Hi there So I'm currently on the road to building a PC and this PC should be able to run Planetside 2 smoothly. The graphics will need to be High-Ultra whilst recording (with MSI Afterburner). Things like shadows, terrain and other bits and bobs can be turned down and edited in the User.ini file. Other things outside Planetside 2 can be done to give it that extra boost. It would be really helpful for you to mention your PC specs and your FPS in Planetside 2. I can't say that I'm the ultimate PC Builder, but I can have a good discussion here (I only know stuff about Intel and Nvidia - No AMD No Readon stuff because I have no clue about it ). Here is what I put together on parts picker. http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/7RGMHx My budget is £500-£700 Now the real itcher for me is the graphics card. Considering price, it the GTX 960 better/ worse than a GTX 750Ti. Or is the GTX 980 the best Nvidia graphics card for Planetside 2. You know those sort of questions. Thanks for you help (P.S Here is a video of what I currently run the game on https://goo.gl/XFHtb4 )
For me it looks like you need another/bigger case. I'd also go for a faster i5 with a "K" in the name. The GTX960 might be fine, especially if you want to record your gameplay: #Shadowplay
Id personally choose a Radeon GPU as they are (in Germany) much cheaper with much more performance. Im personally picking a pretty similar setup but I ordered an R9 290 with the i5 4460
My Specs look like that: i5-4590 with turbo activated EVGA GTX 960 SSC with 2GB and slightly overclocked with MSI Afterburner. So it's an SSSC now... 16GB RAM -> the GPU is always the bottleneck. By Far. But it can always change with performance updates... However I always (always is relative) have 60+ FPS and mostly 100+ FPS on 1080p. You could easily take a good OC'd GTX 970 and every Haswell >3GHZ i5 is still the bottleneck. 8Gb of Ram is enough for any current game, I only bought a second 8gb stick to increase the CPU performance via dual channel. So buy two random cheap but not crappy 4Gb Sticks and you're fine. The CPU: An i5 is the best choice, because an i7 is basically an i5 with hyper treading and costs almost twice as much with NO performance gain in games. And an i3 is not much cheaper for being a half i7 / i5. Which i5 you want is well... just calculate price/GHZ, which is pretty much price/performance, when you don't want to overclock. I am no big fan of AMD, because they have a MAD power consumption. Both CPU and GPU...
Everyone tells me that and are like "You need 750W PSU or even 1000W PSU!" and all people that have a 500-600W PSU and an R9 290X are like "works fine" Oh but seriously, dont use AMD CPUs, friend of mine made that mistake
"K" versions CPU's are only for overclocking if he's not overclocking (what i recommend) he will not need a K-version it's better to upgrade to a new CPU and motherboard when games ask for more performance, what will be in a couple off years
Thanks guys for your feedback so far. Highly appreciated Got a few more questions 1) I have this 10 year old (5-10) DVD/CD drive called the Lite-On it SHW-160P6S. Will this be able to install Windows 7/8/10? 2) Is it cheaper to get an i5 K CPU and overclock it to match the performance of an i7 (or above 4GHz) without needing to buy a separate CPU fan cooler? 3) Is it safe? I have heard some scary things about overclocking 4) Do you think this case is big enough? http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00DDC214K/?tag=pcp0f-21 I want my cable management be tidy
1) You can't use that DVD drive anymore as modern mainboards don't support IDE. If you really need one get a cheap one. 2) The i7 is not superior in Planetside. Overclocking with the stock cooler is also not recommended. 3) Depends on how carefully you proceed. It is reasonably safe with Intel CPUs.
Ok thanks. Another thing does the GTX 660 match the performance of a GTX 960? I know it sounds like a weird question but from what I see in YouTuber specs and other stuff, I may be able to save myself a few pounds And is this case big enough to fix all my components in? http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00DDC214K/?tag=pcp0f-21
The 660 is much lower than the 960 so it is not a good alternative for it. As for cases. I simply don't know enough about budget cases so I can't help you there.
i recommend to spend a little more for a CPU that can handle the performance of PS2 something like the i5 4690 with a price difference of 20€/15£/22$ from the i5 4460 the advantages of not overclocking - less heat - less power needed = save on electricity - longer life off other hardware - no PC problems - no screen off death by overclocking the wrong way - no errors - no startup problems - not daily solving the problems that occur after overclocking - do i need to go on only to save some small change today what you will lose within the next years on electricity and i am not even talking about the loss of money for early replacement off other hardware also the non K-versions are always a little cheaper i don't see the benefit of overclocking
^^Sounds a little bit like you are describing overclocking in the late '90s. - an overclocked cpu (not talking about crazy 5Ghz overclocks) with a decent aftermarket cooler (ca. 30 euros) has less (mucho) heat than a stock cpu with that earkilling stock-cooler. - IF you really have a slightly higher power consumption (new intel cpu's consumption is very low) it is for the benefit of a better game performance. - "longer life of other hardware"... really? what, where and when?? - i have an i5 3570K, am overclocking it to 4.3GHz every time before i start Planetside 2. I have none of the problems you are talking about. And: I can record videos in high quality with 60 FPS when my cpu is overclocked.
ok, you have a couple of points only the additional cost for CPU, overclocking motherboard, electricity, CPU cooler and maybe power supply is not worth the low overclock it's better to save your extra money and upgrade after years off gaming if i compose a new computer i can save up to 150€ for a non K-version with other hardware after 2 to 4 years when this PC becomes a mid end PC my 150€ will go a long way for a new CPU and maybe a new motherboard if the socket changed, and i will be playing for another 2 to 4 years with this PC it's a hobby off me to build new PC's and i always recommend a non K-version for gamers if i need to build one for my friends that overclock for sport and hobby they laugh at me if i suggest an i5 CPU overclockers always go for a i7 CPU and want to clock as high as possible and yes there daily game PC's are not overclocked
The system that the OP put together looks fine. But there are 2 things I would suggest: Using wired network connection if possible. Wireless always has its issues with latency and bandwith (e.g. if your wireless router does 150 Mbps it is the speed that is shared between all connected wireless devices) Choosing a unlocked CPU. In huge fights (like 300+ Biolab Zergfests) you would like to see a bit more performance on the CPU side But overall it looks totally legit. For the case of the size for the PSU: I'm running a OC'ed i5 & OC'ed GTX 660 Ti with 3 Hard drives on a 480W unit. As long as you don't want to runa multi GPU setup a decent power supply in the 450-650W range is totally sufficient. And for the VRAM thingy: 2 GB is totally fine for PS2, for other recent games I would sugggest looking for more. 4GB seems the sweet spot for more serious gaming on higher settings.
