Apache
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Posts posted by Apache
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Thanks. Any comments on the combinations on the 'New Build' thread?
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I have one bundled as a self build option now. I will likely go for it.
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Started a new thread as I've decided to build. I MAY go for more RAM but for what I do I think it will be little used. If anything I may go for 6GB.
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Really sorry about this but at the last minute I decided to go self build. OK, after some very helpful advice on another thread and reading that in conjunction with the Custom PC 'Gaming Workhorse' Buyer Guide I've come up with three possible new builds, all priced from Scan:
OPTION 1
Case: £80 Fractal Design Define R3
CPU: £217 Intel i7 950 (I have seen comment that the i7 930 may actually be a better 'pair' with the below mobo)
RAM: £67 Corsair XMS3 6GB DDR3 1600
Mobo:£139 Asus P6X58D-E (SATA3/890)
Fan: £25 Gelid Tranquillo (a Thermaltake Frio is an option here but may be too loud)
PSU: £62 CoolerMaster GX 750W RS750-ACAAE3-UK
Mon: £100 Approx (looking for good 24 – 27" LCD??)
Vid: £163 Gainward (or Palit equiv?) GTX 460 GS GLH, 4000MHz GDDR5, GPU 800MHz, 336 Cores, D-Sub/ 2x DL DVI-I/ HDMI
HDD: £67 Western WD1002 FAEX (7200 SATA 3)
CD1: £16 Sony AD-7261S-0B 24x DVD±R, 12xDVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RWx6 ,12xRAM SATA, Black, Lightscribe, OEM
CD2: £16 Sony
WiFi: £19 Edimax EW-7722In
KB/M: £44 Logitech Wave (or MX5500 @ 100)
Win 7: £77 Home Premium 64 Bit (OEM)
Total £1092
I could go for an i5-760 and drop the price by about £70 and maybe even 4 GB RAM v 6GB. The latter may be penny pinching though. I could of course reduce the price of the case (but I do want one that is good and easy to build into and route cables etc and also that is quiet). If I dropped the CPU to an i5 I could perhaps add a 64GB SSD for the OS? For another £20 or so I could also swap the vid card for a GTX 470.
OPTION 2 (this is pretty much the Custom PC default spec):
Case: £80 Fractal Design Define R3
CPU: £140 Intel Core i5-760
RAM: £63 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair XMS3, DDR3 PC3-10666
Mobo: £85 Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 (there is comment that this mobo is now almost impossible to get and this was a November publication!!! I'd likely go for the UD3 in this price range)
Fan: £25 Gelid Tranquillo
PSU: £65 Antec TruePower New 650W
Mon: £100 Approx (looking for good 24 – 27" LCD??)
Video: £245 Zotac GeForce GTX 470 AMP Edition
HDD: £40 1TB Samsung SpinPoint F3
CD1: £16 Sony AD-7261S-0B 24x DVD±R, 12xDVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RWx6 ,12xRAM SATA, Black, Lightscribe, OEM
CD2: £16 Sony
WiFi: £19 Edimax EW-7722In
KB/M: £44 Logitech Wave (or MX5500 @ 100)
Win 7: £77 Home Premium 64 Bit
SSD: £110 Crucial Real SSD C300
Total £1015 or £1125 with the SSD
I could add/swap:
£139 Asus P6X58D-E (SATA3/890)
£62 CoolerMaster GX 750W RS750-ACAAE3-UK
£163 Gainward (or Palit equiv?) GTX 460 GS GLH, 4000MHz GDDR5, GPU 800MHz, 336 Cores, D-Sub/ 2x DL DVI-I/ HDMI or £189 for a GTX470
£67 Western WD1002 FAEX (7200 SATA 3)
OPTION 2a:
Basically as above but with a 460 GTX (saving about £80) or 470 (£60) and either leave it at that or add the SSD:
Video: £163 Gainward (or Palit equiv?) GTX 460 GS GLH, 4000MHz GDDR5, GPU 800MHz, 336 Cores, D-Sub/ 2x DL DVI-I/ HDMI
SSD: £110 Crucial Real SSD C300*
Total £933 or £1043 with the SSD
I could still add/swap:
£139 Asus P6X58D-E (SATA3/890)
£62 CoolerMaster GX 750W RS750-ACAAE3-UK
£67 Western WD1002 FAEX (7200 SATA 3)
There is a suggested build for a 'Power Gamer' PC that bundles more expensive components (case, PSU and SSD etc) but it only seems worth going with those if you add in the other thing that is responsible for most of the price hike, a £400 GTX 480 card which for me I think is overkill. Once I drop down the spec of that card and the SSD I am left with a pricier case, mobo and PSU, seemingly for no purpose. As such it seems better to stick to option 1 in that regard.
Any views on the above greatly appreciated. Good monitor reccomendations welcome and any new s re new component releases imminent which might reduce the cost of the above. The PC lives next to the DG834PN router so wifi is perhaps redundant across all three saving another £20.
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I had great joy watching 4 overwatch Marders put 4 Milans into building to take out an enemy ATGM. Saved waiting for arty
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Right. Done I think!!! Decided to up the budget a little and go for this:
Chillblast Fusion Swift
Intel Core i7 870 Processor overclocked to 3.6GHz
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Cooler
Asus P7P55D-E LX Motherboard with USB 3.0
GeForce GTX 460 1GB Graphics Card
EZCool A200D ATX Case
4GB PC3-10666 DDR3 Memory
Samsung Blu Ray ROM / DVD-RW Combo Drive
1000GB SATA 7200rpm Hard Disk
500watt FSP PSU
Onboard High Definition Audio
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit OEM
All in about £970. Did look at building it myself but costed it all out and it was about £80. So busy at the moment I can't be asked!! It would also be my first build so a little unsure!! So, subject to any adverse comment I'll order this tomorrow. In fact it was the first system I listed on a different thread!! Need to trust my gut instinct next time maybe and save DAYS of research!!!
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Thanks. Really great help. Thanks for taking the time. Really I HATE PC upgrade time
Machines I was looking at seem to have 4MB L3 cache (am i correct in assuming it's either one or the other, L2 or L3, not both?????). The processors are Intel Core i3 530, 2.93 overclocked to 4; Intel Core i3 540 and Intel Core i5 760. I'm not sure how I'd work out how much each core as but assume if it's a dual core with 4MB it's 2MB each. I do wish they would say in the name if it's dual or quad!!! I have just seen a write up about an i5 760 and of course it's not that easy. It says Cache: L1: 128KB (each core), L2: 512KB (each core), L3: 8MB (shared). Now I'm not sure this applies to ALL i5 760s or whether they vary
Sometimes I hate computers!!!I'm quite happy going for an AMD/ATI or Radeon combo as I've had them in the past buy part of me thinks Intel/Nvidia is the safer bet. I may be wrong these days and AMD/ATI seem to offer more for the buck.
If I go with Nvidia I'll go for a 450 at least, preferably a 460.
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Nearly there, thank god!! Final couple of questions.
Most machines seem to be Quad Core now. If I get a 3.4 Quad will I actually experience worse performance than a 3.4 Dual if CM can't use 2 cores?
Also, is there much difference between the Nvidia 430, 450 and 460 GTS cards and if so, what would be the minimum to consider (most machines offer spec options and I'm a bit lost) and the Radeon equivalent (albeit I feel safer with Nvidia)?
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Yep, I tend to keep my infantry locked up in their Marders at the moment. Best place for them for me until they get 'fausts. Mind you, the speed they die at I find it the best place period
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Have to admit, again 'modern' not being my thing, I get quite confused when I hit 'acquire' and a shed load of ammo types come up. 90% of the time I just hit the max of 7.62 (German/NATO). I'm not 100% sure whether that's correct or not, or indeed what, if anything, they drop to carry it. Maybe they just cannot run so fast?? Only difference for me is if I want the ATGMs. Got caught out on that one once too as I did not realise I had acquire the launcher and then the rounds. Quite why they'd take an empty launcher I'm not sure. maybe I'll go check the manual again about this.
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Thank you. The desktop Windows PC is only used for CM, some Total War and ripping CDs to FLAC for our Sonos system. Photos and 'office' type apps are all run on Mac laptops so I may just go for 4 GB knowing I can up it to 8 if I need. I really want to keep the spend down on this system simply because that's all it's used for. Quite happy to spend mega bucks on a system IF it will be used, but don't want to pay for power when 70% of its RAM, CPU, video card performance just sits there.
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Thanks for you help. Just one final query, for CM etc is 8GB of RAM needed/worth it or is it just an extravagance?
After COUNTLESS searches and options I THINK I might go for the below which seems to be quite a reasonable spec. Only concern is the video card (is it up to the job) and RAM (which I can increase at a cost), unless of course there is anything else that I've missed?? On the video card front there is also the option of a 1GB Nvidia GTS 450. Part of me feels happier with Nvidia (rightly or wrongly - just what I've always had) but these two are the only modern (ish) 1GB options. The lack of a dedicated sound card is a concern but I only use a 2.1 speaker set up (Creative I-Trigue 3400) so may not be problematic.
Of particular interest is that it does include a 60GB SSD, a reasonable 25" monitor and two optical drives (useful given my experience with my current Dell and its LG optical drive!) one of which I shall likely downgrade from a Blu Ray (I never watch movies on a PC!!). Total cost about £750.
CPU: NEW! Intel Core i5 760
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Motherboard: Asus P7H55-M
Memory: 4GB DDR3 1333mhz (2x 2GB) (I could up the cost of this for £48)
Hard Drive NEW! Corsair 60GB Force SSD
Second hard drive: 500GB S-ATAII 3.0Gb/s
Optical Drive: 22x DVD±RW DL S-ATA
Second optical drive: 6x Blu-Ray ROM S-ATA
Graphics card: ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB or Nvidia GTS 450 1GB
Sound card: Onboard 7.1 Audio
Keyboard and mouse: Keyboard, mouse and speakers
Monitors: NEW! 25" Widescreen LCD
Case: Piano Black ATX
PSU: 500W PSU
Warranty: 3 Year Bronze Warranty
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Does this issue affect a Paradox CMSF (assuming it is a TF Thunder scenario) that have been patched with the retail 1.21 and then to 1.31?
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Thanks. I was contemplating this system. I will have a look for any that come with an SSD though:
EZCool A200D Case
650W EZCool PSU
Core i3 530 overclocked to 4GHz
Asus P7H55-M/USB3 USB3 Motherboard
8GB PC3 10666 DDR3 Memory
500GB SATA II Hard Disk
2 x 24X Sony DVD-RW Drive
Nvidia GeForce GTS 450 1024MB Video Card
Windows 7 HP 64 Bit
24" BENQ G2420HDBL Widescreen TFT Monitor #19676
Logitech MK250 Cordless Keyboard and Mouse
The video card is a GTS 450 but is 1GB, I've doubled the RAM from 4GB to 8GB and added a slave optical drive and a 24" screen instead of the supplied 22. If that will do the job and do it well I may go for that (depending how the search for an SSD machine goes). It saves over £250 on another machine I was looking at. Be nice to order in a couple of days as, in their sterling efforts to get even more money out of us, VAT here goes up by 2.5% on the 4th!!!
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Have posted a couple of specs of new PC options for views but rather than post endless details it may be better if I were able to get a handle on what kind of spec would be needed to eat CM:BfN, but not necessarily eat the current tranche of mega process intensive titles such as Crysis which I don't play.
I figure the most important components are the three I've listed above. Any guidance in terms of of RAM needs (e.g. 4, 6 or 8), processor speed (and AMD or Intel) and video cards (maybe with a couple of examples) in the good and best categories (brand, model and whether I need 1GB etc or not) would be VERY VERY useful.
I'm keen to get a good machine but not waste mega-bucks on a top end gaming machine where 70% of it's power (which I will be paying for) will sit dormant.
Any help appreciated.
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Quite happy with Spring really, otherwise NATO, which I have just bought, would likely not be touched much.
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I'm really glad they went for Normandy, to me the terrain and setting is so much more interesting. I'd actually pass on any Africa module to be honest. CMAK and CMSF have maxed me out on desert.
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2 hours to go here. Merry Xmas!!!!
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Thanks, I'm wondering how the 450 1GB would compare. Like I say, I don't do other gaming, just CM and occasional Total War (Rome, Medieval II and Napoleon).
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Coming at this from a slightly different angle, what would a good combination of video card, ram etc be so I can perhaps look to spec around those?
The cards this manufacturer seem to offer are:
Chillblast Radeon HD 5770 1024MB Video Card [-£15.00]
Chillblast GeForce GTX 460 768MB Video Card
Chillblast GeForce GTX 460 1GB Video Card [+£54.00]
Chillblast Radeon HD 6850 1024MB Video Card [+£54.00]
Chillblast Radeon HD 5850 1024MB Video Card Recommended [+£80.00]
Chillblast Radeon HD 6870 1024MB Video Card [+£80.00]
That said I am not committed to this manufacturer in any way. They just seem quite highly thought of in the UK and I've not been that impressed with my Dell in all honesty.
The system at the top comes in around a £1,000 whereas the one below, almost half the price:
Installed with Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit as standard.
EZCool A200D Case
650W EZCool PSU
Core i3 530 overclocked to 4GHz
Asus P7H55-M/USB3 USB3 Motherboard
4GB DDR3 Memory
500GB SATA II Hard Disk
24X Sony DVD-RW Drive
GeForce GTS 450 1024MB Video Card
Windows 7 HP 64 Bit
Included Peripherals:
22 " AOC F22+ Widescreen TFT Monitor
Logitech MK250 Cordless Keyboard and Mouse
Chillblast 2.0 Speakers
Ports on rear of system: *
4 x USB 2.0 ports
2 x USB 3.0 ports
1 x PS/2 for keyboard
Audio outputs
1 x 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet for network
1 x DVI outputs
1 x HDMI
1 x VGA
Ports on case:
2 x USB 2.0 ports
FP audio
The first system is clearly better in terms of its Vid Card, HDD and some components (screen etc) but as I don't play Crysis or whatever I wonder if it's overkill for CM etc?
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Trouble is that only identifies whether it will run on the current machine. I am looking to upgrade so some ideas around 'acceptable', 'good' and 'best' performance combinations would be useful.
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Coming from a slightly different angle, I am due a machine upgrade soon. What would be an ideal RAM/Video Card combination that will handle CMBfN with ease and perhaps with a good bit to spare.
I don't play games on PC other than this (and Total War sometimes) so don't need the mega bucks for best this and best that but there are perhaps a lot of middle or upper middle range combinations to consider.
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You too!! Snow not too bad but freezing temps a PITA, especially after 2.5 years of working in the UAE where it's about 27 now. That's about all it had going for it mind -D Merry Xmas!!
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I'd agree that more control over the Marders would be preferable. That said I have never seen them fire a Milan at all (yes they are unbuttoned and also beyond min range)
New Build Views
in Combat Mission: Shock Force Tech Support
Posted
As another option i could also drop the i7 930 2.8 Quad Core for and i5 661 3.33 Dual Core.