Console vs PC gaming - building a gaming PC

[Hush]

Here are my specs:



I realize this isn't anything special as this thing is a few years old. At my old job we could grab old stuff as it was going out the door to be recycled so I parted this together for a decent computer for general stuff (never intended for gaming). The only things I spent actual money on are a cheap SSD and the RAID drives.

[ChaMerZ]

Here are my specs:



I realize this isn't anything special as this thing is a few years old. At my old job we could grab old stuff as it was going out the door to be recycled so I parted this together for a decent computer for general stuff (never intended for gaming). The only things I spent actual money on are a cheap SSD and the RAID drives.

those are some struggle specs bro.

processor is just

assuming that everything else can be replaced / upgraded, I'd say that the processor is the weak link.

[Hush]

^^^

Yeah, I'm thinking at this point the better option would be to start from scratch and build a dedicated gaming PC, keeping this one on the desk as the "office" computer. I was planning on using my gaming PC in the living room anyway.

[Hush]

So I sort of put this together using a couple of blog posts about budget gaming rigs:

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/Hush7/saved/#view=3ypRsY

Thoughts and recommendations on changes or better value components?

[ChaMerZ]

in the same boat as you buddy. i have to start building from scratch. sadly i'm between funds right now though, so i can't start buying parts until i get a j-o-b.

parts look good for a budget rig. i don't know about the processor though. it looks like its equivalent to a core i5, which is quite okay for gaming purposes. sigma probably knows more though.

[Sigma]

The CPU in your existing PC is socket 775, so your upgrade path is quite limited.

As for your suggest build, for $400 it's great. The CPU is only dual core and has no hyperthreading, but it's a big improvement on what you have now and it can be overclocked so you should be able to push it over 4GHz easily. The 750 Ti is a solid GPU too.

[Hush]

Thanks guys. Since you both seem iffy about the CPU is there another one I should get? I'd be willing to spend a little more if I was getting a better value.

[Hush]

I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the above build, only I swapped the CPU for an Intel i3.

Price was just under $500 with tax/shipping (Amazon Prime!)

[ChaMerZ]

I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the above build, only I swapped the CPU for an Intel i3.

Price was just under $500 with tax/shipping (Amazon Prime!)

damn! so you was serious.

a core i3 is solid for gaming, i believe. have fun building the rig.

[Hush]

Thanks, my goal was to build something comparable to the cheapest Alienware Alpha in both specs and price. I know building my own is the better choice because of the flexibility for future upgrades.

Thanks again for your help guys! The parts should arrive Saturday, I'll post some updates once I have it up and running.

[Hush]

Happy to report that all the parts arrived over the weekend and I got the PC put together and running last night. Because of all the Windows updates I haven't really had a chance to game on it yet, but I did run The Evil Within Demo last night and it worked well.

[Sigma]

Nice. Let me know your thoughts on the gaming performance when you've had a chance to properly play around with a few games.

Is it quiet? Are you just using the stock cooler/fans that came with it?

[Hush]

It is fairly quiet. In fact the loudest part is the sound of the hard drive reading/writing. Everything is stock as far as fans go, including the CPU cooler. I haven't messed with overclocking yet (don't know if it is necessary).

Are there any good game demos that would be a good test of this thing? Also, I've seen videos where people have the framerate overlaid on the game so you can monitor performance, how is that done?

[ChaMerZ]

It is fairly quiet. In fact the loudest part is the sound of the hard drive reading/writing. Everything is stock as far as fans go, including the CPU cooler. I haven't messed with overclocking yet (don't know if its necessary).

Are there any good game demos that would be a good test of this thing? Also, I've seen videos where people have the framerate overlaid on the game so you can monitor performance, how is that done?

That was pretty quick. So do you have the whole thing set up in your living room? How is that working out for you?

As for demos, any of the direct x 11 games would do i think. I've been out of the loop so I don't know what the popular game to use for benchmarking is these days.

[ChaMerZ]

Are you just using the stock cooler/fans that came with it?

If this is true, then DO NOT overclock unless you want your rig to shit a brick. Only overclock if you are absolutely certain that your components can withstand it. Although I don't think you know enough or care enough to try anyways.

[Sigma]

Are there any good game demos that would be a good test of this thing? Also, I've seen videos where people have the framerate overlaid on the game so you can monitor performance, how is that done?

You could try a graphics benchmark application. The free version of this is good: -

https://unigine.com/products/heaven/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

3DMark Basic Edition is another good one: -

http://www.futuremark.com/support/downloads" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

As for showing the framerate of games, as you have an NVIDIA card you can use ShadowPlay: -

http://www.geforce.co.uk/geforce-experience/shadowplay" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A lot of people use a program called FRAPS, but I believe that has more of a hit on performance than ShadowPlay.

Graphics benchmarks are good for comparative purposes, but on an individual user level I think they're best used to test system stability, as if you push your CPU and/or GPU too far while overclocking then things will be unstable and you might see graphical glitches or the benchmark will crash. In rare cases, you might have a bad card too. As for FPS, I will usually run a game's in-game benchmark if it has one, but outside of that I'll start with the recommended graphics settings and make little tweaks here and there if necessary. Usually I just push the settings up until I notice an impact on the game's performance, then I'll dial things back. In some cases, there may be a single setting that affects performance massively, such as enabling TressFX in Tomb Raider (a feature designed to make Lara's hair look more realistic, but which has a large performance hit).

[Hush]

Thanks Sigma. I haven't had a chance to do any of this yet. Last night I finished up some cable management inside the case and put the lid back on. Then I queued up all my Steam games and let it download them overnight (I only have a handful, none of which are super graphic intensive).

Here's a list of the actual components I used to build this if anyone wants to use this as a starting point:

Kingston HyperX FURY 8GB Kit (2x4GB) 1600MHz DDR3 CL10 DIMM - Black (HX316C10FBK2/8)
Cooler Master Elite 110 - Cube Style Mini-ITX Computer Case with Standard Size ATX PSU and 120mm Radiator Support
Corsair Builder Series CX 430 Watt ATX/EPS 80 PLUS certified Power Suppy
MSI Computer Corp. Mini ITX DDR3 1600 LGA 1150 Motherboards H81I
EVGA GeForce GTX 750Ti SC 2GB GDDR5 Graphics Card
Intel Core I3-4160 Processor 3.60 GHz, 2-Core LGA1150 Socket, Hyper-Threading (BX80646I34160)

I used an old Toshiba 500GB hard drive I had lying around. It is 7200 RPM w/ 16MB cache but seems to be working fine.

A few things I noticed when assembling everything:

The main power connector was difficult to push into the socket on the motherboard. The board was flexing a little bit so I had to wedge something (rubber pads) under the M/B to prevent it from bending while I pushed the connector in.

This PSU has way more connections than needed for this build, so I ended up with a large bundle of unused ones stuffed in the top of the case.

The included SATA cables (came with M/B) and SATA power connectors (PSU) are all 90 degrees but facing the wrong way with the way that HDDs can be mounted in this case. I was able to bend the power cable to make it fit without really stressing it and I used a SATA cable with straight ends I had lying around.

The front case fan had a Molex power adapter which fell apart (all the pins came loose) after I plugged/unplugged more than once. I ended up detaching this adapter and plugging the cable into an available fan power socket on the M/B (I didn't realize this could be done at first).

The HDMI port on the graphics card is right along the edge of the slot opening so it is impossible to fully seat a regular HDMI cable. I was able to get a video signal by pushing it in as far as possible, but I'm planning on looking for an ultra slim HDMI cable that will hopefully seat better. Also, prior to installing the Nvidia driver, I had to use the DVI port on the card to get a video signal initially.

[Hush]

^^^

I resolved the hdmi issue by using an DVI->HDMI cable, and it still passes the audio!

[ChaMerZ]

^^^

I resolved the hdmi issue by using an DVI->HDMI cable, and it still passes the audio!

doesn't that compromise video quality though?

[Hush]

^^^

I resolved the hdmi issue by using an DVI->HDMI cable, and it still passes the audio!

doesn't that compromise video quality though?

From what I've read HDMI and DVI are exactly the same in terms of video quality, so I don't think so (and I could not tell a difference).

[Sigma]

The signal is digital so there's no quality loss.

[Hush]

Sigma, I saw in the other thread that you have an SSD as well as a regular HDD in your rig. Which one are you storing/running games on?

[Sigma]

Sigma, I saw in the other thread that you have an SSD as well as a regular HDD in your rig. Which one are you storing/running games on?

The HDD.

My SSD is only 120GB, so it's around half full with Windows and all of my other programs. My Steam games folder alone is 986GB and I've got a few non-Steam games too, so they have to go on the HDD.

[ChaMerZ]

Sigma, I saw in the other thread that you have an SSD as well as a regular HDD in your rig. Which one are you storing/running games on?

The HDD.

My SSD is only 120GB, so it's around half full with Windows and all of my other programs. My Steam games folder alone is 986GB and I've got a few non-Steam games too, so they have to go on the HDD.

Does using the SSD lead to a noticeable improvement in your computing experience? Windows 8.1 is already faster than I could have ever hoped an OS would be, but I'm using a HDD still. I wonder what the difference is like with an SSD.

[Sigma]

Yeah, it absolutely makes a difference in loading times, as well as transfer times if you're copying/moving files. I would say that it's one of the best upgrades you can make to a computer.

[ChaMerZ]

Yeah, it absolutely makes a difference in loading times, as well as transfer times if you're copying/moving files. I would say that it's one of the best upgrades you can make to a computer.

cot damn. then i will definitely include an ssd when i am building a rig late this year.

[Sigma]

cot damn. then i will definitely include an ssd when i am building a rig late this year.

Yeah, it's definitely worthwhile. To give you an idea of the speed difference, here are some benchmarks I just ran, comparing read/write speeds for various file sizes on both my SSD and HDD. My SSD is quite old, while my HDD is newer and I bought it because it was fast, as 4TB HDDs go.

HDD: -



SSD: -



Also, an SSD is totally silent, much cooler, and fragmentation does not affect an SSD's speed, so there is no need to defrag one (in fact, it's a bad idea, as it increases wear unnecessarily).

[ChaMerZ]

woah, the jump in speed from 1.263 MB/s (in HDD) to 311.9 MB/s (in SDD) is unreal. The only knock on SSD's is the price (& the low capacity). Once both the price & the capacity reach a reasonable / acceptable amount we will reach a new acme computing wise (& gaming too).

great stuff! thanks for sharing.

[Sigma]

No worries!

The results of synthetic benchmarks can be misleading, in that they sometimes use tests that don't actually reflect things you'd ever encounter through average use, such as the 4K QD32 test in the results I posted. In real life terms, you will certainly notice the difference though, in everything from boot times to launching programs to copying files from one place to another. The more that the drive is involved, the more you notice the difference, for example, when you launch a program, fairly small files (collectively) are loaded into RAM so while you will notice the difference, it doesn't affect you massively (you might shave 20 seconds off a game's loading time for instance), but if you're backing up a large modern SSD to another large modern SSD, the process can be 3-5 times faster than if an HDD was involved (or even more if you're using an old HDD), so the improvement there is huge.

Here's a video that compares boot times with an SSD compared to a HDD with all the other hardware being the same: -



That test is using Windows 7, so the boot times are considerably slower than they would be with Windows 8, particularly if you're using UEFI, but it shows the improvement that can be made by switching to an SSD.

[Hush]

Any games you guys recommend? I'm not really into FPSs. Preferably something with at least partial controller support.