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Forums > Home› Star Trek Online General Discussion

Need advice on what to upgrade to...

felixhexfelixhex Member Posts: 0 Arc User
edited May 2015 in Star Trek Online General Discussion
I'm going to Best Buy pretty soon to buy another desktop. I want something that can play STO perfectly. What do i need? Can someone lay it out for me? I would like to take the specs given here to Best Buy or wherever and say, I want a desktop that consists of this. I don't care about brands or anything. I just want to play this game on maxed out graphics basically.
Post edited by felixhex on

Comments

  • davefenestratordavefenestrator Member Posts: 10,690 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    Best Buy might not be the best place since many of the desktops do not have good graphics cards.

    The basics:
    - intel i5 or i7 quad-core CPU (either is OK, the i7 isn't worth paying a lot more to get)
    - 8 GB RAM (8 GB is fine, 16 is icing on the cake and maybe useful for other games like GTA V)
    - hard drive: 500 - 1 TB platter drive is fine. SSD is nice for other games because it will load levels faster

    The graphics card:
    - Intel HD graphics is not a real graphics card! STO will be playable but ugly!
    - Minimum: nvidia GTX 750 ti or AMD Radeon 270 will work OK but are pretty slow
    - Good: nvidia GTX 960 or AMD Radeon 280

    Something to watch out for: a Best Buy PC might come with a case that is too small for adding your own graphics card later, and the power supply might not be good enough for the card either.

    Something to consider: ordering online from someone like CyberPower or Newegg (who sells CyberPower).
  • starkaosstarkaos Member Posts: 11,556 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    The only thing that really matters is video memory. 1 GB of Video memory should be good enough for STO if you are getting a new computer at Best Buy. Worry about computer specs for other games like Dragon Age Inquisition that have amazing graphics not for STO.
  • simeion1simeion1 Member Posts: 898 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    I have a much older Nvidia card. If i recall (i am not at home) correctly it is a GTX 560. It runs STO just fine. It is almost 4 years old. While there is better cards, you will do just fine as long as you get a computer that has a non built in video card.
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  • felixhexfelixhex Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    I went to newegg and had some fun building it. These are the things I selected but havent bought yet. Can you decode this for me. Maybe tell me what I can change if need be.



    1
  • xenificationxenification Member Posts: 615 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    do yourself a favour and DO NOT get a ATI Radeon 7970 3GB (Stock) - As a proud own of this old now but beastly card I can tell you it overheats in nearly all situations unless you set the fan speed to 70% - Keep in mind its a stock version not OC'ed.

    And yes i removed the sticker 2 years ago ;)
  • davefenestratordavefenestrator Member Posts: 10,690 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    • 1 × AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz(4.0GHz Turbo) CPU and AMD 760G Chipset Motherboard Combo Item #: N82E16813456003

    NO!

    Go to a site like AnandTech.com and compare intel vs. AMD processors. My AMD Athlon64 X2 was a great CPU but it has been many years now since AMD has been a good choice for the CPU. Intel i5 is much better.
  • flyingshoeboxflyingshoebox Member Posts: 123 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    A lot will depend on what you’re willing to spend. An i5 would do a good job even an i3 most likely would. You could get an i7 but it will tend to cost you more and be a bit of overkill for gaming. Ram wise I would say 8-16gb or ram. The more the better but again 8 would do if you can afford more I’d say 16. If you want to know what I’d go with on a new build well most likely like 24gb but I replace gaming computers about every 4-5 years and tend to splurge on them.

    Video card wise I don’t know much about ati they are not bad card I’ve had a few over the years and none have failed me they just got old. The one thing I’ve heard about ati recently is that their new crop of cards are just coming out or are right around the corner. Right now I am using a nvidia 670 evga ftw and while I do like them I have had 2 nvidia’s die on me over the years one of them being the 670 I just mentioned. Like a week ago luckily I still had about 30 days left on the 3 year warranty so the new one should be in later this week. As for what to get nvidia wise I’d say a 960 or 970 or even a 980 all will have no problem running sto on everything maxed out. The 980 is what I’d get but it is overkill for sto unless you’re trying to running it at like 4k then it might be worth it.

    The last thing I would say to look into is an ssd. It will make your computer regardless of what you get a hell of a lot snappier. If you don’t know what it is, it’s basically a hard that is made out of memory sticks rather than the old school spinning platter. It’s more complex than that but that’s the gist of it. A lot of people will say this is not needed and while technically true in normal game play it speeds things up the least. Once you used a computer that has one or more you’ll never want to go back to one that does not. As an example I built my father a rather cheap i3 system about a year before I built my current gaming computer probably costing around 300-400 bucks. When I got the parts to build my gaming system a year later. I went ahead and got him an ssd figuring I can use him as a gunny pig. They were still kinda new at the time and I figured worst comes I just reload his computer. What I found was while yes my i7 with 16gb ram and video card that was worth about 150 bucks more than his whole computer could benchmark leagues better than his computer. His just felt faster at every normal task you’d do on a computer. It would boot in 4-5 second and load everything instantly with online stuff you’re only ever waiting for a response form the server for map changes since it loaded them so quickly. Long story short I promptly ordered myself 2 ssd’s one for windows to sit on and one for my games. Back then ssds cost more so it was cheaper that way. These days you can just get yourself a 512 shove windows and you programs on the same drive and if you need more space for stuff like movies and music get a normal drive for those. One last thing I’ll say about ssd’s get a good one like a Samsung they are just better quality and worth the little bit extra you pay.

    Something else you might look at doing if this is mostly going to be made for gaming is building the computer yourself. It sounds scary but it’s really not that hard and will get you the exact part you want rather than hoping what the big box store has will fit the bill.
  • stonewbiestonewbie Member Posts: 1,454 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    felixhex wrote: »

    • 1 × 120GB SSD Boot Drive + 1TB 7200 RPM Storage Drive Item #: N82E16822826026

    • 1 × 16GB DDR3 1600MHz (2 X 8GB) Item #: N82E16820312005

    • 1 × CYBERPOWERPC 800 Watt 80+ Power Supply Item #: N82E16817385003


    I dont keep up anymore with what brand names are good or bad. I've done a lot of hardware installs and 1 PC build all on my own. But when it came to brand names for my first PC build i wanted help from other people. The three above items you might want to reconsider changing to better brand name items. Maybe also your MOBO and video card too.

    Like when i was putting my build together I thought that Kingston was a good ram brand but some people recommended Team Vulcan instead. I went with this one brand Nvidia 680GTX (i forget the brand name) but some people recommended Msi instead which has two cooling fans. I picked an off brand SSD and someone recommended Sandisk. Since i'm not an expert and i dont do PC installs for a living i cant comment on different brand names. But ask around and see what the failure rate is (if any) for brand X ram versus brand Y. Like is one brand of RAM more reliable than another or whatever.

    EDIT: ohh and for the power supply look into Antec instead of the one you have listed.
  • davefenestratordavefenestrator Member Posts: 10,690 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    Good catch on the PSU, Seasonic 600 - 650 watt would be better than CyberPower. Antec is decent too, especially the ones that are re-labled Seasonic :)

    For help from people who really know this stuff you might go to AnandTech forums and post in the General Hardware sub-forum. There is a sticky thread with the questions you should answer to get the most help.
  • shandypandyshandypandy Member Posts: 632 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    If you're building a PC purely for this game, keep in mind it's at least a 5 year old game engine.

    In other words, if it's just for STO than a relatively cheapo £100-£150 modern graphics card wacked in a modern low-end PC will be fine.

    If you want to run anything else a bit newer (which you probably will), then I'd recommend the builder's guides on toms hardware.

    http://www.tomshardware.com/articles/?tag=build-your-own&articleType=how-to
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  • flyingshoeboxflyingshoebox Member Posts: 123 Arc User
    edited May 2015
    With putting a computer together having a budget before you start picking part out is the best way to go. A top of the line video card will not help if you cpu or some other part of your computer becomes your bottle neck. Try and come up with a system that gives you the best overall bang for your buck. Also take into account warranty some companies will offer better ones as an example corsair has lifetime warranty on ram. Some video card companies will have longer ones also. I think some still give life time on ati cards. Also like a few people have mentioned Anandtech is a really good site for info on parts and they tend to have a few best parts for different budget builds on the site.

    As somebody else said skip the amd for an intel on the cpu. They were really good back in the day but those days have passed. I5 N82E16819117372, i7 N82E16819117369. For a bit more you could go with a haswell-e but then you’d want 4 channel ram and a more expensive mobo.

    I’d avoid the liquid cooler not that they are not good but they are more trouble than they are worth 95% of the time. Bragging rights aside your better off with a normal fan and heat sink With cooling you really want to keep it simple a bit of metal and a fan work fine and if the fan fails you put another on rather than hoping it won’t leak all over your computers inside bits.

    Heatsink N82E16835103099 gets the job done.

    On the ssd you might look at a samsung 850 pro or evo. The pro is faster and will last long but for normal use you’ll get a good many years out of the evo plus it is cheaper per gb. Personally I’d go with the pro but I know a few buddy’s that use evo’s and have not complained. Pro

    N82E16820147361, Evo N82E16820147373

    As for the mobo you could go with a few different sizes as well as models. There are full size motherboard called atx then mini atx which are about half the size and an even smaller one called mini itx. The smaller are not any less powerful mostly they just have less slots for stuff like ram and video cards but that doesn’t matter most of the time. Unless you really want to run 4xsomthing ram or sli/crossfire or a secondary sound card. If you just want to run 16gb in 2x8 sticks and a single video card even a 980 then a mini itx would do fine. Plus that way you could fit it into a smaller case that takes up less room and tends to look nicer. Port Wise you don’t really lose anything they all have plenty the itx’s tend to also have built in wifi and Bluetooth. Most people get the mini atx since it’s a good mix of size and price. Company wise the two I like are asus and gigabyte. I’ve tended to go with the full size atx on my computers out of habit but if it wasn’t for wanting to run a secondary audio card I’d go with a mini itx. I’ve built a few for friends and family and really do like the form factor.

    Mobo’s you might look at

    Mini itx N82E16813132122

    Mini atx N82E16813128716, N82E16813132133

    Ram wise the 3 company I tend to stick with are corsair crucial and muskin. Two examples N82E16820233536, N82E16820233399. The advantage to the lp is that it takes up less room, the pro.. it lifts? Ram does not normal run that hot so you don’t really need much in the way of heat sinks the last two sets of ram I picked up had the massive heat sink what I’ve learned about them is they take up more room and can make putting on a big cooler annoying.

    Heatsink N82E16835103099 gets the job done.

    Psu 700-1k watt. Good brands corsair, thermaltake antec. Other brands are good also I’ve heard good things about some of neweggs in-house brand rosewell. But the three I’ve mentioned there are the ones I’ve found worked well for me. The advantage for some is they are more efficient and have modular cables meaning you can yank out the cables you don’t need to keep it all cleaner. If you go with an itx mobo the modular will be helpful since you tend to want to stick it in a smaller case.

    N82E16817139040, N82E16817153158, N82E16817139011

    On the case I like it having dust filters and it being tool-less although what really matters to me is the looks. Also if you do decide to go with a mini itx you want to make sure it fits your video card and power supply some cases are small enough to bolt to the back of a 22” monitor but those will not hold a large video card and 800 watt psu.
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