New Rig / Upgrade for NS2 - Help Please :-)
Cheile-61
UK Join Date: 2015-04-19 Member: 203629Members
UK Join Date: 2015-04-19 Member: 203629Members
Hi guys, NS2 is the only game I really love on the PC, and my mother board just packed in. I had a Phenom ii x4 955 I think? overclocked to I can't remember what. I always had issues running the game however, as my pc got older, things just kept getting slower.
I had all my settings off almost, or on low, and a very low res, I think 1024 x 748 (Can't remember!) but in late game my game would freeze up a lot completely.
So to the point I'm a musician and I travel a lot gaming isn't that important to me but trying to live without NS2 has been hard so I may want to buy a new motherboard / CPU that can run in comfortably in medium settings and at least serve me for other purposes (be great if its a quiet build and I can use it for a music work station in the future as I plan to get more into Ableton live and even digital / photoshop art etc.
Thing is I'm on a very tight budget, (I'd like to get cpu/mobo/ram for £200 or under) I already have my laptop for music production, it serves for now, (i5 2430M 2.4gz - 3.0 gz turbo).
I'm hopelessly confused because I'm out of touch with tech... I've looked at....
i5 - 4460 : OK processor but get the vibe there's not much more you can do with it (No over clocking)
i5 - 4670k : Seems a standard choice but maybe too pricey for me, I only want to play NS2 really...
FX-8350 : Just about in my price range but not keen on how inefficient and hot it seems to run. Also beaten by i5 single core. (NS2 only makes use of two cores right?)
I'm a bit of an environmentalist and will pay a little more for something more efficient that will save even a little on bills and be quieter. That's why intel appeals a bit more, despite the higher cost.
Just recently I saw the Athlon x2 750k and 860k but didn't realize they're in the same league as my phenom just modern and more efficient. I saw in other games they do quite well but wonder if they'd fair as well with NS2?
I have a Geforce 460GTX which my friend says might be ok so long as I upgrade my processor.
I have ram but it's old and I only have 4gb. Also all ready have a 550w corsair psu.. so what I need is ....
Preferably, under £250 that will have scope to upgrade if I need in the future. Which I think rules out the Athlon II x series.
A small, lightish case
motherboard/ram
CPU
So what will work well with my GPU, also considered second hand CPUs on ebay but is that safe?
cheers
I had all my settings off almost, or on low, and a very low res, I think 1024 x 748 (Can't remember!) but in late game my game would freeze up a lot completely.
So to the point I'm a musician and I travel a lot gaming isn't that important to me but trying to live without NS2 has been hard so I may want to buy a new motherboard / CPU that can run in comfortably in medium settings and at least serve me for other purposes (be great if its a quiet build and I can use it for a music work station in the future as I plan to get more into Ableton live and even digital / photoshop art etc.
Thing is I'm on a very tight budget, (I'd like to get cpu/mobo/ram for £200 or under) I already have my laptop for music production, it serves for now, (i5 2430M 2.4gz - 3.0 gz turbo).
I'm hopelessly confused because I'm out of touch with tech... I've looked at....
i5 - 4460 : OK processor but get the vibe there's not much more you can do with it (No over clocking)
i5 - 4670k : Seems a standard choice but maybe too pricey for me, I only want to play NS2 really...
FX-8350 : Just about in my price range but not keen on how inefficient and hot it seems to run. Also beaten by i5 single core. (NS2 only makes use of two cores right?)
I'm a bit of an environmentalist and will pay a little more for something more efficient that will save even a little on bills and be quieter. That's why intel appeals a bit more, despite the higher cost.
Just recently I saw the Athlon x2 750k and 860k but didn't realize they're in the same league as my phenom just modern and more efficient. I saw in other games they do quite well but wonder if they'd fair as well with NS2?
I have a Geforce 460GTX which my friend says might be ok so long as I upgrade my processor.
I have ram but it's old and I only have 4gb. Also all ready have a 550w corsair psu.. so what I need is ....
Preferably, under £250 that will have scope to upgrade if I need in the future. Which I think rules out the Athlon II x series.
A small, lightish case
motherboard/ram
CPU
So what will work well with my GPU, also considered second hand CPUs on ebay but is that safe?
cheers
Comments
I have try played NS2 on a PC with Intel core i3 >> FPS greatly improved ( with low setting of course ^^)
So im recommend you buy I5-4460 >> medium price , save $$$ to buy a SSD >> Help you loading NS2 faster x8 , save your time for playing ( not Precaching ...... :P)
Have great day :^^
2) buy as much as you can and ride it out as long as you can
3) pick a cpu
4) pick mobo that fits cpu
5) buy as much ram as possible with highest clock speed possible
6) buy as much storage as possible, ssds are expensive as fuck but worth it
7) buy ONE gfx card, as good as possible
8) all else is secondary, but try to get 3d capable monitors if gfx card is
my comp cost me 3k usd in parts alone, i assembled it myself and it has been worth every cent
Asus B85M-G, Intel B85, S 1150, DDR3, SATA III, PCIe 3.0 (x16), D-Sub/DVI-D/HDMI, MATX
Intel Pentium K G3258, LGA 1150, Haswell, Dual Core, 3.2GHz Clock, 1100MHz GPU, 32x Ratio, CPU, Retail "overclock to 4.6" I went from a Quad intel 2.4 @3.2 this cpu is twice as good in single threaded stuff. "super Pi calculation score halfed" benchies show its not very far behind i-5's-i7's for gaming. only saying get this because I have it and everything I own is twice as good as everything else.best rationalization for reccomending something! I OWN IT SO ITS GOOD.
8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 XMS3, PC3-12800 (1600), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, 1.65V "doesnt seem worth getting caught up ram timing shinanigans" other ram costs £7 more to give you 1.35 volts at the same timings...extra overclocking heeeeadroom.
£165 cheapest deliver+collect option via UPS £155 if you choose a motherboard with pci express 2 rather than 3.
"2-3 makes little difference from benchmarks...but maybe 3 helps better with 144hz monitors...who knows" 3 is better than 2...its a larger number, it wins ^^,
im sure this will get crushed by people who know what their doing more than me pulling pigs out of clouds.
then you can spend £85 on a case...best spacious case.eu
Your card isnt terrible but MOAR GPU...MOAR.
q-for-your-computer-setup/p1
I used to run the game on a dual core 3.0Gz E8400 with a GTX650 and was playable. So you will want that as a minimum.
Good Luck
He shows that NS2 scales pretty well upto 4 cores and not much after that.
Notice that the two statements "uses 2.5 cores out of 4" and "scales upto 4 cores" are both true.
If you average out the CPU usage on a quad core over a second, it will on average use 2.5 cores. However, this hides the fact that during one frame, NS2 goes from using as little as one thread and all the way upto 6* threads sometimes .... so 2.5 cores on average can mean 1 thread 30% of the time, 2 threads 30% of the time and 4 threads 40% of the time... 0.3+0.6+1.6 = 2.5 (just an example, I have not actually bothered to measure it).
Also, there are loose plans to optimize the render pipeline so things like shadows are run in parallel to the rest of the rendering ... which would basically allow quad cores to add shadows with no fps loss. _loose_ plans, mind you.
So I would go with a quad core.
* Predict thread + render thread + main physics thread + 3 multithreaded physics threads
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Pentium-3-20GHz-Socket-LGA-1150/dp/B00KR51AKW/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1431024057&sr=1-1&keywords=intel+pentium+g3258
A good CPU cooler that will take you there would be the Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO, I used to own this before I went over to watercooling and it was a great little beast.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cooler-Master-Hyper-212-120mm/dp/B0068OI7T8/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1431024169&sr=1-1&keywords=cooler+master+hyper+212+evo
Pair the CPU with this motherboard.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-Z97-Gaming-LGA1150-Motherboard/dp/B00K8KPXUO/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1431024080&sr=1-1&keywords=msi+gaming+5
This will put you over £150 however you have the best bang for your buck processor, great little CPU cooler and a future proofed motherboard so later on you can splash out on a i5-4690k.
This is what I'd personally do anyways.
Sorry, but this list is nonsense.
And if your PC cost you 3k you assembled an PC good for your Ego filled with unneeded parts.
A good composed Gaming PC cost around 1000€ (without Monitor and Peripherie). Always.
1) If you cant play your 2 favorite games its time for an upgrade
2) Buy parts that fit to each other with room for later upgrades.
3) Pick a non locked K intel with good OC potential
4) pick mobo that fits cpu (but dont fall into the marketing blabla trap. Boards have many features out there noone needs, but they sound good on paper)
5) Buy 8gb basic ram (You dont need more atm, its easy to upgrade later and you wont see a difference with fancy pseudo pro OC Ram)
6) Buy a SSD (This is essential today) and one 1 or 2 TB HDD. You can easy upgrade more hdd space later with external USB3.0 HDDs
7) Buy ONE GFX that fits to your needs
8) Buy a good 120 or 144hz Monitor
9) Buy a good optical Mouse
10) Buy a ghosting free Keyboard
Example: My i52500k is 4 years old now. Cause its good overclock potential (4,6ghz) i have no problems running new games the next 2 years.
I think i have to upgrade my gtx670 if "The Division" is released.
Small tip: DONT buy a dual core now. Cause the new consoles multithreading and the usage of more cores becoming more popular this year.
Maybe this is something for you:
ASUS Z97-P
i5-4690K
Scythe Mugen 4 Cooler
Crucial DIMM 8 GB DDR3-1600
edit: Literally you won't get a better deal. But it is still 95% overkill and ego based, quite frankly.
i love how you call my list nonsense, then regurgitate it
also, i like capacity and it is the reason i will have my computer running 3x-4x as long as you will
what makes it better is that you cant convert between usd and eu, and leave out things like monitors costs
but i guess thats good for me, since i get twice as much as you for the same price
and you should probably learn how capital letters work, console peasant
All you need.
- also, i like capacity and it is the reason i will have my computer running 3x-4x as long as you will
So you using your PC for the next 20 years? Wow
- what makes it better is that you cant convert between usd and eu, and leave out things like monitors costs
He was asking for mobo, cpu and maybe ram.
- but i guess thats good for me, since i get twice as much as you for the same price
Your PC 3k USD, my PC (with monitor, etc) 1900€. A usd-eu convert pro like you should find the error. Small tip: "same price"
- and you should probably learn how capital letters work
Thats why you didnt try to use them?
- console peasant
The 16 year old who is proud like hell that he was able to assemble his 1st pc alone has spoken.
OP clearly states "Thing is I'm on a very tight budget, (I'd like to get cpu/mobo/ram for £200 or under) I already have my laptop for music production, it serves for now, (i5 2430M 2.4gz - 3.0 gz turbo)."
So advise him on that instead of bankrupting him
i5-4690K
Scythe Mugen 4 Cooler
Crucial DIMM 8 GB DDR3-1600
Like i said before.
This will cost around 450€ (330£), a bit more the op wants to spend i know.
But:
The CPU has more than enough power for current games. If more is needed in 2 years for example, goto UEFI-Bios, click two buttons and you have 1,5ghz more for FREE in under 1 min.
Everything cheaper than my suggestion is maybe good for the next 2 years, then you running into your current problems again.
For an ram upgrade you need 1 min, open case, plugin ram, thats it.
A board upgrade is always a relative big time investment. You have to reassamble your whole system.