Some advice from any Hardware Guru's (computer spec for Civ5)

[ImperialGuard]

Well .... I've bought the game, now I need a system to run it. I've been saving my pennies since May and I'm looking at Dell.ca (I'm in Canada...)

Dell XPS9100 ~ $1400

Intel® Core™i7-930 processor(8MB L2 Cache, 2.80GHz)
6GB Tri Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz- 3 DIMMs
ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio
Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English


I'd appreciate any feedback, suggestions, recommendations on changes to the spec, any better deals etc..

thanks in advance

 

[Auncien]

Suggestion: Do not buy a Dell computer. Build your own system or have one custom built for you.

 

[tokala]

Well .... I've bought the game, now I need a system to run it. I've been saving my pennies since May and I'm looking at Dell.ca (I'm in Canada...)

Dell XPS9100 ~ $1400

Intel® Core™i7-930 processor(8MB L2 Cache, 2.80GHz)
6GB Tri Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz- 3 DIMMs
ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio
Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English


I'd appreciate any feedback, suggestions, recommendations on changes to the spec, any better deals etc..

thanks in advance

The XPSes aren't bad if you prefer a pre-build system. If you start customizing, they tend to get a bit expensive, though.

If the new computer is intended primarily for gaming and for Civ5 in particular, the XPS8100 with a i5-750 would deliver almost the same CPU performance as the i7-930.
The HD 5870 is not available for the 8100, but a HD 5770 should be more than sufficient for Civ5. So for $1000 you can get a rig that will probably run Civ5 just as well as the $1400 one.

 

[mattcrwi]

Auncien, from my experience if you are not comfortable debugging your own hardware, custom builds are not for you. The extra security that comes with a warranty is worth the 10% you are going to save on the price.

I think tokala hand good advice.

 

[Giant Dwarf]

The video card will get him much further than Civ 5, so it's probably a good investment. Don't get a card just for civ.

 

[Zhahz]

Even if you're buying the system for only Civ, why get the lesser system? If you can afford it, get the extra oomph. Expansions could bump up the reqs and who knows, maybe some day you'll wanna play a game other than Civ 5....maybe.

 

[tokala]

Even if you're buying the system for only Civ, why get the lesser system? If you can afford it, get the extra oomph. Expansions could bump up the reqs and who knows, maybe some day you'll wanna play a game other than Civ 5....maybe.

The more expensive CPU isn't faster anyway, and video cards are the computer components with the shortest shelf life. If you should feel in two or three years that a HD 5770 isn't fast enough anymore:
for half the price difference of today you will be able to get something with the lastest technology that will be significantly faster than that once cutting-edge HD5870.

 

[SeismoGraf]

If you really can't wait and want to buy the system now, there are two kinds of risks:

• The GPU will not meet your expectations and be unable to run your desired settings smoothly. Settings, which you haven't mentioned: resolution? anti-aliasing? Then there's always the subjective notion of "smooth" i.e. average/minimum FPS.
• The system is more than good enough. A cheaper system would have done the job for Civ5.

Assuming a Core i7 with 6GB of RAM will be more than enough to run the game at max.

 

[ImperialGuard]

The more expensive CPU isn't faster anyway, and video cards are the computer components with the shortest shelf life. If you should feel in two or three years that a HD 5770 isn't fast enough anymore:
for half the price difference of today you will be able to get something with the lastest technology that will be significantly faster than that once cutting-edge HD5870.

Thanks Tokala for the advice......sadly I know nothing about hardware

If I go with a HD 5770, and then upgrade in a few years, will I have to then perhaps replace motherboard, power supply, "cooling system" etc.. to accomodate an upgraded graphics card?

Do you know if the HD 5770 supports Direct X 11 ??

again, I appreciate your help

 

[Shurdus]

The mobo is also very important, and did you mention what mobo you will get?

 

[Sherlock]

Don't buy a Dell. Build your own pc and get an OEM version of Windows 7 from newegg.com.

PM me if you want more information.

Don't tie yourself to a proprietary design, crummy service and a 'special version' of Windows.

 

[Tylerryan79]

If you have 1400, and want the pc then get it. You could down grade, but then you'll probably have regrets.

 

[Jamuka]

If I go with a HD 5770, and then upgrade in a few years, will I have to then perhaps replace motherboard, power supply, "cooling system" etc.. to accomodate an upgraded graphics card?

Do you know if the HD 5770 supports Direct X 11 ??

The 5870 is competitive enough with the GTX 480, but I would certainly get a GTX 460 instead of a 5770. And yes, it supports dx 11.

If you insist on buying a pre-built pc instead of making one, what you have listed isn't that bad a deal. I would still get a GTX 480 instead of a 5870, but that comes down to preference i guess.

 

[SeismoGraf]

If I go with a HD 5770, and then upgrade in a few years, will I have to then perhaps replace motherboard, power supply, "cooling system" etc.. to accomodate an upgraded graphics card?

Motherboard almost certainly not; power supply & cooling depends. If a "few years" is 5 years, then everything will be antiquated.

Do you know if the HD 5770 supports Direct X 11 ??

Yes, it does. Psst... my friend browser told me.

 

[tokala]

Thanks Tokala for the advice......sadly I know nothing about hardware

If I go with a HD 5770, and then upgrade in a few years, will I have to then perhaps replace motherboard, power supply, "cooling system" etc.. to accomodate an upgraded graphics card?

Do you know if the HD 5770 supports Direct X 11 ??

again, I appreciate your help

Of course no one knows yet how the hardware ecosystem will look in a few years from now. But at least for the foreseeable future (2-3 years, probably much longer) you can expect that every new video card generation will include lots of models that will be compatible with todays XPS8100. The video card interface (now PCI Express) seems to be one of the most stable standards of the PC: You can STILL buy AGP cards, which are obsolete since at least 4 years ago
The limiting factors will be power supply and case dimensions, as the more powerful cards usually are available as two-slot cooling designs that works independent of the case ventilation. As a rule of thumb, any card that fits mechanically and comes with up to one seperate power connector will most likely work.
You will probaly not be able to use the most powerful (and most expensive) models, but the price/performance sweetspot is hovering around 100W power consumption for some years already, and will most likely stay there for some more time

The HD 5770 is a DX11 card, as all HD 5xxx cards are

 

[Afforess]

My humble opinion - avoid the Big Name PC builders like the plague. You pay at least an extra 30%. You could get a 30% faster computer if you built it yourself.

(Built is a misnomer. Really, you're just assembling one. You don't need any special knowledge, there are how-to guides all over google.)

 

[Geek113377]

only advice: buy from a company other than Dell. Dell overprices everything. HPs break often. Buy from any other company and you will be good in my opinion.

 

[Furiey]

We get a lot of problems in the Civ 4 tech support forum due to companies such as Dell and HP insisting that you use their versions of the drivers rather than nVidia or ATI's for example. This makes it difficult to get up to date drivers. Add the price premium to that and I would look at either building your own or looking at a non-brand version. When I was looking at building my current desktop I found it was cheaper to have my local computer shop put a custom computer together (including installing Windows etc) for me than it was to buy the components and assemble it myself. That also gives a guarantee.

 

[andrewlt]

I bought an HP a couple of months ago since it was much cheaper to customize and upgrade stuff compared to Dell's.

# • Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
# • Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-930 quad-core [2.8GHz, 1MB L2 + 8MB shared L3 cache]
# • 12GB DDR3-1066MHz SDRAM [6 DIMMs]
# • 1TB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
# • 1.5GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 230 [DVI, HDMI, VGA]
# • LightScribe 16X max. DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive
# • Blu-ray player & Lightscribe SuperMulti DVD burner
# • 640 GB HP Pocket Media Drive

My video card is probably a little weak and I guess I went overboard with the RAM. It came out to around $1400 as well, though I did have a company discount. Supposedly, the i7 930 is really good for overclocking if you want to.

 

[Louis XXIV]

Sorry to bombard with techs, but I need to know if it's worth a pre-order.

CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) II P320 Dual-Core Processor
CPU Speed: 2.09 GHz
Ram: 3.7 GB
Video Card: ATI display adapter (0x9712)

Canyourunit says I pass all but the CPU and CPU speed. Should I just wait for the demo?