please help a total NOOB build a great gaming rig

[Vecna6667]

smh.

I was telling you guys that dropping the dvd drive and windows would give you room to upgrade from the i3 to an i5.

 

Understandable, but the i5 should cost around $215 while the i3 is around $115. The i7-2600K is somewhere in the $315 to $340 range. The problem with dropping the optical drive(the brand that I mentioned in the earlier post is about $25) is that most games are installed on with DVD disks and not every game is available through Steam, the EA Store, or D2Drive. With the Operating System, unless he wants to transfer the hard drive from his previous computer to the custom built PC, he'll need that and it will also require a DVD drive to install the OS.

 

If all he is doing is playing games, the dual core i3 would be enough as most games are still optimized for two cores. If he is recording videos as well(like gameanyone.com,) then the i5 is a better choice with the i7 leaving the others in the dust. Both the i3 and i7 have hyperthreading, but only the i5-2500K and i7-2600K have overclocking in LGA1155.

[urbex]

smh.

I was telling you guys that dropping the dvd drive and windows would give you room to upgrade from the i3 to an i5.

 

Understandable, but the i5 should cost around $215 while the i3 is around $115. The i7-2600K is somewhere in the $315 to $340 range. The problem with dropping the optical drive(the brand that I mentioned in the earlier post is about $25) is that most games are installed on with DVD disks and not every game is available through Steam, the EA Store, or D2Drive. With the Operating System, unless he wants to transfer the hard drive from his previous computer to the custom built PC, he'll need that and it will also require a DVD drive to install the OS.

 

If all he is doing is playing games, the dual core i3 would be enough as most games are still optimized for two cores. If he is recording videos as well(like gameanyone.com,) then the i5 is a better choice with the i7 leaving the others in the dust. Both the i3 and i7 have hyperthreading, but only the i5-2500K and i7-2600K have overclocking in LGA1155.

You're better off with a Phenom II X4 than an i3. When I built my PC I still had my Windows 7 disk, and I just put my new HDD in it to install windows.

I've never found a game that is only available optically.

[GremlinArsonist]

wow, thanks for all the posts so far folks- i am looking forward to all the input...

 

i would like to clarify a few things for anyone that is offering advice...first, i really appreciate the suggestions, since i am learning as i go here-- i basically have no idea what i am doing

 

secondly, i am a HUGE fan of the fallout series on the PS3. <-- this is the only way i have ever played the games, but while searching for a "game guide" i keep finding these websites (such as this very site- thank you google) talking about mods- i have spent the last couple of weeks dabbling on these sites and have become AMAZED by all the modifications capable for these games... the point is this- for the first six months that i own my new gaming rig, Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas will be the ONLY games that i am playing...but i would like to run them at max resolution and max frames per second...all the while using a couple of mods- most likely FOOK and/or the "monster" mods i have seen

 

thirdly, as for the statements people have made regarding an optical drive, i am definitly going to put in a BD drive because the computer will be serving as a sort-of media center for my living room when i am not gaming, so any suggestions on the make and/or model i should use would be great.......and in regards to this "media center" concept, my gaming rig will be located in my living room in the same entertainment center that my TV is in-- obviously this means i want to keep the noise level as low as possible so as not to disturb my wife while she is watching the television. with that in mind, i was wondering if maybe a solid-state drive could be a good option

 

before anyone freaks out on me, i know the cost for an SSD is quite higher than HDD, and that they are much smaller in storage size, but i was thinking an SSD could be beneficial in my specific situation because i have a netflix account that i stream videos through, so i will not be permanently storing many movies or tv episodes, and the rig will also not be used for a music player -- it would only be storing a small number of tunes just so i can mix up the tracks on my MP3 player regularly.

 

PS -- i would also love to hear input on Nvidia graphics cards VS. others, mostly because Nvidia is basically the only GPU i have ever really heard of-- so i have no info on other makes or models

 

PPS -- also, there is virtually no way that i would be getting an i7, it is quite simply too much machine for my use to justify the cost-- that is unless someone out there can show an argument for how an i7 would benefit running FO3 or FONV at max res / max FPS

 

once again thank you so much for any help you are willing to give me

Edited March 1, 2011 by GremlinArsonist

[urbex]

Uhh, max FPS, I'll assume you mean sixty. Will you be using graphics enhancing mods like NMC's retex pack?

My GTX460 can do max settings & NMC's at ~30fps. It feels fine but I definitely notice the smoothness increase at 60.

[Vecna6667]

wow, thanks for all the posts so far folks- i am looking forward to all the input...

 

i would like to clarify a few things for anyone that is offering advice...first, i really appreciate the suggestions, since i am learning as i go here-- i basically have no idea what i am doing

 

secondly, i am a HUGE fan of the fallout series on the PS3. <-- this is the only way i have ever played the games, but while searching for a "game guide" i keep finding these websites (such as this very site- thank you google) talking about mods- i have spent the last couple of weeks dabbling on these sites and have become AMAZED by all the modifications capable for these games... the point is this- for the first six months that i own my new gaming rig, Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas will be the ONLY games that i am playing...but i would like to run them at max resolution and max frames per second...all the while using a couple of mods- most likely FOOK and/or the "monster" mods i have seen

 

thirdly, as for the statements people have made regarding an optical drive, i am definitly going to put in a BD drive because the computer will be serving as a sort-of media center for my living room when i am not gaming, so any suggestions on the make and/or model i should use would be great.......and in regards to this "media center" concept, my gaming rig will be located in my living room in the same entertainment center that my TV is in-- obviously this means i want to keep the noise level as low as possible so as not to disturb my wife while she is watching the television. with that in mind, i was wondering if maybe a solid-state drive could be a good option

 

before anyone freaks out on me, i know the cost for an SSD is quite higher than HDD, and that they are much smaller in storage size, but i was thinking an SSD could be beneficial in my specific situation because i have a netflix account that i stream videos through, so i will not be permanently storing many movies or tv episodes, and the rig will also not be used for a music player -- it would only be storing a small number of tunes just so i can mix up the tracks on my MP3 player regularly.

 

PS -- i would also love to hear input on Nvidia graphics cards VS. others, mostly because Nvidia is basically the only GPU i have ever really heard of-- so i have no info on other makes or models

 

PPS -- also, there is virtually no way that i would be getting an i7, it is quite simply too much machine for my use to justify the cost-- that is unless someone out there can show an argument for how an i7 would benefit running FO3 or FONV at max res / max FPS

 

once again thank you so much for any help you are willing to give me

 

An SSD sees the most benefits for booting and loading. Games that have loading screens should experience almost zero load time. When looking for an SSD, look for a specific type called a SandForce drive. These have a control chip made by a company called SandForce and have an average life of 5 years and tend to be faster. Look for the SandForce Driven logo(similar to BASF or the Intel inside logos) and most SSD makers use SandForce including, but not limited to, Corsair, OCZ, Crucial, and Intel. Just a reminder for those that use a media players like iTunes, move the library to a mechanical Hard Drive while keeping iTunes on the SSD. This is also true for most documents.

 

There are two GPU makers (Graphic Processing Units,) nVidia and AMD(formerly ATI.) Of these two, only AMD makes their own graphics cards and both AMD and nVidia have third-party graphics card makers (EVGA, Asus, MSI, GigaByte, etc.) AMD GPUs draw less power at full load than nVidia's GPUs and tend to have a better price to performance ratio. nVidia cards draw more power and have certain features like CUDA and PhysX to try to make the CPU less important for gaming but the multi-vendor OpenCL is just as good.

 

As for the i7, unless you plan to record and transcode videos constantly, it is not worth it. For example, any recent PC game that has a walkthrough at GameAnyone.com probably had an i7 where its hyperthreading abililties sped the editing, rendering and encoding(transcoding) of video files tremendously. Where a quad-core i5 might take 4-5 hours for the whole process, the i7 with an extra 4 virtual cores will take around 2 and a half to 3 hours(it isn't a true octa-core processor after all.) The times given are for the purposes of being an example, it might take less time or it might take more time for all I know.

Edited March 1, 2011 by Vecna6667

[GremlinArsonist]

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urbex

Posted Today, 12:37 AM

 

Uhh, max FPS, I'll assume you mean sixty. Will you be using graphics enhancing mods like NMC's retex pack?

My GTX460 can do max settings & NMC's at ~30fps. It feels fine but I definitely notice the smoothness increase at 60.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

yes i did mean sixty, and i might be using a retexture pack but i doubt i would use it in conjunction with any other mods. in fact, i probably wouldnt be stacking many mods at all because i would like to see the individual effects. also, i think the texture of the game is adequate enough as is-- it doesnt thrill me, but it doesnt pull me out of the gaming experience very often either....of course, this is based on PS3 experience alone

 

as a general question to anyone out there, is it true that RAM has more to do with the smoothness of gameplay than the GPU? <---this is in regards specifically to FO3 and FONV.....and assuming RAM is more of a factor, would 4GB be enough, or should i get 8GB just to be sure that i wont need an upgrade in the next year or so?

[Thandal]

... as a general question to anyone out there, is it true that RAM has more to do with the smoothness of gameplay than the GPU? <---this is in regards specifically to FO3 and FONV.....and assuming RAM is more of a factor, would 4GB be enough, or should i get 8GB just to be sure that i wont need an upgrade in the next year or so?

Both are crucial to the overall gaming experience. If either one is insufficient, (inadequate compared to the capabilities of other the parts of the overall sytem, including the software) you will definitely notice. But RAM is so cheap these days, and (when coupled with a decent CPU) can also compensate for some (not all) shortcomings in your video sub-system. So there's no reason not to max it out. And on a cost-basis, it's always the best-buy!

 

Once you've got all the RAM your MB will hold, then get the best GPU you can with the amount you have left to spend.

 

HDD speed (technically, the "seek/read" throughput) used to be a purchase-decision factor as well, but modern drives generally make it a non-issue for gamers.

[phoenix0113]

4GB is all you need. If it is DDR3 and runs at a good range of mhz honestly, you don't need much. RAM is not the biggest aspect of fallout because it doesnt actually use more than 2GB (unless you get that 4GB unlocker mod). And honestly, your computer will not even get to 4GB in a single load. I ran fallout 3, ps4, mw2, firefox with 1080p youtube video, windows media player, and a couple other programs at the same time and I got to 3.5GB load. There is no way you need more than 4GB. It won't hurt to get more but IMO you are wasting your money unless you want to build an ultimate gaming rig. Edited March 1, 2011 by phoenix0113

[urbex]

Are you really sure? I mean, with it the game looks so much better. http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=12056

4GB is all you need. If it is DDR3 and runs at a good range of mhz honestly, you don't need much. RAM is not the biggest aspect of fallout because it doesnt actually use more than 2GB (unless you get that 4GB unlocker mod). And honestly, your computer will not even get to 4GB in a single load. I ran fallout 3, ps4, mw2, firefox with 1080p youtube video, windows media player, and a couple other programs at the same time and I got to 3.5GB load. There is no way you need more than 4GB. It won't hurt to get more but IMO you are wasting your money unless you want to build an ultimate gaming rig.

Agreed. You'll only want more than 4GB for something like 3DS max.

The money saved on the extra 4GB is better put towards the graphics card.

[GremlinArsonist]

okay, urbex those pics convinced me...maybe i will be running NMCs texture pack in conjunction with FOOK or FOOK2 and the MMM...does that mean i need more RAM or a better GPU?

 

and what is "3DS max" exactly?

Edited March 1, 2011 by GremlinArsonist