Gaming computer specs

[Dave McElderry]

I have a buddy who's looking to replace his 7 year old system with a new computer. The most load that he'll put on it will be what I would classify as low-to-mid-level gaming. He says that he likes to play "First person shooters." When I asked him for examples his response was "Soldier of Fortune," "Golf," and "Flight Simulators." I don't see him as needing a real high end gaming system, but since I don't do games I thought I'd pose the question here. What kind of specs would you recommend for him?

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

I'd consider a Z77 motherboard and an i5 3570 CPU.

[Dave McElderry]

Sounds like you agree that his demands aren't too high, John. Any particular reasons that you chose this combination?

[Bob]

"Flight Simulators"

If any of the games is going to be an issue it will be this one. If he is using MS Flight Simulator X with the scenery and texture packs, it will need a reasonably fast cpu as the graphics are rendered in software -- no gpu accelleration. The i5 3750 is a quad core 3.4 GHZ processor which should be OK. Make sure the boot disk is a 7200 rpm or faster drive and not a "green" drive. An SSD is even better. He probably doesn't need a high end video card, but it should be a discrete card and not integrated graphics.

Why don't you check with him on which flight simulator program he's using and how satisfied he is using it with his current system (what is his current system?). That will give us a better idea of his needs. Also, is there something in particular he is wanting to improve with the new system?

[Dave McElderry]

Good info Bob. Presently he has an old Dimension 5100 series Pentium 4 with integrated graphics, probably 7 years old. I think he bought it thinking that he was going to game with it and then found that it was never able to cope well with the things that he asked of it. He doesn't want to repeat his mistake but, like all of us, he doesn't want to spend more than he needs. He's not presently running Flight Simulator, but has used flight simulator programs in years past and wants to have the ability to do so - wants to purchase a full yoke and pedals controls system. Does this help?

[Bob]

I don't play FSX or know what an optimal system would be. My son-in-law uses MS Flight Simulator X (FSX) with a full yoke and pedals setup. He has the accelerator pack and add on planes and scenery packs including a very high resolution local scenery pack. He just upgraded to a GTX 650 ti video card and an SSD for the system drive and he says it improved FSX load times and play significantly. With animation (cars moving on highways, vehicles moving in airport) off he can run at max with no jumpiness. With animation on, it's still a little jumpy. He has a quad core 2.4GHz cpu, Windows 7 64-bit with 8GB ram. The 3750 at 3.4GHZ will be better.

[Dave McElderry]

Very helpful. That give me a good feel for what will likely be the most intensive load. I do have a question...in your first post you said that FSX doesn't use GPU acceleration. So what did your s-I-l gain by the upgrade to the GTX 650?

[Bob]

That was my recollection, but I may have been confusing FSX with the older FS. I just did some looking and FSX requires DirectX 9 so it's doing something -- textures and shading perhaps? The graphics bandwidth is also faster on the higher end cards. I also saw a number of people recommending the GTS 250 card. That card is not current but falls between the GTX 640 and the GTX 650 in performance. The price isn't that much different, so I'd say, at a minimum, go with the GTX 650. The GTX 650 ti is an even higher performance card than the GTX 650. Do some price comparisons.

[Dave McElderry]

Thanks Bob!

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

Sounds like you agree that his demands aren't too high, John. Any particular reasons that you chose this combination?

It seemed to me to be a good price performance combo without breaking the bank. For example the i5 (versus the i7 3770K) is about UK£100 less and the Gigabyte D3H or Asus LX2 Z77 mobos are about UK£75.

Note that these prices include UK sales tax (VAT) at 20%.

For a serious gaming machine I would have still suggested a Z77 mobo but with an i7 3770K CPU for potential overclocking.

[Dave McElderry]

Thanks John. Much appreciated!