PC newbie

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EnfieldEd

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First post.

Let me start by saying I have never been a PC gamer. So all the hardware stuff is a bit over my head.

Current set up is a PS3, G27, a 40" LCD 1080p 60hz tv, and an obutto cockpit.

I am looking for a Off the shelf PC just for Aseto Corsa, iracing, and war thunder.

I am not a graphics snob, but want at least GT6 level graphics. Monitor will be the tv.

Would the following work good for medium settings on all those games and get me by for about the next 2-3 years with minor upgrades?

Windows 7
i3-4130 3.40ghz
8GB RAM
Nvidia GeForce GTX645 with 1GB GDDR5
1tb drive

Thanks
 
Nope, it will not.

For 3 years you need at least...

Windows 7 or higher
Core i5 Haswell or better (i.e. a Core i7 Haswell)
8GB ram with a motherboard supporting up to 16GB or higher (for future upgrade)
Nvidia GeForce GTX760 or higher (760 Ti, 770 or 780, 780 Ti)
Boot drive: 256GB or higher capacity SSD (for Windows, everyday programs and save data which often gets stored in My Documents on the C drive)
Storage drive: 1TB or higher capacity HDD (for Steam/Games and data storage)
 
Hmm that would go way out of my price range. Could I get 2 years if I was willing to play everything on low and stick with the single monitor?
 
What's your price range? Because those are some terrible specs. I can't but feel if you're absolutely locked into a fixed budget, there are better compromises that could be made. The OP really likes a notebook TBH.

And are you a DIY, or are you limiting yourself to Best Buy type purchases.
 
Was hoping to stay in the $600-900 range.

I was hoping for something turn key, and I do get a discount on Dell computers through work, so those specs are the base Alienware X51. It's mid $600's.
 
Oh. The X51's are the one pre-built computer that I understand. It's got a really nice form factor and it's not that terribly priced.

To me, it's the GPU in the OP. I'm not really sure what the price options are, but if you could bump it up to the next level, it'd go a long way. Something like the 750ti retails for 149.99 and while not the fastest card, is quite respectable. And uses a max of 60 watts (which is great for a HTPC like the X51). I'm not really sure if Dell has that as an option. Or if it's in stock. The BitCoin miner losers have really done a number of the GPU pricing scheme. Hopefully that whole pyramid scheme goes completely bankrupt by the end of 2014.
 
EnfieldEd
Was hoping to stay in the $600-900 range.

I was hoping for something turn key, and I do get a discount on Dell computers through work, so those specs are the base Alienware X51. It's mid $600's.
Click to expand...

For that price you could build a very respectable PC. It's not hard to build one. I had absolutely no knowledge and built my PC in a couple hours. The benefit of building your own compared to buying prebuilt is substantial also.
 
Paul, thanks for the info, in their structure to jump up in video card I need to up to an i5 and some other thing and the price goes exponential.

If was ready to go over $1k I would go with a mainperformance PC, but I already have spent a bunch this year on the wheel, tv, and cockpit.

I may just have to wait and see what titles are released on PS4 or start saving and up my budget to $1200-1400.

Jersey,

I am sure I could do it but the research, labor, and troubleshooting if something went wrong isn't for me. I am lucky to find 5-6 hours a week to game.

I would rather be racing :)
 
http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/6/52...eam-machine-will-compete-with-consoles-at-499

As JerseyDriver said, it's pretty easy to build your own. But if you're absolutely unwilling, that Cyberpower Steam machine has respectable specs for 499. You'd have to buy a license of Win 7 for 90 dolllars and dual partition the hardrive, but it wouldn't be a terrible solution for sub-600 dollars.

Steam machines are looking more like Q3 release dates. So it'll be a while though.

EDIT: Meh. That's got a dual core AMD. I was mislead by the high sounding specs. It really is hard to get a decent pre-built machine for a decent price.
 
There is no free lunch :)

I noticed there is pre build machines that is hard to match but generally those are not brand machines but machines put together by a separate etailer with custom parts.

An option would be to buy used. Though Haswell is really nice. I got much better fluidity in rFactor 2 for exampel compared to my old Core 2 duo even when I had deceptively good fps. Since you are going to run simulations I would not skimp on the CPU while on many other genres you can skimp on the CPU quite heavilly and get away with it.

In most situations there is probably not a giant leap between a haswell and a sandy/ivy bridge though. I would get the lowest available K model (those you can easilly overclock) to leave room to grow if nothing else.

As for SSD if you are on a tight budget I would hesitate about that. Faster harddrives decreases load times but in game performance is in most cases really not affected at all since the reason for the load times is to load things into the memory so the harddrive don´t need to be accessed. It´s the weakest point regarding transfer data SSD or not.

I have never noticed a difference installing my games on my 5200 rpm SATA drive or my SSD other then loading times.
However SSDs are quiet and for the regular user I do believe they are more reliable then mechanical drives nowadays. mechanical drives seldom last more then 2-3 years for me and at that point they are generally quite noisy. A SSD will perform longer than that even with less storage space available perhaps. Hopefully :) But they are very expensive and I could easilly live without.

GPU GTX 760 or better perhaps. I would avoid AMD unless you find a really good deal as they are behind. I wouldn´t want to skimp to much in this area. I am running a GTX 580 for many years and can´t really ask for more but it would be tragic if it would hold up another two years. But it may do seeing how much more powerful my computer is still to a PS4/Xbox One.

8 GB of RAM is probably plenty enough. I suppose there is no reason to hold back on windows 8 either if you get the choice to choose. I am still on win 7 64-bit though.
 
Well, if you could build your own (very easy for anyone these days), than you could grab one of these options.

Small disclaimer: grabbed from 2 main Dutch hardware sites (Tweakers.net and Hardware.info), so prices may differ for your region. Plus it is not my own recommendation, so I won't stand by any product or be biased to any recommended here in particular.


Option 1:

CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 760K Black Edition Boxed (€69.90)
CPU cooler: Included with CPU
Mobo: MSI A78M-E45 (€47.94)
Mem: Crucial Ballistix BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU (€60)
GPU: Club3D Radeon R9 270 '14 Series (€146.40)
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 ST1000DM003, 1TB (€46.90)
Case: Cooler Master N300 (Closed) (€31.64)
PSU: Corsair Builder CX430 Bronze (€36.94)

Total Price: €439.72
Click to expand...


Option 2:

CPU: Intel Core i5 4440 Boxed (€153.40)
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-B85M-D3H (€63.40)
Mem: Crucial Ballistix BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU (€60)
GPU: XFX Radeon HD 7970 Double Dissipation (€229.50)
HDD: Seagate ST1000DX001, 1TB (€68.03)
Case: Corsair Carbide 200R Closed (€48)
PSU: Seasonic S12II-Bronze 520W (€46.94)

Total Price: €669.27
Click to expand...


Option 3:

CPU: AMD FX-6300 boxed (€109,65)
CPU cooler: Included with CPU
Mem: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB DDR3-1600 CL9 kit (€74,22)
Mobo: ASRock 970 Pro3 R2.0 (€63,94)
GPU: MSI Radeon R9 270 Gaming 2GB (€164,82)
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 1TB (€57,42)
Optische drive: LG GH24NS95 (€19,84)
Case: Antec GX700 (€65,08)
PSU: Corsair CX500M (€60,21)

Total Price: €615,18
Click to expand...
 
oqvist
There is no free lunch :)

I noticed there is pre build machines that is hard to match but generally those are not brand machines but machines put together by a separate etailer with custom parts.

An option would be to buy used. Though Haswell is really nice. I got much better fluidity in rFactor 2 for exampel compared to my old Core 2 duo even when I had deceptively good fps. Since you are going to run simulations I would not skimp on the CPU while on many other genres you can skimp on the CPU quite heavilly and get away with it.

In most situations there is probably not a giant leap between a haswell and a sandy/ivy bridge though. I would get the lowest available K model (those you can easilly overclock) to leave room to grow if nothing else.

As for SSD if you are on a tight budget I would hesitate about that. Faster harddrives decreases load times but in game performance is in most cases really not affected at all since the reason for the load times is to load things into the memory so the harddrive don´t need to be accessed. It´s the weakest point regarding transfer data SSD or not.

I have never noticed a difference installing my games on my 5200 rpm SATA drive or my SSD other then loading times.
However SSDs are quiet and for the regular user I do believe they are more reliable then mechanical drives nowadays. mechanical drives seldom last more then 2-3 years for me and at that point they are generally quite noisy. A SSD will perform longer than that even with less storage space available perhaps. Hopefully :) But they are very expensive and I could easilly live without.

GPU GTX 760 or better perhaps. I would avoid AMD unless you find a really good deal as they are behind. I wouldn´t want to skimp to much in this area. I am running a GTX 580 for many years and can´t really ask for more but it would be tragic if it would hold up another two years. But it may do seeing how much more powerful my computer is still to a PS4/Xbox One.

8 GB of RAM is probably plenty enough. I suppose there is no reason to hold back on windows 8 either if you get the choice to choose. I am still on win 7 64-bit though.
Click to expand...

Definitely second the bit about quad core. I posted some charts on another site that showed how the AI in Assetto Corsa really wanted those additional cores. Some of the mods in rf2 wanted them too. I had an i3 2120 that would constantly cause a couple turns on Mid Ohio to drop me to 37fps. And a couple other mods that were flat out frame shows for the entire course. Once I moved to a quad core, all those mods went back to running butter smooth at my settings.

Should be noted, since I can't verify since I haven't gone AMD in quite a while, that people say AMD GPU drivers are bad in rf2. They get half the frame rate in rf2 as Nvidia cards. And despite reaching out to both companies for some help with optimizations for their game, only Nvidia responed to ISI. AMD ignores their pleas for help.
 
Thanks for the feedback.

I think I will just start saving some more money to improve my options.

Who knows may bite the bullet and build one myself.
 
EnfieldEd
....

Who knows may bite the bullet and build one myself.
Click to expand...


Go for it. I dove in this past weekend and built mine. Started after work on Friday and was driving AC by noon on Saturday, blowing my mind.

A couple of youtube videos and forum lurking and I did it. Never built one from boxes before. I spent a little less than $700 USD but got this:

AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz Eight-Core CPU
ASUS 970 MOBO
SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7850 OC 2 GB
G.SKILL Ripjaws X 8GB 1866MEM
Seagate 1TB HDD
Cooler 850w PSU
ENERMAX Case

Hell, I even went to MicroCenter and bought an H55 liquid cooler setup and installed that to......

However, seems to be a little addictive......................I find myself today looking at new video cards.........and another 8g ram.......................damn.
 
There's something to be said for learning the basics of a computer and how things function on a most elementary basis (which is all it takes to put a computer together by yourself). It's like an initiation. If you're going to do PC gaming, it pays to have a basic principle of how things work. Because while issues are over-rated, every once in a blue moon a problem does arise. And unless you want to be helpless and at the mercy of others, it needs to be diagnosed and fixed by yourself. It's just easier in the long run, IMO, to bite the bullet and learn how to put it together yourself. Because it's knowledge that's transferable.

And on the plus side, you get a system that's a lot cheaper and has higher quality components.
 
FishforRent
Go for it. I dove in this past weekend and built mine. Started after work on Friday and was driving AC by noon on Saturday, blowing my mind.

A couple of youtube videos and forum lurking and I did it. Never built one from boxes before. I spent a little less than $700 USD but got this:

AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz Eight-Core CPU
ASUS 970 MOBO
SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7850 OC 2 GB
G.SKILL Ripjaws X 8GB 1866MEM
Seagate 1TB HDD
Cooler 850w PSU
ENERMAX Case

Hell, I even went to MicroCenter and bought an H55 liquid cooler setup and installed that to......

However, seems to be a little addictive......................I find myself today looking at new video cards.........and another 8g ram.......................damn.
Click to expand...

Sounds like me. It is addictive and its gratifying knowing you built it yourself.
 
oqvist
overclocking has so many analogies to racing too :)
Click to expand...

I'm the fuel miser who wants to beat you by doing one less pitstop.

I don't consider overclocking a one step process. It's how do I get a good overclock and still perform an undervolt. And for that, I use my kill-a-watt to spot where the points of diminishing returns sit and work from there for the perfect combo.
 
JerseyDriverSS
Sounds like me. It is addictive and its gratifying knowing you built it yourself.
Click to expand...

Exactly. I was happy driving AC after reading so much about it, but more so beaming that it was running on a machine I built after really only deciding to do this 2 weeks ago; watching a couple of Newegg videos and reading a few comments and reviews online and BAM a bunch of boxes and RedBull and there I went......

Paul33993
.....I don't consider overclocking a one step process. It's how do I get a good overclock and still perform an undervolt. And for that, I use my kill-a-watt to spot where the points of diminishing returns sit and work from there for the perfect combo.
Click to expand...

This is what I'm researching now. All the components I bought can be OC'd and in fact I did that through the system tools Asus provides to make my 4.0Gz a 4.35Gz, but now I'm thinking I don't know enough about that yet to keep it that way.

Need some more info and knowledge about that, plus I want to Crossfire as soon as I either get another HD7850 or HD7870. I've read you need the same or within the same '100 series of video card.

So much to learn and do...........opens up a whole new area of mental growth and education..........+1.

ec
 
Paul33993
There's something to be said for learning the basics of a computer and how things function on a most elementary basis (which is all it takes to put a computer together by yourself). It's like an initiation. If you're going to do PC gaming, it pays to have a basic principle of how things work. Because while issues are over-rated, every once in a blue moon a problem does arise. And unless you want to be helpless and at the mercy of others, it needs to be diagnosed and fixed by yourself. It's just easier in the long run, IMO, to bite the bullet and learn how to put it together yourself. Because it's knowledge that's transferable.

And on the plus side, you get a system that's a lot cheaper and has higher quality components.
Click to expand...

This, plus the fact that you can choose the components that are focused on how you will use the computer. A video/photo editing machine has different requirements than a gaming machine does, let alone a simple office machine (so for word, excel, etc).
An off the shelf machine is often a machine that either has a 'should do all things about right' approach, or when you do get a focused gaming machine it will often still have a co mponent or two that are saved upon and are below the performance you require for how you work with your pc.

So yeah, once you can build your own... it's like getting your drivers license and your first car... freedom!!!

@OP: Here is a video of Linus on how to build your own. Of course this is an 'ultimate' build, but that just means it will cover more components and situations.
He has more videos on there, so check out the playlists on his channel.

 
@EnfieldEd Self build! Doooo iiiit. PC gamers love to help people who want to self-build because they get to experience the satisfaction of a build vicariously, so start a thread in the Computer & Tech forum and we'll help you through the process. It's like expensive electrostatic discharge-sensitive (which is no big deal; shut the cat out, avoid standing on carpet while you build and touch something earthed before you take components out of their bags) Lego, only instead of having to use your imagination when you're finished building it, you get to play actual games!
 

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