PC Hardware Do's and Dont's for Crytropia

Well im currently running on:

Nvidia Geforce 8800 GTX

AMD Athlon 4GHZ Dual Core, Will upgrade to Phenom x2 quad core soon.

and OCZ Platinum Revision 4GB Ram

My machine seems to run EU fine on High/Very high settings, i find that if its all very high i can get a small amount of lag increasing AA increases the lag, im using older Drivers for my Graphics card atm and im having no Blue Screen of death issues.

I Would imagine that any nvidia geforce card that's the 8800 GTX or above would be more than adequate.


Are you planning on building the system yourself? or..

 

Are you upgrading your existing system or looking for a new system?
If you are upgrading then some specifications of what you have would help everyone help you ;)

 

ATI 5800
a Phenom 2 quad core AMD 3.2 Ghz or higher
4GB ddr2 1066 Mhz
try an SSD instead of HDD (they are more explensive but much much more faster than ordinary HDD's)
600W + power source...

All the above are pretty cheap (not the most expensive items out there by far)

 

dont ssd's have less memory atm? i know seagate plan a 2tb one but as far as i know its not out yet

 

then ask yourself, Do u need 2 terrabyte? And besides, getting an exernal HD is alot nicer if u want to use the one in your pc for gaming..

 

2tb isnt the point, the biggest ssd ive seen so far is 200 gb


as a side note i have a 2tb external coz i am a video editor and working with fraps uncompressed memory hungry format i do need that space :)

 

the solution is 1TB cheap HDD for storage (music files, games images, torrents etc) and an SSD of 128GB or less for OS and important games...

Advantages: It has better transfer rates (SATA 2 is shit... the new HDDs don't even use the full capabilities of ATA or sata 1... because it is impossible do to current speeds and the fact that there are moving parts and there are certain limits)
Insta boot if you know how to tweak.
decreases games load time by up to 50%
Insta movies load (DVD RIP's or more)

minuses: cost per Gb is a higher than on an ordinary HDD


and that's all :)

SSD's are the future, they will get cheaper and faster.... So prepare to throw away even the 15RPM HDD's

 

good luck in getting your new system :)

Thanks for sharing your knowledge of ssd alexander i may well consider that

 

its all about budget really, decide what you want to spend and stick to that.

CPU: AMD is better value for money. Intel i7 is best for outright performance, but you pay for it (bear in mind more expensive motherboards etc too).

GPU: its down to personal preference these days, in each price range there's little difference. i thought nvidia would be better as cryengine is supposed to be optimised for it, but seems MA have buggered the implementation. at the very top end i think the Nvidia 295 wins, while in the upper mid range the ATIs are better.

Hardisk. yeah, be nice to have a SSD but they are years away from a decent price point to make it worthwhile unless you are buy an uber machine. pick the biggest for price otherwise, again its personal preference and matters little.

motherboard. if building, preference again, just stick to Asus, Gigabyte, MSI. dont buy fancy features you'll never use, like say Raid 5 support (ie get the cheaper model)

Power. if not overclocking or doing dual GPU 500w is plenty enough, and will probably be fine for a bit of tweaking or another card if you change your mind. if you want to overclock then you aren't asking for advice so dont worry about it.

Memory. it is literally all the same. many of the brands come from the same factories. unless pushing for uber performance, just get the budget version of one of the main brands like Corsair or Kingston.

cooling. again, unless you are overclocking you dont need more than the stock cooler, they are designed to cool the CPU to meet the expect lifetime (and i think they offer years of warranty).


in general by not buying bits that have been designed to appeal to the overclocking brigade you can buy a complete new PC for probably 20-30% less with maybe only a 10% lower performance.

 

I would say you need a good quality power supply at 500W for a new system with mid/high GPU.

I have just bought a Jeantech 1kW absolute power supply and a BFG nvidia GTX280(both cheapish off ebay) and am just awaiting funds to get an i7 mobo bundle(will be new).

good luck with your upgrade :)

 

Personally for the power supply even tho i dont overclock i like to have a bit more than needed to be safe, maybe future proof if i decide to do anything to it maybe? idk but i have a 700w one, hiper i think

 

Im currently running EU on a ssd with OS win7 64-bit. cost for 80Gb aprox
2000 Sek. Just buy one, you will not regret it :)

 

I picked up a thermaltake big water system new for $95.00. It's not the top of the line but installation was simple and my CPU runs ~15 degrees (F) higher then room temp. My MB runs cooler as well because the CPU heat is routed outside the case.
It's a great investment and usually cheaper if you get it installed from the start!

 

yes that is very cool, under 30deg C i reckon.

but heres the thing, the CPU is designed to run at temperatures of 70-80 deg C plus (depending on model). so whats the point? unless you are pushing the temperature envelope by overclocking or living in a very high temp environment, its not really that useful and not a great investment

 

Running a CPU cooler then it's rated temp is a very good thing.. thermal breakdown is a major cause of semiconductor breakdown. Cooler means longer life.

I got my last system from cyberpower, I declined the Asetec liquid cooling system which would of been only an additional $50.. many of the aftermarket air cooled heat pipes cost more than that.