Educate me

[vault_overseer]

So I've been away from PC gaming for a while, but recently I've decided to build me a nice new PC to play games on windows and code in linux. The problem is I know nothing about the current hardware...

 

End goal is to play games like TW2 and BF3 and such pretty much maxed out. What should I get and why?

[Gorth]

Lets start with the narrowing down... what's your approx. budget?

 

After that, any particular brand preferences (i.e. Intel/AMD, ATI/Nvidia etc.)?

[Humanoid]

Info in the "Good time to upgrade" thread recently is still current. Quoting myself:

 

CPU-wise, Intel's Sandy Bridge launched earlier this year and that's all we'll see from them this year. Ivy Bridge is a refresh to it, not due until next year. AMD's next-gen, Bulldozer, is nominally due out this month but seems all but delayed until September at the least. Unlikely to be worth waiting for, unless you need 8 cores at an affordable price, it's very much expected Intel will hold onto its performance lead.

 

For graphics, nothing has really been announced - the best we can do is rumours and that's that AMD will launch 7xxx sometime this year, probably Q4. Very unlikely nVidia will have anything this year. Graphics are in a bit of an odd spot currently - in terms of price/performance there's probably never been a better time, plenty of viable options all the way from $100 to $300. On the other hand, in terms of real performance gain there's been not a whole lot of improvement on 2009's 58xx series (which were admittedly a big jump).

 

 

All-in-all it's hard to go wrong at the moment. I5-2500k (the 'k' version is for overclocking which is a huge gain on this platform), Z68 based motherboard, and for graphics AMD 6850/6950 or nVidia 560Ti/570.

 

 

That said, I'd always be a bit wary about buying a system in anticipation of a certain future release - you never can quite tell how a particular setup will go with what you're waiting for. If BF3 performance is the deciding factor then it may be best to wait until the game is actually out and tested with the hardware current as of the time of release.

 

 

That said, a current midrange solution would look like:

 

CPU: i5-2500k (if comfortable overclocking), or non-k version if not

Motherboard: Any entry level Z68 chipset board

Graphics: AMD HD6950 or nVidia GTX560, lean towards the former if gaming at above 1080p or with multiple screens

SSD: Absolutely, Intel or Crucial most reliable

 

To turn it into "high-end" just add a second video card of the same model, and get the 'k' version of the CPU and overclock to ~4.5k. This is faster and cheaper than going for the overpriced top-end parts.

[Purkake]

Techreport's system guide

 

Also you can get cheap stuff from Newegg if you're in the states.

[vault_overseer]

Thanks everyone.

[vault_overseer]

So I decided to give my current desktop some updates while slowly taking time to learn a bit more about what's happening in the hardware world.

 

It currently has a single core athlon, 2gb ram and 9600 gso. Obviously it's been neglected for a VERY long time. SO I found a relatively decent AM2+ mobo laying around(I think my old man gave it to me) with 4 gigs of ram. Ordered a 4 core phenom ii for it.

 

Next I'll get some speakers, a monitor(that thing currently has old 19inch 4:3 lcd) and a video card and I'll be set while I read up about stuff and look for good deals for hardware for a more current build. This one will end up going into either home server or an htpc enclosure(already have a 2TB raid in it)

 

So, the question is, what would be a decent graphics card for this thing? I'll end up having a 3.2GHz x4 phenom II, and 4GB of DDR2 RAM in it so far. I'll want to spend somewhere around $100-$150 on the card.

 

Thanks d00dz, you've all(in particular, the Estonian) set me on this path back to PC supremacy(which doesn't mean I'll stop playing on my 360)

[Humanoid]

If it's just a card you'll leave in there once you get a new system, I'd go for a 6850, or a GTX460 (end of life, but should be able to find stock). Lean towards the former especially if constrained by the power supply, I probably wouldn't run it with under 300W. Under that the only viable gaming option is the bare minimum 5770/6770 (they're identical).

 

 

EDIT: Trap for the unwary - there are 3 versions of the 460 around. a 768MB model, a 1GB 'SE' model and a plain original model. The former two are cheaper cut-down versions, the original is the fastest. Between the cut-down versions, the 768MB model is faster at lower resolutions but might get memory bottlenecked at 1080p+ where the SE might compensate. Yes, graphics companies are in the business of obfuscation and this kind of naming stupidity has been around forever.

Edited June 27, 2011 by Humanoid