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Recommendation Request for new PC
lordhavelock
Member Posts: 2,248 Arc User
I'm looking to buy/build a new computer. My existing computer is over seven years old (I built it when STO launched), and is having some issues... Plus since STO's Lighting Upgrades last year, she just doesn't play the game so well, and I have to turn down the settings to get even mediocre FPS. Simply put, it's time for a new toy.
I use my computer for Office work (Word, Excel, etc.); "Extreme" Internet browsing (with many open tabs); photo, music, and video playing/editing; and other odds and ends. I'd like to get more into HD video editing, which I can sort of do now (albeit slowly). For games, it mostly comes to STO, and I'd want to be able to play it with all settings maxed and still get excellent (60+) FPS, even during heavy combat.
Anyone out there got a new big rig they want to brag about? Maybe let me know how it performs in STO and/or other games. The settings you use and your FPS, maybe provide a screenshot or two... I'm pretty good at finding components (Newegg, etc.), just looking for a point in the right direction for what works well, or even warnings about specific components you know don't work well with STO.
Thanks in advance!
Update - I put some additional information in the fourth post, below...
I use my computer for Office work (Word, Excel, etc.); "Extreme" Internet browsing (with many open tabs); photo, music, and video playing/editing; and other odds and ends. I'd like to get more into HD video editing, which I can sort of do now (albeit slowly). For games, it mostly comes to STO, and I'd want to be able to play it with all settings maxed and still get excellent (60+) FPS, even during heavy combat.
Anyone out there got a new big rig they want to brag about? Maybe let me know how it performs in STO and/or other games. The settings you use and your FPS, maybe provide a screenshot or two... I'm pretty good at finding components (Newegg, etc.), just looking for a point in the right direction for what works well, or even warnings about specific components you know don't work well with STO.
Thanks in advance!
Update - I put some additional information in the fourth post, below...
Post edited by lordhavelock on
0
Comments
Well thankfully STO's system requirements are relatively low, so really just about any off-the-shelf computer will suffice in terms of basic function. If STO is the most intensive thing you do with the computer, then I would just buy a barebones PC (i5 processor, motherboard, hard drive, RAM) from Dell or HP and use that as a base to upgrade as you see fit (don't customize one through them if you know how to do it yourself, as they charge an arm and a leg). Make sure you get the 64-bit operating system, as it allows for more RAM to be used. 32-bit is hard coded to only use 4GB RAM no matter how much you have installed.
Recommended Upgrades:
1) Most important: PSU. The power supplies they give are low quality and barely worth the materials that make them. If you follow all the suggestions in this post, get a 600W Corsair or EVGA PSU, preferably semi- or fully-modular with an 80+ Gold efficiency rating, and throw that PSU in the garbage. It doesn't matter what it comes with, you want a good PSU. The PSU is the literal heart of your machine. You want a good, strong heart, as a bad one will kill the body.
2) Drive - If it comes with an HDD, buy a solid state drive (recommend 500GB) and use that as the C: drive. Use the HDD as a storage drive. Trust me. Your computer speed will thank you for it.
3) Cooling. The stock fans and coolers they give you are junk. You can get better. Water cooling is an option, even the self-contained loops, but you really want to double-check your case to see what you can and cannot put on there.
4) Don't rely on integrated graphics. Given STO's low requirements, even a GTX 550 Ti will do what you want. For practicality's sake, though, I'd recommend a GTX 970 or above, as they are relatively easy to find. I don't know much about AMD, as I am not a fan of the lack of PhysX, so someone else will have to chime in on them.
5) RAM. Think about what you plan to do with this. If you are like me and tab between the game and the internet for whatever reason, then you want enough RAM to handle all the information. I would say bare minimum of 8GB, with 16GB being preferable if you do a lot of multitasking. You don't need more than that unless you are working with very large files like raw video footage/images.
Things I want in STO:
1) More character customization options such as more clothing options, letting the toon complexion affect the entire body, not just the head. Also a true RGB color picker applied to all costume and appearance options, which would allow for true appearance customization and homogenous colors instead of "this same exact color looks vastly different on two different pieces."
2) Bridge customization, not bridge packs. Let us pick a general layout and adjust the color palette, console appearance, and chair types, as well as more ready room layout options.
3) Customizable ground weapons, i.e. The aesthetic look of phaser dual pistols but they shoot antiproton bolts. For obvious reasons this would only apply to standard ground weapons.
4) For the love of Q please revamp Plasma Ground Weapons. They look like demented Supersoakers right now.
5) True Vanity Impulse and Deflector effects similar to Vanity Shields.
6) A greater payout for hitting T6 Reputations. Currently it takes more time and resources to get from T5 to T6 than it does to get from nothing to T5. Make that grind really pay out at the end.
7) Mirrorverse Refugee event similar to AoY/Delta/Gamma, complete with new Mirrorverse recruits for all factions.
8) Independent Faction, because yo ho yo ho a pirate's life for me!
CPU - At minimum you should get a dual core CPU. STO only uses two cores. However, if you have the budget, then go for a quad core CPU like a 7th generation Intel core i5 CPU or an AMD Ryzen 5 series CPU; avoid the older AMD FX series CPUs. Video editing benefits from quad core CPUs. It also benefits from Intel's Hyper Threading tech in quad core i7 CPUs.
RAM - STO is a 32-bit program. It only uses about 1.4GB of RAM. When only running STO my laptops / PC uses a total of 3.3GB - 3.4GB of RAM. Having said that, 8GB of RAM is generally recommend and 16GB+ is recommended if you are working with very large Excel / Access files.
GPU - I generally recommend the GTX 1060 which should have no problems with STO. If that is too rich for you then the GTX 1050 Ti should be fine.
PSU - The power supply is pretty important. I personally only buy PSU manufactured by Seasonic; they are one a tier all to themselves. Seasonic also manufactures all of EVGA's PSU (EVGA simply slaps their sticker on 'em) and some of Corsair's PSUs (specific models). I am sure other brand names contracts Seasonic to manufacture some of their PSUs as well. Bronze 80 Plus (or 80+) is decent enough. "80 Plus" refers to the efficiency of the PSU which simply means regardless of how much power is being drawn from the AC outlet, at most 20% will be lost as heat and noise. The better the metallic color, the more efficient the PSU is and the more expensive it will be. I think Platinum 80 Plus is at least 89% efficient, but it typically does not exceed 92% efficiency.
FYI - For comparison, here's the machine I built 7 years ago:
If not for the hardware issues, and the FPS loss I have with STO lighting, I'd keep it. I think it's just an old piece of electronics (again, 7 years old...).
You can find/contact me in game as @PatricianVetinari. Playing STO since Feb 2010.
Well, water cooling has definitely advanced and become more popular since the advent of the all-in-one self contained water loops, though they aren't necessary unless you have a naturally hot CPU or plan to do overclocking. The chief advantage (aside from the cooling) is noise, or specifically the lack thereof (provided you get aftermarket fans that are quieter than the ones they come with.
Custom loops are also a thing, but they can get VERY expensive and, if you don't know what you're doing, can also get very messy. One sprung leak can destroy your entire system. I would still recommend it, but only if you are absolutely certain you want to do it and only if your system struggles on air cooling.
Okay, if you want specific suggestions, then I need some information:
1. What your PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing (i.e. - gaming enthusiast, graphic design like Photoshop, 3D/video rendering using programs like 3DS Max or Adobe After Effects, etc). Be sure to include the names of your most resource-intensive programs so we can plan accordingly.
2. What your budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread. Also, be realistic. A computer is like a car. It's an investment. Even with the best sales out there, you're not getting Lamborghini performance on a Honda budget.
3. What country you will be buying your parts from (it helps because while most people I help are from the U.S.A., there are those who are not, and getting a great deal on Newegg isn't going to help if they don't ship to your location).
4. Exterior-styling. basically how you present it. Do you like flashy and cool or minimalist. Do you like lights? Do you want a window? If you are going for a color-scheme, it would be helpful to know that as well.
5. If you have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.
6. If you intend on using any of your current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
7. If you plan to overclock or just run the system at default speeds.
8. If you need a monitor or other peripherals. If so, what resolution, not monitor size, will you be using? Do you prefer standard or mechanical keyboards? What kind of mouse do you need? etc.
9. WHEN do you plan to build it? (Please note that, due to the ever-fluctuating prices of computer components, it is usually not cost or time effective to choose your build more than a month before you actually plan to be using it.)
10. Do you need to purchase any software to go with the system, such as Windows or Blu Ray playback software?
Things I want in STO:
1) More character customization options such as more clothing options, letting the toon complexion affect the entire body, not just the head. Also a true RGB color picker applied to all costume and appearance options, which would allow for true appearance customization and homogenous colors instead of "this same exact color looks vastly different on two different pieces."
2) Bridge customization, not bridge packs. Let us pick a general layout and adjust the color palette, console appearance, and chair types, as well as more ready room layout options.
3) Customizable ground weapons, i.e. The aesthetic look of phaser dual pistols but they shoot antiproton bolts. For obvious reasons this would only apply to standard ground weapons.
4) For the love of Q please revamp Plasma Ground Weapons. They look like demented Supersoakers right now.
5) True Vanity Impulse and Deflector effects similar to Vanity Shields.
6) A greater payout for hitting T6 Reputations. Currently it takes more time and resources to get from T5 to T6 than it does to get from nothing to T5. Make that grind really pay out at the end.
7) Mirrorverse Refugee event similar to AoY/Delta/Gamma, complete with new Mirrorverse recruits for all factions.
8) Independent Faction, because yo ho yo ho a pirate's life for me!
In the last five years or so, I'm more in the Project Manager/System Analyst-side of things, and don't deal as much in hardware, so I'm removed from that world more-so than I ever used to be. Job/family prevent me from spending the time researching as deeply as I'd like to. I mean I've done some of that, but there's so much to re-learn since 2010, which is why I was asking more about what STO players are currently using, and I could use that as a starting point. Professor, what type of machine are you currently running?
I didn't necessarily need someone to hand-pick components for me.
That being said, if it's an exercise you enjoy doing, then I'll answer your questions, Professor:
1. I have two monitors (one 19", the other 26", both LCD), and often while playing STO on one, I'm multi-tasking on the other. I'll have multiple spreadsheets open, a browser with multiple (sometimes dozens of) tabs open. I may be playing videos (sometimes locally, more often streaming) and/or playing music in iTunes (I have a large collection of over 10k mp3s). I edit music using Sound Forge. I don't know what HD video editor I'll be using, something compatible with Win10, I expect.
2. Let's put my budget at $2,500. I could probably go over 20%, if I felt I was getting 20+% more bang for the bucks. I appreciate the "investment" comments... My last computer I bought high end gear, it lasted 7 years. The last 5 years. And so on. So that's my intent with this machine, something to get me through the next 5-7 years or so. Purchases would need to be made at NewEgg or Amazon. In my experience their prices are within a negligible couple bucks from cheapest if they aren't already bottom, themselves, and they have good support/return policies. Most important, I have no/low-interest credit with both.
3. I'm in the USA.
4. Irrelevant. The box won't be on display.
5. I'm more results-oriented. I know the market fluctuates with different companies having better gear at any given time. I've used Intel, AMD, ATI, NVidia, ASUS, Seagate, WD, Kingston, GSkill, etc. at various times, and all have served me well.
6. I plan to keep my existing OS-Drive SSD (only ~10mo old, I'll wipe and put on fresh OS/app installs), case (and it's numerous case fans), power supply, monitors (for now), keyboard, mouse, and speakers. I'm willing to change the power supply to feed new gear if necessary, but would prefer not to. I'm looking to purchase:
Regarding video cards, last time I thought about buying two and hooking them up (SLI or Crossfire, I think that's called, right?), but the cost of the 2nd card went into one of the monitors at that time. Is that still a thing, these days? Or have they crammed it together so that one card is all a gamer needs?
7. I overclocked a little (10% or so), but I'm not an extreme tinkerer that tries to wring out every possible cycle. I usually go into the BIOS, dial it up a notch or two above default, reboot, if it works fine there, that's where I leave it. I know these days CPUs are designed to OC, so I'll do a little, but I don't push it.
8. My primary 26" Widescreen monitor is set to 1920x1200 (its max). I am not at home at the moment, so I don't remember the 2nd monitor. It's only 19" and not WS (it's legacy from my last PC)... I think it's 1280x1024. That being said, in a year or two, it's likely I'll be buying new WS monitors that support higher resolutions. So let's consider buying gear that will support whatever the current meta is for two large (26" or so) widescreen LED monitors.
9. In the next 3-6wks.
10. Yes, Win10. I don't know the flavor names, but whatever is equivalent to the OEM Win7 64b Professional. Any other SW won't be included in this budget (unless it *needs* to be?).
I appreciate the help, Professor. Thank you.
You can find/contact me in game as @PatricianVetinari. Playing STO since Feb 2010.
Mine's a bit old and getting a cosmetic facelift at the moment (I'm wall mounting it), so I've been doing STO on my laptop, but my main rig is this:
i7-4930K
ASUS Rampage IV Black Edition
64 GB RAM
4x Samsung 840Pro 256GB SSDs
4x Crucial MX100 500GB SSDs
2x GTX 980 in SLI
Then again, I also do 3D Modeling, CAD, and graphics design work, and STO and Galactic Civilizations III are the only games I play.
My media storage is a bit different than normal, as I built a NAS with ~42TB of storage.
Regarding your SLI question: It absolutely still is a thing to SLI/Crossfire. However, one card will be more than enough to handle STO and most of your other needs, but I included two because of the HD video editing you spoke about.
Here's the preliminary build for you. Feel free to pick it apart and make changes as you see fit.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel - Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($329.00 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Scythe - Kotetsu 79.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($45.83 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus - PRIME Z270-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($163.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair - Dominator Platinum 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($297.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital - Red 4TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($137.05 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Superclocked Gaming ACX 3.0 Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($544.98 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA - GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Superclocked Gaming ACX 3.0 Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($544.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Pioneer - BDR-209DBK Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($64.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit ($139.95 @ Amazon)
Total: $2268.74
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-07-03 15:49 EDT-0400
I chose the i7 because of the hyperthreading, as some video editing programs take advantage of it.
I chose the CPU fan because without knowing what kind of case you have, I didn't want to choose an all-in-one water cooling loop. They come in various sizes and numbers of fans, so without knowing what your case can fit on it, I didn't want to pick one for you and have it not fit.
ASUS motherboards are the best boards in the business. Period.
Given your example of what you could have running at the same time, I decided that the 32GB of RAM would be plenty to keep your stuff running smoothly and without stutter.
Western Digital Red drives are probably the best storage drives on the market. Mainly meant for NAS, many people choose them now because their reliability is so good. I only included one, but you may want to add another and put them in RAID 1 for redundancy.
GTX 1080's are some of the top ends, and I like the NVIDIA cards. SLI them together and it will be able to process just about anything you throw at it.
Optical drives are slowly becoming extraneous in this digital download age, but they still have their place.
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit is what you want.
Things I want in STO:
1) More character customization options such as more clothing options, letting the toon complexion affect the entire body, not just the head. Also a true RGB color picker applied to all costume and appearance options, which would allow for true appearance customization and homogenous colors instead of "this same exact color looks vastly different on two different pieces."
2) Bridge customization, not bridge packs. Let us pick a general layout and adjust the color palette, console appearance, and chair types, as well as more ready room layout options.
3) Customizable ground weapons, i.e. The aesthetic look of phaser dual pistols but they shoot antiproton bolts. For obvious reasons this would only apply to standard ground weapons.
4) For the love of Q please revamp Plasma Ground Weapons. They look like demented Supersoakers right now.
5) True Vanity Impulse and Deflector effects similar to Vanity Shields.
6) A greater payout for hitting T6 Reputations. Currently it takes more time and resources to get from T5 to T6 than it does to get from nothing to T5. Make that grind really pay out at the end.
7) Mirrorverse Refugee event similar to AoY/Delta/Gamma, complete with new Mirrorverse recruits for all factions.
8) Independent Faction, because yo ho yo ho a pirate's life for me!
Thank you!!!
I haven't visited the links yet, but by first impression, this sounds like about what I was thinking. I'll review in detail and let you know how it goes, or ask questions if I have any.
FYI - This is my case: Antec Nine Hundred Case. It's got the two large fans in front (intake), two in back (exhaust) (I added one in the available space), and the giant fan up top (exhaust).
Also, I regularly back-up data to external drives, so I'm not too concerned about a RAID for redundancy. However, if I were to add a second data drive in RAID, would that improve performance?
Oh, and one more question, does the above suggested build take into consideration re-using my existing Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SATA III SSD as the OS/App drive?
You can find/contact me in game as @PatricianVetinari. Playing STO since Feb 2010.
Hmm... The 900 is a good quality case, but its fan placement (2x 120mm fans in the front, 1 in the back, and a 200mm fan up top) leaves little room to play around with liquid cooling, as it was designed in the era before liquid cooling became accessible to everyone. Honestly, if you want to go to liquid cooling, I'd recommend getting a new case, as the 900 is optimized more for air cooling. Personally, I'm a fan of the Corsair Air 540, but your mileage may vary on that.
On the subject of RAID arrays, it depends on the RAID configuration. This article explains it better than I can, but the TL;DR is that RAID 0 is for speed, RAID 1 is to prevent data loss, and everything else is pretty much pointless or too expensive.
https://www.prepressure.com/library/technology/raid
And yes, the build did take into account you reusing your SSD.
Things I want in STO:
1) More character customization options such as more clothing options, letting the toon complexion affect the entire body, not just the head. Also a true RGB color picker applied to all costume and appearance options, which would allow for true appearance customization and homogenous colors instead of "this same exact color looks vastly different on two different pieces."
2) Bridge customization, not bridge packs. Let us pick a general layout and adjust the color palette, console appearance, and chair types, as well as more ready room layout options.
3) Customizable ground weapons, i.e. The aesthetic look of phaser dual pistols but they shoot antiproton bolts. For obvious reasons this would only apply to standard ground weapons.
4) For the love of Q please revamp Plasma Ground Weapons. They look like demented Supersoakers right now.
5) True Vanity Impulse and Deflector effects similar to Vanity Shields.
6) A greater payout for hitting T6 Reputations. Currently it takes more time and resources to get from T5 to T6 than it does to get from nothing to T5. Make that grind really pay out at the end.
7) Mirrorverse Refugee event similar to AoY/Delta/Gamma, complete with new Mirrorverse recruits for all factions.
8) Independent Faction, because yo ho yo ho a pirate's life for me!
I want to THANK YOU again for your suggested build. I did deviate from it, but it was a great starting point to help me narrow down what was the sort of thing I was looking for. It turns out my boss took an unexpected week off, so work slowed down a bit, and I was able to spend more time on research than I thought I was going to.
I purchased/ordered everything off NewEgg, last night. Pricing was nearly the same wherever I looked, so I rather just get it in the same place, and I got the 12mo Deal (no interest if paid in 1yr).
The biggest changes were the motherboard, video cards, and HDD.
Anyway, here are the parts I ordered... Looking forward to Christmas in July, next week. Heh.
Intel Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Kaby Lake CPU
NewEgg Item N82E16819117726, ~$310
ASUS ROG Maximus IX Hero Z270 Motherboard
NewEgg Item N82E16813132927, ~$223
Corsair Dominator Platinum 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4 3000 (PC4 24000) RAM
NewEgg Item N82E16820233885, ~$290
GeForce GTX 1080Ti FTW3 Gaming Video Card (1569MHz, 3584CUDA, 11GB 352-Bit GDDR5X)
NewEgg Item #N82E16814487338, ~$760 ($740 after mail-in rebate)
Samsung 960 EVO M.2 250GB SSD (OS/App Drive)
NewEgg Item N82E16820147593, ~$128
Western Digital Red Pro 4TB 7200RPM NAS HDD (Media Drive)
NewEgg Item N82E16822235064, ~$215
Pioneer Black 16X Blu-ray Burner
NewEgg Item N82E16827129075, ~$63
CRYORIG H7 Tower CPU 120mm Cooler (Fan/Heatsink)
NewEgg Item 9SIA4UF2DZ6565, ~$30
Windows 10 Professional (64 bit) OEM
NewEgg Item N82E16832588491, ~$140
For now, I'm going to keep my existing case, power supply, UPS, keyboard, and mouse. I'm still researching monitors, and may yet still replace the case/ps before it actually comes time to build.
Again, I thank you, Professor!
You can find/contact me in game as @PatricianVetinari. Playing STO since Feb 2010.
You are quite welcome. Always happy to help out when it comes to computers. Good luck and post a build log!
Things I want in STO:
1) More character customization options such as more clothing options, letting the toon complexion affect the entire body, not just the head. Also a true RGB color picker applied to all costume and appearance options, which would allow for true appearance customization and homogenous colors instead of "this same exact color looks vastly different on two different pieces."
2) Bridge customization, not bridge packs. Let us pick a general layout and adjust the color palette, console appearance, and chair types, as well as more ready room layout options.
3) Customizable ground weapons, i.e. The aesthetic look of phaser dual pistols but they shoot antiproton bolts. For obvious reasons this would only apply to standard ground weapons.
4) For the love of Q please revamp Plasma Ground Weapons. They look like demented Supersoakers right now.
5) True Vanity Impulse and Deflector effects similar to Vanity Shields.
6) A greater payout for hitting T6 Reputations. Currently it takes more time and resources to get from T5 to T6 than it does to get from nothing to T5. Make that grind really pay out at the end.
7) Mirrorverse Refugee event similar to AoY/Delta/Gamma, complete with new Mirrorverse recruits for all factions.
8) Independent Faction, because yo ho yo ho a pirate's life for me!