Gaming Rig specs

[PZ]

How do you like the SSD?  I'm thinking of installing one as my boot/swap drive.

[Binnatics]

@Art: You always manage to pin the vinger on the hurting spot :-D
That's gonna be the next upgrade, and now for sure ;)

@PZ: I love the SSD. It's blistering fast compared to my HDD Raid 0 array. That is fast allready, but this SSD thing leaves that array in the dust.
A complete install from scratch til internet access costed me like 15 minutes. Normally that takes over an hour. And updating my Vista until the latest update, that normally takes over a day, was done in, let's say 6 hours or so.
Rebooting is done within 2 minutes. I didn't exactly size the time but compared to what it was, it is damn fast now.
That goes for everything. I installed FarCry 2 on the SSD, for testing and because I wanted it to, and loading times have decreased to les then 2 seconds. Now that's what I call fast :-()

The space is limited though. I installed Steam on my HDD array, because the total amount of game-data exceeds 100Gb. I don't want to spoil my SSD with games I hardly play.
From now on, I put only games to the SSD which I play a lot. When I am done playing them, I will either install them on the normal harddisks or delete them.
My entire operating system and usual software (including Farcry 2) occupies 55Gb so the other half of the disk is free to put things on temporarily.

There seems to be a solution though, which makes it possible to access (or at least write) with the speed of an SSD to your HDD's. It's done with a small, 40Gb, ssd-like device that intermedeates between your SSD and your other HDD's. This way it's possible to keep working in fast speed. I think my mobo is ready for it, but I didn't figure out everything about it.
To be honest, for now it's not necessary. I'm totally satisfied with the setup I have ^-^

[PZ]

Sounds like a great rig!  :-X

One of these days I'll probably invest in an SSD - when I'm not too lazy to do a new install.  :-()

[Binnatics]

I installed my second SSD today. I'm so happy with it that I wanted a second one for music storage exclusively. Now that I have that network receiver, which can access all the files known by WMP, I want to upload my entire CD collection to that new disc so that I never have to switch a CD anymore. They will be all available as long as my PC is powered on :)

I might as well make a partition for Videos as well, since I can stream them to my bluray, but I don't do movie downloading yet.

The prices on most SSD discs have dropped significantly. The same SSD that costed me €135,- this January, now only costs €87,-. That's a price drop of at least 30 percent, in only 5 months time :o

[PZ]

Excellent!  I've still not purchased my first SSD yet, but really want to .

[mandru]

I overlooked this thread looking for a place to describe the woes leading up to my pending rebuild.  :-\\

I posted the story and description over here: http://www.openworldgames.org/owg/forums/index.php?topic=2730.msg54064#msg54064

[nexor]

I was hoping to have my new rig up and running by now, but I had to replace my 4x4's tyres    :'(

This means I'll have to spread the buying of the new components over a three month period      :(

and that's why I haven't purchased FC3 yet, will do so after the new rig is complete, then I can do FC3 and MOH Warfighter, maybe AC3 also   ???

[Art Blade]

oh dear, and good luck :)

[PZ]

Gives you something to look forward to, nex  :-X

Best of luck on the upgrades; I'm dreading (but needing) to do that one of these days.  I'm still running on my old GTX 295 which is adequate, but not stellar when it comes to today's performance standards.

[nexor]

Tried playing MOH Warfighter, everything happens in slow motion, and the audio comes out weird and choppy   ???

I'm looking at: one of

CPU
Intel® Core™ i5 3470 - 3.20GHz Quad Core, Ivy Bridge, Socket 1155, 6MB L3, DMI Bus, 22nm, x64, Intel VT, Intel HD Graphics 2500 @ 650MHz

Intel® Core™ i5 3570 - 3.40GHz Quad Core, Ivy Bridge, Socket 1155, 6MB L3, DMI Bus, 22nm, x64, Intel VT, Intel HD Graphics 2500 @ 650MHz

Intel® Core™ i5 3570K - 3.40GHz Quad Core, Ivy Bridge, Socket 1155, 6MB L3, DMI Bus, 22nm, x64, Intel VT, Intel HD Graphics 4000 @ 650MHz

Mainboard
MSI® Intel Big Bang M-Power Z77 Chipset, Socket 1155 @ 100MHz FSB, Core i3 / i5 / i7 /

MSI® Intel Z77A-GD65 Z77 Chipset, Socket 1155 @ 100MHz FSB, Core i3 / i5 / i7 /

GPU
MSI® nVidia GeForce GTX650 Ti PCI-Express

MSI® nVidia GeForce GTX650 Ti Power Edition

I believe the MSI® Intel Big Bang M-Power Z77 is a mean bugger

[fragger]

Considering FC3's graphical sophistication, it's not too demanding on hardware, especially if you stick to DX9. As with FC2, there are a lot of options for fine-tuning your graphics to get the game to run OK.

Of course, if you can see it in all (or in my case, most) of it's glory it's a real looker :-X I'm running it under DX11 with individual graphic options set to either medium or high (no AA) and it's smooth as.

Good luck though nex, hope to see you in the islands soon :)

[nexor]

Thanks mate, my nVidia GeForce 8500 GT Graphics card is just not good enough to run FC3
at least that's what the experts say     :-\\

[nexor]

Just ordered the new components for my rig

Processor       Intel Core Socket 1155 i5 3570K - 3.40GHz Quad Core
GPU                MSI nVidia GeForce GTX650 T
Motherboard  MSI Intel Big Bang M-Power Z77 Chipset, Socket 1155
Memory x2     Corsair Vengeance Memory - 8GB Dual Module Kit, 2x 4GB, DDR3-2400

[Art Blade]

Nice :)

The massive amount of memory indicates that you're going to continue using a 64-bit system. So you like vista64 and maybe going to get a w7/64?

[mandru]

Cool.  :-X   Congrats nexor.  :)

[nexor]

Thanks mandru,

Art, I'm running both Vista and Win7 64-bit on two seperate hard drives, keeping vista because I have a few games running on it
I have MS Office 64-bit installed, so buying a new MS Office 32-bit is rather expensive so I decided to stick to 64, and yes, this machine is my main pc,  I do run all my games from it

[PZ]

Nice, nexor  :-X

... now you're gaming!

[nexor]

Thanks PZ, should be up and running by end of February

[fragger]

 :-X Nice one nex, that should enable you to properly kick some in FC3 >:D

[nexor]

Thanks fragger, I would have liked to go for the Intel Socket 2011 cpu and motheboard combo, but then I need to replace the cpu cooler system, the system I have has adapter plates for the 775 and 1156, the 1156 and 1155 uses the same adaptor plate.

Then also, I like the specs and reports on this motherboard

[PZ]

Can't wait to read of your gaming impressions, and keeping fingers crossed for an easy migration to the new rig!  :-X

[Abletile]

Here's my rig:
AMD quad core 3.4ghz (water cooled)  :-X
Gigabyte 890A-UD3H motherboard
4Gb Ram
ATI Radeon HD5700
RAT5 mouse
500Gb SSD (windows drive)  :-X
2 X 1Tb Hard Drives
+ the usual (including a floppy drive :) )

[PZ]

Nice rig  :-X

I just installed an SSD in a slate PC I have that I use at w@&k.  Now I don't need to worry about moving drive parts!  An added benefit is that the PC is totally silent.  :-X

[Binnatics]

First of all; congratulations on your purchase Nexor! Looks great! I think you made a good choice with the GTX650. It's energy saving and does a great job at performance. I think it should be far enough to run FC3 on high res with DX11. Mobo looks solid. I love MSI, have one myself with the new Gen3 PCI tech. My graph card is still Gen2 though, but runs as a charm with it.
Have fun putting the parts together!! :-X :)

Lol, Abletile, a 500G SSD is impressive.... All you need, heheh
I have two 128G SSD's, one for the system and a few games, the other strictly for music, and maybe photo's in the near future. They are blistering fast, which is a grat performance boost compared to having the system on an old fashioned harddrive. Nice system :-X
Water cooled is also impressing. Isn't that a major installation next to the main chest?
I had an AMD system as well, but lost my appetite for it after lots of weird issues, that kept bugging me. I now run intel/nvidia combo.

[fragger]

Nice specs there, Abletile :-X

A floppy drive? A floppy drive? That is so 2001 :-() Actually, I'm kind of sorry that they're not around much anymore. They could be really handy for storing small files and stuff, instead of burning a whole CD or DVD just for a couple of Word docs, say, and their small size and protective case made them both convenient and durable. And that little sliding write-protect thingy was cool :-X Today there are Flash drives for the convenience factor, but floppies had soul 8)

Tell a young bloke today that you have a floppy drive and he'll offer to sell you his granddad's Viagra ::)