Build a PC for Rome 2 / Hardware Recommendations and Advice Thread

[Benzo]

Thinking of building a PC which will be able to run Rome 2 as my laptop cannot run games of this quality.

Processor - Intel i3 3240 3.4GHz
RAM - Corsair XMS3 4GB DDR3 1600MHz
MOBO - MSI H87-G43 Intel H87 Socket 1150
Graphics - Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 7850 Dual-X OC 2GB GDDR5
Case - Novatech Defender mid-tower care
Case Fans - 3 12CM fans.
Optical Drive - Samsung 224DB 24x DVD re-writer
Hard drive - Western Digital Caviar Blue 1Tb 64MB Cache SATA 6GB/s <8.9ms 7200rpm
PSU - 600W Silent Novatech PowerStation
OS - Windows 8 64 Bit

Will everything be compatible and what quality will it run on and on what unit scales.

[Benzo]

I am thinking of building a PC which will be able to run Rome 2 as my laptop cannot
run games of this quality.
I'm hoping to get some high quality graphics on a large unit scale.

Here is the build I am looking to put together.

Processor - Intel i3 3240 3.4GHz
RAM - Corsair XMS3 4GB DDR3 1600MHz
MOBO - MSI H87-G43 Intel H87 Socket 1150
Graphics - Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 7850 Dual-X OC 2GB GDDR5
Case - Novatech Defender mid-tower care
Case Fans - 3 12CM fans.
Optical Drive - Samsung 224DB 24x DVD re-writer
Hard drive - Western Digital Caviar Blue 1Tb 64MB Cache SATA 6GB/s 7200rpm
PSU - 600W Silent Novatech PowerStation
OS - Windows 8 64 Bit

Will everything be compatible and what quality will it run on and on what unit
scales.

[Pro-opera Jungian]

Hello!

I'm thinking on buying a new desktop, but I want it to be able to run RTWII. Would a computer with these specs be able to handle it?

Processor: 3rd Generation Intel Core i5-3470 (3.20 GHz w/ HD2500 Gtaphics
RAM:4 GB
Hard Drive: 500 GB
OS: Windows 7
Graphics: Intel Integrated Graphics.

[Keiji99]

Hello!

I'm thinking on buying a new desktop, but I want it to be able to run RTWII. Would a computer with these specs be able to handle it?

Processor: 3rd Generation Intel Core i5-3470 (3.20 GHz w/ HD2500 Gtaphics
RAM:4 GB
Hard Drive: 500 GB
OS: Windows 7
Graphics: Intel Integrated Graphics.

No, you'll definitely want a discrete graphics card. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814202025 This card will run it on high and maybe on ultra.

[Pro-opera Jungian]

Ok, thanks for the tip. At this point, I'm buying a 7870 graphics card. With that said, I'm going between two different computers (both made by Dell):

First one has:
CPU-i3 3240 (3.4 GHZ)
RAM-4GB
Hard Drive-1TB

The second one:
CPU-i5 3340s (3.3 GHZ)
RAM-8GM
Hard Drive-1TB

The second one costs $200 more, but it has i5. I'm getting a new graphics card either way, so which would have better specifications for RTWII? The one with higher GHZ or the one with the i5 Processor?

Sorry for all the questions. It's just that, since I'm making the investment in a new computer, I want to make sure it can handle RTW2.

[Keiji99]

Ghz isn't always a matter of a processor being faster; since they come from the same family however, their clock rates are comparable, so the i3 would be faster. The i5 is a quad core and has double the L3 cache, Rome 2 only uses two cores. Meaning that two cores will be idle when running the game. If you look in the OP, you'll see that the i3 3240 processor will run Rome 2 smoothly with unit settings on high. That's also a low end i5, the "S" on the end states that it's a low-power processor, with a lower TDP. And 4GB RAM is enough for any game, and since Rome 2 is a 32-bit application, it can't use more than 4 GB of RAM. In conclusion, I'd go with the first computer.

You don't need the 7870 either, the 7850 or gtx 650 ti will still run it smoothly at high settings.

[dan92]

Which PC components (graphic card,cpu, RAM) is most important for TW games ? Thanks

[Keiji99]

Which PC components (graphic card,cpu, RAM) is most important for TW games ? Thanks

CPU is the most important component for Total War games.

[alQamar]

sounds well. You could run on high or ultra settings easy.

[Benzo]

What about this?

Case : Zalman Mini T3 Black
Power Supply : 500 Watt With Power Cable Supplied
Motherboard : Gigabyte H81M-S2PV
CPU : Intel I5 4th Gen 4440 Quad Core 3.1Ghz CPU (3.3Ghz Turbo)
Hard Drive : 1tb Sata Hard Drive
Memory : 8gb DDR3 1600mhz Corsair Vengeance Memory
Graphics Card : AMD Radeon 7750 2GB
Optical Drive : 24x Dual Layer DVD Writer
Software : Windows 8 Home 64 bit

Will cost me £480

[Totalheadache]

What about this?

Case : Zalman Mini T3 Black
Power Supply : 500 Watt With Power Cable Supplied
Motherboard : Gigabyte H81M-S2PV
CPU : Intel I5 4th Gen 4440 Quad Core 3.1Ghz CPU (3.3Ghz Turbo)
Hard Drive : 1tb Sata Hard Drive
Memory : 8gb DDR3 1600mhz Corsair Vengeance Memory
Graphics Card : AMD Radeon 7750 2GB
Optical Drive : 24x Dual Layer DVD Writer
Software : Windows 8 Home 64 bit

Will cost me £480

if that includes an overclockable quad then good.

make/brand of psu? avoid pre-builts if you can..

[Benzo]

if that includes an overclockable quad then good.

make/brand of psu? avoid pre-builts if you can..

If you had to guess the quality on high unit scale what would you say?

[Totalheadache]

If you had to guess the quality on high unit scale what would you say?

impossible to say unless i know the resolution of the screen you are using...?

p.s u mean high settings? with aa? af? large units?

there's no reason you cant get a good gaming experience with a pc built for around £500 but quality of parts and screen used is important. pre-builts tend to skimp in certain areas..like gpu/psu.

a 7750 is a pretty weak gpu.

[Benzo]

impossible to say unless i know the resolution of the screen you are using...?

p.s u mean high settings? with aa? af? large units?

there's no reason you cant get a good gaming experience with a pc built for around £500 but quality of parts and screen used is important. pre-builts tend to skimp in certain areas..like gpu/psu.

a 7750 is a pretty weak gpu.

I'm not to fussed about aa and af. But this will surely run it to a reasonable (medium) quality without any lag.

Best thing about a PC is I can always upgrade things such as the GPU when I have more funds.

[alQamar]

PSU = power supply unit. If you are longing for medium settings please be aware the game looks worse than Shogun 2 and even partly than Rome 1 with medium preset.
You don't have to care for AA and AF as Rome 2 does not support it anyway and it by default disabled even when you use extreme preset.

[pd1212]

I am looking to get a new video card to play comfortably with decent settings. I am not looking to spend more than $200, what options do I have? Links would be much appreciated, thanks. Here's what I'm running with atm:

Processor Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q9400 @ 2.66GHz
Video Card NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT
Dedicated Memory 256 MB
Total memory 3.0 GB
Memory 6.2 GB
Operating System Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition Service Pack 2 (build 6002), 64-bit

[SamueleD]

I am looking to get a new video card to play comfortably with decent settings. I am not looking to spend more than $200, what options do I have? Links would be much appreciated, thanks. Here's what I'm running with atm:

Processor Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q9400 @ 2.66GHz
Video Card NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT
Dedicated Memory 256 MB
Total memory 3.0 GB
Memory 6.2 GB
Operating System Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition Service Pack 2 (build 6002), 64-bit

I would suggest the AMD R9 270 or AMD R9 270X. The 270X is basically the 270 overclocked, with a higher TDP and more power connectors. If you are comfortable with overclocking or are tight on budget pick a 270, if you are not comfortable with overclocking aor have a few bucks more pick a 270X. Current Nvidia cards at that price range (650 Ti) perform considerably worse than the 270 and 270X.

Consider that if your aim is primarily playing TW games the CPU (yours is pretty old) will be your bottleneck, it would be advisable to overclock it if possible or get a new one (which would require also a new motherboard), but you can do that once you have enough money, after getting the video card; in less CPU intensive games, though, your GPU won't be considerably bottlenecked.

[HimDiamond]

Hi folks, I'm in the process of putting together a parts list for a new PC with the intention of playing Rome II and a few other games (Eve, M&B Warband among others) and I was hoping to get some feedback on what I've put together so far. My budget is £650 plus a monitor (preferably 1920x1080). I'm new to building computers so any feedback would be gratefully received.

Parts list - here.

Cheers!

[SamueleD]

Hi folks, I'm in the process of putting together a parts list for a new PC with the intention of playing Rome II and a few other games (Eve, M&B Warband among others) and I was hoping to get some feedback on what I've put together so far. My budget is £650 plus a monitor (preferably 1920x1080). I'm new to building computers so any feedback would be gratefully received.

Parts list - here.

Cheers!

What's the budget for the monitor? Also, do you already have an old computer, from which you can recycle the OS license, or are you a member of a university, which could give you the OS for free?

[HimDiamond]

What's the budget for the monitor? Also, do you already have an old computer, from which you can recycle the OS license, or are you a member of a university, which could give you the OS for free?

Unfortunately I don't have a recyclable OS license. The only copy of 7 I have came with my laptop and I understand that this wouldn't be reusable on a new system. I am a member of a university so I'll give that a shot!

£100-£150 for the monitor.

Thanks!