Thread: New System Suggestions

Apologies if this belongs in Hardware/Software... I'm going to get a new PC on which to run CryEngine 3 and play games, including Crysis and a few others--all as part of the research I mentioned earlier in this thread.

I know that I want to get a preassembled PC--I don't have time to build one myself and I may want to take advantage of customer support. Beyond that, I could use some advice. Intel or AMD? Dual core or quad? (I read in another thread that dual core may run CryEngine better.) What about an SLI setup? Windows 7 or Vista? Any particular vendors?

/Moved to Hardware/Software

I'm sure someone can give you some suggestions who has a broader knowledge of hardware. My thoughts are below though.

AMD/Intel is really personal preference. Intel has advantages if you want to overclock but really the difference in the price is because Intel perceieved to be the better manufacturer. SteamGuard requires an Intel chipset I believe although that might have changed. AMD on the otherhand is cheaper and tends to be installed in the non-gaming rigs in my experience.

Eitherway Multi-core is definitely worth having but how many cores is a different issue. CE3 is optimised for QuadCore I believe so that's probably your best bet.

I've never played with SLI but I know others have here with varying results - personally I tend to opt for spending more money on buying a card from the second most recent set of cards as they tend to drop in price dramatically once the new cards come onto the market. If you want to future-proof your system you could get a SLI compatible motherboard and look to buy a second identical card in the future to boost your system. It is worth noting though that two SLI cards are not equal to a single card of the same combined power.

Windows 7 is definitely preferable to Vista. I tend to think as Vista/Win7 similarly to ME/XP in both cases the earlier version was ground breaking but unrefined. The following version does everything that the other should have done and more

Novatech are a good manufacturer/retailer in the UK but I doubt you'd want to ship over to the US. Personally I'd avoid Dell as their reputation for reliability is pretty poor historically. For top-end IPS monitors though they can't be beaten.

If you've got the cash then Alienware might be worth a look but their systems although good are overpriced for the Brand.

Definitely quad core processor, Intel i5 2500 would be my recommended suggestion. A single good graphics card would do the trick, but AMD and Nvidia are about to release more of their new line up over the next 2 months, so I would hold out on that decision a tiny bit longer. And definitely Windows 7

Thanks, very helpful.

I have built my owns PCs for the last 12 years and i have dealt with both intel and AMD. I am currently running AMD as a gaming rig. i don't think there is a difference to be honest, i agree Intel is perceived to be better but thats only because of our perception of Price and Quality. I think AMD is just as good.

Radeon have released the 7970 recently, and if you have the money i would definitely get one of them! The spec on those new cards are amazing and they are just as good if not better than any new Nvidia card for the same money.

Also, AMD have also released a true 8core processor that is cheaper than most new i7s.

So what i am really trying to say, is don't think that Intel is better than AMD just because of the price or just because Intel is better for money. That is rubbish!

If you want value for money then go with AMD; simple. My only advice is that the biggest mistake you can make is to get a bad motherboard. Get the best board you can for the money, otherwise it will be a big regret, it will be more expensive in the long run to get a substandard or cheap motherboard.

I agree with you Ragetti. I still run a Phenom II 1090T from AMD and for gaming purposes, right now the GPU is your real bottleneck. The 7970 GPU from AMD is the best card money can buy right now, but Nvidia will be launching their Kepler line up very soon, so it will probably push prices down a little, that is why recommended holding off on a GPU a little longer.
And you are absolutely right about the motherboard, it is not the right place to try and save money. Same goes for a power supply actually, a better and more efficient power supply will save you money in the long run when it comes to energy consumption. On the CPU side, any current mid to high end processor will do just fine and for graphics, I run an MSI GTX 570 with a Twin Frozr cooler at a monitor resolution of 1920x1200, which is fine, but if you want the best frame rates, an AMD 7970 would be the way to go. Although they are a bit on the loud side with the default cooler from what I heard.

That can easily be solved with a water-cooling extension(if you are running water cooling) or not buying a stock card from ATI. I have always bought specific ATI cards either from Sapphire (which i know isn't the best, but they have fantastic heat syncs) or BFG or Gainward.


But i am forgetting something here; Markustribus, didn't you say you wanted to buy something already built? If so, what price point are you looking at? Maybe i could make some suggestions if you give me a ballpark figure?

My budget is $3,000 (USD), including monitor(s). Here's what I'm thinking for the PC (apologies for the formatting):

https://www.pugetsystems.com/myaccou...?viewnum=95453

System Core
Motherboard	Asus P8P67 Pro REV 3.0
CPU	Intel Core i5 2500K 3.3GHz QUAD CORE 6MB 95W
Ram	Kingston 8GB DDR3-1333 (2x4GB)
Video Card	2 x MSI GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB Twin Frozr II
Sound Card	Onboard Sound
Networking	Asus USB-N13 Wireless 802.11b/g/n USB Adapter
Storage
Hard Drive	Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 6Gb/s Comments: Primary drive.
CD / DVD	Asus 24x DVD-RW SATA (black)
Case / Cooling
Case	Lancool PC-K7B Black
Power Supply	Corsair HX 850W Power Supply
CPU Cooling	Scythe Katana 3 CPU Cooler

My budget is $3,000, including monitor. I'm thinking of getting a HP ZR302 monitor (2560x1600) for $1,100, so that would leave me about $1,900 to spend on the PC.

That looks good. One suggestion though...

If this is a gaming rig, have you considered a Republic of Gamers motherboard? It is asus again, but it is built and aim at gaming; faster bus speeds etc. Worth looking into.

I have had 2 ROG boards and both have served me well. It is definitely worth looking into