Buying New PC, are these specs OK?

I am going to buy a new PC soon, I am going to get the following specs as minimum:

Quadcore i7 Processor at 3.0Ghz

Nvidia GTX 580

8GB of RAM

(are there any other specs I need?)

Is this okay? How will CoD run over London etc? I'm hoping for a consistent 30+ FPS.

Thanks for the help!

[RickRuski]

Yes, just make sure that the power supply is capable of expansion as far as load is concerned. A lot of pc's come with a power supply that is ok for the system but not allow for further expansion ( graphics cards of the future that have higher power demands, extra cooling fans and maybe an extra hdd).

Rick

[335th_GRAthos]

Nvidia GTX 580 with 1.5Gb VRAM (I hope not) or Nvidia GTX 580 with 3Gb VRAM (I hope yes)

Make sure you get the second.


Operating system? I presume Win7 64bit (just checking...)

8Gb RAM is perfectly all right. IF POSSIBLE and cost difference minimal, I would prefer 12Gb because you can create very easily RAMDISKS of 5-6Gb and thus have most of your game(s) loaded on RAM when you play (For me it is easier to have a 2Tb normal hard disk + RAMDISKs than a 300Gb SSD disk + trying to find where to put the rest of my files).


~S~

[klem]

There is a school of thought that says i7 which has hyperthreading gives no advantage over the i5 which doesn't as CoD doesn't take advantage of Hyperthreading. Of course that may change. Just a thought if you are pushed for cash.

The i7 (well the previous generation i7 950) can be heavily overclocked with the right settings and cooler so you may want to think about that. Having said that the CPU isn't worked very hard atm by CoD, its the video card that takes the main load and the more memory you have on that the better. My GTX570 1.28Gb is almost fully loaded by CoD and would probably use more memory if it could.

The RAM should be fine. I have 6Gb but there is a memory leak in the game which loads up at around 2.5Gb and gradually increases to just over 5Gb at which point the game crashes. Once that problem is sorted out I believe my 6Gb will be more than enough so you should be fine.

You may want to think about a Solid State Drive (SSD) in place of the usual spinning hard drive (HDD). With windows and games on the SSD and other stuff like wordprocessing, photos etc on the HDD, you minimise the size/cost of SSD you buy and get a faster bootup and game response. I can't prove it porevents the stutters caused by loading map and skins data from the SSD but I believe it must do, I only suffer stutters from skin downloads (causes lag) and intense grahics (London) due to GPU limitations. I have 128Gb SSD and that has windows, CoD, IL-2'46, and FSX on it (about 10Gb to spare). If you get one be sure to check the read/write speeds are good. Older ones weren't much better than HDDs. Plenty of reviews on the web though.

[JG52Uther]

I have always heard that the i5 2500k is the 'sweet spot' for gaming, and the i7 is good if you want to do other tasks as well, such as image editing.

[fruitbat]

Originally Posted by JG52Uther

I have always heard that the i5 2500k is the 'sweet spot' for gaming, and the i7 is good if you want to do other tasks as well, such as image editing.

Yep, bang for buck and with its ease of ridiculous overclocking ability the i5 2500k is by far the best chipset out there.

Well, this is the system I want, I am trying to play all flight sims, I just posted in this forum, becuase the members seem by far the most helpful, and it is also the most demanding game, (Along with FSX with mega airport and AI)

http://www.chillblast.com/pconf.php?productid=17826

If you scroll down the page, I have selected the Most powerful processor, and the 3072mb Nvidia.

However, I have unchecked the the drive, to the least powerful (I don't need to read/write BluRay) I have also unchecked the OS because I have the install disks at home (for XP and Win7) Would it be adviseable to have them install the OS for me? (The total cost is 1500 pounds)

Which brings me onto my penultimate question... I play all flight sims, and some of them don't work on windows 7, so would CoD run anywhere near as well on XP?

And my ultimate question, could I get an equally powerful computer for less money? (I didn't ignore the advice of the people telling me to get i5, but the option is simply not on the sight)

Oh and how many FPS would this system give me, if all settings were max?

Thanks in advance!

Jack

[335th_GRAthos]

Originally Posted by Jack Morris

some of them don't work on windows 7, so would CoD run anywhere near as well on XP?

No!
But, this is the first time I hear that WinXP-64 can not play a WinXP game!!!! Normally you should have no problem whatsoever playing older WinXP games. Win7-64 Professional and upwards have a very good WinXP compatibility mode.

Originally Posted by Jack Morris

And my ultimate question, could I get an equally powerful computer for less money?

I am sure you could but can not tell you where as I do not live in the UK.

Originally Posted by Jack Morris

Oh and how many FPS would this system give me, if all settings were max?

The correct answer is always: Not enough!
But it depends on your screen resolution (which you did not mention). If I would assume that your resolution would be 1920x then you will probably having 40fps over cities, 70-90fps flying over land and 140+ in the air.

~S~

[klem]

... but don't blame me

Case already has front, rear and side fans. Looks ok.

Processor. Looks like hey are building this for you? You could go overclocked but you'd need to be sure the cooler can support that (if they are buildng it they should advise and guarantee it)

Cooler - presumably up to the job, ask them.

Extra Case fan - can always add later if required.

Video card - you have checked the 1.5Gb not the 3Gb

Drives look ok dependong on how many flight sims you intend to fit on the SSD. HDD for the other junk.

Power supply. Looks healthy but ask them if they are building it. Can find some websites where you plug in all the kit and it tells you the PSU requirement.

Wireless networking - None. My preference is hard wired for gaming but if you do go wireless get the n band router not the g band (802.11n)

Windows 7 Home Premium should be fine, I have that and no problems with CoD. XP seems to have trouble running CoD for many people and I would move on anyway.


EDIT: Other suppliers? try www.scan.co.uk. They build some impressive systems, I have bought from them for years. They built my 3XS system and were very supportive when I ran into a Motherboard X58 chipset/SSD problem.

Originally Posted by 335th_GRAthos

I am sure you could but can not tell you where as I do not live in the UK.
~S~

I don't either! I live in Dubai, UAE, and will be having everything shipped, so getting a system from the US will be no problem! Thanks for the info by the way!