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Wrath of the Lich King Modding => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: earleyke on May 30, 2014, 01:49:00 am

Title: Building New Computer
Post by: earleyke on May 30, 2014, 01:49:00 am
Hey guys!

I think it's time to move past my Macbook Pro 2010, and start considering a PC (this old dog can hardly run Minesweeper these days). I'd love to turn this into a project and build a PC (knowledgeable in basic electricity).

The reason I am posting here is because I'm looking more to mod games then to play them. I'm not sure that I'd be doing any 3D modeling or Photoshop, but more coding and the likes.I thought it'd be interesting to ask you guys if there's anything in particular I should be looking for when putting this thing together, or any recommendations you have. I've still got to finish my "course" I'm taking on PCs (more like shoving everything in /r/BAPC down my throat), but I'm at least well-learned in PCs at this point.

I would think what I'm looking to build is a decent gaming PC with really big hard drives, but I'm not sure...How much performance is needed for this stuff, and how quickly do you guys find your hard drives filling up?

Thanks for your time,
Kevin
Title: Re: Building New Computer
Post by: iindigo on May 30, 2014, 02:38:02 am
For modding/dev, you really don’t need a whole lot. Below is the machine I use for development and WoW modding and it’s quite alright. Not stellar, but hardly unusable.

(http://f.cl.ly/items/3q431s3b0T2H3S0m0l0U/mavericks.jpg)

If you’re deadset on building, I’d recommend a system with a haswell i5 and GTX 760 or 770. Gigabyte and ASUS both make great motherboards. With a decent case, PSU (DO NOT cheap out on your PSU), 8GB of RAM and an SSD you’ll land somewhere between $700-$800 USD and will have a machine that will rip through just about anything.
Title: Re: Building New Computer
Post by: earleyke on May 31, 2014, 12:17:17 am
Thanks for the response! Great to have perspective from someone who does this stuff.
Title: Re: Building New Computer
Post by: Steff on May 31, 2014, 06:15:06 am
Use 16 ram else it is ok.  I prefere more amd grafic becaus they release better open gl. Driver support for no pro cards. I only would pay around 170 for gfx.
Title: Re: Building New Computer
Post by: TheBuG on May 31, 2014, 01:08:46 pm
If you're going more for coding/developing games you'd be best of going for a good CPU.

I'd say going for an Intel i5 at the least. As GPU a 760 Ti/AMD HD 7870 should do the job. 12 GB ram would be the least to aim for if developing in my opinion.

I'm personally still running an i7 920 and an AMD HD 6950 and it works fine for WoW, running CryEngine/UDK works as well, but truely next gen developing is rather limited for my PC at the moment.
Title: Re: Building New Computer
Post by: schlumpf on May 31, 2014, 01:20:07 pm
Storage is still the worst bottleneck on pretty much every machine. Get a SSD or SSD/HDD hybrid, get enough RAM. CPUs get less and less importance these days. Having more cores will likely not help much, as software sucks. Having more parallel applications means more pressure on IO/Memory.
Title: Re: Building New Computer
Post by: stoneharry on May 31, 2014, 02:12:28 pm
Quote from: "schlumpf"
Storage is still the worst bottleneck on pretty much every machine. Get a SSD or SSD/HDD hybrid, get enough RAM. CPUs get less and less importance these days. Having more cores will likely not help much, as software sucks. Having more parallel applications means more pressure on IO/Memory.

Can't recommend this enough, getting a good SSD (not a bad one) makes a -huge- impact on your computers performance. I'm currently using the EVO series and it is orgasmic. I've never had a computer that operates faster than I can think before.
Title: Re: Building New Computer
Post by: Alastor on May 31, 2014, 02:17:58 pm
You all can be Glad because no-one of you have my PC :D
i have toons of Bad Blocks on HDD so Blue Screens, Explorer&Other Aplications are Crashing all time
so i have to restart my PC 3 times +/- to get him working :D
every of my Components is older then 4 years
whole of my PC is going to Trash :D
Title: Re: Building New Computer
Post by: schlumpf on May 31, 2014, 02:59:58 pm
In general, while it is not a popular opinion, I suggest getting a latest-gen, best cpu iMac, with no upgrades except for a fusion drive and then maybe at some point additional RAM. When not being in the "PC Masterrace, ultra graphics + enhancer + 4k + latest gen" group, that's enough for everything, even gaming.
Title: Re: Building New Computer
Post by: iindigo on May 31, 2014, 07:35:46 pm
Quote from: "schlumpf"
In general, while it is not a popular opinion, I suggest getting a latest-gen, best cpu iMac, with no upgrades except for a fusion drive and then maybe at some point additional RAM. When not being in the "PC Masterrace, ultra graphics + enhancer + 4k + latest gen" group, that's enough for everything, even gaming.

I wouldn’t argue with that. iMac displays are really, really nice (a comparable separate monitor would run you upwards of $400) and the entire machine takes up a tiny amount of space.