Looking to build a machine?

[MandFlurry]

Hi all,

 

As my old laptop (Core i5 2430M, 8GB RAM, GeForce GT540M) is having issues with this game (fps on fleet is 30 - 50, but in wz it is 5 - 20), I am looking for replacement. My next machine will have Radeon 6770 or GeForce GT 650 and the question is, which one to take.

 

The power of each card is quite clear on the paper, but I would like to hear some real life experience in swtor using them. I saw laptops with mobility Radeon 5650 running pvp smoothly, and than facing the crap fps with GT540 which should be a bit better. So long story short, I would like to avoid situation when I will buy GT 650 and will have problems while on Radeon 6770 everything would be smooth.

 

Thanks in advance for info.

 

If I were you, and I have had ATI GPUs and now I buy Nvidia GPUs. I think all you would need for this game is probably at most a low cheap 640GTX that has just come out today, And I think it's only 199.00 dollars I think.

Right now on my Alienware i'm useing 2 480s and get 60fps depending on what planet and if that Patch has made my 480s stay at 60fps through all areas of the game. Heck maybe 2x 260s GTX could run the game. But I'd go with the 470s or the 580 vanilla card. This game doesn't use that much in the way of a high End GPUs, with the exception on that new planet probabliity most ppl might have to upgrade their systems and GPUs because that planet looked very realistic compared to the rest of the game.

[blowmedown]

I have some parts of my New Computer that i'll be building. Right now I have an obsolete Area-51 Alienware, but i'll show you what kind of computer I will be building.

 

Chasis: Master cooler HAF X Blue with 4 to 5 fans illuminated by the fans blue LED light witha side window

GPUs: 2 680s and maybe a 670 or 560ti for folding. All from EVGA.

MB: ASUS: P8Z77 Deluxe with Ivy-Bridge i7 LGA 1155 Liquid Cooled.

Memory: 16gigs of Corsair 1600-2100+

Mouse: SWTOR Razer mouse

2 Black Cavlar or 1 Black Cavlar and 1 Blue WD HDDs 1 terabyte and a SSD

PSU: 1200 watt for all my programs

3.0 ports for 2 GPUs and plenty of USB 2.0 and 3.0

Windows 7 Home Premium

 

The other stuff I forgot, but will get the Blue WD for back-up and the SSD/SSDs for this game and other programs.

 

The i3s are for the Lower end of computers, the i5 is for normal gamming and even more good stuf it can do, but the i7s Are for the Enthusiasts, or E-Leet like the i7 2600 and if Ivy-Bridge.

 

From what I heard on the evga Forum, is that the Sandy-Bridge will be discontinued soon, but can't prove it though Intel want ppl to get the new Ivy-Bridge if they're going to get any i7s

 

I should say this computer I will be getting parts by the month, and I know ppl don't need near the stuff and power that I will have when my Computer is probably done in December because the 680s Vanilla aren't getting out. But this is for me and to help me keep sane, and build stuff again.

 

First this post really made my brain hurt trying to figure it out. The i3 2120 will play any game out and I would take a i5 2500k and do a mild overclock to 4.2 GHz and mop the floor with the E-Leet i7 2600. 1200 Watt PSU to power my programs, really? Also your going to spend over $2500 And get the cheapest operating system.

[Akilus]

I was planning on building a computer and I wanted a cheap budget, then I found out I can use 530$ dollars on this build,

http://www.gamersnexus.net/pc-builds/46-pcbuildupg/673-swtor-sith-budget-gaming-pc-build

I'm going to build it soon once I gather up some money to order the parts, I can then play Skyrim on Ultra High Settings same on SWTOR and play BF3 one Mid/High Settings! I suggest to EVERYONE, in the post in the link I just posted it shows a bunch of links to NewEgg.com for the parts. It is supposed to be 430$ originally for the parts but if you add Windows 7 Premium that is 100$ more.

Edited June 13, 2012 by Akilus

[NasherUK]

There are some places where you are wasting money.

 

For a start you don't need such a big PSU on the high end systems. A good quality (e.g corsair) 550-600w will do. Going for something like 1000w is a total waste of money, you won't use anywhere near that much even with a fully loaded system. Never ever buy cheap PSUs either.

 

You don't need more than 8gb of ram either, but ram is so cheap at the moment it doesn't really matter. Also I'd stick with Gigabyte motherboards tbh, from experience Asus can be quite un-reliable and the BIOS they put on them now can be buggy.

Edited June 13, 2012 by NasherUK

[Akilus]

Can you please give me a link to NewEgg.com for those parts?

[blowmedown]

I was planning on building a computer and I wanted a cheap budget, then I found out I can use 530$ dollars on this build,

http://www.gamersnexus.net/pc-builds/46-pcbuildupg/673-swtor-sith-budget-gaming-pc-build

I'm going to build it soon once I gather up some money to order the parts, I can then play Skyrim on Ultra High Settings same on SWTOR and play BF3 one Mid/High Settings! I suggest to EVERYONE, in the post in the link I just posted it shows a bunch of links to NewEgg.com for the parts. It is supposed to be 430$ originally for the parts but if you add Windows 7 Premium that is 100$ more.

 

First never count on rebates. Some of those items are deactivated and that was a decent processor about 5 years ago or so. Also the HDD that was listed was refurbished with a 90 day warranty.

[Kthx]

I would add that min spec seems to always mean not very well and at the lowest setting when your talking about MMO's.

 

I use a 5-year old computer with an nVidia 7950GT with high textures (but shadows off) and get 20-30 fps.

[Akilus]

Okay, can someone give me a good Desktop Computer Part list that is cheap and I can play SWTOR on high and a few other games too?

[dipstik]

so its time to upgrade from my Q6700. This requires me to upgrade my motherboard...

 

think im goign to go with i7 3570K (no hyperthreading since some games have problems with it)

ive got a GTX 460 which i can overclock once my CPU stops bottlenecking my system, and it has the same stuff under the hood as the 560 TI, so all good there

was goign to get 8 gigs of 1600 ram, but maybe i will go with 16 if 8 doesnt do the trick.

since im going to save money by not getting a 3770, I will prolly spend it on a ssd... thinking Crucial M4 128gig. Thinking i should install win7 and swtor on the drive and nothing else.

ive got a 550W psu (came in my antec sonata case iirc) right now and think this should suffice for the system. might try to overclock to 3.8 ish, but only want to go with the stock cpu fan...

hoping i can install a striped down xp and use my legit win7x64 pro upgrade ive been using.

 

any input would be awesome.

[Daethorz]

so its time to upgrade from my Q6700. This requires me to upgrade my motherboard...

 

think im goign to go with i7 3570K (no hyperthreading since some games have problems with it)

ive got a GTX 460 which i can overclock once my CPU stops bottlenecking my system, and it has the same stuff under the hood as the 560 TI, so all good there

was goign to get 8 gigs of 1600 ram, but maybe i will go with 16 if 8 doesnt do the trick.

since im going to save money by not getting a 3770, I will prolly spend it on a ssd... thinking Crucial M4 128gig. Thinking i should install win7 and swtor on the drive and nothing else.

ive got a 550W psu (came in my antec sonata case iirc) right now and think this should suffice for the system. might try to overclock to 3.8 ish, but only want to go with the stock cpu fan...

hoping i can install a striped down xp and use my legit win7x64 pro upgrade ive been using.

 

any input would be awesome.

 

Overclocking the i5 3570k isent needed for swtor, i use a 550 ti & 3570k and i get no lag ingame, my gpu runs warm at 60c though, a 560ti should have no issues.

 

Personally i got a 256 gig crucial m4 and i love my decision, i won't even use all of its space, right now im sitting at 172 gigs leftover, have WoW, Swtor and Warcraft 3 installed, my next game to go on it will be GW2, i load my ship in 5 seconds, fleet in about 7, windows boots in under 10 and literally turns on faster than my modem..

 

Also, 16 gigs is nearly useless unless ur doing memory intensive stuff like video editing, my computer Never uses more than 5 really, i would get a set of ram that can be upgraded to 16 in the far future though, i know i did, i expect games in 4 or 5 years to start using more than 2 gigs.

 

Also, if you have a manufacturers windows 7, you will have to buy a new copy, changing motherboards at any point dosent allow a "OEM" to run anymore, i decided to buy the $200 home premium so i will never have to buy it again regardless of how many mobos i buy.

Edited July 16, 2012 by Daethorz

[Daethorz]

I use a 5-year old computer with an nVidia 7950GT with high textures (but shadows off) and get 20-30 fps.

 

/suprised

My old Pavilion a1730n /w a 1gb 9500 gt+ & 4 gigs of ram got so much lag in pvp/fleet/ops that it .. strangled my gaming experience.

 

I would suggest Everyone get nothing lower than 1gb 550ti.

My 550ti runs at 60c max /w fan curve.

They usually cost between $100-$150, i suggest EVGA brand.

 

But watch out for Bottlenecking, my 550ti ran no better than my 9500 gt because of my weak processor/motherboard, regardless of the graphics card power, bottlenecking will slow it down to a crawl.

[Bolanos]

Hi everyone. Hoping I can get some help. The last time I put a computer together was just before I got married about 7 years ago. My wife said I spent way to much money putting that machine together but it has lasted 7 years and is running SWTOR decently but does lag on some planets. I think it may be time to build another computer that will last me another 7 years...hopefully, and would like some input from you guys since I'm a little rusty and not sure if some of this stuff is compatible with each other or if there is something better in the market at the current moment. I'm also open to any suggestions on changes.

 

CPU: Intel Core I7-3770K - $340

Motherboard: Intel BOXDZ77GA70K - $220

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaw X Series 16GB DDR3 1600 - $110

Video Card: EVGA GTX 680 2GB PCI Express 3.0 - $500

SSD: Corsair Force Series 3 240GB SSD - $210

Hard Drive: Western Digital 2TB Caviar Black - $200

OR

Western Digital VelociRaptor 1TB - $300

Power Supply: Corsair HX850 - Already have it

Disk Drives: Already have.

 

 

I am new with the SSD but from what I've been reading, it's suppose to making booting up and running programs run much faster then conventional hard drives, However, is it faster then say the VelociRaptor? I also see that they have a shorter lifespan then a regular hard drive and I'm the type of person that always leaves his computer on unless I'm on vacation. So my system rarely shuts down so this has me a bit worried about using the SSD. Any feedback at all would be greatly appreciated please.

[belizar]

I found on Taris that when it started to get slow even with 6gb ram it was because it was using so much memory. It was having to grab from the hard drive. I could see the hard drive light going nuts exactly when my frames would drop. Just got two Corsair Force GT's and cannot wait to set them up. I know for sure that when it needs to hit the hard drive up for info it will effect performance WAY less than now with striped mechanical drives I have now

 

swtor is a 32 bit programe cant use more than 4gb total

[blowmedown]

Hi everyone. Hoping I can get some help. The last time I put a computer together was just before I got married about 7 years ago. My wife said I spent way to much money putting that machine together but it has lasted 7 years and is running SWTOR decently but does lag on some planets. I think it may be time to build another computer that will last me another 7 years...hopefully, and would like some input from you guys since I'm a little rusty and not sure if some of this stuff is compatible with each other or if there is something better in the market at the current moment. I'm also open to any suggestions on changes.

 

CPU: Intel Core I7-3770K - $340

Motherboard: Intel BOXDZ77GA70K - $220

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaw X Series 16GB DDR3 1600 - $110

Video Card: EVGA GTX 680 2GB PCI Express 3.0 - $500

SSD: Corsair Force Series 3 240GB SSD - $210

Hard Drive: Western Digital 2TB Caviar Black - $200

OR

Western Digital VelociRaptor 1TB - $300

Power Supply: Corsair HX850 - Already have it

Disk Drives: Already have.

 

 

I am new with the SSD but from what I've been reading, it's suppose to making booting up and running programs run much faster then conventional hard drives, However, is it faster then say the VelociRaptor? I also see that they have a shorter lifespan then a regular hard drive and I'm the type of person that always leaves his computer on unless I'm on vacation. So my system rarely shuts down so this has me a bit worried about using the SSD. Any feedback at all would be greatly appreciated please.

 

Just a few questions before I post what I would do. But yes the SSD is Killer I would get the Samsung 830 and get 2 as I have.

1: Are you going to be Overclocking the CPU?

2: Do you have a aftermarket CPU cooler already if so wich one?

3: Are you using the same case if so wich one do you have?

4: Do you plan on running more than 1 video card in the future (SLI) ?

5: Is this mainly for gaming or do you use programs that require a high memory usage like folding or editing?

[Bolanos]

Just a few questions before I post what I would do. But yes the SSD is Killer I would get the Samsung 830 and get 2 as I have.

1: Are you going to be Overclocking the CPU?

2: Do you have a aftermarket CPU cooler already if so wich one?

3: Are you using the same case if so wich one do you have?

4: Do you plan on running more than 1 video card in the future (SLI) ?

5: Is this mainly for gaming or do you use programs that require a high memory usage like folding or editing?

 

Thanks for replying to my question.

1.) no, I will not be overclocking

2.) no, Since I am not planning on overclocking I didn't think I would need an aftermarket CPU cooler. I don't mind getting one and I know there are several good ones in the market now at a decent price, any suggestions would be appreciated. However, I've never been a fan of water cooling.

3.) Yes, using the same case which I recently purchased because I needed to see something different in front of me, LOL. I now have: Cooler Master SGC-5000-KKN1 CM Storm Trooper Full Tower Case

4.) I currently have two ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series in crossfire on my current build and am honestly looking to simplify my life a bit, so I thought that one GPU with 2gb of memory should be enough to last a long time. Really don't want to get into two video cards again unless I need to.

5.) This is my everything computer. I play my games on this PC (and the new one) and I also do work from it. I run my own company and do much of my graphics work from this computer. Whenever I do changes to my website or get into Photoshop to get some images just right I use this computer because I have two monitors hooked up. I use Windows 7 64bit. I know 16 gig's of ram is alot, and that I have it set up to give me two empty slots incase I want to up it up even more, but when it comes to graphics work I know that memory is key, otherwise the wait times when editing sucks. Also, like I mentioned before, This computer is normally on 24 hours a day, 7 day's a week, unless I leave town for a couple of days, then I'll shut it off, otherwise it's running. Bad habit, I know, but hard to beat that habit.

 

Hope I didn't bore you, and thanks again for taking the time in answering my post.

[blowmedown]

First that looks like a solid build. I would get the Samsung 830 SSD to get away from the SandForce controller. I use 2 of these a 64GB for the OS, drivers, and a few programs, and a 256 GB for other things along with a 1TB SB HDD. But one will do fine. They cost a little more but worth it after the MB post screen windows is loaded and ready to use in like 10 seconds.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147164 Or if you need the bracket wich your case should already have a SSD mounting bay.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147135

For the motherboard this one will save you $100 and has good features, 4 SATA 6Gb/s 4 SATA 3Gb/s, USB 3.0 header on the board ( your case already has the front USB 3.0 headers so you will not need the supplied one with the MB) and you could add anouther GPU later if needed in SLI. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138354

GPU this one will save $100 and has very colse performance. http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/555?vs=598

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130787

Optional CPU cooler I always replace the stock one on a high performance build and if you decide to OC in the future your ready to go. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099

For the HDD i'm not really a fan of the Rapture or anything over 1TB but that's your choice.

Like I said nothing wrong with your first build just giving you some options, but I would get the SSD I listed.

[Bolanos]

I changed everything on my build sheet to reflect what you suggested. The only question I have is, I saw the site where the two video cards are shown on bench tests and they are very close. My question is, they are so close, but will there be a visual performance difference? Is the difference so little that you won't notice? On the bench test it didn't rank so well in the direct x 11 shader area if I read that correctly, will this cause a problem compared to the other video card?

 

You mentioned that you have two SSD's and one hard drive. I assume the hard drive you have is for your backup's? I normally have a backup being done every Sunday night on my system at 2am which goes into a 1tb hard drive. This is the main reason why I want a hard drive. Would you suggest I get two SSD's like you have to run and store everything and just leave the HDD for backups? If so, which two SSD's and which Hard drive do you suggest?

 

And thank you very much for taking the time to answer my questions, I greatly appreciate it.

[blowmedown]

I changed everything on my build sheet to reflect what you suggested. The only question I have is, I saw the site where the two video cards are shown on bench tests and they are very close. My question is, they are so close, but will there be a visual performance difference? Is the difference so little that you won't notice? On the bench test it didn't rank so well in the direct x 11 shader area if I read that correctly, will this cause a problem compared to the other video card?

 

You mentioned that you have two SSD's and one hard drive. I assume the hard drive you have is for your backup's? I normally have a backup being done every Sunday night on my system at 2am which goes into a 1tb hard drive. This is the main reason why I want a hard drive. Would you suggest I get two SSD's like you have to run and store everything and just leave the HDD for backups? If so, which two SSD's and which Hard drive do you suggest?

 

And thank you very much for taking the time to answer my questions, I greatly appreciate it.

 

Yes the GPU is not quite as good but the 3 or 4 FPS are not enough to increase the price by 25% as far as the directx11 that's a bigger gap but everything still uses directx9 that I know of. I'm not really sure what that's used for so you might need to research it some and see if it's something you would use.

For my hard drives wich might not be the best setup for you. I have a Samsung 830 64 gb (boot drive) with my operating system, all drivers, and some utility programs, Samsung 830 256gb for games, and a Seagate Barracuda 1TB for backups and everything else.It took me 4 hours for some reason to get the 2nd SSD to be reconized by windows 7 it showed it in my BIOS but not reconized by my PC (ended up actually loading the operating system on it then it showed up go figure) I would recomend the Samsung 830 SSD but with the hit and miss quality of HDD's your own your own. If you get the Samsung SSD go to their website and download the Magician software.

 

EDIT: with this being your business PC I would get a very high quality HDD for backup or run a disc scan on the one you have and maby erase and reuse it.

Edited July 28, 2012 by blowmedown