Recommendations on New Gaming Rig

[Talos]

Morning fellow TESTies,

Looking for advice on a new rig for SC and beyond. I've attached a spec below which I can get for a decent price here in the UK but wanted some advice from fellow gamers.

Processor

• AMD Quad Core A10 7850K CPU 3.7GHz (Turbo's up to 4GHZ)
• 4MB cache

Memory

• 8GB 1866MHz DDR3
• 2 x Dimm slots (0 x free)

Hard Drive

• 1TB SATA III (SATA 6.GBs)

Optical Drive

• 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE.

Software

• No OS (Formatted HDD)

Display

• Monitor not included

Graphics

• AMD Radeon R7 8GCN (onboard)

Audio

• (5.1 ) onboard Audio
• Realtek ALC887 High Definition Audio Codec

Input Devices

• 2 x PS/2 for Keyboard and Mouse
• USB for Keyboard and Mouse

Networking

• Lan onboard 10 / 100 / 1000 Gigabit LAN
• Realtek 8111GR LAN chip.

Power Supply

• 450W ATX PSU

Dimensions

• Depth468 mm
• Width 191 mm
• Height 437 mm

Interfaces

• 1 set 5.1 channel Audio jacks (3 jacks)
• 1 x PS/2 keyboard port
• 1 x PS/2 mouse port
• 4 x USB 2.0 ports
• 2 x USB 3.0 ports
• 1 x RJ45 LAN port
• 1 x DVI Port
• 1 x VGA port
• 1 x HDMI

Expansion

• 2 x Dimm Slots (0 Free)
• 1 x PCI-e x 16 slot (1 Free)
• 1 x PCI-e x 1 slots (1 Free)
• 1 x PCI Slot (1 Free)
• 6 x Sata III ports (4 Free)

Not sure if the motherboard will allow higher RAM but that's something I'll look into.

 

[Fenrig]

Even though I think you aren't going to be assembling it yourself, I'm going to give advice as though you were (I'm also not really considering any sort of budget since not much was listed about it).

I see no listing of Mobo make or model, and that worries me.

Onboard video is a bad idea. It will almost always use a portion of your system RAM as its video memory, and that specific chip is part of the 300-series.

Unless it is for backwards compatibility with older games you want to play, ditch the optical drive completely. Spend half the money you would have spent on it on getting a couple decent thumb drives instead.

The Realtek onboard audio and ethernet are fine.

AMD in general is perfectly good, but doesn't have the brute power that Intel cores do.

My suggestions (beyond the above) is to not use the onboard video (or get a mobo that doesn't use it in the first place), and thus get an R9 series (I have doubts about how well an R7 would work for full PU release of SC anyway) card, or something from Nvidia that is equivalent (and probably 15% more cost). That 450W PSU probably isn't going to run all that though, so you might want to bump it up to a 700W or so (doing the math for peak consumption will work too). Like you noted, 8GB may not be enough for something that will work without issue for more than another 24 months or so.

Oh yeah, why are you getting PS/2 mouse and keyboard with USB adapters?

That system as built would make a very decent desktop workstation.

 

[Ichiru]

Hey man,

I agree with Fenrig in regards to the onboard graphics not being a good idea and also around PSU and memory.

What price range are you looking to spend? That would give us an idea of what to recommend to you.

 

[Talos]

Was looking at £1000 absolute top end. The system above is about a £500 system that I found pre-built. I don't have a clue about building a system for myself so would prefer a pre-build unless I have a step by step guide (PC building for Dummies lol).

 

[Willem Default]

I had no idea either, Talos, until I built mine last year. And with your budget you can get a WAY better system than that if you build it yourself. For around the same price last year I built this. I changed the mobo to a 990FXA-GD65 in the end, and have since upgraded my parts (GTX 970 replacing the 750ti and a 600W PSU replacing the 430W).

 

[Ichiru]

There are many PC building guides out there that can help if you do want to have a go, but can understand it can seem quite daunting at first and especially if its a high end machine you may feel nervous about possibly making mistakes .... but financially it is cheaper to self build.

For example below is a part list for a fairly decent AMD build (Intel is better but much more expensive). The build will cost around £810 if you shop around with the components.

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/t7swvK

AMD FX8350
16GB RAM
750W PSU
AMD R9 290X Graphics card
1 TB HDD
Windows 7

A similar build can be made by PC Specialist - http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk , but will set you back £932 due to the additonal labour costs. See below for the parts I selected for the PC Specialist build (for info if you really wanted to, you could push the CPU upto FX9590 and price would be £1007):

Processor (CPU)

AMD FX-8350 Eight Core CPU (4.00-4.20GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3+)

Case

COOLERMASTER K350 GAMING CASE

Motherboard

Gigabyte 970A-DS3P AM3+ (ATX, DDR3, USB 3.0, 6Gb/s)

Memory (RAM)

16GB KINGSTON DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 8GB)

Graphics Card

4GB AMD RADEON™ R9 290X - DVI, HDMI, DP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable

1st Hard Disk

1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 32MB CACHE

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive

24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

Power Supply

CORSAIR 750W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET (£79)

Processor Cooling

Corsair H55 Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler (£39)

 

[Talos]

Thanks for that Ichiru. Will look into building the system myself and see if I can find a dummies guide somewhere.

 

[dubbzy]

Thanks for that Ichiru. Will look into building the system myself and see if I can find a dummies guide somewhere.

I built my first computer a couple years ago (still running like a champ, after a few upgrades). It's surprisingly simple. Most of the pieces come with good instructions (check reviews before you buy; people will mention if the instructions suck). As long as you can work a screw driver and can plug the correct wire in the matching shape/labeled slot, you'll do fine. For a first build, I recommend starting out with just the basics (mobo, psu, cpu, case, ram, 1 hard drive, video card). If you feel comfortable after that, then get another hard drive or a bitchin' CPU fan. Computers are very easy to upgrade; don't overload yourself in the beginning.

 

[Annitias]

APUs have many issues with SC. Don't go that route. Will throw a big reply up tomorrow, short on time before streams go live now.

8gb ram is just not enough for SC, No operating system is an issue.

450w psu is WAY to small and a no name build is a death sentense. Do not skip a good PSU as it will last for multiple builds and protect your entire rig.

 

[AntiSqueaker]

Alternately, talk to your locally owned computer repair store!

They will almost certainly be HAPPY to assemble your machine for much less than buying a prebuilt. Might also replace/RMA faulty parts for you (rare, but it does happen!).

To tack onto what RussianJ said, NEVER skimp on the PSU. If it goes haywire, can literally set your computer on fire. Thermaltake, EVGA, Corsair, Rosewill, Cooler Master, are just a few of many reliable PSU makers.

APU's also suck, going to be brutally honest. Even a "budget" 150 dollar card (R9 280, GTX 770, etc) will outperform them in almost every circumstance. APU's are a very INTERESTING technology, but right now they are simply not powerful enough to compare to a dedicated GPU.

 

[NeoHelios_SC]

Thanks for that Ichiru. Will look into building the system myself and see if I can find a dummies guide somewhere.

Welcome to the Addiction! Good luck, and be SURE and wash your hands & ground yourself. And don't wear socks if you have carpet & not wearing shoes. (heheHEHEHE-ZZZAP)

 

[dubbzy]

Welcome to the Addiction! Good luck, and be SURE and wash your hands & ground yourself. And don't wear socks if you have carpet & not wearing shoes. (heheHEHEHE-ZZZAP)

 

[rogesh]

What @Ichiru said.

If you buy parts there are usualy short guides with them on how to install them correctly. If not there should still be a detailed guide with it.
Also I build my first pc with a YouTube guide. keep in mind that Locations of the connections are different on each motherboard so you still might to have to look for them a bit ;)

But it's easier than you might think. Just keep yourself grounded and work with clean hands :D

 

[dubbzy]

Remember: Install the power supply first, connect the power cable last!

 

[Midge]

For a nice stable gaming rig ready for the future at a nice price, i would recommend:

Mainboard with H97 or Z97(if you want overclocking) Chipset
Intel Core i5 4690k or i7 4790k
16GB 1600 RAM
NVidia GeForce GTX 970 or 980
256GB SSD + 1TB HDD
750W Power Supply

Tower: Fractal Define R5

 

[UnderSc0re]

For a nice stable gaming rig ready for the future at a nice price, i would recommend:

Mainboard with H97 or Z97(if you want overclocking) Chipset
Intel Core i5 4690k or i7 4790k
16GB 1600 RAM
NVidia GeForce GTX 970 or 980
256GB SSD + 1TB HDD
750W Power Supply

Tower: Fractal Define R5

This is pretty much what I just built with a few recycled parts from the PC I was using up until Monday. I'll be waiting on graphics until launch since I'm able to play at an okay framerate right now with high settings.

 

[NeoHelios_SC]

Remember: Install the power supply first, connect the power cable last!

Oh, man, I prefer to put PSU in last--so bulky trying to work around it. Maybe my experience is limited, but never had a problem getting it in after everything else... if ya KNOW what I mean! ;) (my builds seem happy, at least *sigh*)

 

[Fenrig]

I always put the PSU in first, then any drives. Motherboard gets the proc and RAM installed into it (while irrelevant now this is also when jumpers or DIP switches would have been set), and then gets mounted in the case as well as being connected up to the case buttons/LEDs/fans. CPU HS/Fan go in next, followed by any cards. Data cables get run and managed (secured), and then power gets run and managed.