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Well the ect is anything that may be coming out that I havent seen yet. I have a lot of friends who play various Steam games that id like to be able to join in on (Borderlands 2, Civilization V, ect). So I wanted to make sure it had enough power. Also I am unsure of what it takes to be able to stream my games without having any issues, which is why I was aiming for some better gear. Lastly it would be nice to be able to not have to upgrade for a few years and still be able to play new games (for example HotS which i've been told will require more power than WoL).
If I can do that with downgrading the equipment a little then I will consider it. Right now that setup is about a grand, but I still need a monitor, Windows 7, new mouse, and new keyboard. so that will boost me up to the $1500 range.
Let me know or pitch me some suggestions. as I said i'm new to this.
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Hi everyone - I currently play SC2 with a laptop (HP dv4i with i5, Radeon Mobility 4550, and 6 gigs ram), however I am currently looking to build (or more likely buy) a new gaming desktop. If anyone has the time to review what I'm in it for and make some recommendations I'd be greatful. Here are the specifics:
What is your budget?
$750-$1200
What is your resolution?
1920x1080 (I use a BenQ RL2450HT)
What are you using it for?
My main goals are to be able to run PlanetSide 2 smoothly (unless that's just urban legend) + Show Spoiler +Minimum System Requirements OS - Windows XP Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 or higher / AMD Phenom II X2 or higher Memory - 4 GB RAM Hard Drive - 15 GB free Video Memory - 256 MB RAM Video Card - nVidia GeForce 8600 series or higher / AMD or ATI 4850 series or higher Sound Card - DirectX compatible Recommended System OS - Windows 7 Processor - Intel i5 processor or higher / AMD Phenom II X6 or higher Memory - 8 GB RAM Hard Drive - 15 GB free Video Memory - 1,024 MB RAM Video Card - nVidia GeForce 500 series or higher / AMD HD 6870 or higher Sound Card - DirectX compatible . Also to record SC2 smoothly in high quality with Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) - not so much for streaming, but initially just writing the mp4 to file for later editing/uploading to YouTube. Aside from some light video editing/encoding and Photoshop, I'd also like to "future-proof" the rig as much as possible because:
What is your upgrade cycle?
I don't normally upgrade parts. I usually just end up buying a new computer every 4-5yrs.
When do you plan on building it?
Jan. 2013 - March 2013 (somewhere in there)
Do you plan on overclocking?
No
Do you need an Operating System?
Yes (do they still sell Win7?) I really don't want Win8 at all.
Do you plan to add a second GPU for SLI or Crossfire?
No. I'd prefer to just have one GPU with excellent performance.
Where are you buying your parts from?
I live in Portland, OR so there is a Fry's nearby. I'd prefer to order online, but could make a trip down there if the savings warranted it.
Any recommendations based on this is much appreciated! I have not built a computer in ages and would not be against shopping for a standalone PC deal somewhere, unless the savings simply makes more sense to spend the time/effort building it. My main purposes for this are the PlanetSide2, breaking into streaming/video recording/editing for SC2, and future-proofing it to play new games smoothly for as long as I can get away with. Thanks in advance!
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On December 13 2012 07:59 Infinite976 wrote:+ Show Spoiler +Hi everyone - I currently play SC2 with a laptop (HP dv4i with i5, Radeon Mobility 4550, and 6 gigs ram), however I am currently looking to build (or more likely buy) a new gaming desktop. If anyone has the time to review what I'm in it for and make some recommendations I'd be greatful. Here are the specifics: What is your budget?$750-$1200 What is your resolution?1920x1080 (I use a BenQ RL2450HT) What are you using it for?My main goals are to be able to run PlanetSide 2 smoothly (unless that's just urban legend) + Show Spoiler +Minimum System Requirements OS - Windows XP Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 or higher / AMD Phenom II X2 or higher Memory - 4 GB RAM Hard Drive - 15 GB free Video Memory - 256 MB RAM Video Card - nVidia GeForce 8600 series or higher / AMD or ATI 4850 series or higher Sound Card - DirectX compatible Recommended System OS - Windows 7 Processor - Intel i5 processor or higher / AMD Phenom II X6 or higher Memory - 8 GB RAM Hard Drive - 15 GB free Video Memory - 1,024 MB RAM Video Card - nVidia GeForce 500 series or higher / AMD HD 6870 or higher Sound Card - DirectX compatible . Also to record SC2 smoothly in high quality with Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) - not so much for streaming, but initially just writing the mp4 to file for later editing/uploading to YouTube. Aside from some light video editing/encoding and Photoshop, I'd also like to "future-proof" the rig as much as possible because: What is your upgrade cycle?I don't normally upgrade parts. I usually just end up buying a new computer every 4-5yrs. When do you plan on building it?Jan. 2013 - March 2013 (somewhere in there) Do you plan on overclocking?No Do you need an Operating System?Yes (do they still sell Win7?) I really don't want Win8 at all. Do you plan to add a second GPU for SLI or Crossfire?No. I'd prefer to just have one GPU with excellent performance. Where are you buying your parts from?I live in Portland, OR so there is a Fry's nearby. I'd prefer to order online, but could make a trip down there if the savings warranted it. Any recommendations based on this is much appreciated! I have not built a computer in ages and would not be against shopping for a standalone PC deal somewhere, unless the savings simply makes more sense to spend the time/effort building it. My main purposes for this are the PlanetSide2, breaking into streaming/video recording/editing for SC2, and future-proofing it to play new games smoothly for as long as I can get away with. Thanks in advance! It would be much cheaper (>$200) to build. The problem with 90% of pre-builts is that they have tiny PSU's so you would have to buy a new one if you put in a Video Card. Then there are the Gaming pre-builts which are horrendous. Since their profit margin is low, they cut corners (mainly gpu power) to reach 'competitive' prices.
Anyways if you were building you would want: i5 (3450,3470,3550,3570) $200 H77 motherboard $80 8GB of RAM $40 HD 7870/7950 $230/320 128GB SSD $120 1TB HDD $80 Quality ~500w PSU $60 Case $60 DVD Burner $20 Win7 $100
Which would cost between $980(7870) to $1070(7950). It's pretty pointless to include links and exact prices because prices change all the time and you aren't building for at least a month.
Edit: I went searching through newegg for prebuilts and this is the onlyone that I could find that isn't complete garbage. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883229381
But it's still garbage. It's around what(price wise) I suggested but with no SSD, weaker GPU and an unlocked CPU with a motherboard that doesn't support overclocking.
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Thanks for the info iTzSnypah! I figured pre-builts would compare something along those lines.. looks like I'll be taking the time to build my own! I'll keep these parts in mind when I go to build it.
Forgive my ignorance about the SSD, but how exactly is this used with regard to gaming? Does it provide any real performance boost to a game, aside from the initial loading of the software? I wiki'd it, but is this something I would install a game on like a separate partition, or is it used more like cache, or RAM to make a game/app faster? Would you install the OS on the SSD? Any lamens explanation greatly appreciated!
Still open to other recommendations if anyone has input about my questionnaire. In this day n age are Nvidia vs ATI just preference? or should I consider certain advantages/disadvantages with each? Thanks in advance!
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An SSD is a storage drive (meaning that it retains the contents when powered off) like a normal mechanical drive or USB flash drive or whatever. In terms of what the user does and the operating system, they're treated the same. The performance characteristics of modern solid-state drives are just a lot better than mechanical hard drives. Thus, people usually install the operating system on it and use it as a boot drive, also keeping most applications (web browser, office software, maybe games, etc.) on it so they will load much faster and also operate and write quicker.
If you load a game off of an SSD, you will get past the loading screen faster, but it's not like ingame fps will change. Ingame fps has to do with how the game is programmed, the graphics settings, the CPU, and the GPU (and memory to a very small degree). In some games that need to load new areas in real time while playing, it could also have some impact during actual play, but it's mostly about game loading time, level loading time, etc. Maybe not a huge deal.
Modern processors and GPUs are way faster than they used to be, but mechanical hard drives have hardly scaled similarly over time. Thus, there's a whole lot of time when using a computer for general tasks, particularly with things running in the background, that often times a comparatively fast system is waiting around twiddling its thumbs for data to be read from or written to a hard drive. Can't use that extra processing power if it's just waiting around doing nothing. The platter needs to literally spin around to the correct point to be written to. An SSD is faster and can alleviate some of that everyday bottleneck.
Unless you're looking at a few features that Nvidia supports that AMD does not and vice versa (e.g. you require CUDA support for something you do), it's mostly just about preferences, be they well-reasoned or not. For a typical gamer, it's no big deal either way. Both have issues here and there but are generally good with timely support and drivers, at least for Windows. They support most of the same features.
No disagreement from me about the build outline. That's what I would say too. If prices change, then recommendations would change.
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Awesome, thanks for the great SSD explanation Myrmidon! I'll definately be considering this.
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This is likely a question that jas been asked before, but how huge is the difference between a 4x core and a 6x core. Specifally looking at the I7 3832 4x core and the I7 3930k 6x core. This is for streaming mainly in 1080p with 60 fps.
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I dont know what an i7 3832 is but if its socket 2011 its a waste of money. The 3930k is also probably a huge waste of money if all you want to do is stream games. A capture card is a much better investment (just found out you can do 60 FPS with one).
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On December 14 2012 04:16 masterbreti wrote: This is likely a question that jas been asked before, but how huge is the difference between a 4x core and a 6x core. Specifally looking at the I7 3832 4x core and the I7 3930k 6x core. This is for streaming mainly in 1080p with 60 fps. You'll struggle to capture 60 frames per second in sc2 if you capture at such a high framerate, even with an overclocked 3930k. You won't be getting a 60fps stream for most of the game without a capture card, with one YMMV. An overclocked 3570k/3770k is right on the threshold of being able to nicely encode 60fps 1080p, a 3930k will look a little nicer at the same bitrate. Something to keep in mind is that most of the world will not be able to watch a 1080p 60 fps stream as the bandwidth requirements are too high, but if you don't care about that, by all means reach the niche market.
The 3820 is comparable to the 3770k (or the cheaper xeon e3-1230v2 if you don't overclock) for mainstream users, but the motherboards for that socket cost a lot more than h77/z77 boards. If you're not overclocking at all, which is really benefical for encoding, the two recommendations would be e3-1230v2 (~$220 + $80 mobo) or a big step up to the 3930k (~$500 + $150+ mobo?). Nothing else makes sense.
If you are overclocking, then it would be 3570k < 3770k << 3930k. Don't get the 3820.
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+ Show Spoiler [double ninja] +You mean i7-3820? It's the same architecture, and you get 2 more cores. You can do about 50% more computations if everything scales perfectly (it doesn't, generally). I don't see any conclusive benchmarks for the actual encoders and workloads related to streaming, so it's hard to say.
The difference in processor potentially means you could set slightly slower encoding settings for marginally better picture quality or equivalent quality at slightly lower bitrate. Probably not a big deal.
If you've got the cash, better to use a second dedicated streaming computer.
Unless you need an ungodly amount of PCIe lanes or somehow found some workload where the extra memory bandwidth is worth something, you may as well skip socket 1356 and just use Ivy Bridge in socket 1155 instead, rather than paying the premium for the older Sandy Bridge architecture (in Sandy Bridge-E configuration).
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Well right now I'm not just looking at sc2 streaming, but streaming other games as well. plus I'm partnered with Twitch so I don't have to worry about people not being able to watch.
So if I do buy the AVerMedia Live Gamer HD will I be okay just getting the 3820?
Maybe I'll actually do the little question thing and see. Since I'm loking mainly at ordering from ibuypower. Since I won't dare ever build my own computer, and that seems to be the best way to get a decent computer for cheaper.
To be honest I know little about computers, I know simple stuff, but things like sandy bridge all sound like Sawhili to me. What is your budget?
cheaper the better. I don't really have a budget per say, just can't be buying things that aren't needed.
What is your resolution?
1920x1080, possibly dual screen, with the other one being for web browsers and such, nothing heavy in cpu.
What are you using it for?
Gaming, streaming 1080p (60fps peferable)
What is your upgrade cycle?
5 years
When do you plan on building it?
Janurary- Feburary
Do you plan on overclocking?
I don't want to take the risk and shorter lifespan. So no.
Do you need an Operating System? Windows 7 professional peferably
Do you plan to add a second GPU for SLI or Crossfire? No
Where are you buying your parts from? Not really sure, local stores like futureshop or bestbuy, would pefer to buy a prebuilt one but those are never very good. Providing I do end up moving back to Canada, if not then the local shops in Seoul. I don't actually want to build my own, and likely will end up paying someone to build it for me. might end up buying one from i buypower.
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You should take a stab at building your own PC. This little guy can help ya.
![[image loading]](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/34863088/ylk4c.jpg)
Prebuilts are just wasting money.
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On December 14 2012 04:58 Medrea wrote:You should take a stab at building your own PC. This little guy can help ya. ![[image loading]](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/34863088/ylk4c.jpg) Prebuilts are just wasting money.
I would rather have someone gouge my eyes out with the smallest spoon on the planet than build my own PC, because I know I'll mess it up and I know I'll end up wasting a lot of money. I'd rather buy the stuff and have someone else build it for me.
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What graphics card should I upgrade my 560Ti to? I'm thinking 7950, 7970 or 670, but I dunno which to go with and what brand.
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On December 14 2012 05:04 masterbreti wrote:Show nested quote +On December 14 2012 04:58 Medrea wrote:You should take a stab at building your own PC. This little guy can help ya. ![[image loading]](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/34863088/ylk4c.jpg) Prebuilts are just wasting money. I would rather have someone gouge my eyes out with the smallest spoon on the planet than build my own PC, because I know I'll mess it up and I know I'll end up wasting a lot of money. I'd rather buy the stuff and have someone else build it for me.
When I built my first PC, I snapped my video card heatsink on one side. Fortunately the card still works.
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On December 14 2012 07:24 Mackem wrote: What graphics card should I upgrade my 560Ti to? I'm thinking 7950, 7970 or 670, but I dunno which to go with and what brand.
Depends on many things but I'll say i upgraded my 560Ti to a 7970 and couldn't be happier. The thing is an overclockers wet dream.
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On December 14 2012 05:04 masterbreti wrote:Show nested quote +On December 14 2012 04:58 Medrea wrote:You should take a stab at building your own PC. This little guy can help ya. ![[image loading]](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/34863088/ylk4c.jpg) Prebuilts are just wasting money. I would rather have someone gouge my eyes out with the smallest spoon on the planet than build my own PC, because I know I'll mess it up and I know I'll end up wasting a lot of money. I'd rather buy the stuff and have someone else build it for me. You'd rather go blind in the most painful way possible than waste some money?
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Hey guys. I'm having a problem with my gaming. I have a macbook pro(lol for gaming) and it works fine it just runs a little hot but I KNOW it's not good for my computer. I was wondering if there was any computers I could get/build for $200-$250 that would run sc2 and function for websurfing some of the time(no dl's or anything). I run graphics on low. If it's not enough money, what would be the minimum amount?
<3, computer noob
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For a desktop? for low settings, 300 ish? best would be around 350, you could get a decent one with an i3 and play with integrated, and maybe add a gpu later on if you want higher graphics
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would you be able to link me anything that I could start from(no prob if not)? I already have a moniter/keyboard/mouse btw. thank you so so much for replying homie!
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