another issue with SLI (although I don't know if it exists in the newer cards) is microstutter, even with 120 fps. has something to do with the frame delay between the cards or something. i have two 460's so I run into the dilemma either disabling one card and losing 40-80 FPS, or running both knowing I will never have a smooth game, no matter the FPS (
IronHorse, are you talking if the settings are maxed out? I guess I'm far from maniac in terms of graphics too, so what if I bring them down a little?
I was referring to the minimum required specs listed in the steam store.
I cannot begin to tell you how many threads have been started in here, tech support forums, and in the steam forums - by users who meet the minimum requirements (and even the recommended requirements [which aren't that different]) but can't play because the FPS is so incredibly low, even with graphics turned down.
TLDR; Ignore what the store page says. Follow this thread here for guidance. I think @NeXuS made a perfect build for you
I'm surprised it hasn't been updated, especially since its "Recommended", and not "Minimum".
Is the recommended processor for NS2 actually a Core 2 Duo? Lol.
Straight from the NS2 wiki
What are the system requirements?
The target specifications for Version 1.0 are 1.2 GHz Processor, 256MB RAM, a DirectX 9 level graphics card, Windows Vista/2000/XP, Steam, mouse, keyboard and of course, an internet connection. We are working hard to make sure NS2 runs well on average hardware without having to upgrade your machine!
I disagree, coolitic... those specs have always been horrendously low.
With that cpu, expect a slideshow in the lategame, every time. (~ 20 fps)
This is true. I have a 1st gen C2D at 3GHz, 4gb ram and a gtx 660 and I get <50fps in most fights. Even early game if there are 6-8+ people around all shooting/biting then I can hit 25-30.
So here's a prebuilt setup, please one last shot at commenting and clearing this up for me!
(I 'll be going prebuilt, as outraging this might be)
these specs, I'm wondering 2 things :
- if they're enough to play smooth with (rather) high settings
- if you think some stuff could easily be (much) better for (not much more) money
MSI H81M-P33 LGA1150
(anything wrong here?)
Intel Core i5 4430 3Ghz @ 3.2Ghz Turbo Boost 6Mb
(no "K" - i dont know what overclocking is - is 4430 ok?)
Video card choice :
Nvidia GeForce GTX660 2Gb GDDR5 HDMI Dx11
OR
ATI Radeon R9 270 2Gb GDDR5 HDMI Dx11
(Which one is best? GeForce?)
Corsair / Kingston 8Gb 1x8Gb DDR3-1600Mhz
(difference between 1x8 and 2x4?)
Western Digital Blue 1Tb 7200RPM SATA
OR
SSD Ultra-Performant 120Gb (+45$)
X-Supply 550W 120mm Fan
Case Thermaltake Commander MS-I 120mm Fan Blue LED
Guaranteed 3yrs
(price 832$ CND (~760$ USD))
I know I was talking about spending 1k +/running the game on max settings, and you guys been suggesting higher setups but I might tone it down a little, unless I'm said this setup is old and crappy or something..
I also noticed you guys been talking about (water) cooling. Why is this needed, is it related to the use of "overclocking"? Or just the noise the fan?
Note that I don't really need to have tons of programs running at once either
Overclocking and water-cooling would be for enthusiasts. I strongly recommend just sticking with a basic build without overclocking or water-cooling. Buying an intel i5 with a K at the end would allow you to overclock later if needed. Water-cooling is recommended when you overclock the CPU, because it adds more heat. Don't even think about SLI, since you'll be stacking graphics cards together and it'll be an expensive pain in the ass.
Focus on a strong CPU, medium graphics card, and you'll be okay. You can build onto your computer later on when you have more time, knowledge, and money.
Final point: Don't buy a pre-built computer, that's for plebs. Do you like Legos? Do you know how to use Legos? Then you can build a PC and save money for a night at the strip club. Legos: training children to grow into responsible, money-saving adults.
So here's a prebuilt setup, please one last shot at commenting and clearing this up for me!
(I 'll be going prebuilt, as outraging this might be)
these specs, I'm wondering 2 things :
- if they're enough to play smooth with (rather) high settings
- if you think some stuff could easily be (much) better for (not much more) money
MSI H81M-P33 LGA1150
(anything wrong here?)
Intel Core i5 4430 3Ghz @ 3.2Ghz Turbo Boost 6Mb
(no "K" - i dont know what overclocking is - is 4430 ok?)
Video card choice :
Nvidia GeForce GTX660 2Gb GDDR5 HDMI Dx11
OR
ATI Radeon R9 270 2Gb GDDR5 HDMI Dx11
(Which one is best? GeForce?)
Corsair / Kingston 8Gb 1x8Gb DDR3-1600Mhz
(difference between 1x8 and 2x4?)
Western Digital Blue 1Tb 7200RPM SATA
OR
SSD Ultra-Performant 120Gb (+45$)
X-Supply 550W 120mm Fan
Case Thermaltake Commander MS-I 120mm Fan Blue LED
Guaranteed 3yrs
(price 832$ CND (~760$ USD))
I know I was talking about spending 1k +/running the game on max settings, and you guys been suggesting higher setups but I might tone it down a little, unless I'm said this setup is old and crappy or something..
About the mainboard: Has just one pci slot so you wouldn't be able to use a second gpu or any other pci stuff like a tv, network card whatsoever) and only supports ram up to 1600 MHz :S
About the ram question 1 or 2. 2 allow you to let your ram run in dual cache mode which is often faster than a single slot.
GPU: the r270 is a relabled amd 7870, so i would get the old 7870 as it's cheaper. Still the r270 performs abit better than the 660 to answer your question.
CPU: It is okay for today but not that great. Will be enought for the next 4 years of gaming in medium/high sector.
HDD: Can't find what SSD is used exactly so can't comment on that. Every SSD performs different and i would take both SSD + normal HDD for a new setup.
Power: never heard from that one
Case: is okay but no words about the cpu cooler, i'm getting afraid ^^
Overall:
As other said, built your pc yourself. It's not that hard, just plug and play. With reading some tuts before and doing it step by step anyone is able to build a pc himself.
The hardest part is to setup the cpu cooler ( air cooling ). You should look up vids how to use the heatsink paste (ricecorn drop at cpu press cpu cooling body onto it to get the paste all over the cpu (don't use too much or too less paste, but normally you get enought paste for like 3-4 tries ) !!!
You will save alot money by doing so and will have a perfect setup not like all those retail pc where the manufactor saves money at the mainboards and power etc.
Also you will be able to upgrade your pc in the future. Which will allow you to use your pc build up to 8 years with only using like 300 $ in about 4-6 years ( for e.g a new gpu or more ram ).
Tbh it's also alot of fun building your own pcs and as other allready said building a pc is like playing with Lego you can't do that much wrong today and won't broke any hardware parts if you are carefull.
You should look up vids how to use the heatsink paste (ricecorn drop at cpu press cpu cooling body onto it to get the paste all over the cpu (don't use too much or too less paste, but normally you get enought paste for like 3-4 tries ) !!!
You won't need thermal paste if you are using the default heatsink included with a CPU. Those usually already have thermal paste applied.
@Op
You can buy the machine you want as long as you meet the CPU requirement.
-GFX card aren't the problem, you will surely find a card that is above ok for NS2.
-CPU can be the problem.
-The game swallows easily 2GB RAM.
-Then come the I/Os. Get a SSD. It'll change everything as it won't be a bottleneck in the PC (loading maps, tunnel exit etc...). In fact it is good for everything else. Plus less energy needed. A true improvement. It really worth the extra bucks. That's not for nothing SSDs are in every new laptop. Up to 500Mb/s, low energy consumption, no heat, as much reliable as HDD now.
I would say you'll have to manage space a little better. Usually ppl buy 128Mb or 256Mb SSD.
But that is what every decent human should do in order to save (backup) what's important. CD/DVD burning or storing in a real NAS with RAID. But that is another story.
You should look up vids how to use the heatsink paste (ricecorn drop at cpu press cpu cooling body onto it to get the paste all over the cpu (don't use too much or too less paste, but normally you get enought paste for like 3-4 tries ) !!!
You won't need thermal paste if you are using the default heatsink included with a CPU. Those usually already have thermal paste applied.
The default cpu cooler is so loud and ineffective you should only use it in emergency cases ... .
IronHorseDeveloper, QA Manager, Technical Support & contributorJoin Date: 2010-05-08Member: 71669Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester, Subnautica PT Lead, Pistachionauts
I would not spend almost $800 on that build...
Mediocre CPU, mediocre GPU, Mediocre HD, and a Sub par Motherboard
If i priced out those exact specs part by part, you'd be paying ~$500 ... less than half your original budget, right?
You are going to get ripped off if you don't buy the parts yourself, just so you know. It's incredibly easy to put these pieces together. It's literally snap in (GPU, ram, heatsink all just snap in)
Honestly I'd go with the build Nexus made for you in the last page.. it's the best i've seen for your money so far and is a beast of a machine that will last you many years. (5+ if done right)
A word on planning:
You should purchase PCs with "future proofing" in mind.. meaning you allow yourself the option to upgrade parts in the future when you wish, so you do not have to buy a whole new PC every 3 years. Your motherboard and CPU do not fit this goal.
Just remember this mantra with PC parts : you're only as fast as your slowest part.
It's not always that absolute.. but having a fast GPU means nothing if your CPU is crap. There is always a bottleneck - it's unavoidable. But you can limit the gap by ensuring all the parts you purchase are roughly equivalent to one another and also by ensuring that there is room to upgrade later on.
For example:
When i bought my CPU years ago, it's default clock was 2.6 ghz, and the GPU was decent for the time.
As years went on I upgraded the GPU to a more recent one.. which then made my CPU the bottleneck, so i Overclocked it to 4 ghz.
Now my GPU is again the bottleneck, and I will be replacing it here soon.
So instead of purchasing a whole new system every 3 years for $1,000 , i made sure i future proofed my system as much as possible so that I spent $300 within those 3 years. (coming up on 5 years with this system, and its still a beast due to incremental upgrades)
TLDR; Buy a decent motherboard and a cpu that can be overclocked.("K" version) Also ensure the socket type is popular enough that in 3 years if you wanted to, you could purchase a new CPU that is compatible.
Honestly I'd go with the build Nexus made for you in the last page.. it's the best i've seen for your money so far and is a beast of a machine that will last you many years. (5+ if done right)
Agreed, but I would not bother with a liquid cooler for it. Pushing Ivy/Haswell cpus to 4.4 GHz is relatively easy and doesn't require too fancy a cooler, while pushing it beyond 4.4 GHz is significantly harder and not worth the trouble if you don't know what you are doing.
I know liquid coolers have come leaps and bounds in terms of simplicity of installation and reliability, but air cooling is still one less thing to worry about while being cheaper and not significantly less effective.
IronHorseDeveloper, QA Manager, Technical Support & contributorJoin Date: 2010-05-08Member: 71669Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester, Subnautica PT Lead, Pistachionauts
edited March 2014
@Scatter
Wha? What's there to "worry about" with water compared to air??
It's non conducive liquid in a closed loop system that never leaks , has zero maintenance and is the same price, but cooler and quieter?
Though i suppose if you aren't overclocking much, or at all, then you have a point
ScatterJoin Date: 2012-09-02Member: 157341Members, Squad Five Blue
edited March 2014
If you are only going to overclock to 4.4 Ghz, which is the top end of reasonable for a novice (which I think the OP is) fire and forget overclocker, then it is not necessary to get the H100i. It is more expensive than what is necessary for what I recommend be the upper limit of overclocking for a novice while introduces additional complexity (pumps, tubing, fans, radiator, controller ) and thus points of failure compared to a chunk of metal with a fan on top. I'm sure these things are pretty reliable, but it's still a $100 consumer grade item with x amount of units per 10,000 being expected to fail by the manufacturer. This guy is better off with something simple.
IronHorseDeveloper, QA Manager, Technical Support & contributorJoin Date: 2010-05-08Member: 71669Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester, Subnautica PT Lead, Pistachionauts
edited March 2014
That's an interesting point.
I can't weigh in on when it is or isn't necessary, just that overclocking causes heat which stresses out the CPU and therefore its lifespan, so even "going overboard" with keeping it cool is just good insurance imo.
Also... there is no complexity? There are no tubes, pumps, controllers that you have to worry about with CLC's?
It's literally the same maintenance and installation as an air heatsink, except you screw 1 fan to the back of the case. (which you should have one there anyways even if you stuck with air)
I can vouch for the very first generation of that corsair product, the H60, (Which statistically speaking should be the weakest design and most likely to fail) for 5 years now... without a single issue or incidence - despite carrying it from internet cafe to home in an open top jeep without cushions, multiple times a week for PT, for close to a year. (don't have do that now tho thank god)
But i get the hesitance to adopt a new method, as I have had to convince many friends to switch over the years
ScatterJoin Date: 2012-09-02Member: 157341Members, Squad Five Blue
The issue of cpu longevity, even with moderate overclocking, will become an issue several years after the cpu it is no longer relevant and needs upgrading anyway. These thing operate well below the thermal threshold anyway, and significantly so compared to older intel models which ran normally near 80 to 100 degrees C without issues.
The device is inherently more complex in terms of its design, regardless of the ease of installation and lack of maintenance required, which means more things to go wrong. Just google broken h60 or h100 and there are tonnes of thread on these things breaking down. No engineered device is identical and you may just be one of the lucky ones that hasn't had any problems. The Bathtub Curve may be of interest.
Just based on this I think that air coolers are sufficient given the requirements and simplicity but I think we're starting to derail this somewhat.
GhoulofGSG9Join Date: 2013-03-31Member: 184566Members, Super Administrators, Forum Admins, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Squad Five Silver, Reinforced - Supporter, WC 2013 - Supporter, Pistachionauts
edited March 2014
Also again a h100i is just overpriced and not really needed. If you are rdy to spend 100 bucks at the cpu cooler you should add 20 to go full liquid anyway.
The differents between a h80/h100i and a good air cooler are about 5-10 °C and with a good fan there is almost no different between produced noise.
Also in most cases the gpu is the loudest fan in the pc so spending 100 $ for a quiet cpu cooler while you have a loud gpu fan doesn't really help anything.
Ofc i can understand why those coolers are used alot in micro atx pcs as there is just no space for a descent air cpu cooler in those
If you want to have a super silent OCable system to the end, liquid cooling is the way to go, a liquid coooling system also only cost 80 - 120 $
JektJoin Date: 2012-02-05Member: 143714Members, Squad Five Blue, Reinforced - Shadow
edited March 2014
My H60 was truly awful. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. The fan was incredibly loud and the temperature was considerably higher than the air cooling I had. Been on a Noctua DH-14 for a while now with 4.4Ghz OC and it's brilliant.
Soul_RiderMod BeanJoin Date: 2004-06-19Member: 29388Members, Constellation, Squad Five Blue
I have to chime in to recommend the 4670k a great chip and easily overclocks to 4.4ghz if you want. I agree that I would not spend that much money on those specs, when you can get something 25% or more powerful for the same money with a self-build.
@Scatter@Jekt Even though OC'ing Ivy/Haswell is relatively easy, it still generates heat. Ivy series processors tend to be less "picky", for lack of a better word, than Haswell, I simply recommended the H100i based on personal preference. The Noctua NH-D14 offers slightly less but very similar performance and is in IMO the best air cooler on the market, hands down. I just find the extra $30 spent on the H100i worth it. The H100i is leaps and bounds ahead of the H60 in terms of reliability and performance so it's not really a fair comparison.
On another note, even without a ton of experience, OC'ing a CPU to 4.6-4.8 GHz can be achieved. Asus' AI Suite III is an absolutely AMAZING software program. If you haven't seen it or messed with it, here's a video.
I'll say it again. This program is abolutely AMAZING! If you don't have experience OC'ing or just don't feel comfortable pushing the CPU passed the standard 4.2-4.4 GHz, this program is for you. I know it's a long video but it really worth the time to watch.
If you don't feel comfortable building your own PC, which everyone here will tell you, it's really not that hard and quite fun, but NCIX.com will build your PC for you for about $50. That's it. You choose the parts, and when you checkout, select the option for them to build it for you. It adds $50 dollars to total price, but that's the cheapest I have found since you seem you want a pre-built PC.
I don't know how the situation in Canada is, but with 1k you should get a perfectly ( extremly ) fine setup.
i would go with this setup for 1K
cpu: i5 4440 (cheaper than the 4770k but has enought power for at least the next 4-6 years if you focus on gaming ) 195 $
gpu: r280X or nvidea 780 (780ti) e.g MSI Radeon R9 280X 3GB GDDR5 399$
ram: 8 - 16 GB Ram 1600+ MHZ CL9+ ( Depends what you want to do with your pc other than gaming, for gaming 8 gb will be enought also it's not hard to upgrade the ram later ) ~100$
power: Seasonic G-Series G-550 550W ( Don't buy power you won't need any time like 1k W ) ~100 $ SSD: Samsung SSD 840 ( Evo Series 250GB or Pro 256GB ) for OS and important stuff like fav games 200 or 229$
HDD: Any 1TB you like for data ~60$
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H87-H3D or ASUS H87-Pro (C2) 109$ or 112$
Case: Some case with enought space and good air cooling you like. Standard cases are something like the Cooler Master N500 and cost around 60 $
Important always get a good cpu cooler like the Thermalright HR-02 Macho Rev. A or Noctua NH-D14 ( good cooling + not much noise )
Seems like yu don't get those in US so you would have to go with the Arctic Cooling Freezer 13 ( still okay ) ~40 $
Edit:
About where to buy:
TBH i would never buy pc hardware from ebay. Maybe from some tech forum where i'm sure i get working hardware but otherwise all i heard in tech support forums about refurbished hardware wasn't that great.
I would either go with a local small (not some major label) pc store (more expensive but you get personal support if needed ) or a internet store with alot good reviews which you can trust that if needed you will get support.
Hopefully some other ppl here can help you suggesting some good stores in canada / US because i have no idea about the market there.
Here in EU ( Germany ) we have some pretty descent stores with fair and good prizes.
Everything this guy said + a few addendums of my own:
As he said, for gaming only 8 gb will be enough. But if u have alot of other stuff open while running the game (i.e. - I usually have ~150 tabs in Chrome open and I don't want to close and reopen Chrome everytime I play a game - but my 8 gb ram are maxed out.), u should get 16 Gb.
I heard of some problems with upgrading ram later, even if u buy the exactly same rams u can end up with incompabilitys.
And make sure u get a SSD. Apart from more RAM, thats the only thing I wish I had gotten from the start. (rest of my setup is a i5 3570k/Radeon 7870 - runs ns2 just fine.)
I can also recommend the Thermalright HR-02 Macho. Just don't forget to correctly measure your chase's inside measurements. I tried to calculate them, but forgot about the cable channel Had to return the first cpu cooler I bought because of this.
And absolutely do get a cpu with a K. When ur rig reaches the end of its lifecycle (3-5 years, cost of rig ~1000 bucks), u can overclock and squeeze another year of life out of it (+1 year, premium of "K"-type cpu over regular one ~30 bucks)... till one day, u overclock too much.
But u know what they say... It's better to burn out, than to fade away.
@Scatter@Jekt Even though OC'ing Ivy/Haswell is relatively easy, it still generates heat.
Well current ivy/haswell is quite cold for cpu, just bad/failure design. Heat transfer is the big thing. Thats why you need monstrous coolers or delidd your cpu even better to buy 2011 socket soldered cpu's.
My H60 was truly awful. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. The fan was incredibly loud and the temperature was considerably higher than the air cooling I had. Been on a Noctua DH-14 for a while now with 4.4Ghz OC and it's brilliant.
Beast.
Well, those "all in one" watercooling (:D toy cooling ) are always crap. Pump is weak and loud hard mounted pumps, usually really small hoses and if you want better performance you need bigger radiator to compensate the weakness. Fact is that pump is noisy, you need silence when your computer is in idle (the most important). Pump noise is biggest weakness in custom water cooling also when we are looking idle silence compared to best air coolers. Real water cooling is always custom builds!
Of course people have different tastes about the silence Some think that 120mm fan is silent at 1500 rpm while I think that my noctua 150mm pwm fan is silent at 200rpm, thanks to asus Fan expert control.
You all should read this especially ironhorse http://www.anandtech.com/show/7363/the-neophytes-custom-liquid-cooling-guide-how-to-why-to-what-to-expect
Those all in one are easiest ofc, but remember that when you need to RMA your pump in someday... pump gets noisy or just dies and hope that CPU isn't fried Those packets can also leak (quality control, usually plastic/rubber quality) and its not funny if your 500€ GPU is dead
I used external watercooling couple years and used to hate the watercooling hassle when changing system components + pump noise at idle & maintenance if you dont know what you are doing. My watercooler stuff was: Mo-ra 2 like 9*120mm, DDC with xspc acrylic tank & DD CPX (undervolted to get some silence), 1/2"ID hoses and HK3 cpu block. Also when using water cooling you need to use more fans so more decibels or bearings noise may come.. Now 4 years using Noctua NH-D14 (using one fan NF-A15 pwm, defaults are rubbish) and no worries Silent comp in idle and in load have same noise but ~20c bigger temps when I had i5 2500k. Intel cpu's really don't need watercooling anymore, but if you want it then best benefits come from gpu's like r9 290/x, but warranty usually is lost right away..
Comments
I'm surprised it hasn't been updated, especially since its "Recommended", and not "Minimum".
Straight from the NS2 wiki
This is true. I have a 1st gen C2D at 3GHz, 4gb ram and a gtx 660 and I get <50fps in most fights. Even early game if there are 6-8+ people around all shooting/biting then I can hit 25-30.
(I 'll be going prebuilt, as outraging this might be)
these specs, I'm wondering 2 things :
- if they're enough to play smooth with (rather) high settings
- if you think some stuff could easily be (much) better for (not much more) money
MSI H81M-P33 LGA1150
(anything wrong here?)
Intel Core i5 4430 3Ghz @ 3.2Ghz Turbo Boost 6Mb
(no "K" - i dont know what overclocking is - is 4430 ok?)
Video card choice :
Nvidia GeForce GTX660 2Gb GDDR5 HDMI Dx11
OR
ATI Radeon R9 270 2Gb GDDR5 HDMI Dx11
(Which one is best? GeForce?)
Corsair / Kingston 8Gb 1x8Gb DDR3-1600Mhz
(difference between 1x8 and 2x4?)
Western Digital Blue 1Tb 7200RPM SATA
OR
SSD Ultra-Performant 120Gb (+45$)
X-Supply 550W 120mm Fan
Case Thermaltake Commander MS-I 120mm Fan Blue LED
Guaranteed 3yrs
(price 832$ CND (~760$ USD))
I know I was talking about spending 1k +/running the game on max settings, and you guys been suggesting higher setups but I might tone it down a little, unless I'm said this setup is old and crappy or something..
Note that I don't really need to have tons of programs running at once either
Overclocking and water-cooling would be for enthusiasts. I strongly recommend just sticking with a basic build without overclocking or water-cooling. Buying an intel i5 with a K at the end would allow you to overclock later if needed. Water-cooling is recommended when you overclock the CPU, because it adds more heat. Don't even think about SLI, since you'll be stacking graphics cards together and it'll be an expensive pain in the ass.
Focus on a strong CPU, medium graphics card, and you'll be okay. You can build onto your computer later on when you have more time, knowledge, and money.
Final point: Don't buy a pre-built computer, that's for plebs. Do you like Legos? Do you know how to use Legos? Then you can build a PC and save money for a night at the strip club. Legos: training children to grow into responsible, money-saving adults.
How come my laptop cpu plays this easily? Is it because I have quad core or because I have more cache?
Btw, ht is turned off for me (means less heat and more cache-per-core).
Also 2GB may be a little bit on the low side when it comes to gfx card RAM? Can't remember now how much I have.
About the mainboard: Has just one pci slot so you wouldn't be able to use a second gpu or any other pci stuff like a tv, network card whatsoever) and only supports ram up to 1600 MHz :S
About the ram question 1 or 2. 2 allow you to let your ram run in dual cache mode which is often faster than a single slot.
GPU: the r270 is a relabled amd 7870, so i would get the old 7870 as it's cheaper. Still the r270 performs abit better than the 660 to answer your question.
CPU: It is okay for today but not that great. Will be enought for the next 4 years of gaming in medium/high sector.
HDD: Can't find what SSD is used exactly so can't comment on that. Every SSD performs different and i would take both SSD + normal HDD for a new setup.
Power: never heard from that one
Case: is okay but no words about the cpu cooler, i'm getting afraid ^^
Overall:
As other said, built your pc yourself. It's not that hard, just plug and play. With reading some tuts before and doing it step by step anyone is able to build a pc himself.
The hardest part is to setup the cpu cooler ( air cooling ). You should look up vids how to use the heatsink paste (ricecorn drop at cpu press cpu cooling body onto it to get the paste all over the cpu (don't use too much or too less paste, but normally you get enought paste for like 3-4 tries
You will save alot money by doing so and will have a perfect setup not like all those retail pc where the manufactor saves money at the mainboards and power etc.
Also you will be able to upgrade your pc in the future. Which will allow you to use your pc build up to 8 years with only using like 300 $ in about 4-6 years ( for e.g a new gpu or more ram ).
Tbh it's also alot of fun building your own pcs and as other allready said building a pc is like playing with Lego you can't do that much wrong today and won't broke any hardware parts if you are carefull.
You won't need thermal paste if you are using the default heatsink included with a CPU. Those usually already have thermal paste applied.
You can buy the machine you want as long as you meet the CPU requirement.
-GFX card aren't the problem, you will surely find a card that is above ok for NS2.
-CPU can be the problem.
-The game swallows easily 2GB RAM.
-Then come the I/Os. Get a SSD. It'll change everything as it won't be a bottleneck in the PC (loading maps, tunnel exit etc...). In fact it is good for everything else. Plus less energy needed. A true improvement. It really worth the extra bucks. That's not for nothing SSDs are in every new laptop. Up to 500Mb/s, low energy consumption, no heat, as much reliable as HDD now.
I would say you'll have to manage space a little better. Usually ppl buy 128Mb or 256Mb SSD.
But that is what every decent human should do in order to save (backup) what's important. CD/DVD burning or storing in a real NAS with RAID. But that is another story.
The default cpu cooler is so loud and ineffective you should only use it in emergency cases ... .
Mediocre CPU, mediocre GPU, Mediocre HD, and a Sub par Motherboard
If i priced out those exact specs part by part, you'd be paying ~$500 ... less than half your original budget, right?
You are going to get ripped off if you don't buy the parts yourself, just so you know. It's incredibly easy to put these pieces together. It's literally snap in (GPU, ram, heatsink all just snap in)
Honestly I'd go with the build Nexus made for you in the last page.. it's the best i've seen for your money so far and is a beast of a machine that will last you many years. (5+ if done right)
A word on planning:
Just remember this mantra with PC parts : you're only as fast as your slowest part.
It's not always that absolute.. but having a fast GPU means nothing if your CPU is crap. There is always a bottleneck - it's unavoidable. But you can limit the gap by ensuring all the parts you purchase are roughly equivalent to one another and also by ensuring that there is room to upgrade later on.
For example:
When i bought my CPU years ago, it's default clock was 2.6 ghz, and the GPU was decent for the time.
As years went on I upgraded the GPU to a more recent one.. which then made my CPU the bottleneck, so i Overclocked it to 4 ghz.
Now my GPU is again the bottleneck, and I will be replacing it here soon.
So instead of purchasing a whole new system every 3 years for $1,000 , i made sure i future proofed my system as much as possible so that I spent $300 within those 3 years. (coming up on 5 years with this system, and its still a beast due to incremental upgrades)
TLDR; Buy a decent motherboard and a cpu that can be overclocked.("K" version) Also ensure the socket type is popular enough that in 3 years if you wanted to, you could purchase a new CPU that is compatible.
Agreed, but I would not bother with a liquid cooler for it. Pushing Ivy/Haswell cpus to 4.4 GHz is relatively easy and doesn't require too fancy a cooler, while pushing it beyond 4.4 GHz is significantly harder and not worth the trouble if you don't know what you are doing.
I know liquid coolers have come leaps and bounds in terms of simplicity of installation and reliability, but air cooling is still one less thing to worry about while being cheaper and not significantly less effective.
Wha? What's there to "worry about" with water compared to air??
It's non conducive liquid in a closed loop system that never leaks , has zero maintenance and is the same price, but cooler and quieter?
Though i suppose if you aren't overclocking much, or at all, then you have a point
I can't weigh in on when it is or isn't necessary, just that overclocking causes heat which stresses out the CPU and therefore its lifespan, so even "going overboard" with keeping it cool is just good insurance imo.
Also... there is no complexity? There are no tubes, pumps, controllers that you have to worry about with CLC's?
It's literally the same maintenance and installation as an air heatsink, except you screw 1 fan to the back of the case. (which you should have one there anyways even if you stuck with air)
I can vouch for the very first generation of that corsair product, the H60, (Which statistically speaking should be the weakest design and most likely to fail) for 5 years now... without a single issue or incidence - despite carrying it from internet cafe to home in an open top jeep without cushions, multiple times a week for PT, for close to a year. (don't have do that now tho thank god)
But i get the hesitance to adopt a new method, as I have had to convince many friends to switch over the years
The device is inherently more complex in terms of its design, regardless of the ease of installation and lack of maintenance required, which means more things to go wrong. Just google broken h60 or h100 and there are tonnes of thread on these things breaking down. No engineered device is identical and you may just be one of the lucky ones that hasn't had any problems. The Bathtub Curve may be of interest.
Just based on this I think that air coolers are sufficient given the requirements and simplicity but I think we're starting to derail this somewhat.
The differents between a h80/h100i and a good air cooler are about 5-10 °C and with a good fan there is almost no different between produced noise.
Also in most cases the gpu is the loudest fan in the pc so spending 100 $ for a quiet cpu cooler while you have a loud gpu fan doesn't really help anything.
Ofc i can understand why those coolers are used alot in micro atx pcs as there is just no space for a descent air cpu cooler in those
If you want to have a super silent OCable system to the end, liquid cooling is the way to go, a liquid coooling system also only cost 80 - 120 $
Beast.
On another note, even without a ton of experience, OC'ing a CPU to 4.6-4.8 GHz can be achieved. Asus' AI Suite III is an absolutely AMAZING software program. If you haven't seen it or messed with it, here's a video.
I'll say it again. This program is abolutely AMAZING! If you don't have experience OC'ing or just don't feel comfortable pushing the CPU passed the standard 4.2-4.4 GHz, this program is for you. I know it's a long video but it really worth the time to watch.
Everything this guy said + a few addendums of my own:
As he said, for gaming only 8 gb will be enough. But if u have alot of other stuff open while running the game (i.e. - I usually have ~150 tabs in Chrome open and I don't want to close and reopen Chrome everytime I play a game - but my 8 gb ram are maxed out.), u should get 16 Gb.
I heard of some problems with upgrading ram later, even if u buy the exactly same rams u can end up with incompabilitys.
And make sure u get a SSD. Apart from more RAM, thats the only thing I wish I had gotten from the start. (rest of my setup is a i5 3570k/Radeon 7870 - runs ns2 just fine.)
I can also recommend the Thermalright HR-02 Macho. Just don't forget to correctly measure your chase's inside measurements. I tried to calculate them, but forgot about the cable channel
Also, why buy all from one shop? Just check prices on some pricesearch-site and cherrypick from the cheapest shops.
https://www.google.de/search?q=cheapest+prices
And absolutely do get a cpu with a K. When ur rig reaches the end of its lifecycle (3-5 years, cost of rig ~1000 bucks), u can overclock and squeeze another year of life out of it (+1 year, premium of "K"-type cpu over regular one ~30 bucks)... till one day, u overclock too much.
But u know what they say... It's better to burn out, than to fade away.
Of course people have different tastes about the silence
You all should read this especially ironhorse
Those all in one are easiest ofc, but remember that when you need to RMA your pump in someday... pump gets noisy or just dies and hope that CPU isn't fried
I used external watercooling couple years and used to hate the watercooling hassle when changing system components + pump noise at idle & maintenance if you dont know what you are doing. My watercooler stuff was: Mo-ra 2 like 9*120mm, DDC with xspc acrylic tank & DD CPX (undervolted to get some silence), 1/2"ID hoses and HK3 cpu block. Also when using water cooling you need to use more fans so more decibels or bearings noise may come.. Now 4 years using Noctua NH-D14 (using one fan NF-A15 pwm, defaults are rubbish) and no worries
My next summer build will be Mo-ra 3 420 (9*140mm or 4* 230mm) with pwm D5 pump (awesome pump with motherboard control to have silence in idle). I want that my GPU is fully silent while MSI gaming cards are best air coolers right now
Sorry for off topic
...who knows how the next build is gonna turn out