BF3 Machine from scratch (comments, advice, help)

[Girr]

In that case I may have to do more research into the monitors. I really don't want to make a quality computer, but have the monitor tone everything down...

On another front, I did some investigating into the case size vs the card size.

Here are the advertised dimensions.

Graphics Card (HD 6950) is 11.4" long

Computer Case (HAF 912) is 19.5" x 18.9"

I copied the side-shot picture from new egg into a CAD program to measure the sizes. It looks like 19.5 is the LENGTH of the box. Now I do not know where the dimensions are taken, but I will assume that they are the maximum length and height, we will call this scenario A. The height does not match the dimension for scenario A when I scale the image to the correct length (maximum). In other words, if 19.5 is the maximum length, 18.9 looks too big to be the correct height. This means that the dimensions are wrong OR the dimensions are not for maximum sizes. Next I looked at the length and height of the cavity itself, this will be scenario B. I scale the image and the dimensions seem to match more closely to the cavity of the case. I am not sure which is correct, but in scenario A it looks like the graphics card will not fit into the case properly or will have a very close fit. Scenario B looks like I will have enough room though. It might be safer to run with the HAF 922 after all. Thought?

Scenario A

Scenario B

[Girr]

Aside from the space issue, I have another inquiry. Is there any real difference between HDMI cables besides length? Should I be concerned with what HDMI cable to use for my build or should I run with a top-seller from new egg. Typically most sold range from $5-10, but others can be around $20-30 for the same length. Is there a difference in quality that I should be aware of?

[lawtai]

No difference in quality for HDMI cables. Just get one in the $5-10 range and save yourself some money.

[Girr]

Tested out over 20 minitors in the Frys store today using a blue ray player and several movies. The movies used were: Transformers dark side of the moon, Dark Knight, and Sunshine. Out of all the mintors tested, ASUS stood out as superior ever time.

The top 4 monitors were:

1) ASUS VE258Q 25" LED

2) ASUS VS247H-P 23.6"

3) ASUS VE248H 24"

4) LG E 2370VR-BF 23" LED 120Hz

Me and my friend spent hours watching the same scenes on almost every monitor on display. Besides the constant "do you need any help eith anything" lines from an onslaight of sales reps. The manager was very open to the idea of us testing the monitors. I was very suprised that they actually cared about what the customer wants! It paid off for them because their regular display slides were pitiful and didnt show any of the monitors to their fill potential. We actually drew a crowd and people started buying monitors based on what they saw with the bluray movements movies! We judged each monitor on thee catagories: color, brightness, and motion blur. Purchased the number 1 on my list as the best of all catagories. I also bought from the store due to their openness to experiment and their excellent costomer service.

[MistaT40]

Option A - but I would go with i5 over i3 if you are going to be doing BF3 gaming. The price difference is worth the performance difference.

If Option B (as a last resort) - I would also choose Intel over AMD and this is not considering the fact that AMD is essentially leaving the PC-CPU market. I have always been Intel-bias though.

[Girr]

As highlighted in earlier posts, the performance in terms of fps is almost equal between the i3 and the i5 in BF3. Its not worth $100 for a handful of fps. That said, we do not know what the performance difference is on a real monitor screen. I am actually leaning toward the i5 as more of an investment in the future now.

[philcruicks]

As highlighted in earlier posts, the performance in terms of fps is almost equal between the i3 and the i5 in BF3. Its not worth $100 for a handful of fps. That said, we do not know what the performance difference is on a real monitor screen. I am actually leaning toward the i5 as more of an investment in the future now.

Exactly if you get the i5 its an investment, i3 will be fine for BF as its a GPU intensive game, but in 6 months, a year, 2 years...what will be out then and the i3 will need an upgrade anyway.

[Girr]

Totally agree. It is also worth while to mention that the fps ratings in BF3 were most likely taken from single player because of the controlled and repetitive environment. A better processor might help on the multiplayer side. I guess this thread went from a "BF3 computer build" to a "best bang for your buck build: BF3 Emphesis" almost all of the suggestions here have been very helpfull. Its nice to talk with people about this stuff, lots of experience thrown into the pit.

Im still worried about the case dimensions. Its a tough call...

[ARchamps]

About the monitor -- I have the VE247H (pretty much the same as the 248) and it's awesome. It's generally cheaper than the Samsung monitors and they are impressive. I have it sitting beside a Dell LCD and it is so much brighter and clearer. It also has VGA, DVI and HDMI. Most monitors don't have all 3, only a combo of 2.

[+Gary7 Subscriber²]

Totally agree. It is also worth while to mention that the fps ratings in BF3 were most likely taken from single player because of the controlled and repetitive environment. A better processor might help on the multiplayer side. I guess this thread went from a "BF3 computer build" to a "best bang for your buck build: BF3 Emphesis" almost all of the suggestions here have been very helpfull. Its nice to talk with people about this stuff, lots of experience thrown into the pit.

Im still worried about the case dimensions. Its a tough call...

I use a HAF 912 with a GeForce 460 which is larger than the VC that the OP wants. The bottom Hard Drive Bay is also removable if your VC needs the space.

[Girr]

About the monitor -- I have the VE247H (pretty much the same as the 248) and it's awesome.

This is what the sales rep said at Frys. I found that all the ASUS monitors were moderately better than anything else I compared them to, but when comparing the ASUS to other ASUS it was very hard to tell. The difference between the VS247 and the VE248 is that the 248 comes with speakers built in (who needs 'em anyway) and the VS247 is 50,000,000:1 Contrast ratio whereas the VE248 is only 10,000,000:1 ASCR. According to the website I linked to earlier in the thread, this ratio is almost meaningless. Such was the case between the VS247 and the VE248, they were almost identical in terms of quality even though one was advertised as having a much higher contrast ratio.

I use a HAF 912 with a GeForce 460 which is larger than the VC that the OP wants. The bottom Hard Drive Bay is also removable if your VC needs the space.

Thank a lot for the info! I'll stick with the HAF 912.

[Girr]

Updated list of components for this build can be found here: http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=17877452

Some items are already owned like the Power Supply and the DVD optical drive, but this will be everything. A little more than I intended, but I will just have to wait a little longer. I will purchase half in January and the other half in February after all the Christmas hype is over.

[Girr]

I'm actually giving my girlfriend my year-old Samsung M512 so she can do graphics design work from home (currently in college to get a degree in that field). She really needs the help and I really need a gaming computer that can perform well with modern games. The laptop runs great for valve games like HL2 and CS:S. It performs admirably for BF2 and BF2142. I was impressed how well it ran for Dead Space on quality settings. But, for newer games like Battlefield 3 and Skyrim... Its sad... So the deal works for both of us!

The reason I bring this up is I will need a replacement computer sooner than February... guess i'll just have to bite the righteous bullet of quality for the sake of timing! :laugh:

[Jason S. Global Moderator]

Here: http://www.techspot....ance/page7.html

It wouldn't make sense to invest in a better CPU when Battlefield 3 doesn't take advantage of it (to a degree). Obviously, a low-end CPU would not perform as well as a medium- or high-end CPU. My point is though, anything higher than a Core i3 won't give you better performance.

better performance... in that one game. many games are not like BF3 and cpu cores and speed will make a significant difference.

the nvidia 560 will be a good choice, but if you could save up a bit more money, i'd highly suggest you get a better card for BF3.

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

better performance... in that one game. many games are not like BF3 and cpu cores and speed will make a significant difference.

the nvidia 560 will be a good choice, but if you could save up a bit more money, i'd highly suggest you get a better card for BF3.

Actually, the Core i3-2120 performs well in other games too, like StarCraft 2. The extra performance you get with the Core i5-2500 isn't worth it for most games (see here and here). I suppose it's worth it if you're thinking long term. As for the video card, he's going with 2x Radeon HD 6950s.

[Girr]

he's going with 2x Radeon HD 6950s.

That made me smile thinking about it :laugh:

I'm excited

[Girr]

I've been browsing the neweggs some more and I have another question. Is it worth forking over a little more to upgrade the 1Gb 6950s to 2Gb 6950s? How useful is the extra memory for the card? Is it worth the investment?

[Girr]

Never mind, it is not worth the extra 1-2 fps

http://www.hwcompare.com/6216/radeon-hd-6950-vs-radeon-hd-6950-2gb/

[Girr]

Its about time to purchase my build parts and the dilemma has come to me again. 1G @ 870Mhz vs. 2G @ 800Mhz.

Just comparing these two cards:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=14-102-954&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Page=3#scrollFullInfo

VS

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125385

Thoughts and recommendations?

[neo158]

An i3 gets, near as makes no difference, the same performance as an i5 (hell even an i7) on Bf3.

Not close enough to the i5 2500k though!!

[Girr]

Well, with a Christmas gift I expanded my budget about $400 and I went with the following build for overall performance vs. cost, visual appeal, and future proofing.

Final build purchased:

Intel I5 2500K Sandy Bridge

2x Gigabyte HD 6950 1GB DDR5 (for crossfire)

MSI P67A-G43 (B3) Motherboard (PCI-E 2.0 dual 8x speed with crossfire)

8GB (2x4GB) Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600

Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0GB/s

Crucial M4 64GB SSD (for Win7 OS and other files)

Corsair Gaming Series 800W PSU Crossfire Ready

25" ASUS VE258Q LED backlit (Tested with BluRay against most leading monitors)

Cool Master HAF 932 Blue Edition (Because it is large, pretty, Blue, and efficient)

Sony DVD drive

[Muhammad Farrukh]

Well, with a Christmas gift I expanded my budget about $400 and I went with the following build for overall performance vs. cost, visual appeal, and future proofing.

Final build purchased:

Intel I5 2500K Sandy Bridge

2x Gigabyte HD 6950 1GB DDR5 (for crossfire)

MSI P67A-G43 (B3) Motherboard (PCI-E 2.0 dual 8x speed with crossfire)

8GB (2x4GB) Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600

Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0GB/s

Crucial M4 64GB SSD (for Win7 OS and other files)

Corsair Gaming Series 800W PSU Crossfire Ready

25" ASUS VE258Q LED backlit (Tested with BluRay against most leading monitors)

Cool Master HAF 932 Blue Edition (Because it is large, pretty, Blue, and efficient)

Sony DVD drive

Congratulations. You have bought yourself a damn good PC.

Overclock the sh*t out of that i5.

Well worth the money. All of it

[Girr]

Last weekend I put together all the parts and built the computer. Here is my quick review of how it went. Overall it went very well. The computer assembled nicely. The MOBO processor position did not match the CPU cutout in the back panel of the box perfectly, so I had to partially assemble the CPU aftermarket fan before installing the MOBO. The second video card blocked the 4 SATA II ports, but I was able to fit a smaller SATA cable underneath to connect my optical drive. I don't plan to use any of the other ports. Another note about the MOBO, I'm a little disappointed that there is no connection for the case fron USB 3.0 connections, but I am not too bummed about it and I would have rarely use them anyway. The biggest problem with the computer was the Seagate Barracuda came DOA and the motherboard did not read it in any port, power connection, or cable (I removed the second video card to test them). I could feel that the drive was spinning up, but it kept looping a faint spin-up noise. I rushed to the nearest Best Buy which were all out of decent Hard Drives. So I drove to Fry's (only about 45 min away) and I scored the last WD black in the store! I paid a pretty penny for it though since it was the 2TB SATA 6.0Gb/s 64mb cache model. Returning the dead Hard drive soon. Everything else went flawlessly. I successfully installed my OS on the SSD and optimized all my settings for it. Everything else is defaulted to the WD 2TB drive. The Cards work magnificently and the computer is much quieter than I imagined with 12 fans running in it! Successfully running Battlefield on Ultra with very playable frame rates.

In other news, upgraded the wireless router from a Netgear WN1000v2 to the new ASUS n56u. Substantially faster, especially for wireless devices and the USB ports are very helpful for the printer and an external HD. Neat little piece of hardware.

[teknix360]

Hey Girr - Did you use an adapter to secure the SSD in the hard drive bays of the HAF case? There are 2 metal brackets that came with the case that might do this, but I can't figure out how they are supposed to work. :wacko: Wondering if you know...