13 replies to this topic

[WraithTR1]

Buddy of mine wants to play MWO, but has a cheap laptop that very likely won't run this game (he also wants to play Diablo III and it won't run that). He's on a very low budget, so I'm trying to stay under 500. I'm not very good with the whole budget gaming PC design as I tend to go overboard and found this basic config online. Would this following setup work out for him?

Cooler Master HAF 912 Mid Tower ATX Case

BIOSTAR H61MGC LGA 1155 Intel H61 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Pentium Dual-Core Processor G850 2.9GHz 3MB LGA1155 CPU

GIGABYTE GV-N550D5-1GI GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

G.SKILL NS 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600)

Antec VP-450 450 Watt

DVD-RW

I'd be giving him an old HDD and loaning him mouse, keyboard, and an old 19" CRT monitor. He'd also be running Windows 8 consumer test edition.

Edited by WraithTR1, 21 May 2012 - 08:09 AM.

[Caocamhin]

I would change the case to an Antec 300, I think it is a cleaner case.

[MATEO FALCONE]

Thats plenty of video card. Its a little light on processor but it should play it just fine. Only thing i would change is the power supply. In my opinion you need a 600 or 650 watt power supply with 24 amps of 3.3, 20 amps of 5, and 18 amps of 12. The reason for so much 5 volt amperage is for peripherals {i.e. usb everything} and the reason for 18 amps of 12 volt is for upgrading to a seconded card for use in SLI at a later point. I speak from experience..bbq'ed a brand new asus board when a low wattage power supply gave out after adding a card that was in the power supplys' 12 volt wattage range. Hope that helps.

[BoxOfAids]

Caocamhin, on 21 May 2012 - 08:14 AM, said:

I would change the case to an Antec 300, I think it is a cleaner case.

While I have not tried an Antec 300, I love my HAF 912, and I'm sure OP's friend would too.

MATEO FALCONE, on 21 May 2012 - 08:22 AM, said:

Thats plenty of video card. Its a little light on processor but it should play it just fine. Only thing i would change is the power supply. In my opinion you need a 600 or 650 watt power supply with 24 amps of 3.3, 20 amps of 5, and 18 amps of 12. The reason for so much 5 volt amperage is for peripherals {i.e. usb everything} and the reason for 18 amps of 12 volt is for upgrading to a seconded card for use in SLI at a later point. I speak from experience..bbq'ed a brand new asus board when a low wattage power supply gave out after adding a card that was in the power supplys' 12 volt wattage range. Hope that helps.

Agree on the video card being fine, but disagree on pretty much everything else. If I'm not mistaken, the CPU is really kind of low-end and will probably struggle, it's the bottleneck for the setup.

As for the power supply, I would agree with going higher IF he intends to upgrade in the future, but even then he would need to replace the CPU on top of getting a new video card if he wanted to upgrade, so it would almost be as well just to start form scratch. But then again, if he just buys the better PSU now then he could use it on his next rig most likely lol.

Edited by boxofaids, 21 May 2012 - 08:36 AM.

[Vulpesveritas]

You can get a better video card for your price, your video card is weak, you don't need that large of a wattage of a PSU- the 12v rail dominates everything and you can get better for your price...
What I would recommend:
Case: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16811148060
PSU: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817371030
Motherboard: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813157280
CPU: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819103727
GPU: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814161414
RAM: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820103003 X2
ODD: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16827106378
Total: $495
$20 more for 8GB of ram: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820103006

CryENGINE 3 is heavily threaded, giving the AMD processor a distinct advantage in speed.
I have listed a better power supply, motherboard, a faster GPU (the Radeon HD 7770 trades blows with the GTX 560 and 560ti, is quieter, runs cooler, and uses less power.), RAM with a double quality control check, and a case which is great for the price.

With this build, you'll be getting much better frames per second, you have a motherboard which is highly up-gradable in the future thanks to AMD supporting their motherboards longer than Intel, you're getting a faster PC overall, and you have a power supply which can support future upgrades.

Edited by Vulpesveritas, 21 May 2012 - 08:55 AM.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Im assuming you mean $500 because the opening post was not that helpful.

Hating these small budgets but this is as low as i personally would go.

Case/PSU Bundle

http://www.newegg.co...st=Combo.912745

Motherboard

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813128521

CPU

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819103727

RAM

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820104246

OD

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16827106289

GPU

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814121419

Or

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814131460

Total- $521

​21 bucks is not a massive amount over budget, Vulps build is similar, but on this one you get the 8GB of Ram

Edited by DV^McKenna, 21 May 2012 - 08:50 AM.

[WraithTR1]

Oops should have checked what I was copying, that was a slightly different setup I was looking at earlier. Here's the processor I was thinking of.


Intel Core i3-2100 Processor 3.1GHz 3 MB Cache Socket LGA1155


He doesn't do a whole lot of PC gaming so he just needs something to get by with.

[Vulpesveritas]

DV^McKenna, on 21 May 2012 - 08:44 AM, said:

Im assuming you mean $500 because the opening post was not that helpful.

Hating these small budgets but this is as low as i personally would go.

Case/PSU Bundle

http://www.newegg.co...st=Combo.912745

Motherboard

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813128521

CPU

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819103727

RAM

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820104244

HDD

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822152181

OD

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16827106289

GPU

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814121419

The only things I have with this is he doesn't need a HDD, I was able to get a better PSU with the build I listed, the case I recommended has much better cable management, plus it has better ventilation, and it's the same price between the case+PSU in the difference of the builds, and CryENGINE 3 loves the Radeon HD 7000 series, and the 7770 outperforms the 6870 in DX11 and the 6850 in DX9.

WraithTR1, on 21 May 2012 - 08:46 AM, said:

Oops should have checked what I was copying, that was a slightly different setup I was looking at earlier. Here's the processor I was thinking of.


Intel Core i3-2100 Processor 3.1GHz 3 MB Cache Socket LGA1155


He doesn't do a whole lot of PC gaming so he just needs something to get by with.

A Phenom II build will give him better upgradability, and he can overclock in the future if he wanted to. It would also be somewhat faster given the quad-threaded nature of CryENGINE 3.

Edited by Vulpesveritas, 21 May 2012 - 08:56 AM.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Yep i was in the middle out editing out the HDD.

I used this chart on the comparison of the 7770vs 6850 in Crysis 2
http://www.guru3d.co...-7770-review/19

Edited by DV^McKenna, 21 May 2012 - 08:57 AM.

[Vulpesveritas]

I use Techpowerup;
http://www.techpower...HD_7770/13.html
Legion Hardware:
http://www.legionhar..._7770_oc,5.html
and Xbit Labs:
http://www.xbitlabs....50_7.html#sect1

Mainly TPU though.

Edited by Vulpesveritas, 21 May 2012 - 09:02 AM.

[Oderint dum Metuant]

Only problem i can find with TPU is it does not list what settings they used for Crysis 2 other than High res pack and DX 11.

Where as guru state they use both those, at Ultra settings with 4x AA, which im betting is where the difference is.

[WraithTR1]

Thanks this is the kind of info I was looking for. I'm really out of touch with the newer PC technology, my system was built around 2008 but I put alot of money into it at the time so it's still runs everything I throw at it well. Please keep the ideas coming as I've still got to convince him to put the money down.

[Makaveli]

Yup, this is a thread for me...

[Vulpesveritas]

DV^McKenna, on 21 May 2012 - 09:16 AM, said:

Only problem i can find with TPU is it does not list what settings they used for Crysis 2 other than High res pack and DX 11.

Where as guru state they use both those, at Ultra settings with 4x AA, which im betting is where the difference is.

I'm guessing no AA as well, since TPU nearly always states that they're using AA in most reviews.

Edited by Vulpesveritas, 21 May 2012 - 03:43 PM.