Gaming Rig specs

[RedRaven]

After looking through some of the screen shots posted by users (over 2000 so far !), got to thinking how a persons gaming rig affects the level of quality and detail of the pics.
So I've started this thread for PC gamers to list the specs of the system they use, this info may well of been posted by some members in other topics but a one stop point of reference for old and new members may prove handy to people looking to upgrade their current system or invest in a new one.


RedRaven Rig
KN1 SLI motherboard.
AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual Core Processor 4200+ 2.21 GHz.
2.00 GB RAM (corsair).
GeForce 9500 GT graphics card (1024 MB).
HP w1907 monitor (1400x900 resolution at 60 Hz).
DirectX 9.0c
Windows XP + service pack 3.



With that I get an average FPS of between 15 to 40 depending on the game and graphics settings.

[PZ]

Good idea - one place to see hardware specs of OWG gamers so people can ask specific questions if they are considering hardware purchase.

PZ's gaming rig:

• i7 920 2.66 GHz
• 6x Blue ray disc burner
• EVGA Nvidia GeForce GTX  295 - 1792mb SLI
• EVGA x58 ATX motherboard
• Cooler Master HAF black  steel ATX full tower case
• Corsair 850 SLI ready, Crossfire ready  active power supply
• OCZ platinum 6 gb DDR3 tripple channel kit
• WD  300 gb 10,000 RPM VelociRaptor
• Logitech cordless RumblePad
• Logitech  G15 gaming keyboard
• Razer eXactMat wrist rest
• Logitech G9 5  button tilt wheel Laser gaming mouse
• Saitek v.3 Cuborg Rumble Pad
• Vista-64 with all service packs and updates

I've been able to play just about anything fully maxed.

[Art Blade]

Art's gaming rig:

• i7 920 2.66 GHz
• 2 DVD rom
• June 04, 2011: added an external Blue Ray player from LG, a BE12
• Nvidia GeForce GTX260 - 896MB
• 3GB RAM
• WD  1 TB HD
• Logitech  G15 gaming keyboard
• new: Logitech  G19 gaming keyboard
• Razer eXactMat wrist rest
• new: Razer Vespula mouse mat with wrist rest
• Logitech X518 5-button gaming mouse
• new: Logitech G500 gaming mouse
• Logitech G25 racing wheel with 3 pedals and 6-gear H shifter
• XP32 Professional with all service packs and updates
• Win7 ultimate 32 bit with all service packs and updates, as dual-boot system
• Onboard 5.1 surround, Logitech speakers
• new: realtek onboard, Creative Labs Inspire S2 2.1 speakers
• new: MS LifeChat LX-3000 headset
• Fujitsu-Siemens 26" wide screen monitor

I've been able to play anything maxed out, but I never use AA and AF

[GPFontaine]

GPFontaine's gaming rig:

• Motherboard: Asus P6T Delux V2
• Processor: Intel i7-920 2.66 GHz (Overclocked to 3.4GHz)
• CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212+
• Video Card: HIS Radeon HD 5850
• RAM: 6GB G.SKILL Ripjaws Series DDR3 1600 (PC12800)
• Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB
• Optical Drive: Sony Optiarc DVD Burner
• Power Supply: Corsair CMPSU-550VX (550W)
• Case: LIAN LI PC-61 (Aluminum)
• Keyboard: Dell Multimedia Keyboard
• Mouse: Microsoft Sidewinder
• OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
• Monitor: Dual Dell 24" Ultrasharps
• Speakers: Altec Lansing ADA880

FC2 Benchmark Results:
Settings: Demo(Ranch Long), 1920x1200 (60Hz), D3D10, Fixed Time Step(No), Disable Artificial Intelligence(No), Full Screen, Anti-Aliasing(4x), VSync(No), Overall Quality(Custom), Vegetation(Very High), Shading(Ultra High), Terrain(Ultra High), Geometry(Ultra High), Post FX(High), Texture(Ultra High), Shadow(Ultra High), Ambient(High), Hdr(Yes), Bloom(Yes), Fire(Very High), Physics(Very High), RealTrees(Very High)

• Average Framerate: 63.61
• Max. Framerate: 104.65
• Min. Framerate: 28.11

[JRD]

Feels like I'm driving a 1973 beetle to a Ferrari race, but whatahell!!!

JRD's gaming rig(s)

PC

- Processor: Intel core 2 duo 2.1 GHz
- Windows XP SP3
- MoBo: ASUS can't-remember-which-model-but-it's-an-old-one
- GPU: GeForce GTX 9800 1GB
- RAM: 2MB DDR2
- Mouse and keyboard are ordinary ones... micrsoft!

Manage to run FC2 maxed out, Crysis on the last but one highest level (the highest wasn't even enabled for me), AC1 maxed out, OFP2 high settings, FUEL maxed out, ArmA2 - this one took a lot of effort and try and error to find the best setting, in the end it's a combination of high and medium settings. GTA IV... a resource hog, also gave a hard time finding the best setting, but still in slo-mo... will wait till I get a better processor and more RAM to finish this awesome game

Laptop

It wasn't meant to be a top notch gaming laptop, but one I could run some old games while away from home.

- Dell XPS Studio 13,3''
- Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo P9600 (2.66 GHz, 6 MB L2 cache, 1066 MHz FSB)
- Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1 Original 64-bit
- 4GB DDR3 1067MHz (2x2GB)
- NVIDIA GeForce 9500M 256Mb

Can run STALKER SoC and CS maxed out, without dynamic lightning though, FC2 with high shadows and fire, but else, meduim to low, no A2, no OFP2, no FUEL, didn't even tried Crysis or GTA IV... can run about any pre 2007 game maxed out, which is what I was hoping to get for the price I payed for the lap top

[Art Blade]

JRD, on a sidenote, Crysis only gives you the highest level when you have DirectX10 (Vista was meant in that case) so WinXP only has DX9 and that's that. ;)

[JRD]

Thanks Art... it answers the question...  :-X
Anyway, Crysis was flamed for being designed to game rigs beyond the 2007 state-of-the-art (no pun intended  ;) ), so I guess most people didn't play Crysis maxed out on release!

[mandru]

I'm seeing a lot of similarities between PZ's, Art's, GP's systems and mine.

• Coolermaster HAF 932 Gaming Case(Big!) with 3 ea 220 mm fans(front/side/top) and 1 ea 120 mm fan in back, 11 USB ports, 7 additional bays for hard drives and a built in 12 in 1 memory card reader
• Intel Core i7 Processor 940 (4x 2.93GHz/8MB L3 Cache)
• Asus P6T Intel X58 Motherboard SLI Supported
• Thermaltake V1 CPU Fan(4 lbs of copper fins lol)
• 850 Watt Thermaltake Power Supply
• 6 GB (2 GB X3 DIMM sticks) DDR3-1333 Corsair Triple Memory
• eVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 1792MB(1.8 Gig memory)
• 320 GB hard drive, 7200 RPM, 16MB Cache
• 2 each LG 22X Lightscribe Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive
• Sceptre 24" HDTV 1920x1200 LCD Monitor 16:9 Wide Screen with 2 millisec refresh rate
• 64 bit Vista home premium
• Creative Lab Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series sound card and 250 watt speaker system

It's interesting how often the Coolermaster HAF cases have popped up.

For my application I went with the HAF ( high air flow)  because my previous system had chronic over heating problems that would slam it down in the middle of processes.

My son who had independently without knowledge of my build and also selected an HAF says that if you have a cat it's a High Hair Flow.

So I built selecting components to run as cool as possible.  Overclocking is extra heat so I've never considered it even though my mother board came with the utilities to push an i7 right to the edge.  In the year I've been using this build I've never had a CPU or graphics card reading pop up on the tracking log I run in the back ground of higher than 115 F.  I'm pleased to have made successful component selections.

I'm not tech savvy enough to run a benchmark or for that matter read the results but when I twist it's tail it screams like a panther and I'd better be holding on with both hands.

That's good enough for me.  ;D

[PZ]

This is an excellent thread guys - now we know who to ask when we have a question regarding specific hardware issues.  Console gaming is simple - you put in the disc and it plays, but PC gaming is not often that easy - there are many problems that can come up.

[Art Blade]

All I can say is, I am a happy owner of a good PC I was lucky to find. It came prefab and never overheated even when my PC room's temperature was around 38+ °C (around 100 °F) and it was comparatively cheap 1,200€ (~1,600US$) and considering it was Nov 2008, one of the first machines using an i7.

[PZ]

I really like the i7 - was able to render a movie in Windows Movie Maker while playing games with no degradation in performance.

[fragger]

Aw, man - after reading all of you guys' rig specs, I'm too embarrassed to tell you what I've got :-[ Call it "PC-envy" ;D It's like reading about your Ferraris while I'm still puttering along in my Vee-Dub ;D

But you've given me some great tips as to what to go for when I do get a decent gaming rig together. For that, I thank you most deeply, even though I can't afford any of it yet :-X :-X :-X

[deadman1]

Ok here are my specs:

Chassi: Antec P182B

Mobo: MSI P67A-C45 B3

CPU: Intel i5 2500 @3,3 Ghz

RAM: 8 Gb (2 x 4 Gb) Corsair Vengeance 1600 Mhz

Graphics: Nvidia Geforce GTX 580 Windforce

HD: Western Digital WD 5000AAKS 500 GB

OS: Win 7 X64 Home premium

Logitech G510 keyboard

Qpad 5K mouse

PS
@ fragger: VW bugs are waaaayyyyy cooler than Ferrari´s anyway  ;)

[Art Blade]

No. But I'd still allow him to use my garage  ;D Fragger, don't worry about an old rig. I bet all of us were in the same position once, at least I was. Your time will come :)

[PZ]

Indeed fragger - at w@&k the people under me have better machines than I do, and my computer requirements are higher than theirs!  The motto: old machines never die.  ;D

[fragger]

Thanks for the reassurances, guys ;D :-X

I've decided to win the lottery this year, so all the info in this thread will come in very handy when the time comes ;D

[mandru]

There you go fragger.  ;D

Maybe you'll be ready to replace right as the new 48 core systems hit and become affordable. Then your specs will make our 8core i7 CPUs look sickly.  :P

We all buy the best we can when the chance is there and you have a turn coming.  That's how it how it works out. ;)

Truth be known I fussed over the selection of the components for my computer for a year and a half on the IBuyPower web site.  Adding and subtracting this or that feature and reading review page after review pages until I knew whether a component was exactly right and usually within a few months something new would come along and flip the table on a perfect build and I'd start over but with a better understanding of just what I would grab when the moment was perfect and the iron was hot enough to strike.

When I started looking the i7 CPU was just a rumor and my hot rod game card was a behind closed doors top secret and there's new goodies coming out all the time that you'll get to pick from.

[PZ]

Did you build your rig, mandru?

[GPFontaine]

I actually had no desire whatsoever to build my computer.  I just moved into a new house and had no cash for it.  Unfortunately my system started to flake out and I had no choice but to replace it.

Since the problems I was seeing were electrical failure spawning data corruption, I couldn't run the risk of just replacing components.  The AMD 64 1800+ had to go.

I have been building systems for a long time, so the actual build wasn't hard, but picking the best components for the price was time consuming.  I spent 2 months researching every possible angle and actually went without a 3D graphics card for a month while I waited for the Radeon HD 5850 to be available.

Lucky for me, right after I got the rig running, Black Friday rolled around and Steam had a whole bunch of new games on sale.

[mandru]

I probably spent more time in research PZ than if I had planned on building it myself.  I knew that I knew nothing about computers and had to learn.  Bad selections had burned me in the past.  :-[

I had the company IbuyPower build my system from the ground up.  I started with one of their prepackaged systems that was closest to what I wanted to end up with but at each option I upgraded or in most cases switched to another offered selection to optimize for my applications based on my research of the components being offered stacked against hundreds of hours of pouring over reviews to make sure I wasn't including any element that came bundled with particularly nasty bad habits.

For instance I went with a small 320GB hard drive to get started because the HAF case has internal bays for 8 hard drives and I was trying to pinch pennies knowing that out of everything in my build, hard drives were the easiest to upgrade. That and I had pulled the hard drive out of my old system when it died to recover my files and installed it into an external USB case so I have a second 320GB drive for archival and portable storage.

Some people are ambidextrous but I've long ago figured out that I'm maldextrous or in other words equally bad with both hands.  :P You can take my mechanical abilities and pack them into a gnat's backside and they would rattle around like a BB in a boxcar.

Though I did have one moment of triumph with this computer when it arrived.  I got it all wired up to my peripherals but when I turned it on for the first time almost immediately a warning prompt filled the screen telling me that the CPU cooling fan was not functioning.

Pulling the case open I discovered that somehow my Thermaltake V1 cooling fan had been bent enough so that the blades were wedged into the copper fins and no amount of coercion or reverse bending could free them to spin properly. A quick call and a replacement was on the way but I would have to pull the existing fan clean the thermal paste off the CPU and reapply it before reinstalling the new fan.

I was sweating bullets because past experience has taught me how baldly I'm capable of fouling up simple processes but in the end it was a successful transplant and the patient survived none the worse for my efforts.

I guess you could say I built it but was smart enough to get good techs to handle the assembly.  :)

[PZ]

Thanks for the detailed response mandru,

Threads like these will help other OWG members make decisions regarding PC purchases versus builds.  With exception of my current gaming system, it has been years since I built a machine, and I was apprehensive about building the current machine.  However, a person on another site gave me the encouragement that I needed to purchase and start building my own PC.

I have not seen another machine commercially produced that would fill my expectations, especially at the price I paid, so I'd recommend building your own if you have specific requirements (e.g., gaming)  ;)

[GPFontaine]

Some great system building articles from MaximumPC:

* How to Apply Thermal Paste
* Build a gaming machine for $650 - Magazine Page 23
* Build a Dream Machine, installation instructions - Magazine Page 38 (This one is a few months old, so the parts are not 100% accurate, but the instructions are very good)

There should be a new one coming out in the next PDF they release.

[JRD]

GPFontaine and mandru... these are great tips  :-X

It wouldn't surprise me to see it evolve into a "tips to improve gaming performace" section / article here at OWG.

Myself, I am really curious about overclocking pros and cons  ::)

[Art Blade]

hehe,

Pro: faster.

Con: shorter life span, system instability, and everything necessary to avoid any of those.

[GPFontaine]

GPFontaine and mandru... these are great tips  :-X

It wouldn't surprise me to see it evolve into a "tips to improve gaming performace" section / article here at OWG.

Myself, I am really curious about overclocking pros and cons  ::)

The pros and cons are pretty simple.

Pros: The computer goes faster if you OC the machine
Cons: You burn your parts out faster, and you might void a warranty.

The reality of overclocking is that it is for enthusiasts.  If you enjoy your computer and want to see just how fast it can go, then it is a fun way to make your computer better.

It is never worth overclocking if you don't have the money to replace the hardware you might burn out.

As for my system, I chose a processor that has a good track record with overclocking.  I chose a motherboard and ram that are known for working well with OC'd processors, and I chose a heat sync with thermal paste that will give me the best possible results within reason.  I think I could have pushed the system to 3.7GHz if I really wanted to, but I am happy at 3.4.  It is a huge improvement over 2.66 stock and I am not risking too much with the system's lifespan.