pengjn Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 I'm a total noob to rig building and i'm planning on building one for Black Shark. I've heard that for a new build it's best to go i7 920 and overclock. Assume this is better than dual core in terms of future proofing? Thinking of Asus p6t deluxe on mobo front but suggestions welcome. From what i've read the 4870X2 gives higher 3dmark scores than GTX 280 but can suffer from microbursts, which cause stutter whilst gaming. What is the best value/performance GPU for Black Shark? All info welcome. Cheers, Jim DCS 2.0 NTTR, EVGA GTX980 Ti Hybrid, 4790k, 16GB, 27" Apple Cinema Display, Thrustmaster HOTAS, Saitek Combat pedals, TrackIR 5 and...Oculus Rift CV1. Complete noob .:doh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
urze Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 (edited) What can you spend? Today you would able to spend easily between 700$ and 4000$ . And every system in this range can satisfy you together with BS. But the lower range systems/components will limit you in terms of flexibility and compatibility with upcoming hardware/standards. Edited February 5, 2009 by urze Leftside Limited - ideas and solutions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pengjn Posted February 5, 2009 Author Share Posted February 5, 2009 What can you spend? Today you would able to spend easily between 700$ and 4000$ . And every system in this range can satisfy you together with BS. But the lower range systems/components will limit you in terms f flexibility and compatibility with upcoming hardware/standards. Not tooooo worried about the cost but at the same time, i'm interested in value/performance, for ex, i understand that the 920 is good value because it can be OC'd up to 940/965 performance (pretty much). Presume more and more games will start to utilise quad core over the coming months, so guessing i7 is best future proof. Also understand that GTX 280 better value than 285 beacuse you can OC 280 up to 285 performance. However, don't understand if dual GPU cards are better/worse for BS. Thoughts? DCS 2.0 NTTR, EVGA GTX980 Ti Hybrid, 4790k, 16GB, 27" Apple Cinema Display, Thrustmaster HOTAS, Saitek Combat pedals, TrackIR 5 and...Oculus Rift CV1. Complete noob .:doh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Der Moloch Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 I think i7 currently is totally overpowered for games, because they cannot fully profit from its new architecture. Thus, most games will not run faster with an i7 in comparison to a C2Q. Beware that there are only highend mainboards available for a an i7 platform, which cost almost thrice as much as a good P45 mainboard. The reason for this is that impatient customers will buy mainboards which they actually don't need. Yet it will take some time before consumer boards for the new generation will be introduced to the market (milk those who cannot wait). On the other hand the socket 775 and the Core2Quad architecture will no longer receiver further updates and will peter out sooner or later. CPU wise you now have to choose between a highly expensive system, from which you might not distinctly profit, or a sufficent system, which will be outdated sooner or later. There also is AMD's new PhenomII, which is newer though not significantly faster than the C2Q architecture. Y et CPU's last much longer than graphic cards, which have to be replaced every six months, if you always want to play on top notch settings at a high resolution (1920x1200, 4xAA, 16x AF e.g.). A single gpu is preferable to a multi gpu system with regard to power consumption, heat, noise and microbursts. If you focus on Black Shark, a high end system is not too important. This game looks good but is not as power hungry as GTAIV or Crysis for example. I have run a brief peak on my system: CPU: E7200 @ 3200 Mhz MB: Asus P5Q Pro @ 400Mhz FSB RAM: 4096 MB @ 800Mhz GPU: Sapphire Radeon 4870 512MB Black Shark Settings: 1920x1200, ingame maximum quality, 4x adaptive AA (edge detect), 16x AF, rest set to maximum quality So far the game runs very smoothly, but I have not tested it in detail yet and may have not encountered a situation in which there was not enough power. Thus I conclude an i7 and a GTX280 may not be necessary. In the end the decision is up to the tasks you need to with your computer and only you can give an answer to that question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
urze Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 (edited) Fully agree with Der Moloch! If you plan to stay with DCS you should look out for cheap components to upgrade your running system. A GPU like a 8800gt is fully sufficient with the present engine of BS - look out for a better dual core CPU (Simulations are almost CPU limited)- if BS will runs fine you will be running also the next modules (A10/AH-64) fine on it. (in this video is the rendering done by a single 8800gt 1gig/ram in 3840x2100 and a Core 2 Duo 6750@3.6GHz CPU! -and I have 30+ frames in urban areas- beside the monitors...-it's a ridiculous low-system-specification to get this done!) Wait than until the new engine of DCS will see the light of day. and upgrade than to a whole new system! Edited February 5, 2009 by urze Leftside Limited - ideas and solutions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LtFransky Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 Hey, if you can afford an i7, knock yourself out. All the new Intel stuff will use the new socket, so if you're buying anyway, I would muscle up on the CPU and good mid-range GPU. From what I can see, this sim is heavier on the CPU rather than the GPU. Any current generation video card should be fine. I'm running a 9800GT at 1280x960 and get 40fps. But I only have a Core 2 Duo 6750. When the AI engages me I notice a spike in CPU activity. Oh yeah, and the i7 920 can be clocked up to 4Ghz with adequate cooling. It'll run faster than the i7 Extreme. If I could afford it, it'd be mine. Ours is not to reason why, but rather to do and die. A man walks into a zoo. The only animal in the entire zoo is a dog. It's a shitzu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diveplane Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 i am happy with my wolfdale cpu E8400 https://www.youtube.com/user/diveplane11 DCS Audio Modding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airjocky2 Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 I'm new to computer gamming but I used to play simulators a lot in the 80s and 90s. I decided to get back into it and built myself a new computer a few weeks ago (never done before). I decided to go with the i7 920 because my philosophy on technology and computing is buy the newest that's the most upgradable within budget and then hopefully it'll last for more than 6 -12 months before it's out dated. The i7 1366 motherboards may not be perfect but the chip is (I think) the fastest with the most potential on the market and the mobos hold alot of RAM and overclock ability. Mine is the i7 920 2.66Ghz and I easily overclocked (never done before) it to 3.6 and am about to settle in on 3.8 for a 24/7 OC. With my EVGA Geforce 260 its fast and I'm gonna get another 260 to run together (why not). The new 1366 boards are not perfect and being brand new can cause some problems with kinks being worked out but...In my opinion...if you cant wait and want to build one now...and money is not a huge factor...go with i7. BTW if you are new to this like me I just wanna say I'm glad I went with EVGA x58 Motherboard because the online forums and customer service are extremely helpful if you need help with anything like overclock. But to each his own. p6t is popular too. Here's my build bought on newegg for around $2000-2300 (don't know because I got a lot of rebates and discounts from them): Intel Core i7 920 @ 3.6Ghz EVGA 132-BL-E758-A1 LGA 1366 CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 COOLER MASTER V8 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler 1-Western Digital VelociRaptor 300gb 1-Western Digital Caviar Black 500gb SAMSUNG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Acer X223Wbd Black 22" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 1 EVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked (gonna get another for SLI) Antec Twelve Hundred Case Thermaltake W0116RU 750W Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 64-bit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuky Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 If you ask me, if you have the money and want to build new system, definitely go for i7 920 and overclock, you will not regret it and believe me you have good use of as fast as possible CPU. For the video card on the other hand for LockOn and Black Shark you don't need super fast card and from experience I've noticed single GPU cards do have less issues (no stuttering). If you can get fast single GPU card with 1GB of RAM... that will be very nice running for any game I think and with this CPU/VGA combo you should run LockOn and Black Shark very nicely even in most CPU demanding situations. No longer active in DCS... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vault Posted February 5, 2009 Share Posted February 5, 2009 If I had to buy a new rig today I'd futre proof myself and go for i7. OTOH if you're on a budget an E84/5/6/00 chip will overclock to 4 GHZ easily on an aftermarket fan giving most i7 systems a run for it's money. Pound for pound the E8400 is hard to beat because it's easily overclocked to 4GHZ. I run BS in non SLI mode on a single Nvidia 8800GTX combined with a overclocked E8500 @ 3.8GHZ which is more than capable of running BS at full tilt. [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diveplane Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 i run my rig stock speeds still get fairly good performance. https://www.youtube.com/user/diveplane11 DCS Audio Modding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vault Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Diveplane even at stock the E8400 @ 3GHZ is a very good chip mate. It's also very good for overclocking! you should have a go at OC'ing it mate. I rekon you could bump that E8400 up to the same standard as an E8600 and OC it to 3.3GHZ on the same stock cooler without any stability or temperature issues. Just keep te CPU under 65C-70C. :thumbup: [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlphaInfinity Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 (edited) I was going back and forth between the e8400 and the I7. I decided to go with the newer processor and motherboard because I wanted to be able to upgrade a little over the next couple of years. Others may think the new boards are buggy but I have not had one problem with mine. I have been using ASUS boards on my gaming machines for a long time now. It really comes down to price. Memory on the newer chipset is still pretty expensive. If you are on a budget, the e8400 is the best bang for the buck. I will say that the corei7 performs very well with this game. In most cases I am seeing 50fps and it occasionally drops down to 30 at the farp, but overall the game plays nicely at 1920X1280. Edited February 6, 2009 by AlphaInfinity [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] |Core i7 5820k@3.8ghz|ASUS X99 Deluxe mobo|16GB Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR4 2666|EVGA GTX980 SLI | 4x500GB Samsung PRO SSD|Corsair RM1000 GOLD|Track IR5|5x LG 27inch LCD| Windows 8.1 PRO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pengjn Posted February 7, 2009 Author Share Posted February 7, 2009 All really good input - thanks everyone. Given that i'm starting from scratch - i think i'll go for i7. Still not sure about what gfx card to go for - could go for 4870 for £200 or gtx 285 for £320 - seems like 285 would be more future proof but have no idea. Thinking of a 24" LCD - is this decent or is everyone using much bigger? 5ms response time ok? It's a sammy. DCS 2.0 NTTR, EVGA GTX980 Ti Hybrid, 4790k, 16GB, 27" Apple Cinema Display, Thrustmaster HOTAS, Saitek Combat pedals, TrackIR 5 and...Oculus Rift CV1. Complete noob .:doh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuky Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 5ms is about as low as you can get these days for larger LCD screens (some smaller ones have 2ms but they are all 19" screens I believe) No longer active in DCS... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vault Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 5ms is about as low as you can get these days for larger LCD screens (some smaller ones have 2ms but they are all 19" screens I believe) Kuky not trying to correct you but just so you know you can get up to 22" 2ms LCD screens. This is the one I have. http://www.trustedreviews.com/displays/review/2007/03/09/Samsung-SyncMaster-226BW/p1 [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuky Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 It's all good Vault... the more info the better ;) No longer active in DCS... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hannibal Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 Wait than until the new engine of DCS will see the light of day. and upgrade than to a whole new system! define wait... 1 month? 6 months? 1 year? 3 years? what does wait mean??? urze..do you know something??? find me on steam! username: Hannibal_A101A http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197969447179 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaBoom Posted September 8, 2009 Share Posted September 8, 2009 I was about to build a Phenom II x4 3.4Ghz computer. I've always been an AMD fanboy but Intel has improved alot. I was about to buy the fastest Phenom II processor at £170 but the I7 2.66Ghz at £200 is as fast and Intel already has a 3.3Ghz i7 that i can upgrade too in three years when it's a lot cheaper. So with i7 your garenteed to have an upgrade path in the future. The Intel I7 can also read three sticks of Ram at the same time giving your compouter far faster ram read speeds then the AMD one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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