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

[Silver]

Thank you very much Splenyl,
I will switch to haswell then, with below CPU and mainboard:
CPU Intel Core™ i5-4570 3.20 GHz / 6MB / HD 4600 Graphics / Socket 1150 (Haswell)
Mainboard MSI Z87M-G43
About the VGA, is this the one you suggested?
VGA ZOTAC GeForce® GTX 670 AMP! Edition 2GB GDDR5 256bit
if not then what about VGA SAPPHIRE ATI HD7970 OC 3072MB GDDR5?
and for the cooler i will switch to CPU Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO

[Biggus Splenus]

Thank you very much Splenyl,
I will switch to haswell then, with below CPU and mainboard:
CPU Intel Core™ i5-4570 3.20 GHz / 6MB / HD 4600 Graphics / Socket 1150 (Haswell)
Mainboard MSI Z87M-G43
About the VGA, is this the one you suggested?
VGA ZOTAC GeForce® GTX 670 AMP! Edition 2GB GDDR5 256bit
if not then what about VGA SAPPHIRE ATI HD7970 OC 3072MB GDDR5?
and for the cooler i will switch to CPU Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO

That looks a little better, but it's pointless to get a Z87 board, unless you have a 4670k or 4770k. I'd suggest a H87 board instead, if you want to save a little money. If you're not fussed, stick with Z87. You could maybe get a 4670k for the overclockability? That's what Z87 boards are designed for.

That isn't the graphics card I was talking about, more like this one: ASUS GTX 760 DirectCU2
Beastly cooler and great performance for the price. I know that GTX 760's are very expensive in some countries though, so where do you live? If you're in the US or Canada, then you're all good, if you're in EU or Australia, then it's a bad choice (most likely, check the price exchange).

[Silver]

I am living in Singapore I can not found that VGA card at my usual retail store could you suggest different one?
Thank you very much.

[alQamar]

I am living in Singapore I can not found that VGA card at my usual retail store could you suggest different one?
Thank you very much.

Hi Silver, thanks for changing your rig according to Splenyi and my suggestions. If you cannot get the Asus, which is definitely the best around atm, look out for that one:
Asus GTX760-DC2OC-2GD5 or

EVGA GeForce GTX 760 Superclocked w/ ACX Cooler 2048MB

Both cards should be still cheaper and better than the 7950 you choosed before.

If all of these are still not available for you, lookout for a EVGA 760 SC with stock cooler, they are not that bad anyway if you could live with the given amout of OC potential by the manufacturer.

If you have chosen all your parts plz repost whole rig again for verify.

[Metallistic]

Hi Silver, thanks for changing your rig according to Splenyi and my suggestions. If you cannot get the Asus, which is definitely the best around atm, look out for that one:
Asus GTX760-DC2OC-2GD5 or

EVGA GeForce GTX 760 Superclocked w/ ACX Cooler 2048MB

I can vouch for the Asus brand. The GTX 670 that I picked up 9 months ago is probably the most quiet and cool card that I have owned so far.

[Baldos]

I am living in Singapore I can not found that VGA card at my usual retail store could you suggest different one?
Thank you very much.

Can you order via Newegg or Amazon?

[Biggus Splenus]

@ Blados - No, Newegg and amazon will not ship most PC components to most regions of Oceania and Asia.

@ Silver - Just try getting any GTX 760 model, if you can't, then it's probably better to get a HD 7950 (or a GTX 670 if you can find it similarly priced, unlikely though, a GTX 660TI wouldn't be as good a choice as a 7950).

[Baldos]

@ Blados - No, Newegg and amazon will not ship most PC components to most regions of Oceania and Asia.

WOW! I feel foolish. Most PC components are made in Asia... aren't there web sites and parcel carriers in Oceania and Asia that sell and deliver?

[the count]

Thanks guys for all the advice, I ordered a Haswell i5-4670k, an Asus z87 Mobo and some 8 gig corsair vengeance RAM.

Only "problem" now might be the ancient os but im hesitant to take all the effort of upgrading that now.

And the slightly dated video card EVGA 560ftw 1 gig

any advice about the video card, I am not sure about wether just to wait and see what will happen or upgrade it as well this summer.

Which cards would be good (I'll stick to Nvidia) is perhaps SLI and idea, since my card isn't that old to simply discard.

and oh, what is actually with the RAM latency, what is better 7 or 9?

[Epic28]

Thanks guys for all the advice, I ordered a Haswell i5-4670k, an Asus z87 Mobo and some 8 gig corsair vengeance RAM.

Only "problem" now might be the ancient os but im hesitant to take all the effort of upgrading that now.

And the slightly dated video card EVGA 560ftw 1 gig

any advice about the video card, I am not sure about wether just to wait and see what will happen or upgrade it as well this summer.

Which cards would be good (I'll stick to Nvidia) is perhaps SLI and idea, since my card isn't that old to simply discard.

and oh, what is actually with the RAM latency, what is better 7 or 9?

What is your current OS?

Honestly I would recommend the GTX 760, which is what I am about to purchase here in the next week or so, it'll be a superb card assuming you dont run multiple displays or resolutions over 1080p and depending on your location, very affordable compared to similar cards in its class. GTX 770 is a big seller around these forums, but to me spending $400+ US dollars on a GPU isn't necessary to satisfy my casual gaming needs. Everyone is different though.

Lower the RAM latency the better, RAM is cheap and easily up-gradable, just get 8 GB's and you'll be perfect.

[Biggus Splenus]

@ TotalHeadache - I would think ideally you don't want vsync, because it puts a a HUGE amount of more work on the GPU. I'm not sure if anything below a 770 could handle vsync on ultra settings.

@ the count - congrats on the new parts!
Lower Ram latency is always better, but you won't notice a difference below 9, same with 1600Mhz speed, no point in going faster.

For your graphics card, I'd suggest a 760 if it cost around the same as a 660TI in your country. A 760 performs better than a 660TI, and nearly as well as a 670 in a lot of cases, plus it (should) cost less than a 660TI.

I wouldn't recommend to SLI a 560, better off just getting another new card. 560 in SLI will consume more power, produce more heat, and perform worse than a single 760. Plus with the 560's you'll only have 1gb of vram (that's right, when in SLI the vram doesn't add up), which could be a bottlenecking situation. On a 760 you'll have 2gb. A 760 is currently Nvidia's best value.

[Totalheadache]

@ TotalHeadache - I would think ideally you don't want vsync, because it puts a a HUGE amount of more work on the GPU. I'm not sure if anything below a 770 could handle vsync on ultra settings.

@ the count - congrats on the new parts!
Lower Ram latency is always better, but you won't notice a difference below 9, same with 1600Mhz speed, no point in going faster.

For your graphics card, I'd suggest a 760 if it cost around the same as a 660TI in your country. A 760 performs better than a 660TI, and nearly as well as a 670 in a lot of cases, plus it (should) cost less than a 660TI.

I wouldn't recommend to SLI a 560, better off just getting another new card. 560 in SLI will consume more power, produce more heat, and perform worse than a single 760. Plus with the 560's you'll only have 1gb of vram (that's right, when in SLI the vram doesn't add up), which could be a bottlenecking situation. On a 760 you'll have 2gb. A 760 is currently Nvidia's best value.

actually if anything because you are capping your framerate to 60fps (or 120 if you can) the gpu is generally pushing out less fps and therefore will run cooler. well it does for me re total wars and other games.

i always run with vysnc and sometimes triple buffering whenever possible. try and it and see if your gpu temps go down (less temps is always ideal esp if you are on a stock/custom cooler, and that's esp true with Kepler).

@the count I am still on vista 64!

[Silver]

Then what do you think about this one
Asus hd7950 dc2t 3gd5 v2 (384 bits)?

[the count]

I am the only one in the world who is running the highly beloved Vista :p (64 bit version that

Since I live in euro zone the card is probably too expensive here

When doing SLI, I can only add another 560?

[Epic28]

I am the only one in the world who is running the highly beloved Vista :p (64 bit version that

Since I live in euro zone the card is probably too expensive here

When doing SLI, I can only add another 560?

Take a look around some online retailers near you for 760 pricing. And like Splenyi said, don't waste your money SLI-ing dual 560's, as it will still be inferior to one 760. The 1 GB of VRAM will limit your high scale setting performance.

Edit- Did you mean you want to try and SLI a 560 and a 760 together? You have to SLI the same card model together.

1) Both have same chipset model irrespective of the company.
2) Both should have same clock,memory,shaders,etc.
3) SLI labelled motherboard.
4) Enough power to run both the graphic cards at the same time.
5) Standard PSU with SLI label.

[the count]

@Epic28, Splenyi

Ah Thanks for the advice,

the 760 is here like 260-300 euro (340 -390 us dollar)

I had no knowledge about SLI, it just came in my mind because discarding the card now seems a shame. Yeah absolutely right, there is no use in buying another 560
My current card costed me 200 euros and I have it less than two years, I think I will just wait a year or something and then buy a new one. My biggest issue is just the waist of discarding a less than two year old video card which wasnt very cheap as well.

Maybe I bought the wrong one one and a half year ago, but my old 9800GTX+ suddenly broke down so I sought something of similar price and compared to the previous card it was a very big improvement.

[Biggus Splenus]

@ Silver - ASUS stuffed up big time with AMD cards this generations (a LOT of complaints), go with MSI or Gigabyte, because I personally know they are reliable.

@ count - if a 760 cost around the same, or a bit more, as a 660TI its worth it. If it cost a lot more, its not. Do you have a link where I can look at pricing? An etailer or something?

[Silver]

Thank you so much, i will avoid asus ones then. For 7950, i found this one
Gigabyte gv r795wf3 3gd, is it fine?

[Biggus Splenus]

Thank you so much, i will avoid asus ones then. For 7950, i found this one
Gigabyte gv r795wf3 3gd, is it fine?

Yep that's card is great.

actually if anything because you are capping your framerate to 60fps (or 120 if you can) the gpu is generally pushing out less fps and therefore will run cooler. well it does for me re total wars and other games.

i always run with vysnc and sometimes triple buffering whenever possible. try and it and see if your gpu temps go down (less temps is always ideal esp if you are on a stock/custom cooler, and that's esp true with Kepler).

I suppose vsync would be optimal, but sometimes it would cause so low frame rates on some cards that it just isn't an option.

Thank you for your responses guys regarding my graphic card question.


what do you think about this? this is what I have on my mind so far.
so far it would cost me about 1115 USD or 850 Euro.



ASROCK Z77 Pro4
INTEL Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz 1155 BOX
CORSAIR 8GB Vengeance Pro DDR3 1600MHz CL9 KIT CMY8GX3M2A1600C9R
GIGABYTE GV-N760OC-2GD GTX760 2GB GDDR5 OC PCIE
SEAGATE 2TB Barracuda 7200rpm 64MB SATA3 ST2000DM001
COOLERMASTER RC-K380-KWN1 K380
CORSAIR GS Series GS600W 2013 Edition
Cooler Master Hyper TX3 EVO CPU Cooler

You could try and get Haswell, that's the only thing I'd suggest. Also, replace that cooler with the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo, it's only another $10-$15 I think, and well worth it.

I5 or i7 processor? I'm building a gaming rig with a very large budget ( iv been saving up for a few years) so I can afford the i7 top end CPU but I heard they just slow games down is it true? Should I go for the I5 instead?

Doesn't slow games down, just has no benefit over the i5 in gaming. Get a 4670k, and spend your hard earned cash where it will actually make a difference.

WOW! I feel foolish. Most PC components are made in Asia... aren't there web sites and parcel carriers in Oceania and Asia that sell and deliver?

My mate on TWC who lives in Australia can get stuff delivered to his doorstep from America, but he lives in the biggest city in the country, so I guess that's why. I live in a town of about 200 people, so no international couriers are willing to come out here.

@Epic28, Splenyi

Ah Thanks for the advice,

the 760 is here like 260-300 euro (340 -390 us dollar)

I had no knowledge about SLI, it just came in my mind because discarding the card now seems a shame. Yeah absolutely right, there is no use in buying another 560
My current card costed me 200 euros and I have it less than two years, I think I will just wait a year or something and then buy a new one. My biggest issue is just the waist of discarding a less than two year old video card which wasnt very cheap as well.

Maybe I bought the wrong one one and a half year ago, but my old 9800GTX+ suddenly broke down so I sought something of similar price and compared to the previous card it was a very big improvement.

That certainly is a very expensive card, I wouldn't pay that much for a 760, maybe $320-$340 but no more. It will be a good investment I think, but you can always wait till prices drop a bit, because your 560 will play Rome 2 on medium/high. And if you're not happy with the 560's performance, then upgrade, there's no rush!

[alQamar]

sounds well, CL is better than 9 of course, if you do not look for a soon upgrade wait for October /November when new NVIDIA /AMD models will be released, otherwise a 770 should fit fine with your rig