Hardware

[EchoSeven]

The whole headphone idea is great - but you are dead wrong with the soundcard not being important. ESPECIALLY important when you have headphones. I went with just the headphones and board - issue is that when you play some nice music, and get to a silent bit, you will hear noise - also sound reproduction just isn't there.

You will need something quiet for your headphones. Sweet point is around $150 for your headphones - more - going a little silly. Less, you will get poor quality. The best of course, is to go and listen to a pair. You need closed ones, as open back will leak sound and annoy your wife. My recommendation is the Audio Technica ATH M50 (closed). The ATH AD700/x is also wonderful (have a pair), but is open back (the sound flows over your ears, giving you wonderful, wonderful positioning (which is compromised in a closed back headset). If you want to go wild, the 900x is even better. No need to go for more.

This is how to set them up --> http://www.head-fi.org/t/475872/asus-xo ... asic-guide

"At least the 780 GPU's have display ports..." On Video cards, the AMD has display ports too, I am running 3 monitors off a single card, you just need an active box (about $15) for one of the monitors w/ eyefinity.

Edit : Forgot to mention some headphones have high impedance, require an amplifier to work properly - the sound card is amazing because it already has one on board! It also includes replaceable components on the board that let you go silly and custom the board if you suddenly become an audiophile. If you can score one of these things for cheap, awesome!

[MarkusHaven]

THanks I'll remember this. Glad it's posted in here for quick reference

[Avalean]

Well I would say Do Not Do it.
Full game release will not be until well into 2015 it looks like right now and there will be a ton of new hardware coming out between now and then.
Me personally I am waiting, then for Xmas 2014 I will have saved up enough nickles and dimes over the next year to buy me a full monster system as I am also going to be running the occulus and peregrine VR systems with it.

BUT, if you just have to get something now I would say go with minimums, only the basics you would want to run the Alpha and beta testing with for now, save the cash and get yourself a proper and really good system end of 2014 time frame that will last you 4 or 5 years.

Basics for my system will include:
Liquid cooling
32RAM
2X Most updated Graphics cards
Current top of the line CPU
A FUll tower to hold it, the MB and the rest of the extra goodies in.
That is the basics as I will base my purchasing selection on what is available and up to date around November 2014.

But Liquid cooling and full tower will be a must in my book for this machine for sure.
As some have said, I also think your power unit is a bit on the weak side, it is far easier to get the best or highest production power core available. For it is far better to have more power at your touch than you need for now to provide extra when you upgrade "And you will in time", than too little power to run what equipment you currently have.

[EchoSeven]

I don't think you are going with an ueber system, I mean, I have done essentially the same upgrade. I agree with Avalean delay if possible, and if you do, the minimums / system infrastructure (Board / CPU / RAM).

I am sticking with my HD 6870 (even though it is pretty crappy) as long as possible and intend to end up with 2 cooled Asus R9 290's down the track.

You can focus on the peripherals - CH systems, Track IR, a decent sound card. Do what really counts - the Video cards as late as possible.

A good thread for perspective is this one - heaps of perspectives.

http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=9136

Edit : https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.c ... t-and-when (Also interesting)

[MarkusHaven]

I don't even have a PC other than mac mini running windows in bootcamp with 4 G Ram.

I want to build something that can run PC games I might like to play now rather than getting a next gen console.

Whatever I build will be able to last well into the first run of SC and all the alpha/betas. I can upgrade or start over then. I make pretty descent money and I'm not going to sit around until 2015 to decide what to do.

I can understand that decision if you already have a descent PC, but the last one I had was built in 2007 and is currently running a workstation at work for my dental office.

I know there's a lot on the horizon as far as PC's go, but I really think this will always be the case in some shape or form.

I think by playing SC we are all going to have to get used to upgrading and updating frequently.

[Avalean]

Do not fall into the defeatest concepts of "We will have to upgrade frequently"; please. The computer companies will love you but your wallet will destroy you over it.

So you are currently using a MAC no biggie the work around stays the same, Buy only the Minimum for now, save the cash.

Mother board,
a GTX 670 or similar Graph card will work just fine for the next year minimum easy.
Minimum 16 gig DDRM, An old Sound blaster card will still do the job.
Also power supply types and connectors will be changing so only get what you need for now do not worry about over powering for this in between hold over comp.
A basic i7 quad CPU will do you very well for now also.

U/mm lets see,
Power supply
Mother board
CPU
DDRM
Graphics Card
Sound Card "Some boards have their own Sound card on the MB so may not be a big worry for now as well.
A DVD Drive
and a basic 1 or 2 Terr byte HD should be all that you need for now.
Oh of course a Monitor. I would go all out for that one unless you plan to upgrade and run multiples then I would suggest a minimum of three for the full effect.

Then as the others have stated, work more on the keepables, the headset, joystick, mouse and such which will easily move to the new system once it is built end of 2014 or so.
You could even go with a mini tower for this if you plan to keep it as a emergency back up system or to pass it on like I do with mine to my nieces and nephews.

but in the end the concept is go as cheap and inexpensive as possible for now and save the nickles and dimes for later.
best of luck.

[MarkusHaven]

I appreciate everyone's input, keeps the conversation interesting. But I do think that SC will push the boundaries more than most games for several reasons 1) they have stated so... CR has no reason to hold back. This is his baby and it's all privately funded 2) He has a lot to accomplish to bring forth his dream game 3) resolution capability and graphic potential is about to explode and that will take a lot of computing power to render.

I'm not saying we will all have to keep upgrading frequently.... I'm saying that we can because the benefits of doing so on the higher end will be there.

My mac mini will barely run the alpha hanger. It's already crashed once just walking around. I haven't had a new gaming PC in almost 8 years, so its definitely my turn to build something even if it's for playing other PC games while I wait. If we don't HAVE to upgrade frequently then there is no harm in building what I can afford now and tweaking it all later. I think the capability of 3-4 way SLI with 780's and a 6 core i7 will keep me going for a long while even if I decided to throw in a 4K monitor down the road.

If I had a 2-4 year old PC that was doing ok, then I totally agree with waiting for the game to be more released in the end of 2014 and then see where to spend those nickels and dimes.

[MarkusHaven]

Getting closer to the actual build. I've bought the CASE (FRACTAL DESIGN DEFINE with window), the PSU (EVGA Gold 1000W full modular) , and a HDD (Toshiba 2 TB).

I've decided to go with a i7 4770K (quad core), 16RAM, ASUS sabertooth mobo, R9 290 video card, 256G SSD (evo), blu ray reading CD/DVD writer. This is all with the capability of easily placing another R9 290 card in later.

I'm going to leave off the sound card for now and can always liquid cool later, but I am getting a nice BE QUIET cpu cooler and some extra fans.

[Wave]

Something I was looking at that will help; when you go to install your OS and everything, make sure your BIOs are set up to recognize AHCI mode, instead of Legacy IDE mode, since IDE doesn't go at 6GB/s speeds. You can do this afterwards, but it requires changes to the registry, which I did last week.

Doing this got my windows Experience Index rating on hard drive speed from 7.4 to 7.8, out of a possible 7.9 on windows 7 ultimate.

[MarkusHaven]

I'll pass that on to my IT friend who is helping me build it. I think I'm favoring the GTX 780 now over the R9 290. I just can't make up my mind.