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

[SamueleD]

So you're saying something like this would be better?

3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i5-3230M processor (3M Cache, up to 3.2 GHz)

8GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz

NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M GDDR5 2GB

Would suit me better since it's an i5?

No, not at all, what you picked before was much better!

The only thing is that TW does not use all the power of the i7, so an i5 would be better, because it's not a waste, that's why alQamar suggested it, but you won't find a newer laptop with an i5 and a good gpu.

Edit:
It would be great if you could get

NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 780M with 4GB GDDR5
and
4th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-4800MQ processor (6MB Cache, up to 3.7GHz)

But if you can't, I'd go with the best processor, 300MHz more can be noticed in TW melee blobs and the 770m should still be able to handle it on high/ultra, but I'm not too sure about it, I don't know too much about how laptop gpus compare to desktop ones, so I can't really tell you.

[SamueleD]

Double post

[Raikou]

Ah okay well I'll have to probably scrounge up another $300 to be able to get the 4800 and 780m

[SamueleD]

Ah okay well I'll have to probably scrounge up another $300 to be able to get the 4800 and 780m

Mmh, I don't know if it will be worth it though. Since you can't upgrade a laptop, it very well might be a good idea to buy the best one you can, even if pricy. But go and look at comparisons between the 770m and the 780m, and decide for yourself. The better (faster) cpu, on the other hand, would be worth it imo, particularly for TW.
Make sure to check all bands that make gaming laptops, maybe there's one you missed that makes better deals.
I know there's alienware, which is pricy, then MSI, ASUS, and some others I don't remember, make sure to check them all.

[Raikou]

Mmh, I don't know if it will be worth it though. Since you can't upgrade a laptop, it very well might be a good idea to buy the best one you can, even if pricy. But go and look at comparisons between the 770m and the 780m, and decide for yourself. The better (faster) cpu, on the other hand, would be worth it imo, particularly for TW.
Make sure to check all bands that make gaming laptops, maybe there's one you missed that makes better deals.
I know there's alienware, which is pricy, then MSI, ASUS, and some others I don't remember, make sure to check them all.

Do you know the main difference between a Raid 0 and SSD for laptops?

[alQamar]

Do you know the main difference between a Raid 0 and SSD for laptops?

Ssd offer freaking fast loading speeds for everything. Additionally they are noise free and less power consumption and if you have a good one of course . See posting before but they are expensive especially you cannot expect big sizes. Raid 0 is not recommended on laptops. For several reasons i dont want get into details here.
The perfect solution would be a gaming laptop that support two bays of 2.5 inch drives but only has one 128 gb ssd. Then you can use the second bay for a wd 500 gb green hdd.

[Raikou]

Ssd offer freaking fast loading speeds for everything. Additionally they are noise free and less power consumption and if you have a good one of course . See posting before but they are expensive especially you cannot expect big sizes. Raid 0 is not recommended on laptops. For several reasons i dont want get into details here.
The perfect solution would be a gaming laptop that support two bays of 2.5 inch drives but only has one 128 gb ssd. Then you can use the second bay for a wd 500 gb green hdd.

Yeah I just got done watching Linus TechTips and it seems thats definitely not the way to go.

Sorry for the numerous prodding and questions but a few more for you

I'm offered for limited time offer free since I'm a returning customer:
17.3" 120HZ WLED FHD (1920x1080) TrueLife Display w/3D Bundle

As far as I can tell it's a glossy type screen instead of the matte finish display. Obviously for free is always good but I've had in the past 120HZ t.v. and it felt weird playing at 120HZ on FPS games (like BF3) so my question is should I skip this extra free feature going off the assumption this laptop's mainly for Rome 2 in terms of gaming?

120HZ is very different to me in terms of gaming and I've never seen a total war game run on a glossy 120HZ screen so im unsure this is a wise upgrade (free or not) Thanks for your time and answers

[Shadow the Barbarian]

MY fried says that the SanDisk SSD recommended here shouldn't be used in a tower because it is a notebook drive. He said there would be issues finding somewhere for it to go inside the case, and that you'd likely need to build your own mount for it, and that the wiring would be difficult. Is that really something to be worried about? He recommends choosing an SSD designed juts for towers.

[Shadow the Barbarian]

If necessary, or even just advised, how would this SSD be as an alternative to the SanDisk: Kingston HyperX 120Gb

The Kingston does have a higher power usage (0.46W as opposed to SanDisk: 0.12W). Now, that's not a very large increase, so that shouldn't be a problem right? (Using the "Great" 1000$ modeled in the thread)

(sorry to double post is there really no edit button for this forum?)

[alQamar]

Second that it is quite impossible to get a laptop with ab i5 but powerful gpu

Can you afford this? The tech specs are marvellous.
Msi gt70-70387b
1499 €
With a non glare tft.
At this price range you should look for a warranty extension or a full coverage insurance.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834152401
The price is quite reasonable for a high end laptop.

[Raikou]

Second that it is quite impossible to get a laptop with ab i5 but powerful gpu

Can you afford this? The tech specs are marvellous.
Msi gt70-70387b
1499 €
With a non glare tft.
At this price range you should look for a warranty extension or a full coverage insurance.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834152401
The price is quite reasonable for a high end laptop.

That's really nice !!! thanks for that find Alq

[frostie321]

Second that it is quite impossible to get a laptop with ab i5 but powerful gpu

Can you afford this? The tech specs are marvellous.
Msi gt70-70387b
1499 €
With a non glare tft.
At this price range you should look for a warranty extension or a full coverage insurance.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834152401
The price is quite reasonable for a high end laptop.

If price price was not a factor, would you recommend this or the new Razer Blade Pro?

http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-blade-pro

Thanks!

[alQamar]

hi guys Im thinking of getting a new system but dunno if I should get this system I use the jargon free configuration to work all this out http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/comput...r-top-spec-pc/ http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/view/V...500-gaming-pc/ this pc looks good but its abit expensive for me I cant spend too much as I need money in my bank still lol.

what was wrong with the one I suggested they would have built for you?

If price price was not a factor, would you recommend this or the new Razer Blade Pro?

http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-blade-pro

Thanks!

Honestly I do not trust razer a lot. I had a mouse from them and 2 other friends all broke or did not get any support (drivers / firmware) just one year after release. MSI is not the most reliable brand either regarding laptops, and gaming laptop have a higher temp load and so higher wear than normal notebooks, thats why I would go for an additional insurance at this price range.

[alQamar]

A higher power usage is always a sample for bad quality. The lower power usage in this case is of course negligible for your electric bill but it means the temperature of the drive is lower and also shows they using the latest mlc fabrication size.
We are speaking about nearly 5times higher power usage so it everything else but a small difference

[Shadow the Barbarian]

Okay so it looks as though in order to use the recommended SanDisk SSD, I will need to separately purchase A 3.5 inch mounting adaptor, and a SATA cable. That doesn't seem like much, but to me anyway that still seems like unnecessary work. Wouldn't it be more practical to just order an SSD designed for a tower rather than a netbook? Or is there something about this SanDisk SSD that I'm not noticing that makes a clearly superior option?

[alQamar]

You will not benefit from 120hz unless you do not have constantly 120 fps or at least more than 60 to have a benefit at all. Notebooks aren't that powerful.

The screen has 120 hz because he needs to split it to 2x60 hz for the 3D glasses.

Okay so it looks as though in order to use the recommended SanDisk SSD, I will need to separately purchase A 3.5 inch mounting adaptor, and a SATA cable. That doesn't seem like much, but to me anyway that still seems like unnecessary work. Wouldn't it be more practical to just order an SSD designed for a tower rather than a netbook? Or is there something about this SanDisk SSD that I'm not noticing that makes a clearly superior option?

There are SSDs with 3.5 inch as well but good ssd vendors like OCZ delivers a 3.5 mounting kit with the ssd. And modern tool free cases have bottom holes to make 2.5 drives easy to fix in a 3.5 inch tray

Every professional user won't like a glare screen. As me I hate them they offer better contrast and an additional feature is you can use it for shaving your face. When you have non ambient light or sun you're done. Unusable. ..

[Raikou]

You will not benefit from 120hz unless you do not have constantly 120 fps or at least more than 60 to have a benefit at all. Notebooks aren't that powerful.

The screen has 120 hz because he needs to split it to 2x60 hz for the 3D glasses.



There are SSDs with 3.5 inch as well but good ssd vendors like OCZ delivers a 3.5 mounting kit with the ssd. And modern tool free cases have bottom holes to make 2.5 drives easy to fix in a 3.5 inch tray

Every professional user won't like a glare screen. As me I hate them they offer better contrast and an additional feature is you can use it for shaving your face. When you have non ambient light or sun you're done. Unusable. ..

Alright thanks for that

[Shadow the Barbarian]

Thanks for the answer. I see now that the motherboard comes with the SATA cables I'd need, so that's no problem.

[Micon]

Seems like I am a little late to the party. In many cases you can mount SSD`s in the 3.5 mount bays like Linus does: http://youtu.be/qMRvz_IYSgM?t=25m4s

[Barbarian Nobility]

I've just ordered/built a computer (my budget was $2000AUD), can someone please tell me how well this will likely play Rome 2?

The stats are;
i7-3770 3.4/3.9 ghz quadcore
DDR3 16g Ram
GTX 770 4g graphics

When it comes to comps im a massive noob, this will be satisfactory yes?