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Optimized Gaming Computer Builds For Every Budget - Page 14

Forum Index > Tech Support
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Shikyo
Profile Blog Joined June 2008
Finland33997 Posts
December 31 2011 21:27 GMT
#261
On January 01 2012 05:39 HyTex wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 31 2011 11:48 dhe95 wrote:
On December 31 2011 11:31 HyTex wrote:
I'm curious, what would I need to play / stream SC2 on anywhere from Low to High Settings in 1080p at a 1280x1024 resolution? I want to keep the resolution modest because I don't think I'll enjoy playing SC2 on a larger monitor (due to larger eye travel distance to check supply and such).

How many corners can I cut on the $800 build due to the smaller resolution? Would an i5 2400 suffice, since I don't plan on overclocking? Can I choose a cheaper graphics card, and if so, what would you recommend? Is the additional cooling fan necessary, given I do not plan on overclocking?

Thanks for the help in advance. =)

you stream what's on your screen, so if you're playing at 1280x1024, you can't stream 1080p


This holds true even if the encoder can change the output resolution? (Adobe FMLE 3.2, for reference). I don't know much about streaming, but I want to make sure I don't end up buying a video card that is far too powerful for what I wanna use it for.

um

if you are watching a 50s film thats really bad quality with a super mega turbo HD tv, what kind of a picture do you see?

If you are listening to a 24 kbps super low quality mp3 with a 2000$ hifi stereo set, how good is the sound quality going to be?
League of Legends EU West, Platinum III | Yousei Teikoku is the best thing that has ever happened to music.
HyTex
Profile Joined August 2011
United States67 Posts
December 31 2011 21:29 GMT
#262
On January 01 2012 05:48 Josh_rakoons wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 31 2011 11:31 HyTex wrote:
I'm curious, what would I need to play / stream SC2 on anywhere from Low to High Settings in 1080p at a 1280x1024 resolution? I want to keep the resolution modest because I don't think I'll enjoy playing SC2 on a larger monitor (due to larger eye travel distance to check supply and such).

How many corners can I cut on the $800 build due to the smaller resolution? Would an i5 2400 suffice, since I don't plan on overclocking? Can I choose a cheaper graphics card, and if so, what would you recommend? Is the additional cooling fan necessary, given I do not plan on overclocking?

Thanks for the help in advance. =)

For streaming in 1080p you'll probably need a 2500k...


If you read my processor choice and the succeeding sentence, you'd know I have no intentions of overclocking, so my question really becomes "Can the i5 2500 stream 1080p?". And if I absolutely must OC to stream 1080p, then I'll just stream at 720p or a lower bitrate until the technology needed becomes more affordable, which is several years down the road.

Does the 0.2GHz differential between the 2400 and 2500 really increase the performance by that much?
Myrmidon
Profile Blog Joined December 2004
United States9452 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-12-31 21:34:18
December 31 2011 21:31 GMT
#263
I'm not sure how the above (edit: Shikyo's post) is related to the discussion.

The issue is that if you're playing at 1280x1024, your video card is rendering frames at 1280x1024. You can add black bars and upscale this to 1920x1080 in theory, but there won't be 1920x1080 worth of actual source information. With some encoders, in practice, this could possibly make the end result look nicer, but it's definitely not going to be the same as starting from 1920x1080 of actual source information (aspect ratio aside even).

edit: a Sandy Bridge quad core at i5-2500 clock speeds isn't going to handle streaming 1080p that well. Yes it will be okay in some situations, but maybe not with more action, not with more aggressive (for lower bitrate) encoding, and so on. Possibly consider a Xeon E3-1230 or i7-2600 if you absolutely won't overclock.
Shikyo
Profile Blog Joined June 2008
Finland33997 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-12-31 21:34:24
December 31 2011 21:32 GMT
#264
no, generally i5 2400 is regarded as the best cost-to-performance ratio processor if you overclock, but afaik theres some sale atm for 2500. Either way they will probably stream 1080p allright, but you probably should look into overclocking for absolute best settings

On January 01 2012 06:31 Myrmidon wrote:
I'm not sure how the above (edit: Shikyo's post) is related to the discussion.

The issue is that if you're playing at 1280x1024, your video card is rendering frames at 1280x1024. You can add black bars and upscale this to 1920x1080 in theory, but there won't be 1920x1080 worth of actual source information. With some encoders, in practice, this could possibly make the end result look nicer, but it's definitely not going to be the same as starting from 1920x1080 of actual source information (aspect ratio aside even).

If you play at 1280x1024 and output at 1080p it doesnt magically change it into 1080p so its basically about the output being able to only be at best as good as the input o_o and no you dont need extra gpu power to do that either
League of Legends EU West, Platinum III | Yousei Teikoku is the best thing that has ever happened to music.
HyTex
Profile Joined August 2011
United States67 Posts
December 31 2011 23:46 GMT
#265
@Myrmidon: Shikyo's analogy refers to my question about using a lower bitrate or changing the resolution instead of getting a more powerful processor, if I'm reading it correctly.

The sale on the i5 2500 ends tonight. Sadly, I'm not quite done choosing parts, which means I'll most likely stick with the i5 2400 and deal with the inability to stream in 1080p (I'm getting a monitor that supports 1920x1080 in case I ever decide to upgrade or replace a part).

So, to understand correctly, if I were to input 1280x1080 and output at the 1920x1080 resolution that you normally record at for 1080p, I would end up with a much worse picture quality (due to the image being stretched in a similar manner to a photoshop image)?
Shikyo
Profile Blog Joined June 2008
Finland33997 Posts
January 01 2012 00:22 GMT
#266
afaik you'd get the same image quality and black bars
League of Legends EU West, Platinum III | Yousei Teikoku is the best thing that has ever happened to music.
Myrmidon
Profile Blog Joined December 2004
United States9452 Posts
January 01 2012 01:12 GMT
#267
Yeah with 1280x1024 input and 1920x1080 output, you would just need to stretch it, which just requires some interpolation. At least if you're working with the uncompressed images then it seems like it should be an affine transformation that's reversible (without loss of quality) I think?

If you're resizing a lossy jpeg--which is encoded in blocks of a certain size I think--or something like that, then that's a lossy to lossy conversion, so quality is lost in the resizing. I don't at all work with images in practice though, so I'm just guessing.

Theoretically after upscaling, the output of the encoding process might be better in some sense than if you didn't upscale, depending on how the encoder handles it. This is a huge waste of bits though--you're much better off just streaming the native resolution using more bits in the first place.
YouMake
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
United States262 Posts
January 17 2012 06:30 GMT
#268
I'm looking to start streaming, what build would you guys recommend i look at if i'm also wanting to do that?
It's time to kick ass and chew bubble gum, but all out of bubble gum! - Duke Nukem!
DrNebula
Profile Joined November 2011
United States16 Posts
February 08 2012 05:17 GMT
#269
just followed the 700$ dollar build, turned out awesome! went with a 3.3 GHz intel core i5 and i went with a gtx 560 graphics card instead, so i strayed from the build a little bit but thanks for the guidance!!
ShatterZer0
Profile Joined November 2010
United States1843 Posts
February 08 2012 15:44 GMT
#270
I just bought the $400 build, had everything come to my place... and realized something... How on earth do I put this together? How do I install an OS? Why am I so dumb?

PLEASE HELP >.<
A time to live.
Medrea
Profile Joined May 2011
10003 Posts
February 08 2012 15:52 GMT
#271
Various videos on youtube will show you how to assemble a computer.

Installing an OS is as simple as putting the disk into the disk drive, setting the disk drive as first boot device, and turning the power on.
twitch.tv/medrea
MorpheusEU
Profile Joined December 2011
21 Posts
February 08 2012 16:01 GMT
#272
@ShatterZer0: I'm sorry that I cant be a huge help, but if you don't know anything about building computers (like me), you should've bought it at a website where they put it together. Things you can do know is try and find guides to build a computer on the internet (cost less $$), or search for someone or some store that is willing to put it together.

Now that I'm making this post, is the 800 dollar build good enough to stream or do I need to make some changes to it?
skyR
Profile Joined July 2009
Canada13817 Posts
February 08 2012 16:09 GMT
#273
The $800 configuration is enough to stream but these builds are severely outdated in terms of pricing.
Praetorial
Profile Blog Joined May 2011
United States4241 Posts
February 26 2012 18:58 GMT
#274
On February 09 2012 01:09 skyR wrote:
The $800 configuration is enough to stream but these builds are severely outdated in terms of pricing.


So if hypothetically I were to be in the process of checking out parts for a computer, this would not be the place to look?
FOR GREAT JUSTICE! Bans for the ban gods!
skyR
Profile Joined July 2009
Canada13817 Posts
February 27 2012 17:01 GMT
#275
These builds serve as a good starting point. Hopefully you'll learn something from looking through these builds and come up with something more recent and ask for opinions in the Computer Build Resource Thread to get it improved upon / fixed / ready for purchase. But to purchase an exact build out of the OP would be a bad idea if you care about value.
Joeramos
Profile Joined March 2012
1 Post
Last Edited: 2012-03-04 11:38:45
March 04 2012 11:38 GMT
#276
I want a computer build that can play ANY PC game at great quality and speed. I can just keep one game on the computer at a time, that's no problem. I have an external hard drive of 1TB so storage isn't much of an issue but I don't want it to be a hassle every-so-often. Which build here would anyone here recommend so that I can play ANY game with absolutely no performance problems?
Signet
Profile Joined March 2007
United States1718 Posts
March 05 2012 03:50 GMT
#277
This has been a very helpful thread... I would have had a difficult time figuring this stuff out myself. Thank you very much for all the effort you've put into this.
tQDanTe
Profile Joined January 2008
United States270 Posts
March 15 2012 15:22 GMT
#278
Are these builds still up to date?
UniqueKnowledge on PSN; Sup
MisterFred
Profile Joined October 2010
United States2033 Posts
March 15 2012 15:56 GMT
#279
They're still pretty good guides & starting points, especially at the lower price points (the higher ones need different video cards). And of course the builds work. But specials change each week, so I generally suggest posting in the Computer Build Resource Thread, filling out the survey in the OP of that thread.
"The victor? Not the highest scoring, nor the best strategist, nor the best tactitian. The victor was he that was closest to the Tao of FFA." -.Praetor
MaV_gGSC
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
Canada1345 Posts
March 15 2012 16:56 GMT
#280
I bought the 900$ budget and I could not be any happier :D Cheers TL
Life's good :D
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