PC PC building & spec check

Here's an interesting proposition



While it looks ok, and I may try it out for a month just out of curiosity, racing sims with steering wheels generally demand the lowest latency possible in order to be fast and consistent. But if you want to play other genres of games without spending $2k every 3 years then the price here can't be beat.

Need some advice. I'm hopeless with PC specs...how would this set up handle AC?

• CPU: Intel Pentium Anniversary Edition G3258
• Motherboard: MSI B85M-E45 Motherboard
• Graphics: MSI GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB
• Memory: Kingston Hyper X Fury HX318C10FK2/8 8GB (2x4GB) Blue
• Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 1TB ST1000DM003
• Power Supply: Be Quiet! Pure Power L8 500W Power Supply

Any info appreciated.

...and if you can stretch to a 970 then even better.

I'm thinking more GB in your graphics card (say ~3-4GB) would help out with long mod tracks in AC or high texture pack mods for various games. I didn't realise Intel are still making Pentiums

Thanks lads, just having a look around. Looking like it's probably worth spending the extra few hundred bucks and going for a 970. Best price I've seen is about $1400 for an i5 4590, 8GB RAM, 970 4GB with a 120GB SSD and 1TB HDD.

That'd be good enough for my needs

Lee, I would suggest a 650W or bigger power supply, so if you decide to go to a bigger V-card or SLI later, you will have the grunt to drive the thing, as a rule I always add 150w to what I think I need just to be safe, I currently run a 750W Modular PSU, which will run SLI if needed. It's best to have too much power rather than to little where PC's are concerned
Also, when considering a video card, if you can afford to, I would look to go 4GB V-ram, this way if you want to run triples, you can, I run triples Tv's on a GTX-770 4Gb no problems so far.
And try to go Quad core CPU rather than Dual core, I realise it adds to the cost, but if your going to build a good PC that will "game on" for a good few yrs with minimal upgrades then spend that little more initially so that it's capable of running future games.
Ive been building my families PC's for 15yrs, and Ive learned there's little benefit in trying to build a good gaming PC on a minimal budget, because you have to upgrade to keep pace with new tech so you end up spending the same in the end. So if you can, it's best to make the initial build last for as long as possible, this is where the term "Future Proof" applies, spend more now, to spend less later, good luck with it
Cheers

+1 to making sure you have ample grunt in your PSU and for the quad-core CPU suggestion!
As for VRAM there is still alot of debate over what is really required and (IMHO) it comes down to what YOU want to achieve.

Will you only run a single monitor or are you interested in going triple screens?
If triple screens are on the near horizon, will you be staying with 1080 screens or will you be looking to push the limits with 4K screens?
Also, do you feel you need to run most/all your settings on High/Ultra?

The answers to these questions will ultimately dictate what your NEED to get and how much money you'll need to outlay to get it.

Here is a relevant thread worth a read through:
http://www.racedepartment.com/threads/780m-4gb-to-gtx780-ti-3gb-enough-vram-for-triples.88168/

Having more doesn't always equal better performance.
And yes, I am a "future-proofing" skeptic. Technology is designed to only last so long these days and the speed at which things advance, 4GB of VRAM may soon be the "norm" for all games but by the time that happens the 2015 model 4GB GPU's will be old-hat as their "other specs" will be their shortfall against what will then be considered a "recommended GPU".
And this all assumes that by this stage they will still be using PCIe slots and not some new technology that offers better/faster performance. Does anyone else still have an old AGP GPU that is now completely obsolete?

They are also making good in-roads into high-performing CPU and GPU's that need far less power (and produce far less heat), so within 3-5 years who knows what a good gaming rig may need.

My advice would be to work out what it is you want this gaming PC to give you (by knowing what setup you will be looking to run - including resolutions, expected frame rates, game settings etc) and go from there

Thanks heaps for the advice and expertise fellas. I'm not overly concerned about having incredible frame rates and the like.
The PC will be a media centre as well as gaming machine so will be connected to a 55 inch LED TV.
I'm more a console gamer so the PC will be mainly used for racing sims, maybe some strategy type games and for media.
As long as it can run AC with good detail and handle a full grid, I'll be happy
Like I said, most of my gaming will be console on PS4, so this doesn't have to be a mega machine.
I'll definitely take your suggestions on board though and do very much appreciate the detail you've provided.
Cheers!!

Will potentially noisy fans be an issue for you when in HTPC mode?
I'm not a big fan of SLI. 2 cards won't give you 2x performance, but will increase power consumption + heat (and too much heat throttles back performance). I'd always recommend spending your graphics budget on the best single-GPU card available (be it a 960 or Titan X) and by the time you want (and can afford) to buy another card, something better will be out.

If all this recurring spending sounds scary, you can of course run lower res and details like the consoles will be as already mentioned.

I agree, there's really no need for SLI/Crossfire in Pc's anymore, not with the GPU's & Multi threading CPU's in todays systems. Most upper level 3Gb+ GPU's either ATI or nVidia based can drive triple screens singlehanded, so a 2nd card is just money wasted IMO.

As far as recurring upgrade cost's go, the only thing Ive had to upgrade since building this current PC is the Graphics card & power supply to drive the card, I built this PC 2 1/2 yrs ago running a GTX-560 & 650W PSU, I upgraded to the GTX-770 4Gb and 750W PSU early last year, so upgrade cost's aren't that frequent, and the GTX-770 should be ok for at least another 2yrs....hopefully

Current PC: Gigabyte Z77X UD3H Mobo, 3770K CPU (stock), 8Gb Ram, GTX-770 4Gb, 750W PSU, 500Gb SSD, 1Tb HDD, BigWater 750 watercooler, all housed in a Cooler Master full tower case.

So I went a little crazy the other day and purchased a Titan X, just because I happened to see one in stock, and I really want to wait for the next series of other products before building a new extreme PC (the idea being that pCARS is paying for it).

That means I have a nVidia 680 GTX (EVGA 4GB FTW Edition) sitting in my wardrobe.