25 replies to this topic

[Kykyn Widahomeas]

So I figure I will need to upgrade my PC to really enjoy my time in MWO. Anyone able to help me make some sytem upgrade suggestions?

I have put together my own pc's for quite a few years, but I am out of the loop of what is what.. Looking to spend around 1k-1.5k in parts, for the full tower and OS (including Hard drives as I plan to keep the old pc functional). Any build ideas to get me started??

-Kykyn

[Kestralix]

definantly need alot of Geg a bits

[xxREVxx]

PM sent

[Silme]

In that price range, probably LGA 1155 chipset core i5 or i7 with a GTX 470-ish for graphics. I'm biased towards nvidia/intel if you couldn't tell.

[light487]

Don't think about it in terms of JUST MWO.. think about it in terms of gaming for the next 3 or 4 years, which is how long I expect to get out of a new rig... sometimes things change a bit quicker and you get 2 years or so.. but usually it's around 3 to 4 years per rig.. sometimes you get lucky (like I did with the Radeon HD 5750) and you get a little bit extra out of it.

[SakuranoSenshi]

Why would he buy an outdated graphics card when spending serious cash on the system?

[Immitem]

I would definitely rock this build for the next few years! On a quick note I do not know where you are from so I am using the Canadian version of newegg which is generally slightly more expensive (but by a negligable amount).

Tower-COOLER MASTER HAF 932 Advanced - http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16811119160
Motherboard-ASRock Z75 Pro3 LGA 1155 Intel - http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16813157304
CPU-Intel Core i7-3770 Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz- http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16819116502
RAM-G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB - http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16820231429
DVD/CD Drive-LITE-ON Black 18X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM - http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16827106276
Graphics Card-ZOTAC ZT-60301-10P GeForce GTX 670 2GB - http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16814500242
Boot Drive-Crucial M4 CT064M4SSD2 2.5" 64GB SATA III - http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16820148441
Storage Drive-SAMSUNG EcoGreen F4 ST2000DL004 2TB - http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16822152245
PSU-CORSAIR Professional Series HX850 (CMPSU-850HX) 850W - http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16817139011

All of which comes to approximately $1500 and should last you 4 years at the absolute minimum (discluding videocard) and if I understood your OP correctly (which I don't) you have some parts that you will transfer from your original computer into this one and in turn save money that way? Anyhoo! My work here is done.


P.S. If you do not plan on overclocking then the stock fan and cooler should do the job in a case with that much ventilation.

Edited by Immitem, 08 August 2012 - 05:49 PM.

[Neo160]

http://www.ibuypower.../Chimera_4se-E1

that Tower should run this game and many more on max settings for quite sometime. best part is, you can fully customize to your likeing. they assemble everything for you, they have warranty, and come with free water cooling. this should more than meat your budget and blow your expectations of what a computer from a retailer can be.

have fun with that

[sirxazor]

I spend around 1.5k for my recent build

I got:

Z77 sabertooth
i7 sandy bridge 1155 @ 3.5Ghz
16GB 1600 DDR3 RAM
Galaxy GTX 680 GC 4GB
1 750 HDD 1 250 HDD 10k rpm (from my previous build)
1 250GB SSD (100GB boot partition and 150GB for games I play which I have MWO installed)

I can pretty much play anything on ultra, I have a 21.5 in 1080p LG monitor but Iam buying 3 more for surround gaming since I have saitek pro flight, and saitek X52.

So i would suggest getting my mobo, cpu, ram and video card

[ThunderHorse]

Spent a long time piecing parts together in my head, then just recently took the plunge & ordered my system. This is the result of over a week's continuous intense shopping and research:

Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64-bit - OEM. Wanted multi-language support. Got stuck with a huge bill :/ Otherwise I would have bought the Professional Edition.

OCZ Fatal1ty 750W Modular Gaming 80Plus Bronze Power Supply compatible with Intel Sandy Bridge Core i3 i5 i7 and ... Supposedly got good reviews. Stats seemed good, plus it glows red. Yes, case aesthetics. You'll see a pattern with my purchases. Future-proofing in case I ever want to SLI. Modular to keep clutter down and airflow up

2 x COOLER MASTER Excalibur R4-EXBB-20PK-R0 120mm Case Fan. Great air moving upgrade for my supposedly noisy top-mounted case fan. 4 pin means my mobo's great fan control software can adjust RPMs on the fly.

ASUS Maximus V FORMULA LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard. I splurged on the mobo a bit, but ASUS is the best I figure sooner or later with a K-series CPU I plan to play with overclocking. If you want to game on the cheap, any ASUS mobo with FanExpert software should suffice. Their GUI bios and fan software is the best, and their build quality is really top-notch.

Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics .... For gaming it's functionally identical to the i7 3770 but a bit cheaper.

1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Red Limited Edition Model ... Was thinking 16 GB DDR3 2133 to OC with my mobo, but the consensus is that memory speed over makes little to no difference when gaming, and 8 GB for gaming is more than enough. Please don't argue this point. All the hoity-toity overclocking windbags seem to agree on this, as do the online publications I've researched.

1 x Sony Optiarc 24X DVD Burner, Bulk Package Black SATA Model AD-7280S-0B - OEM. Lite-on, et. al. are crap. Got this drive at almost the same price, but almost free since I combo'd it with my CPU or some other component.

1 x COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2 Continuous Direct Contact 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler Compatible with latest ... Best CPU cooler at the price and noise volume. Even better with...

1 x COOLER MASTER R4-BMBS-20PK-R0 Blade Master 120mm Case Fan. Attach this to the cooler above for a push-pull config, letting you lower your overall noise & RPMs while increasing cooling efficiency with the great fan control software on the ASUS mobo!

All the above is to be housed in my COOLER MASTER CM Storm Series Trooper (SGC-5000-KKN1) Black Steel / Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case. Love this thing. Plenty of space, looks tough, built in fan controller and carrying handle (will play in man cave or living room as the need arises).

So this was copied from my invoice. It ain't perfect, but it's darn close. I didn't want to skimp on cheap brands when it came to memory and CPU because I've been burned before by so-called good brands, sometimes even twice (looking at you & your cheap sh@t motherboards Gigabyte >:/ )

Using my old graphics card until they release the GeForce 660. That or the 670 will be my gfx upgrade. Until that time I'll rock my old Radeon HD 5770!

PS: Forgot the SSD system drive. Samsung 830 (?) series 120 GB on sale for 90! My first SSD should be a real screamer performance-wise!

Total looks to be about $1200. Not bad for such an important investment. I plan to use this rig (with only minor upgrades) for at least 4 years as I have with my last build.

Edited for hyperlinks and formatting.

Edited by ThunderHorse, 08 August 2012 - 07:40 PM.

[ABombination]

sirxazor, on 08 August 2012 - 05:59 PM, said:

I spend around 1.5k for my recent build

I got:

Z77 sabertooth
i7 sandy bridge 1155 @ 3.5Ghz
16GB 1600 DDR3 RAM
Galaxy GTX 680 GC 4GB
1 750 HDD 1 250 HDD 10k rpm (from my previous build)
1 250GB SSD (100GB boot partition and 150GB for games I play which I have MWO installed)

I can pretty much play anything on ultra, I have a 21.5 in 1080p LG monitor but Iam buying 3 more for surround gaming since I have saitek pro flight, and saitek X52.

So i would suggest getting my mobo, cpu, ram and video card

If you spent 1.5k on a rig that cant run absolutely anything in ultra settings on and resolution needs to hop off the intel/nvidia fanboy wagon. I spent less then $600 and have yet to NOT be able to play ANYTHING on absolute max settings and max resolution and full speed fps. I don't even have a ssd yet.

[T4nK]

I built an lga 2011 for 1600:

3820 cpu
16gb kingston quad channel 1600mhz ram
asus sabertooth x79
crucial m4 256ssd
1tb wd black 64mb cach
680gtx video

I love working at a computer company

Edited by T4nK, 08 August 2012 - 07:43 PM.

[ThunderHorse]

ABombination, on 08 August 2012 - 07:39 PM, said:

If you spent 1.5k on a rig that cant run absolutely anything in ultra settings on and resolution needs to hop off the intel/nvidia fanboy wagon. I spent less then $600 and have yet to NOT be able to play ANYTHING on absolute max settings and max resolution and full speed fps. I don't even have a ssd yet.

Before I get started, nice name, ABomb.

Maybe you don't mean it, but you come off a bit cocky. Keep it in your pants, broseph. I see room for improvement in his rig, cost-wise. Performance-wise he's doing pretty well, especially if he plans to OC and run a triple monitor setup. I just wouldn't scream from the hills to buy his setup...

I even agree my setup could have been more cost-effective, but I admit that my setup was a compromise between performance, aesthetics, longevity, and preference. I will suggest it as a basis of an excellent example of a ~$1500 best bang-for-your-buck rig (that won't blow up after a year of stupid OC'ing), but by all means I don't claim this to be the best rig EVAR.

You got me interested in your sweet $600 rig. I ain't an Intel/Nvidia fanboy as you assume sirxazor is, but I can tell you from following at least Tom's Hardware that the best performance/value CPUs have been the i5 k-series since Sandy Bridge. I love my 5770 but admit AMD is crapping all over ATI. ATI has always been a close second to NVIDIA, winning some and losing some battles. This generation I plan to switch to NVIDIA due to better driver support and comparable, if not better hardware at the mid-high price point.

By the way, nice first post.

Edited by ThunderHorse, 08 August 2012 - 07:57 PM.

[DisasterTheory]

Not sure why everyone is so up on Intel CPU builds.... they are double of what you get with an AMD build and the preformance differance isn't much if noticable at all. Maybe seeing numbers in a benchmark bother some people but my games load and play smooth as butter. I recommend an AMD FX 4100 Quad, 8GB DDR1866, and since your saving a crapton of cash on the CPU.. put that extra cash into a graphics card, Hard drive and powersupply. Could probably get a 680 or 7970 for 400-500 and that would probably be 80% of your systems horsepower for MechOnline.

[sirxazor]

ABombination, on 08 August 2012 - 07:39 PM, said:

If you spent 1.5k on a rig that cant run absolutely anything in ultra settings on and resolution needs to hop off the intel/nvidia fanboy wagon. I spent less then $600 and have yet to NOT be able to play ANYTHING on absolute max settings and max resolution and full speed fps. I don't even have a ssd yet.

I spent that much because I could at the time, I got my taxes and I had money to spend... considering I had my old quad extreme and 8GB DDR2 with a HD 5770 I figured it was time to upgrade. And by the way I am not a fanboy my first build was AMD, which was a budget build and I also built a budget PC for my brother with AMD as well. But the keyword here is budget, as you can see the OP saying the "budget" is 1k-1.5k I figured I might share my current build which personally I am enjoying very much.

[Monsoon]

Here's my suggestion:

Rosewill THOR V2 Gaming ATX Full Tower Case. http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16811147053
Corsair HX Series 750w SLI/Crossfire Ready 80 Plus Gold: http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16817139010
ASUS Crosshair V AM3+ AMD 990FX with 3-way SLI/CrossfireX Support: http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16813131735
AMD FX-6200 Zambezi 3.8Ghz (4.1Ghz Turbo) 125w Six-Core Processor: http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16819106010
Corsair Vengeance 32GB (4x8GB) DDR3 1866: http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16820233237
2x EVGA SuperClocked GeForce GTX560 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 SLI Ready: http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16814130661
SeaGate Barracuda 1.5TB HDD: http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16822148725
ASUS Blu-Ray Burner: http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16827135252
Thermaltake 130mm CPU Fan: http://www.newegg.ca...N82E16835106187

And for another 20ish bucks you could also get a Wireless Adapter card. The total get up is a little over 1500 dollars, but that's a NewEGG an in Canadian Dollars. My suggestion find a local store the will make custom builds, you'll get Windows7 pre-installed usally as part of the package. (At least I always have.) The one thing I didn't put on this system is a Solid State Drive, which is much faster then your HDD, but for another 100-150 bucks you can get a 120GB drive.

Basically I went with the idea of a computer that can certainly handle any game out there, with room still for a third GeForce 560 card if you wanted to put one in (not sure if the 750w PSU can cover 3 of them, but you could get a cheaper 1000w PSU instead of the 80 Plus Gold). Two 560 cards will out perform many higher end single cards (they will certainly get you better performance than a single GTX 580 or an ATI HD 6970). The 32GB of RAM, is enough to devote half of it to a RAM Drive for some blazing speeds (like putting MWO on it.)

Just bought a Case myself, it's a nice one but I saw the THOR V2 and started regretting my decision right away (has plenty of really big fans). You could also downgrade the CPU to the ASUS M5A99X EVO if you wanted to save about 80bucks and still be able to throw in a third graphic card (this is the one I should have bought but I ended up with the 97X.) Lastly if you wanted to go with ATI instead you could grab two HD 6870 for the same price as the OverClocked GTX 560s.

Edited by Monsoon, 08 August 2012 - 10:21 PM.

[Lin Shai]

ABombination, on 08 August 2012 - 07:39 PM, said:

If you spent 1.5k on a rig that cant run absolutely anything in ultra settings on and resolution needs to hop off the intel/nvidia fanboy wagon. I spent less then $600 and have yet to NOT be able to play ANYTHING on absolute max settings and max resolution and full speed fps. I don't even have a ssd yet.

This.

My three year old gaming rig that was fairly cheap when I put it together ($800-ish) can run almost anything at 1920x1080, and runs a lot of things at 2650x1600 (Dell 30" display). That's a AMD 965BE @ 3.4Ghz and a nVidia 275GTX

I just bought the 30" a couple months ago (really for work) so I hadn't bothered to upgrade from the nVidia 275GTX that's in there ... though you get spoiled quick running at its native resolution, may have to do so

Edited by Lin Shai, 08 August 2012 - 10:37 PM.

[BattleBoog]

Heres what I just built at the end of april. Put in about 1.5k on it

sabertooth z77
intel 2500k @4.3
CM V8 cpu cooler
evga classified 560ti 448core
2x4GB corsair vengeance ram
120GB ocz ssd
2TB seagate hdd
asus dvd-rw
thermaltake 1050w psu
CM haf x case

runs everything ive thrown at it with maxed graphics since. And with the huge fans and such, I havent seen anything go over 55C

Edited by BattleBoog, 08 August 2012 - 11:06 PM.

[Roguewolf]

ThunderHorse, on 08 August 2012 - 06:40 PM, said:

Spent a long time piecing parts together in my head, then just recently took the plunge & ordered my system. This is the result of over a week's continuous intense shopping and research:

Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64-bit - OEM. Wanted multi-language support. Got stuck with a huge bill :/ Otherwise I would have bought the Professional Edition.

OCZ Fatal1ty 750W Modular Gaming 80Plus Bronze Power Supply compatible with Intel Sandy Bridge Core i3 i5 i7 and ... Supposedly got good reviews. Stats seemed good, plus it glows red. Yes, case aesthetics. You'll see a pattern with my purchases. Future-proofing in case I ever want to SLI. Modular to keep clutter down and airflow up

2 x COOLER MASTER Excalibur R4-EXBB-20PK-R0 120mm Case Fan. Great air moving upgrade for my supposedly noisy top-mounted case fan. 4 pin means my mobo's great fan control software can adjust RPMs on the fly.

ASUS Maximus V FORMULA LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX Intel Motherboard. I splurged on the mobo a bit, but ASUS is the best I figure sooner or later with a K-series CPU I plan to play with overclocking. If you want to game on the cheap, any ASUS mobo with FanExpert software should suffice. Their GUI bios and fan software is the best, and their build quality is really top-notch.

Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics .... For gaming it's functionally identical to the i7 3770 but a bit cheaper.

1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Red Limited Edition Model ... Was thinking 16 GB DDR3 2133 to OC with my mobo, but the consensus is that memory speed over makes little to no difference when gaming, and 8 GB for gaming is more than enough. Please don't argue this point. All the hoity-toity overclocking windbags seem to agree on this, as do the online publications I've researched.

1 x Sony Optiarc 24X DVD Burner, Bulk Package Black SATA Model AD-7280S-0B - OEM. Lite-on, et. al. are crap. Got this drive at almost the same price, but almost free since I combo'd it with my CPU or some other component.

1 x COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2 Continuous Direct Contact 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler Compatible with latest ... Best CPU cooler at the price and noise volume. Even better with...

1 x COOLER MASTER R4-BMBS-20PK-R0 Blade Master 120mm Case Fan. Attach this to the cooler above for a push-pull config, letting you lower your overall noise & RPMs while increasing cooling efficiency with the great fan control software on the ASUS mobo!

All the above is to be housed in my COOLER MASTER CM Storm Series Trooper (SGC-5000-KKN1) Black Steel / Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case. Love this thing. Plenty of space, looks tough, built in fan controller and carrying handle (will play in man cave or living room as the need arises).

So this was copied from my invoice. It ain't perfect, but it's darn close. I didn't want to skimp on cheap brands when it came to memory and CPU because I've been burned before by so-called good brands, sometimes even twice (looking at you & your cheap sh@t motherboards Gigabyte >:/ )

Using my old graphics card until they release the GeForce 660. That or the 670 will be my gfx upgrade. Until that time I'll rock my old Radeon HD 5770!

PS: Forgot the SSD system drive. Samsung 830 (?) series 120 GB on sale for 90! My first SSD should be a real screamer performance-wise!

Total looks to be about $1200. Not bad for such an important investment. I plan to use this rig (with only minor upgrades) for at least 4 years as I have with my last build.

Edited for hyperlinks and formatting.

^ This ^

For the next 3 to 5 years of gaming, the I7 cores are a total waste. They Ivy Brige I5 cores have exactly the same threading performance, the I7 cores simply can do faster mathmatical computations. You can mix and match, as well as swap a few cheaper parts in (For example you should have able to scavange a DVD drive somewhere, I dont even use one anymore).

Also, one thing about the GForce 550/570/590 boards, the big secret in the industry is they are performing as good as the 600 series, for a heck of alot less money. For some reason the mainbaords for the current generation of intel or AMD chips cannot push data fast enough to utilize the full perfornce of a 600 board. Engineering problems, what can you do right?

I built my system for $800 using some recycled parts. There is no reason what so ever you couldnt get a very nice 3 to 4 year system by spending $1000. Another thing is the over powered power supply. If you are not planing to SLi your cards, 500 to 600 Watts is more than enough. If you have any Engineering aptitude crunch the numbers on the current/voltage draw.

I have been building these things for myself and my family since I was 12 (21 years now), so I have seen alot of systems come and go.

Good luck mate.

[T4nK]

BLOODREDSINGLE, on 08 August 2012 - 08:12 PM, said:

Not sure why everyone is so up on Intel CPU builds....

I was and AVID AMD/ATI fanboy For years (about 8 years). Had the old AM AM2, AM3 Socket motherboards. Even was going to go with the new FX processors. But then I started looking at the Computers that come into my shop for problems, and AMD system are usually more fault have a shorter lifespan in the gaming world than Intel.

Who do you know here still rocks a AM3 system as their primary and can max most of the games today? I think I know 1-3 people?

But the people with the LGA1366 i7-9xx series are still kicking *** and taking names in terms of performance. So yes Intel is more expensive, but you get a huge amount of longevity out of the system. The system I built earlier this year is an LGA 2011 system, I seriously probably dont need to upgrade until late 2013 or early 2014 and at that time its been 2+ years and It's about time to drop some cash to expand or even replace, if your up on a 2 year cycle like I am.

So yes, AMD is great for budget consumers, and for mid of the road systems, but seriously AMD GFX, AMD CPU's have NOTHING on Intel and Nvidia products, and this is coming from personal experience. But yet again, this is my opinion. Have a good day guys.