New PC: What, Where, How Much?
 

I know and have known that I would need a new PC to play this game. Currently I have a desktop gaming PC that was decent when I purchased it in 2006... but its pretty dang ancient now.

I have an I7 HP Pavilion laptop with ATI mobility HD5650 1GB and 6GB or RAM... but for starters it only has 3 USB ports, not enough for my controllers!

So, I am fine with getting a new system specifically aimed at CLOD. This is not an unlimited budget exercise (no Alienware $5K system coming my way) but I can drop $2500 or so.

I love using my Samsung 46" LED TV as a monitor. Its 1080p, runs at 60Hz (claims 120... but baloney marketing, some gizmo software to make it "seem like" its running at 120 but its really still 60). I get great video on this HDTV with IL2 - 1946 and other games like Aces High so I hope it will be ok with this game too.

I am in no way, shape for form a techie. I read about all the system specs and its all pretty much gobbledygook to me.

I have gathered that a solid state HDD is a smart idea, but what size? I assume I would load the game on the SSD but also have a regular HDD to load everything else on?

I was leaning toward an I7 whatever.... ???? and 12GB 1600 RAM. Windows 7 64 system.

Also... seems a GeForce GTX 580 card with 3GB VRAM is the way to go?

Where should I purchase such a system? What else should I look at?

Any help is hugely appreciated. I want to purchase ASAP... because I know its going to take time for it to be built and shipped. I want a system that will play this on very high settings for a long time to come, meaning upgradable I guess.

Thanks again for all tips and help.


Terry

$2500?!?!? i built mine for $500 :) if your going to drop that amount of coin i would wait until the new gen of AMD (bulldozr) and INTEL come out this year.

Well, I have no clue how to build a PC and not much interest in learning. Reality is I have so much going on with work and kids and finding time to fly is a bit tough. Having to spend that time learning about and then building a PC... means it would be quite some time before having any actual fun.

I could be wrong, as I said I have never attempted to build a PC but it seems pretty dang complicated to me and I honestly just dont have the time to spend a months worth of evenings learning all about it.

So I want to purchase a system "off the shelf" or built to specs.

If what I need can be had for less than $2500.... then that is GREAT. Money is tight, that figure is the painful outside ragged edge of the affordability envelope.


Fang

+1

I seen a lot of people in this forum rushing to build a system for this game.

But just now is not the time to rush, bulldozer is coming and until that the best CPU choice is not clear.

And new GPUs are coming this year, and they are special because after two years that the GPU nm fabrication process was stuck in 40 nm finally it avanced to 28 nm, that mean a huge jump in performance.

So the new GPUs that are coming this year will comes with a huge yump in performance, close to double the performance of actual high ends cards.

So patience is a virtue :-)

sounds good if you have money to play for a gpu like that. What we talking of for the latest Nvidia flagship card? £500? my wife would cut my balls off.

Hmmmmmm


I can see the advantages of waiting if radical new tech is going to be released soon....


Then again, nobody knows what "soon" means and nobody knows for how much $$$$.

My system now cannot run the game at all. So waiting means waiting to play period.

Dang, now I have more questions rather than less.




Fang

:)

Where do you hail from, Fangio?

If you need something pre-assembled there's plenty of places they do that but we need to know your country.

As for the waiting game, yes you probably could do that as well, but I take it you're not a hardcore enthusiast that absolutely need to have the latest socket? Now is a good time to buy if you're in desperate need of "quality time". Bulldozer will probably be on par with Sandy Bridge(the newest intel socket) for a little less money(amd is traditionally cheaper than Intel) and I don't think Bulldozer a whole lot faster.

*edit* Ok I saw the $. YankLand it is. :)

*edit again* Here's something I whipped up for ya. I picked a full tower because they are much much easier to work with and you get some breathing room. The HAF X is a top notch steel case. Great airflow.

http://secure.newegg.com/Shopping/Sh...px?Submit=view

Total $2,227.65

You won't find a pre-assembled with those specs any cheaper.

Kimosabe...... yes, good ol' USA. I live north of Atlanta in Georgia. The Deep South. We have some pretty serious issues with being called Yank or Yankee around these parts. Goes back to a little fracas in the early 1860s involving Yankees and the burning down of cities in these parts. :)


Booterboy...

I would be very interested in the specs you chose and details / photos on your build! Please post!


Fang

I retract the Yank then. Sorry about that. There's still a bit of North vs South going on over there I see. :)

Personally I find it's learning how to sort out the software that takes all the time. Just building a PC is relatively straight-forward, and saves a chunk of cash.

If it's for CoD, then it might be worth waiting a month just to see what people are finding works well - eg, is it CPU or GC bottlenecked etc. You can get a fast PC without spending too much.

Fangio if you have to have something now than have a look at the specs below...this comes in around $1500 and should be able to play any game for atleast 2 years to come.

ASUS Crosshair IV Formula AM3 AMD 890FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard $229

SAPPHIRE 100312SR Radeon HD 6950 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity $275

the MB supports true dual X16 slots so you can add another 6950 at a later date for Crossfire

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-8GBRL $85

AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition Thuban 3.3GHz, 3.7GHz Turbo 6 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor $229
CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-1000HX 1000W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC $229

Patriot Inferno PI60GS25SSDR 2.5" 60GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) $145

Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1TB USB 3.0/USB 2.0 Black Portable Hard Drive $120

Keep your OS and games on the SSD and other files and backup on the external drive, externals are nice for portability.

add another $100 for a dvd burner and case and your set to go

Take the i7-2600K or the i5-2500K CPU. There is actual no way arround.

Asus P8P67 Board.

8 GB of Ram are enough.

And a video card of your choice.

Currently you can not say on which card CoD performs better (Nvidia or Ati).

I have a i5-2500K @ 4.9 GHz and a 6950 @ 6970.

I have enough frames. It´s all about the stuttering...

i5-2500K, Asus P8P67, 8 GB Ram, 6950 2Gb, SSD 120GB --> $ 1000

First off.... my comment about the term "Yankee" and being a southerner was tongue in cheek. Humor in case that goes over your head.

Secondly.... while Slavery was the primary motivator behind the Southern States choosing to secede from the Union, it was not the cause for which Southern soldier fought. The war was fought over whether or not Americans had the right to self determination that they exerted in 1776. Had you wandered around among the campfires in the Army of Northern Virginia in 1862 - 1865 and asked the soldiers why they were fighting you would have gotten many responses and reasons. I seriously doubt any would have mentioned slavery at all.

But hey, we all know how you liberal racist elitist's do not think people have the right to choose their own form of Govt. because YOU know better what is best for them and folks should just hand YOU all of the power because only YOU can effectively rule.

Your assumptions are correct in one way only: Liberals make me sick to my stomach.


Now... back to flying and Cliffs of Dover.




Fang

Since we're all on humorizing eachother I re-enable my Yank. lol

Are you going to build yourself, Fangio? Unless you have ten thumbs and all placed in the centre of your palm, setting up a rig really isn't too hard.

I was not planning to build my own as I have never done so before and I am not hot to starting at the long end of the learning curve. I am however not all thumbs.... I have rebuilt a number of cars and built Porsche racing engines so I have some technical expertise. But zero when it comes to computers.


Fang

I would advise to wait for the next two patches at least. They will give a good idea on what is TRULLY possible on different tiers of hardware.

As for new tech coming out- you can always sell some of the stuff. Graphics cards are easiest to unplug and are always in demand on ebay. Not so easy to change motherboards though- so this one needs to be future proof.

Fang,

I would suggest a gaming computer from iBuy Power or another custom builder. Here's a link
http://www.ibuypower.com/

Mine cost about $2,300 all in and I have been very pleased. Cuts through games like butter and came in about a week, very nicely packaged. Sales guys know their stuff. I am not a tech guy and would not consider building my own. This was the next best thing for me.

Same as me then, I'm an engine mechanic, have rebuilt/is rebuilding cars and rebuilt many engines/outboard/inboard drives in my time. I didn't know crap about computers two years ago when I bought my first desktop(yes I didn't even own a computer before that), it was also a pre built. Curiosity got the best of me and now I sit here with a fully customed watercooled rig with a separate cooling cabinet for two radiators, a separate powersupply and pumps/fans. If you're anything like me and have the interest, you're gonna learn the basics needed in no time. It's not even a long haul until you get into software or serious overclocking.

But that's my story. And I'm kind of a control freak when it comes to my tech.

so he should be able to drop a bulldozer chip right in :)

To wait until bull cames out will be wise, i'll not jump right in thoug, early adoption is not a nice way to build your first pc, there's always some tame to do on new architecture, but you can buy the now "obsolete" tech at much lower prices.

No matter how much you spend, in a year the tide will change, with that amount, you can build a seriously fast system right now, and make another step next year.

There's no point on spending 100 bucks for maybe a 15-20% improvement, that amounts to around 7fps.

For what i understand, having to sweat for those dollars, i'll do a two step rig.

Go for a good quad, with stock cooling and speeds, good amount of quality ram (don't bother on high performance kits, it does nothing for real world performance) and vga's like nvidia 560-570, or ati 6950.

Be generous with the psu, 650+ top quality, it will last years and will save you lots of headaches, bad energy supply can give you surprises like higher temps on your vga, bad 3d performance and even unstability.

PD:Custom vgas with slightly higer clocks and better than stock cooling doesn't hurt.

Fangio,

If you are looking for a pre-built system, then you might want to take a GOOD look at MAINGEAR:
http://www.maingear.com/index.php

They have an excellent reputation, and are quite 'reasonable' for being a high end boutique builder.

They used to offer AMD based systems, but it looks like now all they offer are Intel based ones. That's not all bad, but I am a confirmed AMD fan boy and it pains me to see folks like Maingear ignoring AMD.

OH, and don't worry about what some folks are saying about that little fracas sometime back. You and I both know that the history books have it wrong, and that it was really "The War of Northern Aggression". ;)

I'd go for the $450 version of a video card and spend the other $50 on a comfy chair pillow to sit on while you play CoD. ;)

Try Cyberpower pc...use newegg to study the components you want to put in. I usually read most of the reviews before I buy anything. I bought a Gigabyte 890 board, amd 965 processor, 8 gb ripjaw pc 1333 ram, and a corsair 750 psu for my initial setup. The next step is the GPU, either a nvidia gtx 460 or hopefully a gtx 560 with 2 gb ram.

Ok, I took some advice from here and other places and ordered a new system from ibuypower.com


NZXT Phantom Full Tower Gaming Case - White
Intel® Core™ i7 960 Processor (4x 3.20GHz/8MB L3 Cache)
[6-Port] NZXT Internal USB Expansion System + Bluetooth Module
12 GB [2 GB X6] DDR3-1600 - Corsair or Major Brand
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 - 3GB - Single Card
[3-Way SLI] ASUS Rampage III Extreme w/ 4x PCI-E 2.0 x16
1000 Watt -- Extreme Gaming Series
120 GB Intel X25-M MLC SSD - Single Drive
1 TB HARD DRIVE -- 64M Cache, 7200 RPM, 6.0Gb/s - Single Drive
[10X Blu-Ray] LG BLU-RAY Reader, DVD±R/±RW Burner Combo Drive - Black
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium + Office Starter 2010 - 64-Bit
ASUS USB-N13 802.11b/g/n USB 2.0 300Mbps Wireless USB Adapter


Some other little stuff also included but that pretty much sums it up. That came in a decent bit under my budget and from all I could tell it should be able to run this game if not on the highest settings then pretty close, particularly if/when the game is better optimized. I also figure with the SLI capability I can always add another GPU card (dual 580's with 6GB VRAM would have to rock) later when prices come down. I also think the motherboard can allow later upgrades (though not positive on this). The new system should be here within a week or so.

Anyhow, thanks again for all the the help!



Fang

you should be able to drop a bulldozer chip in your current MB :)
http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=20482

I think you made a great choice. Let me know what you think when you get it fired up.