Finally Ordered A New PC

[+streakeagle 871]

I looked at cost versus performance and considered long term viability as well given my tendency to keep a PC platform for 5 or more years.

This is what I came up with:

 

AMD's best processor is cheap,and there is a reason for that.

After researching Sandy vs Sandy-E vs Ivy, I decided on Ivy.

The i7 3770 series cost about 50% more (over $100) and did not significantly improve game performance, so I went with:

Intel Core i5 3570K Processor 3.4 GHz 4 Core LGA 1155 - BX80637I53570K

 

Choosing a motherboard was difficult for me.

I didn't want to go cheap and even wanted to allow for the possibility of Crossfire/SLI in the future, but I didn't want to spend $300+ on features I will never use.

I am used to spending about $100 on the motherboard, but ended up spending about $200 (eating up the $100 savings on the processor):

ASUS Intel Z77 ATX DDR3 2400 LGA 1155 Motherboard P8Z77-V PRO

 

Best balance of speed, stability, price, and availability I could find.

Had I bought everything from NewEgg, I would have gone with G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series.

But I ended up ordering everything from Amazon and went with what had the best price and Prime free 2-day shipping.

Corsair Vengeance 16 GB (2x8 GB) 1600MHz CL9 DDR3 Memory Kit (CMZ16GX3M2A1600C9)

 

My research told me that the way to go right now is the GTX670, but I really wanted to keep the GPU in the $300 or less ball park.

I have studied the kinds of driver issues nVidia has been having in general and in particular to this card (especially with older games).

While I always see plenty of posts about nVidia not having any problems, there have been several driver problems over the past couple of years.

Some of those problems impact me as they usually involve issues with older games and figuring out which driver release to use depending on what games you play.

I also studied the latest AMD driver issues and lumped that in with over a decade of Radeon driver experience.

In the end, my success with using Win7 64-bit with a 6870 for excellent compatibility with old games and the lower price convinced me to stay with AMD.

I could have saved another $100 by going with the 7850, but the 7870 is real close in performance to the 7950 yet great on power.

Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 GHZ OC 2 GB DDR5 HDMI/DVI-I/Dual Mini DP PCI-Express Graphics Card 11199-03-20G

 

I have had some bad experience with both Seagate and WD, but generally favor WD products.

However, the price versus capacity forced the issue: Slightly lower price, twice the capacity, and within my target budget of <= $100.

Seagate ST2000DM001 Barracuda 7200RPM 2 TB SATA 6 GB/s NCQ 64 MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive

 

I have learned the hard way how not to pick a power supply, still trying to find the right way.

Studied a lot of reviews and settled on this one.

Corsair HX Professional Series 750-Watt 80 Plus Certified Power Supply - CMPSU-750HX

 

Don't know anything about Blu-ray burners.

Glanced at the options and settled for this one.

ASUS BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS 12X Blu-ray Internal Burner with Disc Encryption, Black

 

I bought some good mid-range Antec aluminum cases last time around in 2005.

To tell you the truth, I loved my old generic brand Pentium 3 cases more in almost every way except weight.

Struggled studying various brands and price ranges, this seemed to be the best balance of budget/features.

Corsair Carbide Series 500R White Mid Tower Gaming Case CC-9011013-WW

 

I know Windows 8 is just around the corner, but this OS has served me well.

I had Vista at work and hated it, so I had stuck with XP for a very long time.

But I upgraded to Windows 7 somewhat quickly upon its release.

It still has some annoying vestiges of Vista, but has been even better than XP.

If I get this PC up and running well, I may wait awhile before upgrading to Win 8.

Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64bit (Full) System Builder DVD 1 Pack

 

The final total is $1,415 from Amazon with "free" Prime 2-day shipping versus the $1,500 price of my 2005 AMD Athlon 64 system currently still in use.

NewEgg had the same build for about $1,455 and after various mail-in rebates, the price would have been very close if not a tiny bit cheaper.

But shipping was not free on all items and rush processing with 2-day delivery cost even more.

With Amazon: no mail-in rebates, no additional shipping charges, and everything should be here by Saturday.

But I have never used Amazon for PC parts and NewEgg was a known good quantity.

I may come to regret the $50 to $100 I saved by choosing Amazon over NewEgg.

 

With this system, I should finally have the option to play all the latest sims I have been avoiding due to CPU limitations:

DCS series

Take On Helicopters

 

I also can't wait to see how much better my existing games play:

SF2 series

Arma2 series

 

I was looking forward to playing Rise of Flight, but their false accusation of image file theft against the Over Flanders Field developers irritated me enough that I don't think they will ever get a $1 from me.

I don't spend that much time flying WWI anyway, so FE2 will have to do.

[Lazarus1177 164]

Congrats and a great setup!Let us know about the average framerate in ARMA II.I'm sure that SF2 will run like butter on this system.

[Fubar512 1,350]

Streak,

 

I've used Amazon for everything from books, to PC components, to pet supplies, and have yet to have a bad experience with them.

[+streakeagle 871]

We use Amazon for everything as well... but never for high end electronics (like LCD TVs or PCs).

NewEgg has been great on both prices and reliability, so I hate to abandon them.

But thanks to Amazon Prime, it was just the better way to go.

NewEgg has an equivalent to Prime, but it wouldn't pay for itself compared to the frequency we use Amazon.

 

At some point, I may regret not getting the nVidia GTX670 due to its superior performance...

But I have everything working just the way I want it using my HD 6870 and don't want to gamble on driver issues.

The main reason I am going with the 7870 instead of the much cheaper 6870 is the fact that its drivers allow enabling adaptive AA in DX10/11 sims that have in-game support for FSAA, which should fix the only issue I have with my current gpu setup.

The main issue I found with the 7000 series with blurry textures was a driver issue that got fixed.

[+Major Lee 18]

Congratulations on the new machine. Great specs, but would have gotten the NVidia card myself, just my preference. I have used Amazon for books, new FZ150 camera and now shoes... Newegg is my electronics go-to, but Amazon has always been quick and reliable too! Good deal Streakeagle! My next personal build will be quite similar...

[+streakeagle 871]

Assembled PC yesterday, got all my game hardware/software installed last night.

Runs like a dream.

More details later.

[+streakeagle 871]

DCS World and/or A-10C: Everything maxed out in the game settings and on the graphics card: locked at vsync 60 fps.

SF2NA everything maxed out: locked at vsync until iceland comes into view, then locked at 30 fps. Haven't experimented to see what I could do to get it up to 60 fps over Iceland.

LOMAC FC2 maxed out (can't force FSAA) vsync + (in game frame rates indicate 70-120 fps)

ARMA 2 Combined Arms: don't know frame rates, but running smooth with High settings.

Aces High 2: pegged at vsync 60 fps.

 

DCS A-10C is absolutely awesome.

Whether rolling on the ground or flying in the air, looks and feels great.

 

Now, can I use the same FSX license on the new PC (i.e. no re-activation issues)?

I would hate to think I have to buy another copy because I got a new PC.

Will try it right now.

[+streakeagle 871]

Got a chance to play and do more testing/evaluation.

I am used to DX10/11 titles not permitting forcing of FSAA, so I didn't have DCS tweaked up as well as I could have.

Now, I get about 55-60 fps with drops to about 25 fps while dogfighting an A-10.

I can imagine the drops will be worse in a full-blown combat environment, so I may have to back off the card settings a bit or the game settings.

[JediMaster 451]

DX11 titles are supposed to have FSAA built-in. DX10 may or may not, but it's not a "must".

 

However, regardless of that, you can just use FXAA. nvidia has it in its drivers now for any game, no restrictions, I think AMD has something similar?

[+streakeagle 871]

For me, FSAA is a must. And if FSAA is supported in the title, I can enable Adaptive AA as well, which smoothes out tgas like decals and wire fences.

I found the setting in the Catalyst driver that caused the dropouts in DCS World, went back the original setting and have my fps bounce between 45 and 60 fps.

 

I have also discovered that my motherboard supports an unusual feature: it comes with Lucid Logix Virtu MVP software which uses the built in Intel 4000 GPU to boost my video card's performance. DCS World didn't show any useful improvment and may have actually averaged a few FPS slower. However, SF2 ran much better. The 30 fps I had been seeing over Iceland jumped up to 40-50 fps, which looked and played much better.

[JoKeR68 0]

I found the setting in the Catalyst driver that caused the dropouts in DCS World, went back the original setting and have my fps bounce between 45 and 60 fps.

 

Hi streakeagle, would you mind telling us what setting was that?

Cheers.

[Cali 6]

Have fun with the new system, I just built one in June and it kicks butt!

[+streakeagle 871]

Hi streakeagle, would you mind telling us what setting was that?

Cheers.

 

The slider that kills my DCS performance is the Anit-Aliasing Mode in the max quality "Super sample AA" position.

Super sampling greatly increases the image quality, especially when looking at gauges from longer distances or looking at terrain into the distance from a low altitude, but the FPS cost in DCS is just too high.

So, I knock it back one notch to Adaptive Multi-sample AA, which still looks almost as good, but gets much higher FPS.

In other games such as SF2, I can use Super sample AA and maintain Vsync 60 fps, unless I am over Iceland, then its more like 30 fps.

[+streakeagle 871]

Have fun with the new system, I just built one in June and it kicks butt!

 

I have really enjoyed the abilities of the new system to run older games well such as ArmA 2, FC2, and SF2.

I can see that I may need the 7970, multi-gpus, or better if I am going to go "Ultra HD" (the new 2160p TV resolution) or use multi-monitors with DCS.