobo automatically from 3.4GHz to 3.6GHz, 8G 1333 memory and an MSI GTX 650 Ti Power Edition Cyclone video card. I am always between 35-60FPS with everything on Very High. Everything is gorgeous and playable with no problems. Just my experienced opinion!