Guild Wars 2

Hello. I m currently on the look out for upgrading my rig since 2013 is going to be a good year for gaming AND the release of PS4 and Xbox 1 signifies the transition of pc ports to (finally) much better results in terms of graphics.

So, with no further ado here is what I m currently running on:

Motherboard – Asus P3Q SE/R
CPU – Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.0 Ghz
RAM – 2 × 2048 DDR2 (I think corsair, but I can’t identify their model)
GPU – ATI Radeon HD 4800
Power Supply – Some brand I don’t even remember at 630W
Hard disk 1 – OCZ Vertex3 60GB (placeholder of OS and the essentials)

Hard disk 2 – Seagate ST500DM002-9YN14C 500G (aka Seagate Barracuda but it’s probably refubrished or aftermarket or something like that. If you know for sure that this long – kitten name is an indicator of aftermarkets please verify)

Hard disk 3 – Seagate Freeagent 1GB (external)

With that being said, I m currently on a budget. There is about no way I ll give 1-2 thousand euros to build an ubber-rig that plays GW2 on ultra with 60 fps on a busy WvW night while cooking me pasta. All I really want it to do is give me a nice performance in new games and be able to keep up with new releases for the next couples years.

If there are solutions that will help me accomplish that without renewing certain parts I ll be a happy man for the next 10 seconds..!

On a side note, I know my CPU can be overclocked effectively and there are comparisons that put it in the same level as an I3. However I ‘ve never done that, and I don’t know if it’s worth it and what parts am I required to get in order to achieve this. If you can guide me through it, please feel free to do so.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/ is a good place to start for putting up links of hardware and http://www.skroutz.gr/ is a search engine in my country that goes through online stores’ products.

Thank you in advance, and when we are done with this feel free to post your rig needs.
Who knows?! This might even go sticky.

Mpiftekis.1529:

Hello. I m currently on the look out for upgrading my rig since 2013 is going to be a good year for gaming AND the release of PS4 and Xbox 1 signifies the transition of pc ports to (finally) much better results in terms of graphics.

So, with no further ado here is what I m currently running on:

Motherboard – Asus P3Q SE/R
CPU – Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.0 Ghz
RAM – 2 × 2048 DDR2 (I think corsair, but I can’t identify their model)
GPU – ATI Radeon HD 4800
Power Supply – Some brand I don’t even remember at 630W
Hard disk 1 – OCZ Vertex3 60GB (placeholder of OS and the essentials)

Hard disk 2 – Seagate ST500DM002-9YN14C 500G (aka Seagate Barracuda but it’s probably refubrished or aftermarket or something like that. If you know for sure that this long – kitten name is an indicator of aftermarkets please verify)

Hard disk 3 – Seagate Freeagent 1GB (external)

With that being said, I m currently on a budget. There is about no way I ll give 1-2 thousand euros to build an ubber-rig that plays GW2 on ultra with 60 fps on a busy WvW night while cooking me pasta. All I really want it to do is give me a nice performance in new games and be able to keep up with new releases for the next couples years.

If there are solutions that will help me accomplish that without renewing certain parts I ll be a happy man for the next 10 seconds..!

On a side note, I know my CPU can be overclocked effectively and there are comparisons that put it in the same level as an I3. However I ‘ve never done that, and I don’t know if it’s worth it and what parts am I required to get in order to achieve this. If you can guide me through it, please feel free to do so.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/ is a good place to start for putting up links of hardware and http://www.skroutz.gr/ is a search engine in my country that goes through online stores’ products.

Thank you in advance, and when we are done with this feel free to post your rig needs.
Who knows?! This might even go sticky.

Firstly, I doubt this thread will go sticky since there are countless other similar threads asking about upgrades and all the sorts. If you compile them together and get a general consensus of what people are saying to upgrade to, then that might get a sticky.

As far as PC ports for console games, I wouldn’t expect too much excitement on that end until 2014. If 2014 doesn’t show any good PC console game ports, I’ll doubt there will be as many as people suspect in this console generation lifetime. I however, do hope good PC ports are made due to the increased similarity between this generation’s architecture and the PC. It should be much easier, and hopefully AMD gets a solid boost as well since everything is under their roof for this console generation.

Personally, I don’t see overclocking doing much. If you overclock on your system, the ONLY thing I would consider purchasing is an after market CPU cooler. Something that sockets to both an LGA 775 and LGA 1150/1155 and AM3+ system so that it carries over to your new system when you do upgrade.

Some after market coolers worth noting are the Noctua NH-D14 as a high end air cooler, the Cooler Master Hyper 212 as a budget after market air cooler, then Corsair’s H-series of all in one water coolers, like the H60. Of course there is the option of getting a custom water loop.

I would try overclocking and see how far that gets you and if that doesn’t make you happy then you’ll likely want to upgrade your graphics card next since that would carry over to your next computer as well.

One thing you didn’t mention is how many monitors you use and what resolutions they are. The higher the resolution the prettier the image but more horsepower required to run the game. Basically, the questions that need answering are the resolution you game at, the type of settings you wish to game at (low/med/high/mix) and what FPS you expect to get at those settings. Something like this will likely do, but I just want to make sure since one size doesn’t fit all:
http://www.skroutz.gr/s/3078865/Gigabyte-GeForce-GTX650-Ti-Boost-2GB-OC.html
The 2GB of RAM (double the normal) is what I would recommend due to me running into troubles with some games at 1080p on only 1GB of RAM.

I’m not sure if the CPU or the GPU is your bottleneck, your GPU is pretty old though, so its a good time to upgrade. If that GPU doesn’t give you the performance you want, you have a CPU bottle neck which requires you to get a new CPU/motherboard/RAM.
http://www.skroutz.gr/s/3405078/Intel-Core-i5-4670K-Box.html
http://www.skroutz.gr/s/292410/Corsair-CLASSIC-XMS3-8GB-DDR3-2000-Hz.html
Then, the motherboard is more or less something that depends on the user’s needs. Whether you want to eventually overclock, etc. Just make sure its a socket 1150.

Well I ll be honest. I ve done this before and the results were at least… more constructive and definitely quicker too, so I came with the same expectations here. But let’s work with that for starters.

Among the 329 pages (as of 15/07/2013) you can find countless threads that are directly related to the game, and about 1 per page with similar to the category subject. Now, I could go through them in hopes that the holy light will hit me and teach me about computers, so that I can understand how can I apply the solutions given to these situations, in mine. Or I could rely on the common courtesy of people that already bear the knowledge and are willing to help out for that sense of a good community.

Call me needy but I prefer asking those people directly to guide me through it. If I wanted to acquire more knowledge I would sing up for a second run at a college.

Once those who can and are willing to help finish with me, I don’t see the reason for the thread to be eating up space, dead, in the netherrealm of this subforum. It might as well be used by other members to post their similar problems, instead of having them search through three hundred pages. Participation is how it goes sticky!

As far as the thing with PC ports goes, the pc counterparts of ps3 games are already at a higher level in terms of performance and graphics. With PS4 speculated at an equal level of a mid range rig at the moment, and Watch Dogs being developed around it, I think we ll see a significant increase on visuals for ports starting November this year. Besides… 2014 is 4 and a half months away and only 2 months away from the new console generation. There is plenty of time for companies to work with the new standards and reach a point where the overall difference in games between generations will be astounding, dragging along PC gaming which was limited up till now. Just think how much gaming console hardware had changed over the past 6 years and compare it to that of PC’s. But it’s a whole other, unrelated story.

In regards to your contribution, the overclocking part is too shady. I have already done some research and I know I ll need some cooling. Not because the CPU is bad but because it’s been 5 years now. With OC it won’t live much longer so it might as well have it easier. I still need someone to give me the steps though. There are certain changes one must do through software and that’s where I lose the ball.

For a monitor I use this beauty http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-VH226H-21-5-Inch-Widescreen-Monitor/dp/B001LYPII8/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top, playing anything as high as I can until fps becomes unbearable. The moment I realize the movement is not fluid (not even laggy), it becomes unplayable in my eyes. That being said I m pulling 20 to 50 fps depending on the area, with the attached settings.

One thing you have to understand when you are suggesting things to buy is that I don’t know much about this kind of stuff. I do however know what bottlenecking is as much as I understand that there may be complications in the order of hardware I get to buy. For example my current board can’t take an i5. Should I consider changing to one, the board has to change too and then the rollercoaster starts… Compatibility is an issue and buying parts that will need upgrading sooner just because a second part is old right now will give a deadly cough to my wallet! I like my wallet…

And then there are cases like this http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008S8WA18/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B008S8WA18&linkCode=as2&tag=c09_11-20 that get me stuff at lower prices by offering only the necessary. Might be worth it but I don’t know.

Finally, there’s the thing with overclocking. If doing so can virtually upgrade GPU and CPU performances (I saw it can be to both parts), and the only part that’s worth enough to be sold after replacement is the processor, then I might as well use the card until it melts in my hands. If they last a year or two I m sure technology will have progressed enough to let me buy something stronger with the same amount of money I ’d buy the GeForce 650.

But then again, is it worth burning them to earn this time instead of going for the mid or lower range stuff? If I spent overall 300 on cpu, gpu and board, I am gonna get something something better than what I already have in my hands with its potential?

If your looking to upgrade, and in ur case build a whole new rig. Then u will need a budget of atleast 850 euro’s. I cant say for exac if tha would b enough for the below list of parts, but going by exchange rates it should be close.
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/1gZsQ
Bassicaly take those parts or simalar, combine them with parts from your current rig. (Like Hard Drive, Optical drive , OS etc.) And your rig will be ready.

Wait a minute. The effort is appreciated but why change the power supply to a 650W one plus a case if I already have them?

And I ve also upgraded the main HDD into an SSD so that’s covered too.
Then unless you know something I don’t, and you are not telling it, the only changes that need to take place are on gpu, cpu, board and ram.

So what bothers me (and apparently I ll need to boil it down to questions) can be broken down as follows:

Within a budget (as little as it can be for a considerable increase in performance – say from medium to high -)

1. Do I go for overclocking CPU or move to a new one?
2. Do I go for overclocking GPU or change it?
3. Do I change the motherboard regardeless of other parts?
4. If these stuff are too old to make overclocking of any worth, what are the optimum choices that won’t rip my wallet apart?
5. Is there such a thing as a mid-solution where I OC the CPU and change only GPU and RAM?

To put it bluntly, if changing these 4 parts costs 4-5 hundred or more I prefer to get a bit less and OC it with 30-50 euros overall than buying a whole new rig.

People I want the thing to run games at highs and ultras for the next couple years. My rig has been doing this from 2008 to 2012 (and in cases even now) and it had cost me only 600€.
I know that in the range of 1k euros we are not talking whether this can be done but rather if it can be done while keeping stable (far) more than 60 fps.

So don’t send me on spending extravaganzas. If you find overclocking worthy and the need to change only a couple pieces guide me through it. If not guide me through other options that are price efficient in regards to their results.

Overclocking ur current CPU will improve performance a tad, but you will get drasticaly more by buying a 4670k or 4770k. They are in another league bassicaly.

The new cpu will requir a LGA 1150 motherboard, and also new DDR3 RAM 1600mhz or higher.

Along with that, for performance reasons, u would want a newer GPU. Somthing like the Nvidia 760 at minimum if u want good FPS. Personaly i sugest, if u can, to get a Nvidia 770 or AMD 7970ghz if they stay within budget.

The Intel 4th gen Haswell CPU’s use new low power states and so if u want to fully utilize the new CPU’s powersaving features u will need a PSU rated and capable of holding stable power at very low usage. Idle CPU usage of a 4770k for example is <4w from my own experiance (total system usage higher ofc). You can still use older PSU’s with the new Haswell CPU’s , u just wont be able to keep the new C-States active in the Bios.(u would have to disable them otherwise u risk the system crashing when idle due to unstable power)

there’s a rumor that 1150 may be the last socket for intel – something to consider for getting a motherboard and future upgrades – I’m still debating if i want to go 1150 or 2011 myself… – http://technewspedia.com/lga-1150-could-be-the-last-socket-intel-future-intel-cpus-will-bga/

if this is true, then the future of pc gaming might belong to amd.

from what i gather, processors have reached a saturation point until they figure out new ways to disperse the heat – at this moment, the coldest liquid known to man is liquid helium and in overclocking competitions the highest speeds we can get is 8.6 which is currently the world record. We’ve reached a plateau with current technology and I think the next step will have to be a dramatic innovation – enter Dwave and quantum computing – still in it’s infant stages – but give it 5-10 years and it might be a common household thing -

in otherwords, expect more upgrades like this http://www.foc.us/ until quantum computing becomes mainstream lol

I’m in the process of inventing a brain cooler …hahaha -smh-

@ Solar Nova

So if I got it right what you are suggesting is along the lines of this :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/GeForce-DirectCU-Graphics-Express-Display/dp/B00CY5GP08/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373928076&sr=8-1&keywords=Nvidia+770

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Graphics-BX80646I74770K-Generation-Technology/dp/B00CV3E3XE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373928024&sr=8-1&keywords=4470k

http://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-Z87-GD65-GAMING-Motherboard-USB3-0-LGA1150/dp/B00CXOMII8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373927981&sr=8-1&keywords=LGA+1150

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9-Vengeance-Performance-Desktop/dp/B004CRSM4I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373928173&sr=8-1&keywords=Corsair+Vengeance+8+GB

right?!

That’s what?! Around 1k or 900 if we are talking about the i5?! Now how can you suggest an even pricier build than the one you posted earlier, after I told you I m not willing to ride that high boat?!

Do you have a hard time understanding what’s like to be moderate with money spending? Be considerate! Neither do I wish to spent all my salary on a pc nor do I have rich parents or boyfriends to feed me like that.

Now if he http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh_dGts6TeQ&list=WLE74AEAE71D518322 can build a full rig that plays crysis 3 on high with anti-aliasing (or Bio. Infinite maxed out) for less than 600 euros, call me kitteny but I kitten on your suggestions.

@ Ricky

I see what you are saying. I checked out Haswell and it appears like the main selling point is power usage instead of raw power or something like that. I think AMD released something worth talking about but I wasn’t paying attention when I first saw it and now I can’t trace it back. I think it was said to be equal to an eight-core or something. That’s part of the reason I want to hold back and go for overclocking if possible. If it’s true then by the time I ve finished with my military service next year, the i’s will be a lot cheaper and worth looking at.

The whole thing connects to next gaming consoles really. If by the time companies release their potential, pc hardware technology has progressed further enough from the i7’s I can make an upgrade at around 5-6 hundred that will last me for 4-5 good years.
Cause I m into pc gaming but not all that much.

the problem with the amd cpu is that their single thread performance is very weak – http://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html and that is a crucial stat to gaming. Plus they draw more power. so while it’s affordable in the short term, you get blindsided with the electric bill heh.

I only say that the future of gaming belongs to amd because if intel welds their chips – they are known to be more of a business non enthusiast mobo developer – the enthusiast culture belongs to overclockers and gamers.