A $650 system that gives 60 fps

[Chalenge]

When they have a 40" UHD VA monitor at 144Hz (or higher), then I'm all in.

[Gman]

40", not sure, but I know both Asus and Acer have 27 to 30" IPS 4k 144hz monitors planned and in the works.  I'll be on that like white on rice as well.  I know 40" works well for some guys who sit at a distance, but my desks are all set up so that anything larger than about 27" or so is too big/too close.  I imagine someone will eventually do a 40" or something close, but I think in a year or less the smaller variants will be available, and that will be some pretty cool stuff.

[GSakis]

When they have a 40" UHD VA monitor at 144Hz (or higher), then I'm all in.

How you plan to achieve 144fps with uhd?

[NatCigg]

I just got a Dell Inspiron Desktop (3000 series) for $500 (which has an i5-4460, 500 MB HD, 4 GB RAM, kb, mouse, DVD+/-RW, Windows 7 Pro 64-bit).  I added a couple-year-old nVidia GTX 550 Ti card (about a $100-$130 card now) and a Corsair CX500 power supply (for $30 on sale, which took 5-10 minutes to install).  Total cost of system, about $650.

It gets 60 fps with everything maxxed out except the environment-map slider.  When everything is maxxed out including the environment-map slider, it averages about 45-50 fps.

So, I am happy with its performance/price and would recommend it as a good budget system for AH.

When I post on here that I use Dells, there are numerous posters who go on to tell me that Dells are bad.  I then go on to tell them that I get fine performance for the price (see the above) and that I have personally and at my business owned or been involved in purchasing hundreds of Dell computers over the past few decades, that I can recall all of about 2-3 of them ever having any failure, that at my business they run 24/7 including running production equipment where a single computer hang can ruin up to about $30,000 worth of product, that we've been using some Dell computers on those machines for over 5 years before replacing them with newer models, and that we have some Dells that are 10 years old and still being used.

i went with the cheap dell, upgrade later plan.

im looking at putting in a gtx 960 to go with the stock 460W power supply.  looking at the specs it should do well w/ ah3. or ill have to up the power supply and get a 970.

[Chalenge]

I know 40" works well for some guys who sit at a distance, but my desks are all set up so that anything larger than about 27" or so is too big/too close.

I'm not going to repost the pic of my setup, but I had been using 3 ASUS Monitors in portrait mode that amounted to about 43 inches. That was pretty irritating because of the bezels that interrupted the continuity of the screen, and because the VESA mounts needed to be constantly tightened to hold relative orientation. Plus the power switches were in a poor position for the portrait orientation, so I had been looking for quite a while.

The problem is there isn't a single solution for higher frame rate, G-Sync, and the larger real estate I appreciate during content creation. I believe the hardware is going to be catching up with that need real soon.

[Brooke]

More details on frame rates on my budget Dell system.

100 fps:  My usual settings (all maxed out except for environment slider, object self shadow, and water reflections).

77 fps:  Everything maxed out except environment slider at 1 notch.

64 fps:  Everything maxed out except environment slider at 2 notches.

45 fps:  Everything maxed out including environment slider.

What I call "max settings".

Video Settings:
-- monitor resolution 1920x1080
-- Disable vsync
-- Max texture size 2048
-- Anti-aliasing:  Most

Hi-res texture pack installed. <--- note this is important part of testing

Using P-51D with default skin on NE runway at A1 on ndisles map.

Graphics settings (via clip board) all maxed out, like this:

[Brooke]

Keyboard+mice can be had for 15 bucks even if you disregard most people already have those. The graphics card is much faster than yours. Nobody needs pro version of windows for home use.

If you read what I posted, you will see that I put the keyboard and mouse at $10.

Nobody needs anything.  What we are comparing is if the system you posted is better than the Dell system I posted.

You posted a $750 system, not a $650 system.

The Dell system with an extra $100 would have a $200 graphics card (not a $100 graphics card) and then be better than the system you posted because the CPU is much better than in the one you posted.

[GSakis]

If you read what I posted, you will see that I put the keyboard and mouse at $10.

Nobody needs anything.  What we are comparing is if the system you posted is better than the Dell system I posted.

You posted a $750 system, not a $650 system.

The Dell system with an extra $100 would have a $200 graphics card (not a $100 graphics card) and then be better than the system you posted because the CPU is much better than in the one you posted.

No sorry that was exactly a 650 dollar system even if you try to invent extra cost. OEM computers have the lowest quality of everything usually. Some even have special versions of general hardware where cost have been cut. Always better to build your own from shelf components.

[pembquist]

Hey Brooke, did you by the Dell used or new? I'm going to be revisiting my computer situation and am looking for ideas.

[Brooke]

No sorry that was exactly a 650 dollar system even if you try to invent extra cost. OEM computers have the lowest quality of everything usually. Some even have special versions of general hardware where cost have been cut. Always better to build your own from shelf components.

I didn't invent extra cost -- you left things out.

Dell computers have fine quality measured by uptime from my actual experience of hundreds of Dells over decades running 24/7 on mission-critical tasks.

Building yourself is not better under these cases:
-- You don't have the time or experience to shop and build (not an insubstantial number of people in the world).
-- You have a business that uses a lot of computers.

[Brooke]

Hey Brooke, did you by the Dell used or new? I'm going to be revisiting my computer situation and am looking for ideas.

I bought a new one.  It was $500.  The extra $150 is for graphics card and new power supply.

[Gman]

Regarding reflections/environment - My experience with the environmental setting is that when you are in a lot of action/smoke, is when it really separates the wheat from the chaff in terms of performance/systems.  Sitting on the runway, I can get 144fps as well with everything cranked and enviro maxed - this is with 5960x/Titan or various other pretty fast x79 CPUs with 980 or 980sli setups. 

Fly over tank town with 30 gvs fighting, 10+ cons in the air, and/or buildings/airfields burning with lots of action, and it can really, really...I won't say cripple as it's still playable, but drastically reduce frames per second performance.  I've seen dips into the 30s in terms of FPS in such action with environment maxed.  Reduce enviro to midrange or 1 or 2, back up to 144(3)fps usually.


Brooke, have you tried flying into heavy action areas with that environment setting at max?  I'd be very interested to see how a 650$ system holds up with everything truly, truly maxed out with a lot of cons/gvs/smoke around.  New version/alpha as well.

[GSakis]

I didn't invent extra cost -- you left things out.

Dell computers have fine quality measured by uptime from my actual experience of hundreds of Dells over decades running 24/7 on mission-critical tasks.

Building yourself is not better under these cases:
-- You don't have the time or experience to shop and build (not an insubstantial number of people in the world).
-- You have a business that uses a lot of computers.

I didn't leave anything out I posted a youtube tutorial that listed the specs. Complain to the guy who made the video if you wish.

Building yourself is better under every case except business use where you have to buy a lot of computers. That part I agree. Dell boxes have cost cuts and design changes in motherboards, bios etc. You can't over clock a Dell box and bios/uefi settings are very limited or not even available to do any tuning. One Dell box that I saw turned into a hoover when anything cpu heavy was run on it.

You're taking a stock Chevrolet to a race track basically. It runs but you can't win races.

[Skuzzy]

I didn't leave anything out I posted a youtube tutorial that listed the specs. Complain to the guy who made the video if you wish.

Building yourself is better under every case except business use where you have to buy a lot of computers. That part I agree. Dell boxes have cost cuts and design changes in motherboards, bios etc. You can't over clock a Dell box and bios/uefi settings are very limited or not even available to do any tuning. One Dell box that I saw turned into a hoover when anything cpu heavy was run on it.

You're taking a stock Chevrolet to a race track basically. It runs but you can't win races.

That is an exaggeration.  Dell uses the same motherboard chipsets as ASUS or any other Intel motherboard supplier does.  Where they save money is on the peripherals.  For instance, the power supply is the precise power supply needed to run the computer, which saves money.

They also get a price break due to economies of scale.  When you can buy like Dell does you tend to get rather nice price breaks.

Replace the low end video card and the power supply and it will run games as good as any other system.  It will not overclock, but it will run just fine.  Brooke is quite right.

[Spikes]

No sorry that was exactly a 650 dollar system even if you try to invent extra cost. OEM computers have the lowest quality of everything usually. Some even have special versions of general hardware where cost have been cut. Always better to build your own from shelf components.

Even if you used a 144 hz monitor, there is still a failure to mention that $350 cost, because I doubt everyone has one laying around.