Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: SEraider on May 20, 2013, 08:29:11 PM
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So, is the 3rd gen Intel Core i7-3770 Processor 3.4 GHz necessary or is the 3rd Generation Intel Core i5-3350P Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.1 GHz).
Yes I did copy and paste. But it's a question of the I7 vs the I5. I just want to run aces high essentially. Maybe a little Netflix too.
Any input would be welcome. I am not a computer person.
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If AH is the only game you play, the i5 is more than enough. Netflix shouldn't be a problem either although that's more dependent on your Internet speed.
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you won't need hyperthreading so the i5 would be good but, don't get one from dell...
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you won't need hyperthreading so the i5 would be good but, don't get one from dell...
What do you recommend? I'm open minded. :salute
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going to depend entirely on your budget...
build your own is the best option but the price can be higher than a dell...unless you count all the time and money that will need to be spent on getting a dell to the point where it will run aces high well, then the dell will cost you more.
buy one from a builder that specializes in gaming pc's...very expensive but, if you have the money and not the time, best option.
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What Gyrene said, plus some food for thought:
I don't know about warranty laws in your whereabouts, here in Finland the consumer is protected by law for at least two years for manufacturing or material defect concerning products that are supposed to last more than just mere months or so and cost a noticeable amount of money - meaning almost anything. Basically even a €20 dvd drive falls into that category. Even when there's a sticker on the bottom of a <brand> laptop saying the warranty is for one year only, they automatically extend it to two or even more if you threaten them with authorities. The same consumer protection covers the whole chain: Major brand manufacturers, small builders, shops, any kind of business. Check your local law.
If you buy the components separately for DIY, you might get extremely long warranty time for some and less for some other parts. Although most of the time they seem rock solid no matter what, sometimes a tiny spark of static electricity can fry a component. In that case it'd be your fault and out of warranty. If that should happen to a professional builder, they'd have to suffer the damage.
There's lots of reputable builders in the Internet, giving perhaps a base model which you can modify from a drop-down menu. They should know that those who do their shopping in the net know the price range quite well, which should keep their component prices on a decent level. Local builder/component shops have long known the same. I like the locals, you can always take a baseball bat with you if they try to pee you into the eye. OTOH a larger company has a bigger name to lose, so choosing a reliable builder always means some homework. What I'd like best would be a local subsidiary of a bigger company, getting volume discounts and taking care of their reputation, thus giving you both a decent price and good quality.
The question, how much is much, depends on whom you ask. I just did a quick calculation from a major local netshop/-builder for a mid class i5+radeon7770 rig and it looked as the price of the components would be very close to their ready built option. Compare, compare, compare, and when you think you've found something, put the compilation here for evaluation.
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I work for a US federal office, and lately, our PC budget has been pretty small. So we buy Dell PCs because they are cheap. However, something like 25% of them are DOA. They won't even boot, fresh out of the box. I would NEVER, EVER buy one for my own use at home. <hock-ptooooie!>
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Yet one thing to think about:
If you build and install the computer yourself, you'd learn a lot about how a computer works and how to get the best out of it. The value of that knowledge is not limited into gaming. The same principles apply to any task, be it just surfing and mailing, or perhaps optimizing the rig for serious music making.
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I have an i5-3570k...works great.
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No don't buy a dell!!!
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Every Dell I have bought worked out of the box with no problems - for years. That includes 3 desktops for me and 3 laptops for kids in college. As to your question, the i5 is considered best bang for the buck in the gaming world. I think the i7 adds hyperthreading which is not necessary to most (all?) games today. If you want to buy a computer that walks in the door and works, Dell isn't a bad place to look. That said, I built my own this time around because dell didn't have what I wanted for the price I wanted to pay. Plus you don't know what power supply you're getting, how good the cooling is, and what the motherboard specs are. When it comes time to upgrade a component, you may find the power supply won't run your new video card, or the card won't fit on the mb, or something. I didn't see any desktops from dell that offered an i5 3570K, 600+W seasonic power supply, and an AMD 7870 vid card or the NVidia equivalent. Forget specifying a motherboard. Those were the chief components I specced out. Other ready builts would put something like that together, but at a cost. I built my own and saved at least $200, have exactly what I want, and I know my computer inside and out, should I ever want to upgrade.
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No don't buy a dell!!!
What about HP, Compaq? I heard they are worse...
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What about HP, Compaq? I heard they are worse...
worse than dell? at one time (before hp acquired the company) compaq was crap. now hp/compaq is just stupider at times. you can get custom builds from hp/compaq just like you do with dell...they all have limitations.
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worse than dell? at one time (before hp acquired the company) compaq was crap. now hp/compaq is just stupider at times. you can get custom builds from hp/compaq just like you do with dell...they all have limitations.
HP now produces cheap consumer laptops (DV7) which are locked down to HP version of WIn8 through bios. The system doesn't allow you to install an another version of Windows, only the HP custom version which reads the product key straight from bios works. I've seen reports of people fighting with this up to great frustration.
The sad fact is that all OEM manufacturers produce nothing but overpriced crap. If you think you get a good deal on something you can be 100% sure that the components inside the case are not worth even 50% of the price you paid in the reality. Nothing beats a homebuild in price/quality ratio.
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SEraider...seriously...if I can build a computer, ANYONE can. A budget of $1k-$1.5k will provide an excellent gaming rig that can me modified and upgraded in the future.
Here's a list of items I'me putting together for a rebuild of the computer I built in '08
Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy bridge 3.4 GHz $219.99
G.Skill Ripjaws X Series (2 x 4 GB 240 pin DDR3 - $79.99
Asus P8Z77 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb's USB 3.0 ATX Intel MOBO - $134.99
Seagate Constellation I TB 7200 SATA - $114.99 (budget cut from SSD)
Sapphire Radeon 7850-OC 2 GB - $185.99
Cooler Master Hyper 212 - $36.99
Other items you'll need, case, power supply, DVD burner, sound card and OS.
It shouldn't take more than 5 or so hours to build the box, plus an hour or two for OS installation. PM me if I can assist.
Don't buy a Dell.
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SEraider...seriously...if I can build a computer, ANYONE can. A budget of $1k-$1.5k will provide an excellent gaming rig that can me modified and upgraded in the future.
Other items you'll need, case, power supply, DVD burner, sound card and OS.
It shouldn't take more than 5 or so hours to build the box, plus an hour or two for OS installation. PM me if I can assist.
Don't buy a Dell.
:aok
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Max, try 4-6 hours for operating system including hardware drivers. the windows updates can take more than an hour, especially with the reboots.
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HP now produces cheap consumer laptops (DV7) which are locked down to HP version of WIn8 through bios. The system doesn't allow you to install an another version of Windows, only the HP custom version which reads the product key straight from bios works. I've seen reports of people fighting with this up to great frustration.
Disable secure boot and enable legacy support in UEFI.
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SEraider...seriously...if I can build a computer, ANYONE can. A budget of $1k-$1.5k will provide an excellent gaming rig that can me modified and upgraded in the future.
Here's a list of items I'me putting together for a rebuild of the computer I built in '08
Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy bridge 3.4 GHz $219.99
G.Skill Ripjaws X Series (2 x 4 GB 240 pin DDR3 - $79.99
Asus P8Z77 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb's USB 3.0 ATX Intel MOBO - $134.99
Seagate Constellation I TB 7200 SATA - $114.99 (budget cut from SSD)
Sapphire Radeon 7850-OC 2 GB - $185.99
Cooler Master Hyper 212 - $36.99
Other items you'll need, case, power supply, DVD burner, sound card and OS.
It shouldn't take more than 5 or so hours to build the box, plus an hour or two for OS installation. PM me if I can assist.
Don't buy a Dell.
Sorry, been away for a few days. I'll look into building my own computer. My biggest concern is the durability of the hard drive. Maybe I can add an extra HD and have it back up on it weekly or something. But I'll start with this list and go from there.
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Disable secure boot and enable legacy support in UEFI.
I wasn't the one who had these problems, but thanks for the suggestion. The guy who posted about this had tried that too. IIRC the problem was that he couldn't get Windows activated on that hardware no matter what he did unless he used the original dvd.
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Sorry, been away for a few days. I'll look into building my own computer. My biggest concern is the durability of the hard drive. Maybe I can add an extra HD and have it back up on it weekly or something. But I'll start with this list and go from there.
Was using some Seagate HDD from 2001 to 2009, withouth any problems - was only letting it to rest because it was quite small (18GB) and was PATA. Then an other from 2004-2010. The current one (Western Digital) is in daily usage since 2009, no problems at all. I wouldnt worry too much about it.
Unless, of course, youre storing something really important data - then a backup is always a good idea.
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Was using some Seagate HDD from 2001 to 2009, withouth any problems - was only letting it to rest because it was quite small (18GB) and was PATA. Then an other from 2004-2010. The current one (Western Digital) is in daily usage since 2009, no problems at all. I wouldnt worry too much about it.
Unless, of course, youre storing something really important data - then a backup is always a good idea.
I've had brand new hdds fail in 2 weeks and some last for 10 years. You're never safe without a backup.
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I've had brand new hdds fail in 2 weeks and some last for 10 years. You're never safe without a backup.
+1, definitely.
Statistically a hdd will fail within three months if it's prone to. If it lasts longer, it is likely to work fine until the final countdown starts after about two years. As we all know, there's no bigger lie than statistics. Nevertheless, sound advice is never to trust a brand new hdd, nor one that's more than two years old. The time in between is so short that neglecting backups doesn't actually save any time.
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I've been using Dells since Dell started, and have always had good results.
I use them for Aces High, and they work fine with good performance as long as I'm using a $125-$150 graphics card added in.
I think that Dells are great performance for the price.
If I were buying right now, I'd get:
Dell Inspiron 660 is $500 (i5-3330, includes OS, 500 GB HD, 4 GB RAM, DVD+/-RW, 100/1000 Ethernet, sound, keyboard, mouse)
Thermaltake 500W ATX12V power supply is $50 (from Newegg)
Nvidia GTX 650 Ti (rated best for price range by Tom's Hardware) is $130 (from Newegg)
total = $680
What I have right now is not as good as that, and it still allows me to run Aces High with stuff maxed out and 60 frames per second (including in thick clouds in special events). (I currently have a Dell Vostro 460 with i5-2400 and NVidia GTX 550 Ti.)