10 replies to this topic

[karrade85]

I've been playing for about 3 months now and feel I've gone as far as I can go with my little laptop. Some people would say it's un playable.... from there perspective I guess it is but it's introduced me to the game I now love. That being said I have been playing at 6 to 16 FPS and feel my skill at using my mechs with this has peaked.

Not very tech savy but to give you and idea it's a 2 year old $270 dollar laptop with a Intell I3 in it and not much else lol. That said FPS is with all settings at low as you can go and then some thanks to somebody who helped me modify some files to make it run even lower. Needless to say I'm ready to upgrade now because I'm at a serious disadvantage with anything but a LRM boat since my aim is almost spray and pray.

I have some space issues, thus the laptop I use however someone was telling me they make compact towers for PC's. If this is the case here's what I'm looking for.

1. I currently put my laptop away into a cabinet and I would like to be able to do the same with the tower but that being said I could always find a shelf somewhere. Point is it will be taken down and put away every time I finish using it so it can't be huge.

2. Can I sit it on carpet? heat issue? I don't know if it's okay or not but currently I setup a T.V. tray to play on so the tower sits on carpet next to me.

3.I want to run at least 40 FPS or higher but I don't know how pricey that would be so feel free to post some options. I would prefer to spend only 400 but I realize that graphics cards are pricey so I could be persuaded to wait a bit and splurge 750ish. Again not sure what kinda bang for my buck I can get. Also while I'd love to run high on graphics I'm sure I'd be fine with a medium low mix to get my frame rate up.

4.Don't need a screen, mouse or keyboard. Just the tower and guts to run them. It would be nice if it's somewhat upgradable since I don't wanna replace this in 2 or 3 years.

Edited by karrade85, 13 November 2015 - 12:51 AM.

[Flapdrol]

Putting it away each time would be annoying with all the wires.

Already have a windows license? Money could be spent on parts that actually affect performance.

If your objective is just running this game you don't have to spend much on a graphics card, a $50 used 6870 or gtx 560 is easily capable of your 40 fps mark, even on somewhat higher settings.

Since you're on a budget and want compact I'd say look for µATX boards and cases, mITX is smaller, but a lot more expensive.

Could combine an i5 6400 and a cheap socket 1151 motherboard, an 8GB ddr4 kit, the cheaper cpu's on that socket aren't out yet I believe.

If that doesn't fit the budget I'd say i5-4460, cheap s1150 motherboard and 8GB ddr3. That should perform well too, could save some more by getting an i3.

Then you just need an ssd and psu.

[xWiredx]

Well.

Let me start off by saying that you -can- avoid wires even with a monitor but it will cost you. You'll need to find some sort of wireless monitor transmitter (these definitely exist from lots of manufacturers). Wireless mice and keyboards are obviously commonplace and you can get them for a decent price unless you want high-end stuff in that department.

Now for a cheap but effective PC build...

You can probably get away with an i3. The new Skylake i3s are out, and you can get them going all the way up to 3.9GhZ. MWO loves CPU cycles, so the faster the better. A fast Skylake i3 will definitely put you solidly in medium settings territory with a good frame rate at 1080p.

You can definitely get away with an SSD. Samsung Evo 850 120GB SSDs are cheap and fast.

You can go DDR4 with your PC if you want. RAM is the cheapest and easiest thing to upgrade so where the budget allows you can start with 1, 2, or 4 sticks of RAM. I would strongly suggest starting with 8GB and at least DDR4-2666. You can probably get a 2x4GB kit for like $60, and then just get another one a few months down the road. The strength of DDR4 really comes in at having 4 sticks for quad-channel -OR- extremely high-speeds (like DDR4-3200+). Both will give massive memory bandwidth.

For cases, there are some nice MicroATX mini towers and mid towers out there that you can spend $40 or less on. I would recommend Thermaltake at that price point personally, as I recently did a lot of research on "cube" cases for a home server setup and found that Thermaltake puts a good amount of thought into their smaller cases.

Motherboards... Gigabyte boards tend to dip into the lowest price ranges with the smallest sacrifices in component quality and features stripped out. I'd recommend them for a cheaper mobo that will support the CPU and RAM decisions you make.

As far as power supplies go, I am picky. Everybody here knows this. Any PSU OEMed or made directly by Seasonic is what you're looking for. For a smaller case, you REALLY should look for a modular PSU. In the lower price brackets, you won't find many. Then again, I will never be the guy that recommends going with a cheap PSU. Apparently Seasonic has OEMed a few of the cheapest ones we've seen recently, though, such as that one really popular EVGA one thats floating around in lots of other recommended builds here in the forums.

GPUs are simple: get the best one you can get with whatever budget you have left. I'd highly recommend a minimum of GTX 750.

Again, this can be done for relatively cheap. I'm guessing maybe $600 or less would be relatively easy to shoot for. Also keep in mind that Black Friday is coming up and there will definitely be sales on some of these things.

[Goose]

U wot

Look: Small carries a price premium, and a performance penalty; Skylakes, and the associated mobos and RAM, seem to run $75~100 more then a Haswell; I remain dubious of gaming on a "GTX" 750 …

You have several cross-purpose issues to work through.

[Catamount]

A GTX 750 is more than adequate for gaming. I ran one for a few weeks while my 980 TI underwent RMA and handed it off afterwards. Alien Isolation ran at 1080P, max settings, at 60fps without a problem (minimums might have dropped, rarely, into the 50s?). World of Warships ran at about 90% max settings at around 50ish fps, adequate for that game. I was on a small break from MWO at the time, but it's not more graphically intensive than these titles.

OTOH, a 750 is more expensive than many older options that are faster and simply draw more power.

[karrade85]

....okay trying not to get over excited but I saw you mention a wireless monitor?

This got me thinking...If I had a wireless setup then the size of the tower wouldn't matter at all and I wouldn't have to worry about constant setup and takedown. I could put tower in my entertainment center cabinet and pretty much whip out the T.V. tray like I do now for the laptop!

Does making all this wireless though cause any concerns for delay or lag in the controls? Also this computer would pretty much only be for MWO no other games really and Laptop would be used for anything else.

[xWiredx]

Goose, on 13 November 2015 - 02:02 PM, said:

U wot

Look: Small carries a price premium, and a performance penalty; Skylakes, and the associated mobos and RAM, seem to run $75~100 more then a Haswell; I remain dubious of gaming on a "GTX" 750 …

You have several cross-purpose issues to work through.

The Thermaltake case pictured in that review is the exact one I'm using with my home server. It's really an excellent choice, but I think a little more expensive (I can't actually remember). It has space for 2 80mm fans on the top, and I've got 2 Noctua fans up there keeping the entire system pretty cool (though it is just an 8-core Atom C2758).

For MWO, I'd rather go Skylake than Haswell since the Skylake i3s have slightly higher clocks AND slightly higher IPC. Just my opinion. It looks like in the i3 arena, Haswell i3s are about $5-10 cheaper than Skylake ones (prices based off pcpartspicker when I looked yesterday). A 300MhZ boost with an extra 5% IPC for $10? I'd take it.

karrade85, on 13 November 2015 - 09:18 PM, said:

....okay trying not to get over excited but I saw you mention a wireless monitor?

This got me thinking...If I had a wireless setup then the size of the tower wouldn't matter at all and I wouldn't have to worry about constant setup and takedown. I could put tower in my entertainment center cabinet and pretty much whip out the T.V. tray like I do now for the laptop!

Does making all this wireless though cause any concerns for delay or lag in the controls? Also this computer would pretty much only be for MWO no other games really and Laptop would be used for anything else.

Yes. These exist. Wireless monitor adapters run all the way from $25-ish to $150-ish from what I've seen. I also haven't taken the time to actually learn about the technology, so I can't tell you much myself. Google will be your friend there. From what I've heard from one friend, there isn't much if any lag. Again, though, might want to take some real time on Google to understand what it entails.

[DreadPirateNoodle]

OK! I'm going to help you out.

The two PC part lists I have here are for the minimum and recommended system requirements. You can decide which you want, but the minimum spec will get you much more playable FPS. The recommended will allow you more textures, particles, etc., and of course, higher FPS.




MINIMUM SPEC LIST http://pcpartpicker.com/p/p8B37P

**CPU** | [AMD Athlon X4 860K 3.7GHz Quad-Core Processor] | $72.98 @ Newegg
**Motherboard** | [Asus A68HM-K Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard] | $42.98 @ Newegg
**Memory** | [G.Skill NS Series 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory]| $19.99 @ Newegg
**Storage** | [OCZ ARC 100 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive]| $39.99 @ Newegg
**Video Card** | [XFX Radeon R7 240 2GB Video Card] | $58.98 @ Newegg
**Case** | [Thermaltake Core V21 MicroATX Mini Tower Case] | $39.99 @ Newegg
**Power Supply** | [EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply] | $37.98 @ Newegg
| *Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts* |
| Total (before mail-in rebates) | $372.89
| Mail-in rebates | -$60.00
| **Total** | **$312.89**
| Generated by [PCPartPicker](http://pcpartpicker.com) 2015-12-02 14:08 EST-0500 |







RECOMMENDED SPEC LIST http://pcpartpicker.com/p/k73D99


**CPU** | [AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor] | $89.99 @ Newegg
**CPU Cooler** | [Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM CPU Cooler] 19.99 @ Newegg
**Motherboard** | [GigabyteGA-78LMT-USB3 MicroATXAM3+Motherboard| $61.98 @ Newegg
**Memory** | [Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory] | $37.49 @ Newegg
**Storage** | [OCZ ARC 100 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive]| $39.99 @ Newegg
**Video Card** | [XFX Radeon R7 360 2GB Core Edition Video Card] | $93.98 @ Newegg
**Case** | [Rosewill FBM-02 MicroATX Mini Tower Case]| $19.99 @ Newegg
**Power Supply** | [EVGA 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply] | $37.98 @ Newegg
| *Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts* |
| Total (before mail-in rebates) | $437.42
| Mail-in rebates | -$45.00
| **Total** | **$401.39**
| Generated by [PCPartPicker](http://pcpartpicker.com) 2015-12-02 14:11 EST-0500 |


Obviously you're going to want to choose your own case, but these are the smallest and cheapest. As you can see, we are DEFINITELY within your budget. Good luck building!

Edit: If you want to make these lists for yourself, just https://www.cpubenchmark.net/ and http://videocardbenchmark.net/ for comparing components and PCpartpicker for finding the best prices. That's how I did all of this, in about an hour after reading your post and starting from scratch.
http://www.geforce.c...em-requirements MWO system requirements

Edited by DreadPirateNoodle, 02 December 2015 - 11:31 AM.

[Goose]

wat

[Brother MEX]

karrade85, on 13 November 2015 - 12:33 AM, said:

... I currently put my laptop away into a cabinet and I would like to be able to do the same with the tower but that being said I could always find a shelf somewhere. Point is it will be taken down and put away every time I finish using it so it can't be huge...

How about a STEAM ENGINE like the ASUS ROG GR6 ?
https://www.asus.com...Gamers/ROG_GR6/

• 5th Generation Intel® Core™ processors and NVIDIA® GeForce® 960M graphics for unstoppable Full HD gaming
  
• Ultra compact 2.5-liter form factor – ideal for gaming in the living room or bedroom, or to take to LAN parties
  
• Built-in Big Picture Launcher for instant Steam gaming on HDTVs
  
• Ultimate heat and energy management with low operational noise at 20dB at idle
  
• Slide-off covers for additional 2.5” HDD/ SSD and DIMM upgrades.

[Dragoon20005]

so let me get this fact right

you need a PC with OS from 400 to 750 bucks range if you are willing to wait.

how long do you need to save up to 750 bucks?