With NBW coming out, looking to upgrade (up to $3-4K)

[CGPanama]

I have 16 GB ram as well. Doesn't seem to do much.

I only play on bootcamp since I love to play with mods, and you can't use mods on the mac version. How is your performance on OS X? Do you play with something above the lowest settings?

You most certainly can play mods on the Mac (I have the MBPwR as well), though this may become a problem when Mods start taking advantage of the DLL. It takes a little effort. I had an applescript for a while that copied the files that download from the workshop and unzipped, but it stopped working and I have not had time to figure out why. Still only takes a few minutes to copy over the latest updates/downloads - I usually do it after each finished game - and have yet to have any problems other than mod conflict issues.

That said, I have also played in BootCamp (Win7) and found the graphics difference to be slightly better, but have only used it when there has been a lag between versions (DLC impatience or MP compatibility). Even played it in Parallels, but have to go pretty low on the settings to work well -- and usually just revert to strategic view.

 

[PostConsumerWat]

give yourself a month or two to find the right fit.

I recommend lurking on websites such as techbargains.com and slickdeals.net. Some of the users of slickdeals.net are excellent at pricing. Find a popular thread on desktops and ask a question. Many of the people there would love to help you.

I guess I'd recommend a Lenovo refurb desktop tower, pick up a video card... maybe a 7790, 650ti, or better... make sure it will fit into the tower.

Another thing to consider is the monitor. I recently ordered a 27" 2560x1440 through Pricedrop and Monoprice for 350 shipped... you could also get 2-3 1080p monitors and have Civ5 on 2-3 screens... but you might need a more powerful video card for that... 7870? 7950... dunno...

just some friendly advice.. I actually run civ5 on my old phenomII 965 with a HD 5870.. and it runs pretty well... I read that Intel does a better job of powering civ5... so you might want to check that out.

but if you have a Microcenter nearby, they have some great bundle deals on motherboard/CPU combos...

 

[HeraldtheGreat]

You don't need something even close to that amount of money. A gaming rig near $1000 tops would run this game and many others flawlessly.

I bought an Asus a few years ago and it runs this game great. I bought it for around $800 and that was right before the game came out. I would imagine for the same price today you can get something way better.

I just bought a Sony VAIO laptop for the same price, and it's runs the game faster then I imagined it to. Gone are the days where I can't even watch the intro movie.

Anyways, for $1000 you could get a real snazzy Alienware desktop. Just look up the brand.

 

[Txurce]

I have a Dell system: 4GB RAM, AMD Athlon IIx4630 processor (2.8 GHz), ATI Radeon HD4200 video card.

I had no problem running vanilla Civ 5 on my system (clouds, animated leaders) but with G&K, the lag in activating a unit when clicking led me to switch permanently to strategic view. There I can play on huge maps with extra civs, and have no problems with the pace.

What would I need to change in order to be able to play without that lag on regular view? (I could live with no clouds, although I'd rather not.) And could BNW improve my situation back t my pre-G&K nirvana, or is it more likely to make it worse?

Thanks a lot.

 

[luvfatfish]

I have an old 2600k intel processor running at 4ghz. 8g of ram and an amd 6850. I only see slow downs in turns towards the modern era. 20 seconds or so for the ai to go through its moves. I saw the biggest improvement in performance when I switched to a faster SSD. If it was me dropping that kind of moolah for a gaming PC and not building it myself I would go with one of the boutique builders. Maingear for example. I would get a samsung 840 pro 256gb SSD as your boot drive and to put your games on. Don't get windows 8. 7 is much less annoying. Any quad core intel processor will do. 8gigs of ram is still plenty for me. While more is better I tend to have bad luck with sticks that die. Graphics I am not up to date on but pretty much any card with 3gigs of ram will be overkill.

You can save a big chunk of change by ordering a 27 inch 2560x1440 monitor off of ebay. The off brands from asia are 220 dollars and are the exact same panels apple uses for there 1000 dollar retina displays. I have two of them and they rock.

Good luck!

 

[Seek]

I have 16 GB ram as well. Doesn't seem to do much.

Bootcamp's major flaw is that it limits RAM usage to 2 gigs, so it doesn't matter how much you have installed. I run Civ5 on bootcamp on medium settings fine, no crashes (but I've got a Mac Pro quad core with an upgraded graphics card).

I have a Dell system: 4GB RAM, AMD Athlon IIx4630 processor (2.8 GHz), ATI Radeon HD4200 video card.

I had no problem running vanilla Civ 5 on my system (clouds, animated leaders) but with G&K, the lag in activating a unit when clicking led me to switch permanently to strategic view. There I can play on huge maps with extra civs, and have no problems with the pace.

What would I need to change in order to be able to play without that lag on regular view? (I could live with no clouds, although I'd rather not.) And could BNW improve my situation back t my pre-G&K nirvana, or is it more likely to make it worse?

Thanks a lot.

Have you tried setting the game to not use multi-threading? Support for multi-threading was introduced in G&K, and disabling it has been known to speed things up for some people. (Go to C:\Users\<user>\Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 5, open the "config" file and change "EnableGameCoreThreading = 1" to "EnableGameCoreThreading = 0")

 

[Glassmage]

my alienware aurora desktop is $2000 from 2 years ago and play civ5 fine. If you can spend $4000 on the current model then you are golden.

 

[northtexan95]

I've cross-posted this in the Computer Talk forum, but that forum seems much less lively and I'm not sure which forum this is more appropriate for. Mods, if this is inappropriate, please feel free to delete.

I've been desktop-less for about 10 years now, and I'm looking to get back in the game. Short story is that I'm getting a new job which actually gives me a work laptop, so I no longer need my personal computer to be a laptop, freeing me up to spend the money on a desktop (I was due to upgrade anyway).

Anyways, I'm not super-techie, so I'm not really qualified to build my own machine, but I do love love love PC gaming, and I'm a little sick of playing games on my laptop (which is good, but can't compare to a good gaming PC). I don't want the hassle of having to build my own PC either, so I hate buying party by part and assembling, so I'd like to just buy the comp already made.

Can I get some advice on what I should get? I'm most excited to be able to play BNW without it always crashing and going really slow, and I'm willing to shell out between $3,000 and $4,000 if its really worth it, so I'd obviously like the computer to last a while. I just feel dumb going on random PC-building websites and playing with the customization options without really knowing what I'm doing.

If there's already a thread on this type thing, please direct me there; I didn't see one.

You're exactly where I was about five years ago. I got tired of putting the time and effort into building my own machine. I do enough computer work at work - at home I want to play. I also wanted a machine that was quiet enough to be in the house. Whenever I built a machine I never got one quiet enough for my liking (or my wife's).

If I had $4k to spend on a gaming computer, I'd spend $1k on the computer and $3k on something for my wife so she won't be so upset with my time spent gaming.

What I do is I buy a Dell desktop with the best processor I can afford. I know I can always upgrade the RAM, video card, and hard drive easily in the future but the processor can be very tricky to upgrade. Adding a video card or RAM is super easy.

In the Spring of 2012 I got an i7 3.9 (8 core) processor, 8 GB RAM, 500 GB HD for less than $600 from Dell on a deal. I installed a good video card for about $150 and I can play all games at max or near max levels. Later this year I'll probably upgrade the video card and play everything at max levels. The thing is, my processor will last me several years before that becomes a bottle neck. A Dell does have limitations (no overclocking cpu, limited power supply) but unless you're building a top rig it shouldn't be an issue. Plus, the Dell will be quiet so you can sleep in the same room.

In short, I'd spend no more than $1k on a machine and then use extra money on a very good monitor (27" or larger), good desk, and quality chair.

 

[damnyankees]

You're exactly where I was about five years ago. I got tired of putting the time and effort into building my own machine. I do enough computer work at work - at home I want to play. I also wanted a machine that was quiet enough to be in the house. Whenever I built a machine I never got one quiet enough for my liking (or my wife's).

If I had $4k to spend on a gaming computer, I'd spend $1k on the computer and $3k on something for my wife so she won't be so upset with my time spent gaming.

What I do is I buy a Dell desktop with the best processor I can afford. I know I can always upgrade the RAM, video card, and hard drive easily in the future but the processor can be very tricky to upgrade. Adding a video card or RAM is super easy.

In the Spring of 2012 I got an i7 3.9 (8 core) processor, 8 GB RAM, 500 GB HD for less than $600 from Dell on a deal. I installed a good video card for about $150 and I can play all games at max or near max levels. Later this year I'll probably upgrade the video card and play everything at max levels. The thing is, my processor will last me several years before that becomes a bottle neck. A Dell does have limitations (no overclocking cpu, limited power supply) but unless you're building a top rig it shouldn't be an issue. Plus, the Dell will be quiet so you can sleep in the same room.

In short, I'd spend no more than $1k on a machine and then use extra money on a very good monitor (27" or larger), good desk, and quality chair.

Where the hell do you buy an 8 core processor. Most I've seen on these build-a-comp sites is 6.

 

[Securion]

4 cores, 4 gb ram and 1 gb graphics card is fine for this game.

I run everything on MAX with a 6950. Flawless.

 

[kingchris20]

Alienware, a lot of people hate on it, but that is what I spent my money on and haven't felt the least bit unsatisfied.

 

[BobDole]

Alienware, a lot of people hate on it, but that is what I spent my money on and haven't felt the least bit unsatisfied.

They make decent stuff but it's way overpriced.

 

[Glassmage]

he said $4k is what he can spend so I don't see why not.... but seriously, do not get an alienware laptop. get a desktop

 

[MadDjinn]

ok, to actually answer your question (unlike all of the random posts so far) --

go to a website like ncix.com (there are others as well) and start with one of their bundles. They will build and test the machine for you, then mail it 'whole' to you. I used them for my $3K PC a number of years ago, and the only thing I had to install myself was the aftermarket heatsink - only due to shipping concerns of it falling off. Else, everything else is done for you.


First thing to do would be to figure out if you want AMD or Intel for the CPU. The next step is to decide on AMD/ATI or NVidia for the Graphics card. These are the two most important choices and both are worth going towards the high end if you want them to last for a few years before replacing them.

AMD is generally cheaper than both Nvidia/Intel, and is on par (for what you need) performance wise (though the high end Intel CPUs are better, they're usually far more expensive).

don't change the motherboard as most online places assume you know what you're doing and won't tell you when you've chosen the wrong one. When in doubt, google it and/or ask people to see if it fits your needs. and so forth... when in doubt, start here:

http://pc.ncix.com/pcbuilder/pcbuil...6009-1-0|60288-1-0|33601-1-0|58718-1-0|7842-0

(not sure if the link will be there for long as it's just a preview). The above system is ~2200 CDN, but does not have a printer (increases costs) or headphones/speaker system. There's likely a number of other things I've forgotten in there as well.

so anyways, $4K might be beyond the upper limit for a solid PC these days (overall costs have dropped though you can still pay more for 'brand name', if you really want to throw money away) but anything in the 1K range is usually not worth buying for a 'long term' PC if you've got the $$ to spend for a good one.

 

[northtexan95]

Where the hell do you buy an 8 core processor. Most I've seen on these build-a-comp sites is 6.

Intel's i7's can have 8 cores. It cool to open up Windows Task Manager and see 8 little CPU Usage boxes going at the same time

 

[MadDjinn]

Intel's i7's can have 8 cores. It cool to open up Windows Task Manager and see 8 little CPU Usage boxes going at the same time

his question was about buying them, not after you already have it.

8 core CPUs are still fairly rare for 'consumers', which means that a lot of the 'cheapo'/non-techy build a PC places won't have them.

 

[damnyankees]

ok, to actually answer your question (unlike all of the random posts so far) --

go to a website like ncix.com (there are others as well) and start with one of their bundles. They will build and test the machine for you, then mail it 'whole' to you. I used them for my $3K PC a number of years ago, and the only thing I had to install myself was the aftermarket heatsink - only due to shipping concerns of it falling off. Else, everything else is done for you.


First thing to do would be to figure out if you want AMD or Intel for the CPU. The next step is to decide on AMD/ATI or NVidia for the Graphics card. These are the two most important choices and both are worth going towards the high end if you want them to last for a few years before replacing them.

AMD is generally cheaper than both Nvidia/Intel, and is on par (for what you need) performance wise (though the high end Intel CPUs are better, they're usually far more expensive).

don't change the motherboard as most online places assume you know what you're doing and won't tell you when you've chosen the wrong one. When in doubt, google it and/or ask people to see if it fits your needs. and so forth... when in doubt, start here:

http://pc.ncix.com/pcbuilder/pcbuil...6009-1-0|60288-1-0|33601-1-0|58718-1-0|7842-0

(not sure if the link will be there for long as it's just a preview). The above system is ~2200 CDN, but does not have a printer (increases costs) or headphones/speaker system. There's likely a number of other things I've forgotten in there as well.

so anyways, $4K might be beyond the upper limit for a solid PC these days (overall costs have dropped though you can still pay more for 'brand name', if you really want to throw money away) but anything in the 1K range is usually not worth buying for a 'long term' PC if you've got the $$ to spend for a good one.

Thanks, I'm poking around that website now. It's not the most user-friendly thing in the world. It doesn't even look like it's possible to buy the system that has the components in that link.

 

[MadDjinn]

Thanks, I'm poking around that website now. It's not the most user-friendly thing in the world. It doesn't even look like it's possible to buy the system that has the components in that link.

It's starts here:

http://pc.ncix.com/pcbuilder/

then I chose the AMD FX Performance build and massively customized it.

 

[damnyankees]

It's starts here:

http://pc.ncix.com/pcbuilder/

then I chose the AMD FX Performance build and massively customized it.

Awesome, thanks. I couldn't find that page.

 

[Nials]

I would recommend against going with an AMD FX series CPU when you are going to use a discrete video card. With GPU bound games, it won't matter, but with games that are also more CPU dependent, Intel is mostly the superior choice.

http://www.techspot.com/review/679-intel-haswell-core-i7-4770k/page12.html

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2013/06/12/intel-core-i5-4670k-haswell-cpu-review/5

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5771/the-intel-ivy-bridge-core-i7-3770k-review/7

EDIT:

http://pc.ncix.com/pcbuilder/pcbuil...6009-1-0|60288-1-0|33601-1-0|58718-1-0|7842-0

Not sure how much customization you did there or was able to do, but a 1200W PSU is massively overkill for that system, even half of that wattage would be plentiful. Additionally, I question the need for 4TB of storage unless damnyankees has some extreme storage requirements. For your average user, an SSD coupled with a 1TB disk for storage makes a lot more sense. Depending on headphones/speakers, you might not even get much use out of a discrete sound card, either.