Budget gaming computers: Planet side 2 specifically.

[tspcpp]

I was planning to purchase a computer to play planet side 2 with my brother so we can keep in touch when I go off to grad school. I don't play very many computer games, except for an old mmo named FFXI (which can run on very minimal systems) so I wasn't planning to spend very much at all; roughly $400 as shown here. I don't plan to upgrade the computer in the future.

However, I recently read that planet side 2 ended their beta and implemented a series of updates that caused people's budget computers to faceplant. If that's the case, then I have to reevaluate the components: should I consider purchasing an i5-3570K and hold off on buying a GPU/planet side 2 for a while? The other things I do (web browse, mathematica, FFXI) will all work on the integrated Intel HD 4000, and when I can afford it/have a clear picture of what planet side 2 needs I could purchase an appropriate GPU. I use an old 1024/768 monitor so I think I could skimp on the GPU a little as well.

I also don't need to play on maximum settings (i5-3570K overkill?), so any advice on corner cutting to save money is welcome. I don't think I could stand less than 30 fps in large battles, though. I'm told it gets noticeably choppy past that point.

Are any of the cheaper haswell chips worth looking into?

Thanks for your time.

 

[X79]

I think for 400$ you'll be hardpressed to put together a new system that'll play that game. (at least an Intel one).

What's your current system looking like?

There's not really a big reason to go for Haswell...

It's more expensive, overclocks worse, needs a new motherboard and other things...

So I'd stick to Ivy Bridge (3rd gen). An i5 would be really good. Paired with a GTX

650 Ti Boost or a 660 if possible and you'd be good I think.

 

[tspcpp]

Thanks for the response.

I don't currently have a gaming computer. I have a small computer which I can use to browse the internet and run some basic spreadsheet programs for classes. Unfortunately, I have to rely on campus computers for their ability to run Mathematica and other scientific programs. I also have to play FFXI on a console. I originally planned to buy a computer that could run those programs, since it would make life easier, and it would be fairly cheap since none of them have high requirements. My brother then mentioned planet side 2 and I decided to aim for that.

I wasn't expecting the Phenom set up to run PS2 extremely efficiently. My brother played during the beta on a similar computer- I believe he has a 7890, and it performed well on high settings. Unfortunately, browsing the PS2 forums revealed that they somehow made the game less optimized for the official release; people with high end computers are complaining about getting fairly low (for their builds) fps in large battles. This doesn't give me a lot of hope for a Phenom II, etc.

I'm really only looking for general advice. If the phenom II system isn't going to cut it on the only high-end game I want to play, then there's not much point in me purchasing it and it may be the case that I simply cannot currently afford to play it. Given those conditions, what should I do? If I purchased the i5 (3570K or Haswell) I could run the three programs I currently need--I'm uncertain if I could do the same with an i3 as FFXI might not run on the HD 3000, and in the future I could purchase a decent graphics card to run planet side 2 as well. I think I could maybe squeeze an i5 into a $400 build. Maybe. I'm not dead set on an intel build, but they seemed like they might be a good solution with respect to integrated graphics.

The reason I mentioned Haswell is that the i5-4570 is a little cheaper than the i5-3570K and seems to be relatively competitive with it (am I wrong there?). It also has a significantly better integrated graphics chip. The new motherboard bit doesn't affect me since I don't have a motherboard.

Alternatively, if someone has experience running planet side 2 on a low end system without going insane, I could avoid the dilemma altogether.

 

[X79]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-3210 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($106.14 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI B75MA-P45 Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($64.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($49.50 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.64 @ Amazon)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7850 1GB Video Card ($134.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 431 Plus (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($32.50 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 600W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($37.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $497.74
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-08 19:37 EDT-0400)

That i3 has HT (Hyper Threading) Thus it actually has 4 cores. 2 physical and 2 virtual. An i5 has 4 physical.

I think that build would run PS2 quite okay.

You could also save up a little extra:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4430 3.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($183.13 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock H87 Pro4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($49.50 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.64 @ Amazon)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7850 1GB Video Card ($134.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 431 Plus (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($32.50 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 600W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($37.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $589.73
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-08 19:42 EDT-0400)

That'll put you in the sweetspot CPU wise and pretty much also RAM wise.

While giving you quite a decent GPU too.


Haswell definitely isn't perfect, even though it does give a 5-10% performance boost perhaps.

Also you're right about the PS2. I've heard those things as well. Intels integrated graphics are

quite alright though yes. Will be fun to see how it develops.

 

[X79]

Even:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($116.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2P Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($44.99 @ Microcenter)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($49.50 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.64 @ Amazon)
Video Card: PNY GeForce GTX 650 1GB Video Card ($89.99 @ Microcenter)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($27.99 @ Microcenter)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($54.99 @ Microcenter)
Total: $439.08
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-08 19:54 EDT-0400)

This, might run PS2 if you believe this site:

http://www.game-debate.com/games/index.php?g_id=2252&game=Planetside%202&p_make=AMD&gc_make=Nvidia&p_deriv=FX-6300&gc_deriv=GeForce+GTX+650+1GB&laptop=0#systemRequirements

 

[tspcpp]

Yeah, I'm not really sure what to believe when it comes to Planetside's system requirements. The same site says the phenom II build would run it with 9, 10, and 9 stars.

However, the planetside 2 forums include the following testimonies: "I have a radeon HD 6570 and I run the game. Granted it's a 2GB version I have 8GB RAM and a i5-3570k, my frames are crap, and I crash a ton."

"My fps tanked after the last patch. i5 2500k @5.2ghz, Gtx 680 @1300/7100, 16gb ram @2133"

Not very detailed complaints, though.

 

[X79]

I can see how that's not comforting. However a 6570 is quite dated eh...

The guy with the GTX 680 though is a bit more troublesome. But then, there's many variables.

Besides, a guy with 2133Mhz RAM is aiming for performance clearly. So what FPS "tanking" for him

constitutes, is a bit hard to say. I mean if you're used to over 60FPS or something, but "only" getting 50FPS

then I'm sure you'll be able to find someone calling that "tanking". So unless he's more specific... Then it should

probably be taken with a grain of salt.



Even if it's not something currently of interest, at least any of those builds would allow you to

play/try out other free to play games as well at least. But perhaps that's a non-factor for you.

 

[tspcpp]

Slight bump.

X79 gave me a lot of good advice, and I'm not disregarding it. I was curious about his mention of the i5, so I looked into it a bit. I had to use a NVIDIA card since FFXI is often said to run poorly on AMD GPUs.

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/tspcpp/saved/1JXy (I already have the case)

It's a little pricey, though, and I'm overshooting what I set out to do. Could anyone recommend some places to cut corners?
I don't plan to overclock anything, and I don't think I'd really need to for planetside 2 (low-medium settings) anyway.

As it is, it's around $150 more than the other builds. Is the price increase justified?

 

[X79]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3350P 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($178.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: MSI B75MA-P45 Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($64.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($49.50 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Scorpio Blue 320GB 2.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($44.92 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 1GB Video Card ($143.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($27.99 @ Microcenter)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $545.36
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-10 05:01 EDT-0400)

But that's really really pushing it.

Feels like it would be better to go with an AMD build then.

So that you don't have to skimp on too many parts.

 

[tspcpp]

Hello again X79.

Ah, I see. That's kind of what I thought. Was the ECS motherboard too good to be true? I had the opportunity to save about $50 on a few of the parts, so the actual cost would have been closer to $550. I was planning to use the i5's HD 4000 for a while as I'd mentioned previously. I'm still favoring the AMD build, but I was curious to see if the upgrade was worth it. People use the term processor heavy a lot when talking about FFXI and PS2.

 

[X79]

Hiya.

Oh you're welcome to go with the one you picked.

If you want Intel HD graphics then:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4430 3.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($183.13 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock B85M Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($79.97 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($49.50 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Scorpio Blue 320GB 2.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($44.92 @ Amazon)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($27.99 @ Microcenter)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $420.50
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-10 14:54 EDT-0400)

Will give you Intel HD 4600 instead; which I think they're going to rename Iris or something silly.

The integrated graphics are quite impressive really, although I don't know how well this will play PS2.

If you want integrated graphics though, AMD have some good options with their APUs too:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD A10-5800K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: ASRock FM2A75 Pro4-M Micro ATX FM2 Motherboard ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($49.50 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($65.58 @ Outlet PC)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 431 Plus (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 300W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($38.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $402.03
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-10 15:07 EDT-0400)

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7032/amds-richland-vs-intels-haswell-gpu-on-the-desktop-radeon-hd-8670d-hd-4600/2

And you play at an even lower resolution than tested for, so you'll probably see a small increase too.

However it's important to factor in the budget killer: Windows...

While searching, I also found this for you:

http://windows7themes.net/10-tips-to-speed-up-planetside-2.html

Which you should definitely look over if you haven't, once you get your new PC.

And here's an even cheaper 350$ build:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6FD1b-tYkk

Just remember to add Windows.

 

[tspcpp]

I'm mortified that I've used up so much of your time, X79. Thanks so much for the pointers.

The youtube link is actually the computer that I started out building around. initially ignored the 5800K in favor of the Phenom II 965 (overclocked) but I see that was a mistake. This has been an interesting few weeks as I've never built a computer from scratch before. It seems like no matter what your budget may be, you can always gain a significant amount of performance by spending $50-$100 more. The trick is finding out where is enough and stopping there.

I think using integrated graphics for a while instead of buying a cheap GPU and then upgrading to a newer one later is probably wiser. You've given me plenty of options, now all I have to do is pick one. I'm indecisive to a fault, but I'll settle on one sooner or later.

Thanks again for all the help.

 

[X79]

Haha, that's alright. Nice people are always worth helping out, no matter how long it takes.

I'm indecisive too, so just PM me if you have any other concerns or problems that you want to discuss.

I've got some videos about building computers, that I wouldn't mind sharing with you, if you wish.