Building myself a PC

[civ_king]

Nice! Thanks for the input everyone. I've had my new PC up and running since Friday, and it's a pleasure to use. The graphics are actually too powerful for me - runs TF2 for instance on 100+fps with max settings, so I've ended using VSync for the first time ever.

My final spec differed only slightly to the one I posted last week. I upgraded to the i5 760 for a few pounds more, changed the RAM slightly to match one on the ASUS QVI and switched PSU to Antec TruePower Modular 650W.

Looking forward to playing Civ5 on this!

IMO if your FPS>Hz (monitor refresh rate) then bump the settings,

 

[Jamesds]

IMO if your FPS>Hz (monitor refresh rate) then bump the settings,

I do have them maxed out, even used a few console commands to bump the texture quality more and a few other things, hence why I put VSync on.

 

[tokala]

I do have them maxed out, even used a few console commands to bump the texture quality more and a few other things, hence why I put VSync on.

If all else is maxed out, supersampling antialiasing will bring down those fps

Might need a 3rd party tool to activate that, though.

 

[WildFire]

I'm not sure if your CPU qualifies but intel recently dropped the price on quite a few i5 and i7 processors... maybe if it was a significant drop you can get a price drop or a credit of some sort (as long as the one you purchased was part of the intel slash)

 

[Jamesds]

I purchased the build on Thursday, so maybe the price had already dropped? I paid £148 for the i5 760. For the decent processor it is, I think that's quite a good price.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Intel is supposed to drop prices even more in the coming weeks. Something like 50% price cut on a lot of their CPUs.

 

[civ_king]

Intel is supposed to drop prices even more in the coming weeks. Something like 50% price cut on a lot of their CPUs.

I kept telling people in the Civ V forum that they should wait until Sandy Bridge/Bulldozer and Radeon 6000 so that prices drop a lot

Anyone know how Nvidia is going to counter the Radeon 6000 series? the 6780 beats every single card except the 5970 which it loses by a hair (drivers will fix that)

 

[Abaddon]

I wish I lived a more rooted existance and could justify a PC and not a laptop...

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Unless you move every month, a desktop isnt that hard nor that annoying to move. You just have to be careful doing it.

 

[Abaddon]

Every couple of months to be realistic :/

 

[civ_king]

Every couple of months to be realistic :/

Get an all in one when Sandy Bridge comes out

 

[tokala]

Get an all in one when Sandy Bridge comes out

Those tend do be not very suitable for gaming, and combine the worst of both worlds.

 

[Fëanor]

I kept telling people in the Civ V forum that they should wait until Sandy Bridge/Bulldozer and Radeon 6000 so that prices drop a lot

Anyone know how Nvidia is going to counter the Radeon 6000 series? the 6780 beats every single card except the 5970 which it loses by a hair (drivers will fix that)

With yields improving they should be able to release cards with all CUDA cores enabled, they wont win the single GPU crown back but if they can keep prices low it wont matter since the GPU market is practically all about the $150 to $250 cards.

Every couple of months to be realistic :/

A Light case (with handle! e.g. CM Scout, NZXT Vulcan) and a light Monitor (Led ones are extremely light) make moving effortless!

 

[Abaddon]

An how does that balance out cost wise?

 

[Fëanor]

£60 for the Scout, £50 for the Vulcan.
The Scout can house ATX motherboards (although i found out that certain MB layouts make it impossible to fit all fans without some modding), the Vulcan only fits mATX MoBo's and looks like it has better ventilation.

A full hd LED Monitor will probably cost you £120-130, a smaller/more portable (but not full hd) monitory about £80-90.

 

[Tarkhan]

With yields improving they should be able to release cards with all CUDA cores enabled, they wont win the single GPU crown back but if they can keep prices low it wont matter since the GPU market is practically all about the $150 to $250 cards.

Thats very true. Buying the high end will usually result in paying twice as much for maybe a 5-10% increase in power, and then only if you're running whichever game is the most demanding.

Most games are designed with the <$300 cards in mind when it comes to setting the high point for graphical effects.

As an example, Radeon 5000 series. You can buy a 5970 for $600...but a 5850 for $250 will basically run everything maxxed out (Assuming you have a good CPU and lots of RAM), and both are DX11 cards. (Prices from Newegg.)

You will notice the 5970 scores much higher on ratings in reviews, but also recall that you probably won't be able to see a difference between 100fps and 300fps...because for one, your screen is probably only refreshing 60-75 times per second.

There will be some rare cases where you might notice the 5970 running better, but is it worth $300 more? Thats probably for you to decide