Choose which of these is a better gaming rig, please.

[VirtualLarry]

Let's just say my newest game is Skyrim, so I'm not all that familiar with the requirements of the newest games, other than I know that GTA V and W3 like quads.

I have several potential gaming rigs to offer a friend's daughter, for a belated Christmas present.

1) Dual-core G3258, not currently OCed, on an ASRock H81 mobo, 8GB RAM, 120GB SSD, R7 250X 2GB DDR3. Would need a legit copy of Windows, so extra $$$.

2) Quad-core AMD Athlon II X4 630 2.8Ghz AM3, in an AM2+ mobo with NV chipset, 2x4GB DDR2 (only two RAM slots), GT740 1GB GDDR5, includes legit Win7 64-bit, currently has 120GB SSD.

3) Pre-built Lenovo with a Sandy Bridge i3 CPU, 3.4Ghz, Windows 8 pre-installed, 500GB HDD, 4GB DDR3 (can add 4GB), need to add GPU (have either GT740 1GB GDDR5 or GTX750ti 2GB GDDR5 to drop in). Have SSD to add, would put a fresh copy of 8.1 on, using legit key embedded in BIOS.

The daughter mentioned playing the newest Saint's Row game, and "newer games". Don't know if she specifically wants to play GTA V or Witcher 3, but I thought that I would try to leave that option open.

Edit: I also have R9 270X 2GB GDDR5 video cards, and 450W NAXN as well as 735W (max) RaidMax PSUs. But I'd have to get payment from said friend for major upgrades like that.

 

[DigDog]

pc 1 has a ddr3 gpu .. shame. if it was ddr5, you could crossfire it.

pc2 has a weak cpu and an absolutely rubbish gpu.

that leaves n3.

 

[VirtualLarry]

For comparison, my friend games on a Core2Quad Q9400 (2.66Ghz), 8GB DDR2, GTX460 2GB, and a HDD. He plays D3, used to play WoW, and maybe a few others.

He wanted a PC for his daughter that was at least as good as his. Which I think PC #2 is, except for possibly the GPU, by a hair or two.

So you think PC #3 would be the best? Would a 750ti be able to handle Saint's Row (newest is what, 4?), and GTA V and W3? Or would the PSU / R9 270X 2GB be required? (I'm honestly not sure if that card will even physically fit into the Lenovo, I would have to double-check.)

Edit: It seems that PC #3 (the SB i3) is decisively faster than the X4 630, according to Passmark.
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=168&cmp[]=755

Edit: It seems that the i3 is good for SR4.
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2339967

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Saints row needs a Core 2 quad 6600 or amd x3 or better. Video is a gtx 260 or better
Sounds like #3 with extra memory would be best

 

[DAPUNISHER]

The i3 with the extra 4GB and 750ti hands down. I played SR4 (sort of ashamed to admit that) on a 4150 with a 750FTW and it was fine at 1080p. I did not bother with ultra because it is a cartoony looking consolized POS and not worth the performance hit.

Set it up with the geforce experience and let Nvidia handle the settings optimizations, if she is not familiar with tweaking them. And put windows 10 on there. For gaming moving forward, there is no good reason not to imo. I know the hate is strong for it around here, but I have zero issues with it on the systems I installed it on.

 

[skipsneeky2]

I would go with the i3,having had a i3 3225 rig it played GTA V quite excellent with a gtx650/GT 740 GDDR5 but i did have 8gb of ram.I hear the GTA V experience is a bit different with 4gb of ram.

I know for a capped 30fps experience in GTA V,a G3258 and a 660 hold 30fps steady upwards of 1080p with settings that use 2gb of vram while the 660 is still vastly overkill.

 

[XavierMace]

Option 3 is the best option. While I love SSD's, 120Gb is NOT enough for a gaming rig.

 

[VirtualLarry]

And put windows 10 on there.

Was contemplating that, if the Win10 ISO I have will activate with a Win8 BIOS key.

I would go with the i3,having had a i3 3225 rig it played GTA V quite excellent with a gtx650/GT 740 GDDR5 but i did have 8gb of ram.I hear the GTA V experience is a bit different with 4gb of ram.

That's really reassuring to hear. I am planning on upgrading it to 8GB of RAM, minimum.

Thanks for the input, guys, plans are starting to come together. (To paraphase the "A Team".)

 

[jlee]

Was contemplating that, if the Win10 ISO I have will activate with a Win8 BIOS key.



That's really reassuring to hear. I am planning on upgrading it to 8GB of RAM, minimum.

Thanks for the input, guys, plans are starting to come together. (To paraphase the "A Team".)

You can also upgrade 8.1 to 10 for free. I would go with #3 as well.

 

[skipsneeky2]

Option 3 is the best option. While I love SSD's, 120Gb is NOT enough for a gaming rig.

I did something painful cause i love both myself and my wife.Gave her my 120gb ssd for a new build and went back to using a circa 2009 300gb spinner for booting.Fresh format with just BF4 with no dlc,WOT and GTA V took well over 120gb.

The 120gb was good enough for BF4+dlc,WOT,COD BO2 multiplayer,Borderlands 2 and CSGO.I had the 60+gb beast of burden GTA V on the 300gb with some older titles.

 

[moonbogg]

I did something painful cause i love both myself and my wife.Gave her my 120gb ssd for a new build and went back to using a circa 2009 300gb spinner for booting.Fresh format with just BF4 with no dlc,WOT and GTA V took well over 120gb.

The 120gb was good enough for BF4+dlc,WOT,COD BO2 multiplayer,Borderlands 2 and CSGO.I had the 60+gb beast of burden GTA V on the 300gb with some older titles.

LOL. That right there is a moonbogg approved metaphor.

 

[skipsneeky2]

LOL. That right there is a moonbogg approved metaphor.

It's not even so much the size of the game that bothers me,its simply the fact on my half baked crap of a ISP company with its glory 11MBPS max speed that the game easily runs into the 18 hour run time to download.

The best part of course is that i share the Net with 3 other people,who all game or Netflix.I end up capping it at 256kbps when everyone is awake to keep the bit***** to a bare minimum.

At about 4gb or so a hour uncapped,you can easily calculate the runtime of the downloads at either 1.2mbps or 256kbps transfer.:thumbsup:

 

[DigDog]

i would not expect miracles from a 750. but hey, maybe medium @720, or medium w/o any AA @ 1080.

 

[skipsneeky2]

i would not expect miracles from a 750. but hey, maybe medium @720, or medium w/o any AA @ 1080.

My gtx650 with its 1gb pretty much became its own handicap for GTA V.Game ran perfectly fine upwards of 100fps at times at 1366x768 but i had to run settings on bare minimum just about to meet the vram cap.

A patch improved performance and vram usage a bit so i think 900p and medium could be done with 2gb on a 750 or all low with 1gb and handle itself pretty well.

 

[DealODay]

That G3258 needs to be OCd to the very max if yo uwant to play GTA V, especially given how power hungry it is. It will also stutter since it requires quad core

The G3258 needs to be OC'd to play any high end games and for that you'd need z97 mobo.

Otherwise, every system you've shown wouldn't be able to play (at ultra settings) any of the games your daughter wants unless there's a better graphics card.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Otherwise, every system you've shown wouldn't be able to play (at ultra settings) any of the games your daughter wants unless there's a better graphics card.

LOL. I wasn't talking about needing "Ultra" settings. Just playable settings.

 

[Denithor]

#3 hands down, i3 will smoke the other two CPUs listed (pulls ahead of G3258 due to HT). Install W8 on the SSD, upgrade in-place to 10 (don't burden her with 8, please!) and leave the 500GB spinner in there to shuffle games back and forth from the SSD. Use the 750Ti that's the best of the cards listed.

Take a look at this article on adding a 750Ti to a basic OEM system:
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/Upgrade-Story-Can-GTX-750-Ti-Convert-OEMs-PCs-Gaming-PCs

 

[Ranulf]

It's not even so much the size of the game that bothers me,its simply the fact on my half baked crap of a ISP company with its glory 11MBPS max speed that the game easily runs into the 18 hour run time to download.

The best part of course is that i share the Net with 3 other people,who all game or Netflix.I end up capping it at 256kbps when everyone is awake to keep the bit***** to a bare minimum.

At about 4gb or so a hour uncapped,you can easily calculate the runtime of the downloads at either 1.2mbps or 256kbps transfer.:thumbsup:

It takes me about 2hours to download gta5 from rockstar (comcast isp) and I prefer to back it up to externals for easy transfer to another system. Problem is, the non steam version does not appear to be easily restored/backed up. Such that I'd almost rather re-download it.

Edit: I too pick system #3.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Was contemplating that, if the Win10 ISO I have will activate with a Win8 BIOS key.

To be safe, make certain you have the latest .iso. The installer will automatically input the UEFI SLP Key. If for some reason it asks for a key, just start over and pick one of the other editions of 8.1. It should be straight forward though.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Ok, I'm posting from that rig.

I took it out of the box, opened it up right away, put in an additional 4GB DDR3-1600 DIMM into the second RAM slot, opened up a 1TB Toshiba 7200RPM HDD, put that in the second drive bay, moved the cables from the factory HDD over to the new one, put in the GTX750ti (turns out I bought the EVGA SuperClocked 2GB model, should be good for her).

Then I powered it on, went into BIOS, checked things out, disabled "Quick Boot", left Secure Boot ENABLED.

Burned a Win10 1511 TB DVD, popped it in, and booted off of it. Installed Win10 64-bit (Home, auto-detected, didn't give me a choice), and I installed the drivers from Lenovo for Win10 64-bit that I had downloaded on my other rig onto a USB drive.

Once I got online, it downloaded some version of the NVidia drivers, complete with control panel, automagically.

I put Waterfox, Malwarebytes, and ImgBurn on. Then downloaded Shutup10 and put that on, enabled everything.

Then I plugged in a Rosewill AC1200 UBE USB3.0 wifi dongle. Win10 automatically recognized it and installed drivers. Speedtest shows the same speeds, wired or wireless. (But not my max connection speed, weird how wired isn't going as fast as it should.)

I get 25MB/sec to my unRAID server over the AC1200 wireless in my other room. Not bad.

So, now I'm posting from that rig, and listening to internet radio. Interestingly enough, the wifi isn't causing the internet radio app to constantly switch to "buffering", like I had issues with it in Windows 7 using the newest Edimax drivers.

Edit: Oh yeah, Win10's Control Panel / System / System, shows "Activated". Didn't have to manually put in any key.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Take a look at this article on adding a 750Ti to a basic OEM system:
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/Upgrade-Story-Can-GTX-750-Ti-Convert-OEMs-PCs-Gaming-PCs

I read that article, not much that I didn't already know, but some of the comments give me pause. It seems that the SuperClocked version of EVGA's 750ti, needs a 400W PSU? That's the card that I have. I hope that I wouldn't have to replace the PSU, otherwise, I would have put in a 270X (if it fits, LOL).

Edit: I installed OCCT 4.4.1, and ran the GPU stress test, and it didn't crash or reboot, so I guess I'm OK? I didn't do both the CPU + GPU stress test, maybe I should have.


===

October 5, 2015 | 10:40 AM - Posted by Alife (not verified)

This article prompted me to try installing an EVGA GTX 750 TI SC in my July 2015 vintage Dell Inspiron 3847, which has a 300W PSU.

I found that on demanding games (e.g. Rocket League) the PSU was inadequate--PC would shut down upon game launch or I would get errors that would prevent a game from starting. A call to EVGA support indicated the PSU was likely at fault. They suggested downloading and installing PrecisionX and underclocking the video card substantially to see if that helped. (Underclocking reduces the power draw on the PSU.) It did--could then play all the games.

I think the issue is that the stock PSU can only supply 18 amps total on the +12V rails, whereas the card calls for a minimum of 20 amps.

Lesson: one needs to worry not just about the total wattage that the PSU can deliver but also the amps available on the +12V rail(s).

Am now awaiting a new, beefier Seasonic PSU.

reply

December 9, 2015 | 08:44 PM - Posted by loller coaster (not verified)

Heh, i have the same PC (namely , i don't know about your specs but i know that i have 300W PSU possibly the same as you do).
Your mistake was that the EVGA 750ti Superclocked needs 400w 20Amp PSU according to games debate.That's why you needed downgrading possibly.
Go get the Seasonic and you'll be fine.
I'll get myself an ASUS GTX 750 PHOC 2GB (not ti), because i believe i'm not into experiments to get the Ti (the TIs in the store mostly needed 400w even without 6pin... ).
Since i don't play very demanding games it'll be fine, i guess.
I could keep my ASUS Gt 730DDR5, which seems to be a great card for OEM PCs (played easily DA:I at med-high with some adjustments, Playing Warthunder at Med-high also and tried Dark Souls 2 at med-high as well),
but i felt that med-high should get in to "flat" high graphic options...+ it will get me a couple of years till i actually get into overhaul.

===

 

[VirtualLarry]

2) Quad-core AMD Athlon II X4 630 2.8Ghz AM3, in an AM2+ mobo with NV chipset, 2x4GB DDR2 (only two RAM slots), GT740 1GB GDDR5, includes legit Win7 64-bit, currently has 120GB SSD.

Well, I'm putting Win10 Home 64-bit 1511 on this one too, just because. I put the GT740 in too.

While I've got this thread open, can anyone comment on what kind of games that this PC would be able to play well? Surely there must be some, even if it won't play AAA 2015 games totally satisfactorily.

I built a similar rig for a different friend quite some time ago. His rig had an Athlon X4, and a 9800GT video card, and he played GTA IV pretty well on it, being a true quad-core.

So, excluding AAA 2015 titles like Witcher 3, I think it should be able to play some games, at the very least.

Edit: Looking here:
http://www.game-debate.com/games/index.php?g_id=3072&game=Saints Row 4
It should be able to play Saint's Row 4, so either PC would be OK, in the short term, for my friend's daughter. But longer term, and newer games, the i3 might stretch its legs a little more.

 

[skipsneeky2]

Well, I'm putting Win10 Home 64-bit 1511 on this one too, just because. I put the GT740 in too.

While I've got this thread open, can anyone comment on what kind of games that this PC would be able to play well? Surely there must be some, even if it won't play AAA 2015 games totally satisfactorily.

Most demanding games i own are BF4,GTA V .BF4 and GTA V can play all low at 768p with 60+fps and be pretty damn smooth with the i3 3225 i had paired with the gtx650/gt 740.GTA V likes vram so going outside of 900p low in GTA V isn't idea but upwards of 900p you should clock in 40+ fps all the time.

BF4 if you don't mind dips into the lower 40's,you can run 768p all medium without a problem if you drop msaa but cause of vram and performance the card works best as a 900p low gpu.

GTA V if you don't mind the investment gains a huge fps boost especially with higher settings outside of low if you switch from a i3 to a i5.I did some testing some time back that confirms this.It sits in the GTA V cpu thread.

 

[Denithor]

Larry, no need to worry about PSU as long as it's a solid brand.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7764/the-nvidia-geforce-gtx-750-ti-and-gtx-750-review-maxwell/22

These cards pull so little power it's crazy. I have a Dell version of the 750 Ti that doesn't even have the six-pin power plug, it just pulls all power through the PCIe socket (meaning 75W max iirc). In the review above, the load power draw was under 200W for the entire system including an overclocked i7-4960X with 32GB of DDR3. So, yeah...

 

[Fanatical Meat]

^^what is said above

From experience I have put a 9500 Pro (old school from 2002?) in a gateway with a 200 watt PS. People said I'd blow a cap or damage the motherboard. It worked fine for 4 years. I also put an 850XT in a old Dell, people said the same thing and to tho day it works fine. OEM power supplies seem to be more powerful & robust than what they get credit for.