Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: FBKampfer on July 26, 2017, 08:33:36 PM
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Mine can't cut it and I'd love to be able to fly again.
Problem is limited budget. But I don't mind some assembly required.
Anyone willing to help build a semi-budget parts list?
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post your budget. A bunch of guys can did up some good rigs, give them something to shot for.
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Total I'd like to keep it under 600 if possible, but I'd like to try and get as good of a rig as cheap as I can, as anything leftover is earmarked for my new deer rifle.
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Go for the "very good" tier on this site for about $600. Very similar to the machine I built that runs AH3 with full graphics on a 1080 p monitor, and you may need to turn it down a little bit if you're running a 1440 p monitor. In the spirit of full disclosure, this is my puter engineer son's site: http://www.logicalincrements.com/ The parts within tiers are compatible, site was last updated about a month ago, and links go to where the best prices were at the time. BTW this build is similar to one I built for AH3 and am quite happy running it on a 75 mhz 1440 p HP monitor.
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Actually, you might want to post a DXDIAG output. I have found many instances where all that was needed was a video card and a power supply to be able to play the game quite well.
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Actually, you might want to post a DXDIAG output. I have found many instances where all that was needed was a video card and a power supply to be able to play the game quite well.
Not to mention you could then use more money for a killer video card which you could then at some later point use in a new computer. The video card easily makes half of the price of a gaming rig.
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Actually, you might want to post a DXDIAG output. I have found many instances where all that was needed was a video card and a power supply to be able to play the game quite well.
Good recommendation....even if you decide to rebuild you may be able to reuse some of your older components and save some $ there.
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Well..... I lost my desktop in a house fire about a year ago. Somebody got distracted by his girlfriend and left a pan of Paella on the stove too long :noid.
I found my HP envy could run AH2 if I crank a few things down. Should I even bother with the dxdiag from an ultrabook?
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Don't bother, you cant' upgrade that.
Let's start planning a cost effective beast.
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Well..... I lost my desktop in a house fire about a year ago. Somebody got distracted by his girlfriend and left a pan of Paella on the stove too long :noid.
Wow, expensive dinner! So it appears you'll need a monitor and all peripherals in the mix?
For a cost-effective build that will get you all the bells and whistles with a 1080 p monitor I'd start with a 3 GB GTX 1060, 8 GB RAM, and the dual core i3 7100.
I expect some folks may weigh in in favor of a quad core cpu, and I would like to know what advantage a quad core would have for AH, especially for a low cost build, as I don't see need for it. When I monitor AH3 performance on my machine with MSI Afterburner, it looks like my GPU limits framerate when framerate dips below 74, and my i3 6100 CPU is not working nearly as hard to keep up.
And again you can find a similar level of compatible mobo etc. on the logicalincrements.com "very good" tier (the site is free btw, and only a resource you may find useful). To save $ consider leaving out the SSD, and go with the stock heat sink fan for the CPU, AH# seems to reply much more on the GPU. I find my GPU runs much hotter than the CPU running AH3.
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Oh another way to save a few bucks, is you can often find perfectly usable peripherals like keyboards and mice at second hand stores. I paid $1 for my 4 button Microsoft mouse.
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A quad core CPU is a good idea. Right now Aces High III will, natively use 2 cores. This allows the other 2 cores to be used by the operating system for all its house keeping, which can be pretty substantial.
It also future proofs, in case we move to using more cores.
Also note, if you add VR, it will use up cores.
Any CPU operating at 3Ghz, or faster, is fast enough.
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A quad core CPU is a good idea. Right now Aces High III will, natively use 2 cores. This allows the other 2 cores to be used by the operating system for all its house keeping, which can be pretty substantial.
It also future proofs, in case we move to using more cores.
Also note, if you add VR, it will use up cores.
Any CPU operating at 3Ghz, or faster, is fast enough.
Well, I'll certainly not dispute your view on this Skuzzy, thanks for weighing in!
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Oh another way to save a few bucks, is you can often find perfectly usable peripherals like keyboards and mice at second hand stores. I paid $1 for my 4 button Microsoft mouse.
Not to mention the previous generation gaming rigs! As Skuzzy mentioned, any CPU above 3 GHz will do the trick. Mine is an 8 yo Intel Core2Duo E8500 3.16 oc'd to 3.8 GHz and it works flawlessly with a GTX 970. For a low budget an early quad core i5 beefed up with a more modern video card should be a long time investment in AH.
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The only peripheral I would absolutely need is a monitor, though I might upgrade sticks somewhere down the line, but that's another thread...
And I haven't done anything like building my own computer before. What's compatibility like? Say I go for a GTX1610, but want to jump up to an I7, or go with an AMD. All still compatible? Or do they like to use proprietary connections?
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Here's an entry level gaming build from a site called pcpartpicker.com, for under $500, though it doesn't include a DVD drive or Windows.
https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/tXNnTW/entry-level-gaming-build (https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/tXNnTW/entry-level-gaming-build)
The graphics card is a GTX 1050Ti, which should handle AH OK.
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The only peripheral I would absolutely need is a monitor, though I might upgrade sticks somewhere down the line, but that's another thread...
And I haven't done anything like building my own computer before. What's compatibility like? Say I go for a GTX1610, but want to jump up to an I7, or go with an AMD. All still compatible? Or do they like to use proprietary connections?
If you are building a new PC, then no, there are no compatibility issues in using an nVidia or AMD graphics card with either Intel or AMD processors. Both graphics cards would use the same PCI-E slot on the motherboard. The only thing to check would be to make sure that the power supply can handle the required power, and that it has the correct connections/cables, as the graphics card will likely have a separate power connection directly from the power supply. A modular power supply will have extra power connectors allowing you to ensure you have the correct setup for your card.
If you are upgrading, then in addition to the power issue above, switching from one graphics card type (AMD to nVidia or vice versa) will require you to completely uninstall the drivers from the previous card, as leftover drivers from the other type will often cause problems when using the new card. Changing out the CPU for a more powerful version won't matter to the graphics cards as far as compatibility goes, although there may be some driver updates required for the new CPU. If the CPU requires a new motherboard, then essentially you are building a brand new system, and a clean install of windows is probably the way to go.
Mike
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https://pcpartpicker.com/list/ (https://pcpartpicker.com/list/) is a good site for planning, they have a built-in compatibility checking system.
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Here's an entry level gaming build from a site called pcpartpicker.com, for under $500, though it doesn't include a DVD drive or Windows.
https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/tXNnTW/entry-level-gaming-build (https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/tXNnTW/entry-level-gaming-build)
The graphics card is a GTX 1050Ti, which should handle AH OK.
I really like the looks of this. Good starting point with plenty of room to upgrade, from what I can find.
Skuzzy, any idea how well the GTX 1050 will handle AH3 eye candy?
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Kampfer answering that question depends on how much monitor you're trying to run....eg resolution and refresh rate.
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At 1920x1080 (standard HD resolution) the 1050 will, probably, need some tweaking of the graphic details to be able to handle a lot of action in your view.
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Here is what I use for my rig. It's pretty much a budget rig that I have had for 4 years or so. If you start with a good solid motherboard you can keep for a long time and upgrade as you need to. My motto with computers is keep it simple. My setup could probably be built for around $6-700 today.
CPU; 8370 AMD Not faster than Intel, but it gets the job done at half the price. ($140)
8350 AMD (alternate)
HD; SSD. 120GB (one of the first gen SSDs) New 250 GBs are less than $80
7200 RPM HD Cheap but much slower
Motherboard; Gigabyte 990 FXA 3 (they are currently at about $110)
Memory; 16 GB 1600mhz DDR3 (Recommend 8 GB)
Video; GTX 970 (Probably going to upgrade soon to a 1060) I get 60 ish FR with the highest settings with some glitching.
OS Windows 10 (got win 10 free download last year)
PSU Corsair 750 Watt Highly recommend modular or semi modular.
Case; Roswell full tower. Highly recommend full tower if you have the space and you work on your own computer.
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Video; GTX 970 (Probably going to upgrade soon to a 1060) I get 60 ish FR with the highest settings with some glitching.
Is that really that much of an upgrade (picked some random cards):
https://www.game-debate.com/gpu/index.php?gid=3681&gid2=2438&compare=Nvidia%20GeForce%20GTX%201060%20MSI%20Gaming%206GB-vs-Nvidia%20GeForce%20GTX%20970%204GB (https://www.game-debate.com/gpu/index.php?gid=3681&gid2=2438&compare=Nvidia%20GeForce%20GTX%201060%20MSI%20Gaming%206GB-vs-Nvidia%20GeForce%20GTX%20970%204GB)
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Agreed , next step would be a 1080 or equivalent.
GTX 970 handles AH3 just fine.
I run AH3 in 1920*1080 with a GTX780 card and always have 70 fps (overclocked my monitor) , no shadows and only one step environmental , and no post-lighting on.
Cliffs of Dover struggles over towns so I tweaked it to keep frames @ 70fps.
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I have built a few computers using their recommendations and it worked out really well. This is an easy build and it will play Aces High great. Windows 10 is around a 100 dollors so you have to add that in. A DVD drive is really cheap about 25 dollors. It recommends what drive to get on the website. So your total would be around 600 dollors. This is a no Technical built just put the parts together and turn on the computer with windows DVD in it and it will prompt you on what to do
http://www.build-gaming-computers.com/gaming-desktop-computer.html
Best Budget Gaming Desktop Computer Build: August 2017
(Top Performance & Reliability Under $500)
PART
MODEL
PRICE*
Graphics
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB OC
$155
Processor
Intel Pentium G4560 3.50 GHz
$75
Motherboard
MSI B250M Pro-VD (mATX, DDR4, USB 3.1)
$66
RAM
Crucial 8GB (DDR4, 1 x 8GB, 2400 MHz)
$63
HDD
WD Blue 1TB (7200 RPM)
$48
Power Supply
EVGA B1 500 Watts (80+ Bronze)
$40
Case
Cooler Master N200 Mini Tower
$45
$492
*All prices listed were correct at the time of writing but may fluctuate from day to day.
Expected Performance:
1080p (1920 x 1080):
Smooth
1440p (2560 x 1440):
Playable/Average
4K (3840 × 2160):
Unplayable
The above is the expected average performance of this build for each main resolution in modern, graphically-demanding games on max settings.
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Yipi, that looks quite nice for the price. Also, the link you provided seems to have easy reading information about parts in general and how they affect the system.
There's one thing in that build that I quite can't understand: Why cripple the dual channel memory system by using one single RAM stick?
Saving $6 can't be the reason, or can it? Let's think about psychological pricing where $492 sounds like "a little over $400" whereas $499 is well known to be read as "roughly $500". So despite it's only about $6, it sounds like $100.
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One stick of system RAM is going to cripple the system performance.
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What do you mean one "stick" of ram? Is the physical partitioning of RAM important? I thought it was simply overall storage capacity.
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The memory controller of the CPU can access multiple physical sticks of memory faster than it can access one physical stick of memory which speeds up system performance for everything.
It is always better to have two physical sticks of RAM, than one, where dual channel memory access is available.
I can go into the specific details, if you like. It involves all the memory timings and how the system can access one stick of RAM when the other is still in its wait state.
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What do you mean one "stick" of ram? Is the physical partitioning of RAM important? I thought it was simply overall storage capacity.
That's what I was talking about, too. There's two slots for RAM, but in the list there's only one stick. And the motherboard has the dual channel feature.
Basically it means that the computer can read one slot and write to another at the same time if both slots are populated. That literally doubles the amount of simultaneous memory actions. To further emphasize the importance of RAM: That's where all your programs actually run. The hard disk is mainly a storage for passive stuff. After loading the program code from the hard disk to RAM, most everything happens between the processor, the video card and RAM.
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I would love to hear the details. I've found learning is an itch that's a bit difficult to scratch once out of college, so I take any chance I get.
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Sounds like you should build your own Kampfer, assuming you have the time. I built my current machine, and loved it in part because I learned a lot. Just learned some new stuff about it last night. My puter engineer son is here and we were looking at MSI Afterburner graphs on my machine performance after running Aces High. Without going into the details it seems I had been misreading the outputs and concluding framerate on my machine was limited by my 1060 GPU.....turns out I was wrong and it is my dual core i3 cpu that seems to be limiting performance. That being said I'm still happy with overall performance, but now I know if/when I decide to upgrade I'll start with a new CPU.
Good luck and have fun whatever you do!