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

[A Barbarian]

Well, in Shogun 2 being able to overclock the CPU can make a big difference since the minimum frame rate (e.g. while zooming in close onto a big battle) is heavily limited by single core CPU performance. Overclocking an i5-2500k from 3.3Ghz (3.7 std boost) to 4.5Ghz gives you about 20% higher performance or the difference between minimum of 25fps and 30fps. With high-end cooling you can get even more out of it and also run the CPU whisper quiet while it's not doing much.

For proper multicore applications like video-encoding the relative gain can be even larger since the standard boost of 3.7Ghz is usually not sustained if all the cores run at full load for a while.

Still, back in the days, you could even get 50% more performance from some CPUs relatively easily (custom cooler, somewhat more voltage, bus speed up and speed divider for RAM down). E.g. you could take a Celeron 300A from 300 to 450Mhz or a C2D 4300 from 1.8Ghz to 2.7Ghz which I used for almost 3 years without problems.

That overclocking can be easier nowadays is primarily because there is now automatic overclocking software which can do a decent job up to a medium overclock. The higher you go the more you have to fine tune the various parameters.

[Numidian Mercenary]

Well, in Shogun 2 being able to overclock the CPU can make a big difference since the minimum frame rate (e.g. while zooming in close onto a big battle) is heavily limited by single core CPU performance. Overclocking an i5-2500k from 3.3Ghz (3.7 std boost) to 4.5Ghz gives you about 20% higher performance or the difference between minimum of 25fps and 30fps. With high-end cooling you can get even more out of it and also run the CPU whisper quiet while it's not doing much.

For proper multicore applications like video-encoding the relative gain can be even larger since the standard boost of 3.7Ghz is usually not sustained if all the cores run at full load for a while.

Still, back in the days, you could even get 50% more performance from some CPUs relatively easily (custom cooler, somewhat more voltage, bus speed up and speed divider for RAM down). E.g. you could take a Celeron 300A from 300 to 450Mhz or a C2D 4300 from 1.8Ghz to 2.7Ghz which I used for almost 3 years without problems.

That overclocking can be easier nowadays is primarily because there is now automatic overclocking software which can do a decent job up to a medium overclock. The higher you go the more you have to fine tune the various parameters.

Ahhh nice! So presumably you can overclock just the single core used by Shogun 2 whilst leaving the others untouched. That way you are getting maximum performance in game without having to worry so much about overheating.

I guess as long as you're careful there are not significant risk factors?

[A Barbarian]

I guess as long as you're careful there are not significant risk factors?

The biggest risk with overclocking in my opinion is not so much physically damaging your hardware (as long as you monitor temperatures properly, don't raise voltages to unsafe values and you have a solid PSU with enough headroom) but corruption of your file system and/or OS installation since you will most certainly experience some application crashes and maybe even blue screens in the process. But in that regard, I found Windows 7 much more robust than Windows XP. My 2 year old son must have pressed the reset button of my PC already 10 times while I was in the middle of something. Despite those shocks and some crashes due to overclocking experiments my Windows 7 installation is still working just fine.

[Bearnation54]

I had a question regarding graphics cards, I will be building my own computer in the coming months and I was wondering is it better to get two decent graphic cards or one great one? And which brand is better? I know it was posted in the original post but I can't view it from my phone, all it says is placeholder

[Totalheadache]

I had a question regarding graphics cards, I will be building my own computer in the coming months and I was wondering is it better to get two decent graphic cards or one great one? And which brand is better? I know it was posted in the original post but I can't view it from my phone, all it says is placeholder

i prefer single gpu. sli/xfire (sli is for nvidia, amd is xfire) when it works (depends on the game/drivers and how much it scales) results in very good if not the best performance. i.e two 660 ti's or 7950's are for the money when they work very good.

however the caveat with total wars is sli/xfire can be a pain as you have to wait for patches/drivers. generally total wars seem to run better on nvidia.

in regards brands i'd say all are ok just check who gives what warranty..and then it's all about oc v standard versions. (evga in us are usually regarded in us for great cust service and step up scheme).

@barbarian something using the xspc dual res+pump costs around £100 then another £100 for blocks/tubing/fittings/radiator. depends on your case though as if you want to do CPU+GPU you ideally want a 360 radiator (thats x3 120mm fans for cooling) and there's only a few cases about that can fit one internally.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...962&catid=2141

getting this myself and selling my current. if you want i'll let u have it cheap (well it's used plus you cant screw the cap down 100percent..i think it's a design fault, still keeps my temps under 55c for cpu+gpu).

and re the noise mine is very quiet and that's in an hafx which is getting on. generally the pumps if cushioned arent noisy and the 3x fans you use on the radiator are generally low speed ones. (am using scythes atm which was wrong choice as they are a bit loud, that said i have them on low so its ok).

not having to listen to the gpu fan is wonderfull and no cpu fans! (that said i might invest in some headphones if i cant be bothered to put on another waterblock on a new gpu when i get it...also gpus are getting better n better in terms of fan noise).

[xjlxking]

I had a question regarding graphics cards, I will be building my own computer in the coming months and I was wondering is it better to get two decent graphic cards or one great one? And which brand is better? I know it was posted in the original post but I can't view it from my phone, all it says is placeholder

ALWAYS go for single GPU over sli/crossfire or even single gpu that have 2 gpu in one. IE GTX 295 is like 2x GTX280. Yes, they have higher power but they are also more buggy and games aren't geared towards it. So again, single GPU are much better choice

[A Barbarian]

@Bearnation54
In general 1 powerful card is preferable to 2 since there are quite a few problems and incompatibilities associated with 2 or more GPU setup.
Brand wise the market is in a constant flux and the best is to identify your favorite games which use the most GPU resources and then to look for
a) performance comparisons for those games between the different cards
b) any serious problems current drivers from AMD or NVIDIA might have with those games

That's a general advice but for more specific recommendations for great TW GPUs, it's probably best to keep an eye on the 1st post of this thread until Splenyi had the time to fill the placeholders

[Bearnation54]

Thanks guys for your input I will definitely keep your suggestions in mind and follow this post closely

[Totalheadache]

Thanks guys for your input I will definitely keep your suggestions in mind and follow this post closely

it's def a double-edged sword re sli/xfire. for example you're laughing when playing something like bf3 with ultra settings then cursing when something like total war has stuttering or crashes..

plus u have to remember the increased power usuage and noise/heat.

[spartan_warrior]

it's def a double-edged sword re sli/xfire. for example you're laughing when playing something like bf3 with ultra settings then cursing when something like total war has stuttering or crashes..

plus u have to remember the increased power usuage and noise/heat.

I've never had any problems running any of the Total War games with my SLI 580s. Shogun 2 runs at a near constant 60 FPS, even in large battles I've never seen it drop below 40, and this is with everything maxed (except MSAA, which is set to 4x).

Yes of course SLI or Xfire will add extra heat/noise. But I game with headphones so the noise is hardly noticed. As for heat, as long as you have a case with good air flow its fine, even after long hours of gaming, I never really see my 2 580s pass 75C, nor my CPU which is overclocked to 4.5GHz ever pass 72C.

[Totalheadache]

I've never had any problems running any of the Total War games with my SLI 580s. Shogun 2 runs at a near constant 60 FPS, even in large battles I've never seen it drop below 40, and this is with everything maxed (except MSAA, which is set to 4x).

Yes of course SLI or Xfire will add extra heat/noise. But I game with headphones so the noise is hardly noticed. As for heat, as long as you have a case with good air flow its fine, even after long hours of gaming, I never really see my 2 580s pass 75C, nor my CPU which is overclocked to 4.5GHz ever pass 72C.

well dont see many people report no issues with sli + total wars. will be interested to see how you get on with rome2.

i never added a 2nd 580 because I can pull a near 60fps with a single card @1920x1200, yeah with the odd dip to around 40...but that's the total war engine for you.

yep headphones are a solution but i prefer to play with them off, not that it would bother me as I would watercool both the gpu's. not everyone would though. certainly wouldnt be a big issue for me but the heat/factor is def worth taking into consideration...(well i'd say you def want a certain size decent case, like a corsair obsidian 650d).

[Bearnation54]

Another question, monitors... There are so many damn ones to choose from and so many numbers involves with specs and I don't have any idea what it means, which are the best for price range 200-350

[Xanthippus of Sparta]

I would love to see a guide about building a PC for Rome II.

My PC runs Shogun II very well, but I plan upon upgrading before RTWII hits the shelves.

[torongill]

I haven't done any assembling for a long time now, but logic dictates it's better to buy one good card than two not so good. First you won't have so many problems with SLI compatibility and second -about one year from now you'll probably be able to buy the same card for half the price and by that time the game you mostly play will be patched to enable stable double-card performance.

The only thing I wouldn't advise is to buy the absolute best card right now on the market. Unless it's for bragging rights and you have the money to throw away. Otherwise invest in other better components that will give you added performance or will make the machine more stable or bearable - more efficient and less noisy cooling, keyboard+mouse, sound, maybe a bigger SSD.

Personally, I'll be waiting for the release of the game and the first reviews and then I'll buy most of my stuff. Although I may have to forsake the game and the rig assembling for quite a while if some things do come true for me

I believe by Labor day there will be some reviews and tentative benchmarks, which will let you know what hardware to look for, so you may in fact save money.

[vietanh797]

Lately I build this one for one of my friends that also play TW
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/JHqJ
It give him a large range of options to upgrade. He already have a win7 Ultimate 64bit +mouse,keyboard and headphone so I didn't list them into the build. I don't like the case but he choose it himself(his personal's taste).
What do you think about this build?

the VGA is the same as mine this one http://www.msi.com/product/vga/R7770...n-1GD5-OC.html

[Sharpe]

When are PC parts going to drop in price this year?

That is when I shall spend my dead presidents.



Seriously buying a top end PC now is the equivalent to setting fire to a pile of money.

[gamerwill253]

When are PC parts going to drop in price this year?

That is when I shall spend my dead presidents.



Seriously buying a top end PC now is the equivalent to setting fire to a pile of money.

Is it because new parts are coming out this year?

[Sharpe]

I assumed that new parts came out every year.

[Toho]

I assumed that new parts came out every year.

to be honest it really doesn't matter, I have a 'high end' PC now which I upgraded from a laptop that was like over 8 years old.
My PC should be able to run everything on ultra for next 2 years and upper high for next 3 to 4 years.
with that kind of mentality you will never get a PC because like you said; they release better stuff every year.

[Biggus Splenus]

Wow, so much posts I'll try to cover a few things from my view and experience blah blah blah.

When doing SLI/CFX on Total War, it's fine to use 2 really high end cards like 580, 680, 7970 or 7950, because just one of those cards can max out S2 anyway. I tested a rig with 2 7770 in CFX, but the graphics on S2 up to the highest, and it ran relatively fine. But them all the text started to glitch out, like blink on and on, and then sometimes my cursor would completely disappear off the screen, except for the very tip pixel which would be offset a few inches. So it was impossible to play, that mouse glitch caused so many loses on multiplayer So it is definitely better to put the money you spent on 2 low end cards, for one high end card. PS. the 650 and 650Ti are absolutely terrible, the lowest cards you want are 660 and 7850, in my opinion, they are both still relatively cheap and offer great performance to price.

In current TW titles, overclocking can earn you a noticeable boost. S2 can use 2 cores at the most (most of it been dumped on the 1st core, 2nd core does light tasks). So image you have a 3570k which has 4 cores at 3.4Ghz, only 2 can be used, so that gives you a max performance of 6.8Ghz towards Shogun 2 (in turbo mode a core does 3.8Ghz, so that's 7.6Ghz). You can quite safely overclock each of these cores to 4.5Ghz with a custom cooler, equaling 9Ghz total for Shogun 2. So you have 6.8Ghz on stock, 7.6Ghz in turbo, and 9Ghz on overclock. The real difference would be a little smaller, because like I said before the 2nd core only does a little of the work, but you can still notice a decent difference.

The highest end PSU you need for any single GPU is 750W (minimum I would recommend for the highest end cards), any higher is for multi card setups, or dual-GPU cards (like the 7990 and 690). Like it was said previously in this thread though, don't just go buy any random PSU, in this tutorial I will show which ones are best for gaming PCs.

As for the best GPU brands, ASUS, MSI and Evga are definitely the best out there, Gigabyte, Sapphire are great too, Galaxy, Powercolor and HIS are just ok.

@Bearnation54 - for your monitor, you want something with 2ms response time, 1920x1080 resolution (any bigger can work graphics cards too hard), and buy from either ASUS, LG, Dell, Samsung, or even BenQ. BenQ is definitely know to be the best gaming monitors. In my opinion avoid Acer.

@Sharpe - no new graphics cards are coming out, but in 3-4 months Intel and AMD are releasing some new CPU sets for the desktop. Both of these are not going to be amazingly better, about 10% says most people. So if you can't wait to build a PC, go ahead and get one now because your not missing out on much, but if you can wait then wait

@gamerwill253 - I'll show you a really good build soon for what you want. Just one pointer though; you chose the 2011 chip, which is a very expensive chip set, you're better off with 1155. Like I said to Sharpe though, Intel are making a new chip set (1150) soon.