Theorycrafting a DDR3 build.
- Thread starter NaffNaffBobFace
- Start date
I've gone for FX8350 which seemed to be the most powerful of its line still available... the FX6300 seems to have been more popular for its time, but it's more expensive these days for less power and cores. What can I say i'm a numbers guy - as long as it works I can't be unhappy... This is going to be my first build so didn't want to get something pretty expensive, and then junk the bastard by putting it together wrong or wearing a static T-shirt or whatever.
Not aiming to pay more than £70 on any one component that isn't the GPU due to risk of blowing it all up, so this came in right on budget.
Will buy more bits and bobs as I go along but grabbed this old CPU and a motherboard for it while both are still available, and ordered a nice Case for da looks. Other than that the RAM out of my current build and then a few parts here and a few parts there every month finishing with the operating system - I know I can use it without an activation key but will eventually pay for it because i'm like that :slight_smile:
Aiming to find a GTX1060 3gb, which may be the most expensive part - don't want to get a used GPU due to miners, but might just be happy with 1050 4gb.
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Radegast74
Space Marshal
Just throwing it out there...in about 3 years or so, when I'm getting ready to buy another rig, I'm going to see how this "Shadow Streaming Service" thing is working out.
https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/review/gaming-pcs/shadow-streaming-service-review-hands-on-3670984/
As much as I'm not a fan of "renting" stuff out, the prices look like they could be competitive.
In any event, you would still need some sort of computer. But, you may not need the top of the line "beast" (i.e., expensive) rig, just one that is good enough to do the ordinary day-to-day tasks, and then you could stream an ultra high performance gaming rig to play something like SC.
Note: I wouldn't recommend doing this to a game like SC, that is very un-optimized and resource intensive. But, as they work in optimization and performance gets better, it could be a thing. Imagine, instead of spending USD2000, instead paying about USD35 a month...
https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/review/gaming-pcs/shadow-streaming-service-review-hands-on-3670984/
As much as I'm not a fan of "renting" stuff out, the prices look like they could be competitive.
In any event, you would still need some sort of computer. But, you may not need the top of the line "beast" (i.e., expensive) rig, just one that is good enough to do the ordinary day-to-day tasks, and then you could stream an ultra high performance gaming rig to play something like SC.
Note: I wouldn't recommend doing this to a game like SC, that is very un-optimized and resource intensive. But, as they work in optimization and performance gets better, it could be a thing. Imagine, instead of spending USD2000, instead paying about USD35 a month...
It was tempting, and I suppose a bonus would be that the components would be upgraded and replaced on a more frequent basis that I would with my own machine!
When my main PC failed to respond recently I think the writing was on the wall, it totally died and I was just stabbing in the dark as to how to make it work again.
As far as I can work out from what I then did to it, it could have been as simple as a SATA cable coming a bit loose, but then it could be that the SSD is on the way out or even the whole system is reaching the end of its life... I realised I didn't know enough about how computers work or how they are put together to say to myself "I know what caused that."
So building a box from scratch and having to get it running, even with parts a few generations old, would be a good upgrade from my Phenom II rig a wonderful learning experience and challenge :)
Hmm, DDR3, well, I went out to see if any newer CPUs would actually support it, and well, if you can find a suitable motherboard, even the relatively new (2016) Kaby Lake processors support it.
Anyways, as others suggest, sticking to older parts can lead to waste. However, unlike others, I wouldn't recommend going for DDR4 right now, when DDR5 is just around the corner (1-2 years or so, we're at the end of 2018 already and DDR5 is estimated for 2019, although it might take some time to get widely adapted). Also, PCIe v5.0 is coming about at the same time as DDR5.
So waiting a bit and jumping to DDR5 is what I'd consider the ultimate budged solution. You can then stick with DDR5 for the next 10 years or so (the last 4 of which would probably be under the reign of DDR6, but your stuff would only be slightly out of date instead of majorly)
Anyways, as others suggest, sticking to older parts can lead to waste. However, unlike others, I wouldn't recommend going for DDR4 right now, when DDR5 is just around the corner (1-2 years or so, we're at the end of 2018 already and DDR5 is estimated for 2019, although it might take some time to get widely adapted). Also, PCIe v5.0 is coming about at the same time as DDR5.
So waiting a bit and jumping to DDR5 is what I'd consider the ultimate budged solution. You can then stick with DDR5 for the next 10 years or so (the last 4 of which would probably be under the reign of DDR6, but your stuff would only be slightly out of date instead of majorly)
@NaffNaffBobFace i'm sorry ive been so slow on replying back to you i've been so busy with my renovation that i havn't found any time to even look around.
Thats okay, please don't apologise :)
As I said I'd rather you prioritise your Real Life before looking into anything on my behalf, if you find you have a few spare minutes one day and are bored please feel free, otherwise I think you've more important things to be getting on with with your house renovation - As kind as it is, you can't live in a list of computer parts i'd rather you have a comfortable roof over your head :)
Plus the chances are I'd have ignored your recommendations anyway, I seem to have got a certain plan into my head! For my next PC I might build it with no part being over £20...!
FeaturedSpace
Commander
Get something :beer: proof, please. Last computer fell victim.... RIP.
Got one of those already that I have done nothing with... The Pi Case cost more than the Pi...
Okay, the machine is put together and by some miracle I didn't break anything while building it!
Gigabyte 970A-DS3P motherboard
AMD FX 8350 cpu (with Arctic Freezer 13 CO cooler)
24gb RAM (2x 8gb Corsair LP 1600, 2x 4gb Kingston Genesis 1600)
Sapphire AMD RX570 4gb gpu. (came with Strange Brigade, Star Control and the Assassins Creed that comes out in October for free)
120gb Crutial BX 500 for OS
480gb Crutial BX 500 for games
550w psu
AOC 21.5" Freesync screen.
Corsair Spec04 case In black and yellow (of course!) with 3 additional Arctic 12 TC fans to go with the one that came in the case - Chose the TC "Temperature Controlled" version as they have a probe on the end of a wire which I have placed on top of the gpu back-plate, the fans only speed up when the ambient temperature in the case raises above 30c and they get to top speed at 40c so low-load the machine is very very quiet.
All seems to be well and in Strange Brigade had a steady 60FPS on HD settings with Vsync putting a cap on it, cranked it back to 40FPS which let the machine run cool and quiet with the gpu drawing around the 60w mark.
In SC, in the PU was getting 14-18FPS on a busy server but did manage to get 22FPS in Kareah so i'm finally running with everyone else! Have yet to try on a quiet server. AC Battle Royale was getting 40/50 and as my aim is 40 thats me with a smile on my face.
Gigabyte 970A-DS3P motherboard
AMD FX 8350 cpu (with Arctic Freezer 13 CO cooler)
24gb RAM (2x 8gb Corsair LP 1600, 2x 4gb Kingston Genesis 1600)
Sapphire AMD RX570 4gb gpu. (came with Strange Brigade, Star Control and the Assassins Creed that comes out in October for free)
120gb Crutial BX 500 for OS
480gb Crutial BX 500 for games
550w psu
AOC 21.5" Freesync screen.
Corsair Spec04 case In black and yellow (of course!) with 3 additional Arctic 12 TC fans to go with the one that came in the case - Chose the TC "Temperature Controlled" version as they have a probe on the end of a wire which I have placed on top of the gpu back-plate, the fans only speed up when the ambient temperature in the case raises above 30c and they get to top speed at 40c so low-load the machine is very very quiet.
All seems to be well and in Strange Brigade had a steady 60FPS on HD settings with Vsync putting a cap on it, cranked it back to 40FPS which let the machine run cool and quiet with the gpu drawing around the 60w mark.
In SC, in the PU was getting 14-18FPS on a busy server but did manage to get 22FPS in Kareah so i'm finally running with everyone else! Have yet to try on a quiet server. AC Battle Royale was getting 40/50 and as my aim is 40 thats me with a smile on my face.
I'd say I7-4790K should be your gaming piece ... it shows ~ same performance as 4 cores of AMD 2700x which means you will not find any difference with latest AMD gaming cpu in vast majority of today's games . I strongly disagree with people suggesting to ditch DDR3 today, as DDR4 could be in the last third of its lifecycle, and it is overpriced due to completely wrong reasons at the moment. Good luck https://ark.intel.com/products/80807/Intel-Core-i7-4790K-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-4_40-GHz
sorry if my advice came late ... any working pc is good pc!
The machine without GPU was around £350 for the parts including the fans, case etc (already had the RAM which helped a tonne with costs) and the GPU was £200 on its own. Nothing was over £70 aside from the GPU, but then I did overspend on some things like the case - I could have got a £12 case but went for a £44 one as it was yellow and black, and technically I didn't need two SSD's, I just wanted a separate one specifically for the OS.
Come next payday I'll drop the £119 on validating Windows just to tie everything up nicely, and the jobs a goodun'.
When building it the wife got mad with me so I had to rush the GPU installation, it's a 2 slot held on with the top slot screw as the bottom one didn't align and i'd run out of time to reseat the Motherboard if I didn't want to be pushed in a river so if it's in, it's in.
Thanks for the advice! And you're right any machine that could do the job would have been fine in the end, no matter what I put in there. As I play with low settings and limit my FPS to 40, realistically speaking anything up to the task would have been fine considering I like to under-load when playing...
I've aimed for 40FPS as TV and movies in the UK gennerally play at 24 FPS so I try not to spoil myself by going much higher although the card is capable of easy 60 at 1080 settings and my screen will go to 75FPS - but I'm not even sure I can personally detect any higher frame rates than 24 anyway, so after looking into it, AMD Freesync and frame limiting option just seemed to be the best fit for me
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Status Update with 3.3 and OCS...
Readings taken by opening the de-bug console in game and typing r_displayinfo 3
My machine with all its old parts got the following:
Graphics set to High: 30 to 40 on Olisar. 50 to 60 in space. 19 at Levski. 25to 30 on Daymar.
Graphics set to low: 67 on Daymar.
I'm going to be keeping it low for the mo as the visuals still look great even with low setting, but considering it's not optimised yet i'm very pleased with what OCS has provided and my hand-built crumblebum machine. :)
Readings taken by opening the de-bug console in game and typing r_displayinfo 3
My machine with all its old parts got the following:
Graphics set to High: 30 to 40 on Olisar. 50 to 60 in space. 19 at Levski. 25to 30 on Daymar.
Graphics set to low: 67 on Daymar.
I'm going to be keeping it low for the mo as the visuals still look great even with low setting, but considering it's not optimised yet i'm very pleased with what OCS has provided and my hand-built crumblebum machine. :)
I made myself a new pc, and the thing you need to focus, is saving money through time, i mean, get parts you won't need to upgrade for at least a year or 2, get a good motherboard and a good CPU, memory, get DDR4 at least at 2600mhz, 8gb is "good" and get crazy in the GPU, is always advisable to check the "bottleneck calculator" in order to make sure your pc won't get any or at least the less bottleneck possible.