How much roughly would I need to spend...

nesf

To future proof a machine for the next few years and run current games at excellent quality? 1,000-1,500 or thereabouts? Assuming 1080p resolution and other such and from scratch with monitor and so on.

Serephucus

Well you wouldn't be future proof for that long no matter how much you spent. It's worth remembering that in a "few" years the next gen of consoles will hit, meaning there's be a leap in quality - and graphic complexity (I hope) - of games, so then current hardware is probably going to be insufficient.

You could, however, spend €1,500 now, and make one hell of a machine. That will always be the case. It's just extremely hard to say "Yes, this will last you X years.", because in all honestly, we just don't know what's going to show up next. For all we know, Battlefield 4, or Crysis 3 could be absolutely crippling, for example.

Monotype

I think that it's a better idea to get a system that is as upgradable as possible. Buy a pretty good graphics card like 570/6950/6970 and replace it later (or get a second). You pay a lot more to get that extra last bit of performance with the top end cards and it's not really worth it, in my opinion.
A good CPU like the 2500K is easily overclocked and is well above the needs of current games, so good cooling will keep it up to current speeds, or buy a motherboard with guaranteed compatibility with future processors.

You could spend half that budget on a monitor alone but the optimum money to spend would probably be just over the €1000 mark.

nesf

Monotype wrote: »

I think that it's a better idea to get a system that is as upgradable as possible. Buy a pretty good graphics card like 570/6950/6970 and replace it later (or get a second). You pay a lot more to get that extra last bit of performance with the top end cards and it's not really worth it, in my opinion.
A good CPU like the 2500K is easily overclocked and is well above the needs of current games, so good cooling will keep it up to current speeds, or buy a motherboard with guaranteed compatibility with future processors.

You could spend half that budget on a monitor alone but the optimum money to spend would probably be just over the €1000 mark.

Well, how I was thinking was, a CPU that should last *ages*, plenty of memory and a graphics card that I might need to upgrade in 2/2.5 years. Any home built system is very upgradeable. I used to nurse a home built machine for 8 years and I think the only original parts by the end were the DVD drive and case...

I just got sick and lost interest in gaming pretty much 3 years ago and have no idea how the component market works now. I'm looking at maybe an i7 rather than an i5 and 6970 but other than that don't know what to get and how much to budget for.

Monotype

The 2500K beats just about every i7 out there when overclocked, aside from the overclocked hexacores for socket 1366 in heavily threaded applications (this platform is soon due for replacement, and is obsolete in many areas in comparison to 1155). The only real competition worth considering is the i7-2600K. This has hyperthreading and a bit of extra cache. Only worth it in specific applications, not including gaming.

nesf

Monotype wrote: »

The 2500K beats just about every i7 out there when overclocked, aside from the overclocked hexacores for socket 1366 in heavily threaded applications (this platform is soon due for replacement, and is obsolete in many areas in comparison to 1155). The only real competition worth considering is the i7-2600K. This has hyperthreading and a bit of extra cache. Only worth it in specific applications, not including gaming.

Yeah, I'm not interested in overclocking really. I want out-of-the-box performance. A combination of having overclocking going wrong and damaging a core 9 years ago and laziness on my part.

Monotype

Before you write off overclocking here completely, these processors run very cool so even the heatsink that you get in the box can get you to 4GHz easily enough (from 3.3GHz). Secondly overclocking is extremely easy - you don't need to worry about RAM or other frequencies, it's pretty much just changing a multiplier to a higher number, test for stability, watch the temperature and you're done.

Serephucus

Well the 2nd gen i5s/i7s are ridiculously easy to overclock. Seriously, you'd have to be brain damaged to fry one of these things. The only things you can touch, are the CPU multiplier (0.1GHz steps), and core voltage. That's it. Simple as. So if you're willing to look into it in a year or two, you could easily net yourself a 70% performance boost if you need it.

You're right in essentials; a CPU and memory will last you the longest. At this point int time, the only things you might want to upgrade would be your OS drive (SSDs just keep getting faster and faster), and your graphics card.

A 2nd gen i5 also means that you could upgrade to Ivy Bridge if you wanted even more performance down the line.

nesf

Well what happened to me last time was a cooling failure. But I take your points on being able to overclock on a stock cooler.

akazzz

There's no 100% future proof for a pc but the best advice I can give u is to invest in a good psu and cooler (if you're overclocking)

nesf

akazzz wrote: »

There's no 100% future proof for a pc but the best advice I can give u is to invest in a good psu and cooler (if you're overclocking)

Yeah I learned the latter the hard way, cooler used a thermocouple to adjust fan speed based on cpu heat. Thermocouple failed, fan stayed on minimum all the time, my moderately overclocked CPU (one of the first AMD dual cores back in the day) got damaged, had to underclock it for it to work without error.

deconduo

If I wanted to buy a decent rig that was future proof I would probably go for something like this:

Item|Price
Total build cost: €1,255.93 + €30 shipping
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155|€183.70
ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€116.27
Scythe Mugen 3, für alle Sockel geeignet|€32.67
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€31.51
Crucial M4 128GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5")|€170.52
FRACTAL DESIGN Gehäuse DEFINE R3 Black Pearl|€91.79
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA|€15.41
XFX PRO750W Core Edition Full Wired Power Supply|€78.96
Club 3D Radeon HD 6970 Dual Fan, 2048MB GDDR5, AMD Radeon HD 6970, PCI- Express|€298.26
MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit SB-Version Englisch|€84.86
BenQ GL2450|€151.98


Optional extras would be mouse, keyboard, speakers, wireless card. I only included an SSD because hard drive prices are ridiculous right now, not worth buying unless you have to. Get a storage drive 2nd hand or use an external until prices drop to a reasonable level.

nesf

Hmm, what I'm thinking of doing is using a display port graphics card to use a 27" iMac I have as a monitor. Would 2GB be enough to drive 2560 x 1440 resolution these days?

deconduo

nesf wrote: »

Hmm, what I'm thinking of doing is using a display port graphics card to use a 27" iMac I have as a monitor. Would 2GB be enough to drive 2560 x 1440 resolution these days?

Well its more about the card than the memory (you can get a 2GB GTX 450 which won't run anything :P) but the 6970 is pretty high end. However if you want to completely max out something like BF3 at that resolution you'd need at least 2x6950s or even 2x6970s. The setup I posted is ready for crossfire, so you could get a single 6970 and then get a second one down the line when its needed.

ShadowHearth

I think good few people still live in pentuim 1 and 2 times.

I got my pc 5 years and in costed me 1.2k so far. I still able to play any game out there on maxish settings. I could see atleast 1-2 years of life for this old girl.

Those 2500k are such a briliant bargains. They give so much performance for such low price. I would not be surprised to see them still be alive and kicking in next 3 years atleast!

Op, if you will be chasing new technology all the time, you will end up with no system at all.

nesf

deconduo wrote: »

Well its more about the card than the memory (you can get a 2GB GTX 450 which won't run anything :P) but the 6970 is pretty high end. However if you want to completely max out something like BF3 at that resolution you'd need at least 2x6950s or even 2x6970s. The setup I posted is ready for crossfire, so you could get a single 6970 and then get a second one down the line when its needed.

I think my wife would kill me if I spent €600 on graphics cards.

nesf

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Op, if you will be chasing new technology all the time, you will end up with no system at all.

I'm a bit of a tech junkie but from experience I usually last 4 years on a CPU and 2 years on a graphics card. Most of what I want is to be able to run certain games on High settings, I don't demand exceptional performance or anything like that all the time. I just don't have the cash for that kind of thing!

ShadowHearth

nesf wrote: »

I'm a bit of a tech junkie but from experience I usually last 4 years on a CPU and 2 years on a graphics card. Most of what I want is to be able to run certain games on High settings, I don't demand exceptional performance or anything like that all the time. I just don't have the cash for that kind of thing!

Decounduo posted a good biuld for very reasonable budget.

Those 2500k setups are fantastic. Great bang for the money. These setups will run bf3 very very nicely.

On the other hand, remember that psu and case are prety much bullet prove. You will have mouse, keyboard monitor etc... So it means that you will need to swap internals in good 3 years if you will really really want something new.

We hit a great time in pc gaming Lifespam. Older systems are not useless like it was before. There are no more fears of buying pc and see twice faster and twice cheaper pc after 2 months. The best part that your 2 months old pc could not even do basic tasks...

nesf

ShadowHearth wrote: »

We hit a great time in pc gaming Lifespam. Older systems are not useless like it was before. There are no more fears of buying pc and see twice faster and twice cheaper pc after 2 months. The best part that your 2 months old pc could not even do basic tasks...

Indeed. My first proper PC was a 386 many years ago and I remember that problem.

nesf

Right computer bought, thanks for the advice deconduo.

nesf

So parts arrived etc. Due to a problem with the stock cooler need to get a new heatsink but that isn't a big deal.

The case is superb. A Fractal Design Define XL. Cases have come on so much in the past 9 years since I got my first tower case for a self-build. The amount of thought and design that goes into them these days has really impressed me.

nesf

CPU at 4.3GHz at 67 degrees under Prime95. Happy with how easy a chip this is to overclock. Could push for 4.5 but couldn't be bothered right now, maybe in the future or maybe when the Noctua cooler arrives.

MakeNine

67C sounds a bit hot. I tried a 4.0Ghz overclock earlier and ran Prime95 for an hour and it didn't go over 45C with the Noctua NH-U12P SE2.

When your Noctua arrives you'll notice the difference!

Eamonn Brophy

MakeNine wrote: »

67C sounds a bit hot. I tried a 4.0Ghz overclock earlier and ran Prime95 for an hour and it didn't go over 45C with the Noctua NH-U12P SE2.

When your Noctua arrives you'll notice the difference!

The fans on that run quiet as hell too, beautiful cooler!

k.p.h

I'v done extensive reading recently as I'm putting something together myself and a 2500k with a Gen 3 board is about as future proof as you get as far as I can see.

I can't really get over it either, how is the 2500k so cheap and how do they even sell any other chips. When it come to price/performance it absolutely wipes everything. And not just by a little bit. I don't understand it really , not going to complain either.

dwighet

deconduo wrote: »

Well its more about the card than the memory (you can get a 2GB GTX 450 which won't run anything :P) but the 6970 is pretty high end. However if you want to completely max out something like BF3 at that resolution you'd need at least 2x6950s or even 2x6970s. The setup I posted is ready for crossfire, so you could get a single 6970 and then get a second one down the line when its needed.

Im running 2x6970 and bf3 is looking real good..
A single 6970 will get you around 45 ish fps(avg) on ultra @1080 res but 2 will get around 80 odd(avg)...

I did as Dec said..Started with the single card then once I had a few extra pound in the fun account I added the second card and havnt looked back since...Its flying it now..:cool:

nesf

dwighet wrote: »

Im running 2x6970 and bf3 is looking real good..
A single 6970 will get you around 45 ish fps(avg) on ultra @1080 res but 2 will get around 80 odd(avg)...

I did as Dec said..Started with the single card then once I had a few extra pound in the fun account I added the second card and havnt looked back since...Its flying it now..:cool:

Yeah I ended up going the Crossfire route. Since I wasn't buying a monitor I considered that as saving 250 quid or so and put it mentally towards the cost of a second card.

nesf

MakeNine wrote: »

67C sounds a bit hot. I tried a 4.0Ghz overclock earlier and ran Prime95 for an hour and it didn't go over 45C with the Noctua NH-U12P SE2.

When your Noctua arrives you'll notice the difference!

Yeah that should make a big difference over the cooler I'm using at the moment. I'm not hugely concerned, I don't run anything at the moment which would push the CPU like Prime95 does. From the reviews even on the lowest fan setting the Noctua is a lovely cooler.

ShadowHearth

Gear nesf. That pc will last you ages.

Those 2500k are bullet prove. If I am not mistaken ivybridge processors will be supporting 1155 socket too. Though I really doubt anyone with 2500k will even bother upgradIng to next .

6970 CS manes huge difference to bf3... FFs I already decided to go single gpu and pcie 3.0 setup! If I add anything more to current budged, then misses shadowhearth will make a neckles out of my jewels!

nesf

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Gear nesf. That pc will last you ages.

Those 2500k are bullet prove. If I am not mistaken ivybridge processors will be supporting 1155 socket too. Though I really doubt anyone with 2500k will even bother upgradIng to next .

It's nice to have the option though. It comes down to how CPU limited we are in a year I suppose. At the moment in some games with 6970 CF, the CPU is the bottleneck already but you're talking about such high framerates that it isn't much of an issue right now assuming you're not a benchmark freak.

ShadowHearth wrote: »

6970 CS manes huge difference to bf3... FFs I already decided to go single gpu and pcie 3.0 setup! If I add anything more to current budged, then misses shadowhearth will make a neckles out of my jewels!

ATI's driver support isn't as good as NVIDIA's for SLI at the moment but hopefully this will change. I unfortunately have been loyal to ATI cards since the early 00's which is not the smartest way to be but we humans are creatures of habit.

nesf

Is overclocking graphics cards worth it? Have them presently running 60ish degrees under a heavy load (Heaven Benchmark), should I leave well enough alone or would it be worth my while bumping them up until they're hitting near 90 degrees?