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

[Ltd.]

hi there

i was just trying to post my first post, in fact a question, about some hardware I am about to purchase, but I got the error message: Post denied. New posts are limited by number of URLs it may contain and checked if it doesn't contain forbidden words.
I am sure I did not post any swear words or any links. As far as read, this message should go away once I have a few posts, so here we go. let´s see if this goes through

[alQamar]

currently I am sitting in front of a 17" 4:3 screen and this one is that old it might never heard anything about refresh rates above 60Hz or high response times.

This responds times will get more important the larger the screen is but definitely you will not notice that difference on a screen below 32".
The only thing that would need the 120 Hz is when you use the Nvidia 3D glasses as then this refresh rated would be halfed to 2x60Hz, 60Hz for each eye.
On the other hand if you run a game with a decent GPU and vsync disabled and you get e.g. 80-90 frames per second those display with 120 Hz can really display this high framerate. However the human eye cannot recognize more than 85 "fps".

conclusion: if you do not use 3D glasses from NVIDIA or sorts the higher refresh rate is not giving an advantage. the 2ms GTG is a bad measuring mode as the black / white is more important but most vendors do not share these figures.
If the price for a 2ms screen @60Hz is not quite higher than the usual 5ms screens pick it, otherwise that a usual screen with 5ms.

hi there

i was just trying to post my first post, in fact a question, about some hardware I am about to purchase, but I got the error message: Post denied. New posts are limited by number of URLs it may contain and checked if it doesn't contain forbidden words.
I am sure I did not post any swear words or any links. As far as read, this message should go away once I have a few posts, so here we go. let´s see if this goes through

unfortunately new members are not allowed to post links (spam / bot prevention)

[Ltd.]

I did not post any links, nor any forbidden words; I guess I just need a few more posts, at least that`s what I´ve read regarding this message

[ElvenKind]

Yes, you need at least 4 posts to pass spam filter.

[Ltd.]

ok, so one more wow, hope this will not count as spam, since it´s just filling text

[Baldos]

Overclocking does not increase Shogun 2 Benchmarks? But game does feel faster!
Three days ago I used to the TPU switch on my ASUS motherboard to overclock the i53570K CPU.
(the TPU switch is an “auto overclock” function on ASUS boards- it has been stable for gaming over the weekend. WEI rating for CPU went from 7.6 to 7.7)
According to CPU-z v.1.65 the CPU multiplier is now in the 16 to 41 range (1.648 to 4.223 GHz) the standard is a multiplier of 35 for this CPU.
Hwmonitor v 1.23 (from CPUID) had the max CPU at 4.2GHz and temp at 53 C and the GPU max temp at 68 C. when I ran the Shogun 2 Benchmarks. It also indicated the air temp as 28 C or 82 F. (My AC/Heat panel has the room at 78 F, it is 84 F outside now)
Most interesting is that with TPU overclocking at 4.2 GhHz I still get 105-108 FPS on Shogun 2 Benchmark DX11 Graphics high 1080P, 64.5 FPS at all graphics maxed same as prior to overclocking.


CPU: Intel core i5 3570k
CPU Cooling: Corsair H60
Mobo: ASUS P8Z77-V Pro
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8gb 1600mHz
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 770 2 GB OC
SSD: Samsung 840 Pro 512GB
Spin drive: Seagate Barracuda 720rpm 1TB
Optical Drive (old case)
Blue Ray drive (old case)
PSU: Corsair HX750W (old case)
Case: Corsair Carbide 650D (old case)
Windows 7 Pro (full license)

[SamueleD]

Overclocking does not increase Shogun 2 Benchmarks? But game does feel faster!
Three days ago I used to the TPU switch on my ASUS motherboard to overclock the i53570K CPU.
(the TPU switch is an “auto overclock” function on ASUS boards- it has been stable for gaming over the weekend. WEI rating for CPU went from 7.6 to 7.7)
According to CPU-z v.1.65 the CPU multiplier is now in the 16 to 41 range (1.648 to 4.223 GHz) the standard is a multiplier of 35 for this CPU.
Hwmonitor v 1.23 (from CPUID) had the max CPU at 4.2GHz and temp at 53 C and the GPU max temp at 68 C. when I ran the Shogun 2 Benchmarks. It also indicated the air temp as 28 C or 82 F. (My AC/Heat panel has the room at 78 F, it is 84 F outside now)
Most interesting is that with TPU overclocking at 4.2 GhHz I still get 105-108 FPS on Shogun 2 Benchmark DX11 Graphics high 1080P, 64.5 FPS at all graphics maxed same as prior to overclocking.


CPU: Intel core i5 3570k
CPU Cooling: Corsair H60
Mobo: ASUS P8Z77-V Pro
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8gb 1600mHz
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 770 2 GB OC
SSD: Samsung 840 Pro 512GB
Spin drive: Seagate Barracuda 720rpm 1TB
Optical Drive (old case)
Blue Ray drive (old case)
PSU: Corsair HX750W (old case)
Case: Corsair Carbide 650D (old case)
Windows 7 Pro (full license)

Thing is, it's a bit more complicate than that. TW gets CPU bound when there are a lot of soldiers and in melee fights, both of which are not tested by the Shogun 2 benchmark. The game "feels" faster because it is: the min FPS should increase, and FPS drops should be reduced.

Have you tried the CPU bechmark (not the 1080p preset), before and after OC? Because when I overclocked there was a nice difference.

oh okay did not know that when you say x16 do you mean the longer ones like where my GPU is in for example?

Precisely, they can host any card in PCI-E x16 (like your GPU) or lower (so also a x1), it seems like a waste of slots, but if you don't Crossfire/SLI, who cares?

[Raikou]

Thing is, it's a bit more complicate than that. TW gets CPU bound when there are a lot of soldiers and in melee fights, both of which are not tested by the Shogun 2 benchmark. The game "feels" faster because it is: the min FPS should increase, and FPS drops should be reduced.

Have you tried the CPU bechmark (not the 1080p preset), before and after OC? Because when I overclocked there was a nice difference.



Precisely, they can host any card in PCI-E x16 (like your GPU) or lower (so also a x1), it seems like a waste of slots, but if you don't Crossfire/SLI, who cares?

Alright man thanks alot my friend went over it a little more with me all i gotta do now is find a space for the sister card that does nothing lol

[SamueleD]

Alright man thanks alot my friend went over it a little more with me all i gotta do now is find a space for the sister card that does nothing lol

Unless you need its output it might not be necessary... but it doesn't need any specific connection besides its cable, so I guess you can put it anywhere you want, if your case is what I think it is, it should have plenty of slots (8) where you can put that little thing.

[alQamar]

Overclocking does not increase Shogun 2 Benchmarks? But game does feel faster!
Three days ago I used to the TPU switch on my ASUS motherboard to overclock the i53570K CPU.
(the TPU switch is an “auto overclock” function on ASUS boards- it has been stable for gaming over the weekend. WEI rating for CPU went from 7.6 to 7.7)
According to CPU-z v.1.65 the CPU multiplier is now in the 16 to 41 range (1.648 to 4.223 GHz) the standard is a multiplier of 35 for this CPU.
Hwmonitor v 1.23 (from CPUID) had the max CPU at 4.2GHz and temp at 53 C and the GPU max temp at 68 C. when I ran the Shogun 2 Benchmarks. It also indicated the air temp as 28 C or 82 F. (My AC/Heat panel has the room at 78 F, it is 84 F outside now)
Most interesting is that with TPU overclocking at 4.2 GhHz I still get 105-108 FPS on Shogun 2 Benchmark DX11 Graphics high 1080P, 64.5 FPS at all graphics maxed same as prior to overclocking.


CPU: Intel core i5 3570k
CPU Cooling: Corsair H60
Mobo: ASUS P8Z77-V Pro
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8gb 1600mHz
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 770 2 GB OC
SSD: Samsung 840 Pro 512GB
Spin drive: Seagate Barracuda 720rpm 1TB
Optical Drive (old case)
Blue Ray drive (old case)
PSU: Corsair HX750W (old case)
Case: Corsair Carbide 650D (old case)
Windows 7 Pro (full license)

Hi Baldos, somehow your tests confuse me. I've made a lot of tests in with the other tech admins on totalwar.com and in any case the OC scaled linear with higher clock speed of the CPU or GPU resulting higher FPS. It seems that with 105 fps the engine comes to a critical point where it seems to be bottlenecked by another hardware or the engine itself.
At least posting that OC does not impact the performance in Shogun 2 / Rome 2 but it just feels more fluently is to common said, and will not apply to all systems.

Additionally the 1080p high test does not use the highest settings, e.g. for Antialising the script sets only MLAA which is not very demanding and also not recommended because of flickering issues on NVIDIA cards. Please try you benchmarks again with highest settings manually (max Antialiasing all etc.) set ingame or preferences.txt and run "Benchmark game settings" again.
Thank you.

edit: as also other said: you can only notice the difference of OC using the CPU benchmark. Don't forget that if you OC to 4,5 GHz Shogun 2 / Rome 2 still utilize only 2 cores and maybe some others if you have hyperthreading!
The benchmark CA delivered is quite not representative for the whole game. It is very easy, the top is camera movement and some moving units. But the battle is missing. I think they betrayed themselve with this scripted scene, so it would not be that obvious how, sorry to say, crappy the engine still is they are developing but never refurbished since Empire.
Fingers crossed for Rome 2, but I am rid of their marketing terms like "overhauled graphics engine" "overhauled AI".
The need not to overhaul it, as eager modder could possible do but finally bring a new engine that is able to utilize a quadcore CPU or more, but this cannot be said often enough, respecting the people around and see how much money they spent and "how far they would go for Rome". while the CA devs left us behind with our too modern rigs for Total War.
*end of bashing mode*

how much to soundcards work, i have an integrated sound card thats seems to work just fine

well hopefully my answer does not sound to selfish but I am using Soundblaster for over 15 years.

for the normal user an additional soundcard is not recommended. Myself using Soundblaster since their first models in the 90's and in these times they were very needed. However the Realtek HD chipset, which are mostly around, offers a good enough quality for main purposes. If you are an audiophil and able to hear a difference between 128kbit or 192kbit resolution, if you plan to use your computer or laptop (Usb Soundblasters) as sound machine (DJ or party) and pluggin it on a high quality equipment like 5.1 or 7.1 you will of course notice a difference. Even if you compare both using a digital transfer like SPDIF (optical fiber) which both solutions offer.

If you use "lame" speakers or headset the difference is still there, better bass / treble and allover more "boom". At the end it is a choice of each own. As 2 of my Soundblasters went broken in 2011 and 2012 (because I placed it behind the GPU I think) I decided to live first time with my Realtek HD onboard. I get used to it

[Ltd.]

so, to my qustion now:

I intend to buy a new cpu and a new board, not only because of rome 2, but since I intend to play that rather extensively, I was wondering whether an i5 3570 (no K, for now a rather small budget) and a Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H Intel Z77 board would get the job done properly. My gpu is not that powerful, gtx 650 ti, 1GB, but since I can play shogun 2 on ultra, at least the demo - I dont have the game - it is fine with me. I´m more interested in more soldiers, than to see the smallest grain of sand on the ground or to have the highest texture. so I am fine with "only" high settings, doesnt´t have to be ultra, shadows off , and stuff, as long as large battles with no bottleneck can be achieved. That is my concern only.
I have win 7, 64bit,
my current board is an asus m468t -m le v2 3 GHz
my cpu is amd athlon ii x4 640
8 GB RAM
gpu: gtx 650 ti
so far no ssd, but that may follow
Monitor: 24"

so with the afore mentioned board and cpu and eventually a samsung 840 120GB ssd, what do you think, how would things stand?
these 3 things would get me around 380 - 400 Eur and that is my current budget.


thanks

[alQamar]

so, to my qustion now:

I intend to buy a new cpu and a new board, not only because of rome 2, but since I intend to play that rather extensively, I was wondering whether an i5 3570 (no K, for now a rather small budget) and a Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H Intel Z77 board would get the job done properly. My gpu is not that powerful, gtx 650 ti, 1GB, but since I can play shogun 2 on ultra, at least the demo - I dont have the game - it is fine with me. I´m more interested in more soldiers, than to see the smallest grain of sand on the ground or to have the highest texture. so I am fine with "only" high settings, doesnt´t have to be ultra, shadows off , and stuff, as long as large battles with no bottleneck can be achieved. That is my concern only.
I have win 7, 64bit,
my current board is an asus m468t -m le v2 3 GHz
my cpu is amd athlon ii x4 640
8 GB RAM
gpu: gtx 650 ti
so far no ssd, but that may follow
Monitor: 24"

so with the afore mentioned board and cpu and eventually a samsung 840 120GB ssd, what do you think, how would things stand?
these 3 things would get me around 380 - 400 Eur and that is my current budget.


thanks

Hi there I don't think that it is either reasonable to buy a Z chipset while not getting a K cpu as splenyi and often explained. Especially if you feel underpowered with your CPU it is a need to get the i5 to its save limit. Don't forget you get nearly 1 GHz more speed on all cores.
So if you plan to invest don't save a few bucks to get a non K CPU
greetings
alQamar

Hey alQamar I'm wondering if you got my message because my shockwave flash crashed at the same time and I can't tell if I have sent it?

Nope didn't get anything. Forum is very unstable again esp. On editing posts.

Gesendet von meinem GT-I9100 mit Tapatalk 4 Beta

[Sebt1890]

I'm going to buy 2 more case fans to put on the top. Any recommendations? Just need 2 120mm that are decent. I was thinking of just going ahead and buying the same ones that came with my NZXT case.

[D E C]

Hey alQamar I'm wondering if you got my message because my shockwave flash crashed at the same time and I can't tell if I have sent it?

[D E C]

OK, I remeber you recomended to me a rig posted by another user, unfortunately I couldn't find some components in my country. Could you possibly give an opinion on these? And posibly a good MOBO/practical case? Is the i7 worth it or a good i5 could do the job better?

http://www.pcmarket.bg/monitori/BENQ...4-9H.LA6LB.QPE
http://www.emag.bg/komponenti-perife...n-650w-product
http://www.emag.bg/komponenti-perife...55-box-product
http://www.emag.bg/komponenti-perife...-pci-e-product
http://www.emag.bg/komponenti-perife...400mhz-product
http://www.emag.bg/komponenti-perife...ta-iii-product
http://www.emag.bg/komponenti-perife...0dm001-product

This seems like a nice CPU cooler but I don't know in what case would it fit:
http://www.emag.bg/komponenti-perife...2p-se2-product

I know it's not in English but you would get what the models are. So far - 1348 USD. Any help would be repaid in rep. Thanks!

[alQamar]

Tapatalk don't work properly... 3 posts because editing. Can anyone test if there is a general problem using Tapatalk? He is not responding while submitting.

Hey alQamar I'm wondering if you got my message because my shockwave flash crashed at the same time and I can't tell if I have sent it?

edit: got the message and answered it now.

Gesendet von meinem GT-I9100 mit Tapatalk 4 Beta

[Anna_Gein]

Hi.

I am going to buy a new computer this summer. I am wondering how much influence does have the monitor over the PC performance (resolution apart) ? I have got two monitor available but they are quite old now (both must be 5+ old).

I was initially plaining to buy a new laptop to replace my older one who is broken now. The thing is I don't have a fantastic budget available (mine is 800-1000 euros. 1100 with difficulties but possible if it allow to economize on the long term). I understand this won't be enough to run new games like R2 on ultra and a laptop with such budget would allow for medium setting at the very best but high/medium settings are okay to me. Generally am happy with some tweak to gain performance (shadows on low or very low, reduced AA, trees details on medium, etc).

If my monitors are okay then I suppose I would change my choice for a PC. It is apparently the smart choice with my budget. I also have mouses, keyboards, speakers and various connectors so in the case my monitors were ok I would be able to concentrate all my 800/1000 on the PC itself.

[alQamar]

Hi.

I am going to buy a new computer this summer. I am wondering how much influence does have the monitor over the PC performance (resolution apart) ? I have got two monitor available but they are quite old now (both must be 5+ old).

I was initially plaining to buy a new laptop to replace my older one who is broken now. The thing is I don't have a fantastic budget available (mine is 800-1000 euros. 1100 with difficulties but possible if it allow to economize on the long term). I understand this won't be enough to run new games like R2 on ultra and a laptop with such budget would allow for medium setting at the very best but high/medium settings are okay to me. Generally am happy with some tweak to gain performance (shadows on low or very low, reduced AA, trees details on medium, etc).

If my monitors are okay then I suppose I would change my choice for a PC. It is apparently the smart choice with my budget. I also have mouses, keyboards, speakers and various connectors so in the case my monitors were ok I would be able to concentrate all my 800/1000 on the PC itself.

Greetings Anna, I really missed your presence here. Your budget is very ok to get an ultra capable rig for Total War, can you give me the maker and model of your monitors, please, and also tell me if you want to use them both or just running the game on one screen while e.g. having your desktop / modern UI on the other?

[CrayonVonCaesar]

Bugger new builds. What I want to know is can my old machine run it.

I can run NapTW on quite good settings.

Amd 64x2 Dual Core 6000+
6 Gb Ram
Nvidia geforce 450 GTS 1 GB Display Memory, Processor Clock: 1566 MHz

[Anna_Gein]

Ho that's a warm welcome. Thanks you.

Both are Dell. One is 18" and the other is 17". I am struggle to find more details about them. If it is ok I am plaining to use only one with my future purchase.

So my budget would be good for high setting ? Then you convinced me to buy a PC even in the case when I would need to buy a new monitor too. For now I was looking to the laptop alone but most looked too weak or too costly. Some even too costly but with a weak graphic card compared to the rest of the build.

Edit : sorry I made a mistake. The bigger monitor is 20". I think it is a E207WFPc (it is written so on the back). Like this one.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

It is also written "power rating : 100 - 240v ~ 50/60Hz".

It is the one I intend to use.