Building A New Computer

[Pigslilspaz]

I'm planning on building a new computer, meant mostly for gaming so I can free my laptop up for school and work. Would like to know if anyone could help me out with about how much it would cost for a rig to run the game at max detail at 60-70fps. Thanks.

[guncrasher]

it's more like how much can you spend.  easier to work with a budget.  really good computers will probably go from as low as 800 to 10,000.

try these websites, to give you and idea of components or just for fun.

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/

http://www.ibuypower.com/


semp

[1701E]

800 to 10,000 dollar computer?! I think you made a typo there as any computer costing 10 grand is no longer a personal computer.

Depending on your budget you can run close to Max for 700 or fully maxed for 1000+. Close to Max is everything maxed except shadows (2k) and fully would be everything and 8k shadows.
If you're building expect around $1200 (won't run 8k shadows but will be good) for everything including monitor, keyboard/mouse, anything else. If buying ask TilDeath and expect about $1500 for a killer system and labor, not sure on what all he includes.

[Tigger29]

My squad just got done building a system for a less fortunate member.  Total cost was $500 (+$85 for XP)

-Cheap Rosewill Case
-Seasonic 520 Watt Power Supply (Mine came with a "powered by Corsair" sticker to put on the front of the case ROFL)
-Asus M4N68T-M motherboard
-AMD 3.2Ghz Regor Dual Core processor
-DVD Burner
-250 GB Hard Drive
-1GB 5770 ATI Video Card
-4GB DDR3 1333 RAM

With XP the system turned out very nice.  With no overclocking, I could crank up FULL AA, 1024 textrues (+ HIRES), 1920X1080 resolution, all sliders maxed, all advanced options on, and 2048 Smooth shadow and buildings' shadows (but no other planes shadows) and could not get it to drop below 59FPS no matter what I did.

So for about $500 you can build a system that works well with AH right now.  For another $100 or so you can have that system improved much more greatly (larger HD, more RAM, better case).  A $1000 system should be able to handle most games with ease, and for $1500 you can build a nice system that can handle just about anything thrown at it.

So really it all comes down to what you want to spend...

[Pigslilspaz]

guess I'm gonna be saving up my next couple of paychecks 

[1701E]

Trouble is, anyone can build a cheap computer but then brands come into play.  Most times paying a bit more now is better than a lot every few months (if not for paying more for a EVGA/lifetime warranty I'd be paying another 170$ right now).  I know you know plenty about computers Tigger so I'm not doubting your choices, just a warning to anyone building cheaply.

Also, something I noticed was you say "meant mostly for gaming so I can free my laptop up for school and work".  Is this just for AH, or are there other games?  I ask since AH is fairly low on the specs needed to run compared to most moderns games, Ex. Fallout 3, CoD, NFS, MS: Flight Simulator, WoT.  That would also dictate price.

[Pigslilspaz]

Trouble is, anyone can build a cheap computer but then brands come into play.  Most times paying a bit more now is better than a lot every few months (if not for paying more for a EVGA/lifetime warranty I'd be paying another 170$ right now).  I know you know plenty about computers Tigger so I'm not doubting your choices, just a warning to anyone building cheaply.

Also, something I noticed was you say "meant mostly for gaming so I can free my laptop up for school and work".  Is this just for AH, or are there other games?  I ask since AH is fairly low on the specs needed to run compared to most moderns games, Ex. Fallout 3, CoD, NFS, MS: Flight Simulator, WoT.  That would also dictate price.

Mostly just AH and Il-2.

[Tigger29]

Trouble is, anyone can build a cheap computer but then brands come into play.  Most times paying a bit more now is better than a lot every few months (if not for paying more for a EVGA/lifetime warranty I'd be paying another 170$ right now).  I know you know plenty about computers Tigger so I'm not doubting your choices, just a warning to anyone building cheaply.

Also, something I noticed was you say "meant mostly for gaming so I can free my laptop up for school and work".  Is this just for AH, or are there other games?  I ask since AH is fairly low on the specs needed to run compared to most moderns games, Ex. Fallout 3, CoD, NFS, MS: Flight Simulator, WoT.  That would also dictate price.

No offense taken, that list was actually developed with stability and longevity in mind.  The Seasonic Power Supply, Asus board.. Gigabyte Video card (3 year P+L warranty and lots of great reviews) were all selected with that in mind.  I did want to go with an Intel setup, but I was on a budget designing the system (only had donations to work with) and I decided that I could get a better 'bang for the buck' in performance by going AMD.  The only thing about that system I didn't much like was having to use a Seagate hard drive, but I couldn't go over my $500 budget and it came out to $500.08 with shipping as it was LOL.

It's all really knowing about where you can go cheap and where you can't.

[skribetm]

No offense taken, that list was actually developed with stability and longevity in mind. 

that $50.00 mobo will take up to six cores/Phenom IIX6 1090T(HDT90ZFBK6DGR),3.2GHz,125W,rev.E0,SocketAM3,6-Core.
cant get any more longevity than that. excellent price/performance build. 

[Pigslilspaz]

that $50.00 mobo will take up to six cores/Phenom IIX6 1090T(HDT90ZFBK6DGR),3.2GHz,125W,rev.E0,SocketAM3,6-Core.
cant get any more longevity than that. excellent price/performance build. 

So what parts would I want to get? Was hoping to try and keep it under about $750 since I'm wanting to buy a new Tenor Saxophone and those cost a pretty penny as well.

[skribetm]

the x2-260(3.2GHz) at $68.00 is pretty close to the other processor im really craving,
the x3-340(3.0GHz) $89.00; but $21 more expensive. a third core for system processes
would help you a bit in performance, while the other two are running AHII-only threads.
and sometimes, if you're lucky you can unlock the fourth core. 

[columbus]

i love my x3 - 720 unlocked!

[Masherbrum]

Any unlocked 9600 GSO's? :rolleyes

[guncrasher]

just to throw some stuff out there to get you started.                                                                                                cost

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136358  wd caviar green 500                                            55
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128425   mobo gigabyte                                                 120
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115220  i5 650                                                              180
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.546483.11-147-120  case/win7 combo               140
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145260      corsair 4 g ram                                                65
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341018    ocz 700w ps                                                      80
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130562  evga 460 768 mb                                                170
                                                                                                                                                          total             809   less 55 rebates plust tax, all iterms free shipping

semp

or go with this one

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Howies_2010_Dream_PC/

[1701E]

Cost a little more but if you're going Nvidia/EVGA the -AR line is a better choice.  They have lifetime warranty (provided you register in 30 days of purchase).
Also, if you go EVGA, I have 2 coupons I've been trying to get rid of for a while that may still be good.  One is 20% off a new 4xx an the other is 10% off any B-Stock from them.

Aside from the Hard-drive and possible -AR line GPU the parts Semp mentioned sound decent (didn't check all link).  It would run AH with all but maxed shadows at 60FR.

4096 [Shadows] = 128MB of video RAM being dedicated to one texture.  Even with 512MB of dedicated video RAM, you could run the video card out of RAM with this setting.

8192 [Shadows] = 512MB of video RAM being dedicated to one texture.  A video card would have to have 1GB of dedicated video RAM to run this setting, and even then it will get close to running out of video RAM.

896mb struggles with 4K shadows and maintaining 50+ frames.