test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
New Comp
bluecenturion
Posts: 60 Arc User
I am looking to get a 2nd Comp and want it to be able to run Champions at a slightly better (or incredibly impossibly wonderful) than the comp I currently use as my main. I had picked up a midline quad processor with a meh video card in October 2011. that runs the game moderately well with the sliders feathered back.
I looked around and did not find a current thread on what would be a good system to look for. I do not know the modern computer market technical details. My wife would prefer we buy a prebuilt system from a regular retailer. Our budget is 1000 - 1500 with a monitor included ( possibly Acer S243HLAbmii or Samsung SyncMaster S23B550V or Iiyama E2473HDS-B1 ) or something comparable. Or a tower with a good graphics card for a thousand or less and I'll shop for the monitor separate.
Basically though I have no idea what Video cards will run champions at maxed out setting without squealing and could not navigate any current threads in this section to find where i should be looking. I know that a good processor with a crapton of ram will handle the game, I assume any midline quad processor with a decent speed? But video cards are horrid to try to match to games in my experience and I do not know the technical details enough to make an educated guess.
Thanks in advance for any help.
I looked around and did not find a current thread on what would be a good system to look for. I do not know the modern computer market technical details. My wife would prefer we buy a prebuilt system from a regular retailer. Our budget is 1000 - 1500 with a monitor included ( possibly Acer S243HLAbmii or Samsung SyncMaster S23B550V or Iiyama E2473HDS-B1 ) or something comparable. Or a tower with a good graphics card for a thousand or less and I'll shop for the monitor separate.
Basically though I have no idea what Video cards will run champions at maxed out setting without squealing and could not navigate any current threads in this section to find where i should be looking. I know that a good processor with a crapton of ram will handle the game, I assume any midline quad processor with a decent speed? But video cards are horrid to try to match to games in my experience and I do not know the technical details enough to make an educated guess.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Go Kill, Hunt Skulz.
Post edited by bluecenturion on
0
Comments
I figured I'd give you a parts list cut fairly close to the bone to show you how crazy you can get on your budget for performance. Then let you compare against prebuilts.
Here's a current parts list on Newegg.
Basically
$1506 sans-keyboard, shipping and tax. Minus $70 in mail-in rebates.
Now to give you a couple prebuilt options.
"Champions-Online and Star Trek Online contained hundreds of hours of mediocre content!"
and "nothing was polished".
--Jack Emmert
No Monitor included. Hard to find pre-configured providers who have your specific choices.
CyberPowerPC Slightly cheaper. Again, no monitor.
Not going to touch Falcon Northwest. You're not going to get anything you want in your price range.
Now, both these systems come with choices for some decent monitors (or you could buy it separately).
Went with the option for Win7 from personal preference. You can go with Win8 if you really want it.
On other choices:
Went Intel. Yes, you could build a system much cheaper using AMD. You also won't see the performance you would with an Intel system and the system will date a lot faster. The current crop of high-end CPUs from AMD are big, power-wasting beasts that don't single-task well and don't multitask well either. I'm not in favor of rewarding incompetent design just to save a couple bucks.
Asus Motherboard. Personal preference. Always had good luck with Asus boards. Mostly because I tend NOT to buy the "bleeding edge" boards. Those, from just about ANY manufacturer, tend to be "funky" in one way or another.
Why a K-Class overclockable chip? If you want to do some light OC on the system, you can do so with the default cooler. If you want to get a bit crazier, you STILL can, you'll just want to swap out for a more aggressive cooler. That and the price difference between the K and non-K chip was like $5.
Why not an i7? Because an i7 will give you only marginal performance enhancements in-game. It's strengths lie in extreme multi-threading, such as video production and the like.
Why an SSD? Speed. Plain and simple. A system where the BIOS/EFI hands off to the OS and boots in about 15-17 seconds. Apps that open more or less instantly. Zone-loads in-game speed up significantly for the portions that are hitting your local drive.
Why such a big SSD? Because bigger ones are still prohibitively expensive for your budget. And smaller ones barely contain enough space to do much beyond load the OS, a few necessary apps and a game or two before they're full.
Why not a bigger HD? Cost. Hard drive prices are STILL out of whack and the progression to higher and higher density has slowed to a crawl.
Why so close (or over) the upper budget limit? To give you a high water mark. You can make compromises to bring the price down somewhat. But this config is coming close to squeezing out maximum bang for the buck.
"Champions-Online and Star Trek Online contained hundreds of hours of mediocre content!"
and "nothing was polished".
--Jack Emmert
I'm running an Intel E8400 3.00 ghz Core 2 Duo with 4 gigs DDR 2 and an HD 5770 video card. You could probably build my system for around $500...
Running CO at max settings, except for AA (x4), Bloom (100) and Max Physics Debris Objects (100). I get some hitching in huge groups of players, but everything else is smooth as silk...
But admittedly, if I were buying a new comp I would probably pull out as many stops as I could afford...
Good luck with your shopping!
M-O-O-N, that spells @Rhyatt
Originally Posted by mijjestic: Ultimately, though, MMO players throwing stones at each other in this fashion is basically one nerd pointing and laughing at another nerd whose glasses are thicker.
Laws yes!