KSP1 Computer Building/Buying Megathread

[Endersmens]

1 minute ago, Alphasus said:

Just make sure that you have a 240 GB BX-200, 16 GB RAM, and WiFi.

check, check, and check.

[Alphasus]

Just now, Endersmens said:

check, check, and check.

Do you have a CPU that you are happy with, and can you afford a 1060 3GB or 6GB?

[Endersmens]

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/jtbP3F

Am back to scouting for a used monitor. CPU is fine AFAIK, and I will be getting the 1060 in a few weeks. (I plan on putting the PC together and getting it booted and using it for a while before I can afford the card, that way I still have a computer. The i5 has built in graphcis)

[Alphasus]

33 minutes ago, Endersmens said:

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/jtbP3F

Am back to scouting for a used monitor. CPU is fine AFAIK, and I will be getting the 1060 in a few weeks. (I plan on putting the PC together and getting it booted and using it for a while before I can afford the card, that way I still have a computer. The i5 has built in graphcis)

Good idea, the 1060 should be out of stock for 2 weeks as is. Save up for the 6 GB by the way.

[Endersmens]

Ok. I am committing now. Currently purchasing the CPU and Motherboard, and will purchase everything but the PSU, Monitor, and GPU today. Thanks for all your help guys! This build is much, much better than what I started with and I have a feeling it will do everything I want and more.  

[Camacha]

1 hour ago, Endersmens said:

Ok. I am committing now. Currently purchasing the CPU and Motherboard, and will purchase everything but the PSU, Monitor, and GPU today. Thanks for all your help guys! This build is much, much better than what I started with and I have a feeling it will do everything I want and more.  

Alea iacta est.

[Endersmens]

28 minutes ago, Camacha said:

Alea iacta est.

Actually, both places I ordered from have money back returns, so technically I could turn back. But I don't have a reason to as of now.  

Edited July 18, 2016 by Endersmens

[Guest]

Well, I've got the money now, so I'm going to be ordering the parts to my new computer in the next few days.  

Processor	Intel Core i5-4460
RAM	8 GB DDR3
Motherboard	MSI Micro ATX
Graphics	ASUS GeForce GTX 750Ti GDDR5 2GB, etc, etc.

 

So, yeah.  There's more, but I'm leaving a lot out.  I do plan to eventually upgrade to 16 GB of ram and even further along move to a GTX 970 or above.

[Jeb-head-mug kerman]

Hello Fellow kerbonauts! I have a big question i want to ask the KSP community, you see i am thinking on buying a new 

computer. Right now i am using a MacBook Air and its not good for gaming (& and for designing my own games) so i am

planing to buy a ASUS something... i don't now if they are really good for gaming but i think they are, but i am mostly asking the Squad Staff about this because you need a good comp to design a game like that. Do you have and suggestions? Please tell me soon.

 

 

 

Edited July 19, 2016 by Jeb-head-mug kerman

[Gaarst]

1. Don't buy a laptop
2. You want CPU power. Especially single thread performance (multithreading only occurs when simulating several crafts). An i5 is usually enough, no need for an i7
3. GPU is not that important
4. RAM is not that important, just don't try to play KSP with 4GB, but no need for 64GB. 8GB is fine for a "casual" use, if you want to play with a lot of mods, go for 16GB.
5. Don't buy a "gaming" computer. You'll pay it twice as much than if you put the pieces together yourself

Also, there is a thread that might help you, stickied in the Lounge.

(Note that these are things I think, might not be the best way to make a KSP-built computer, but it should be a good start. Wait for other people to comment before making any decision).

As Endersmens noted, I forgot to mention these guidelines are for a computer specifically built for KSP. Things get different for other uses.

Edited July 19, 2016 by Gaarst

[Kozak]

everything gaarst said.

[Endersmens]

2 hours ago, CliftonM said:

Well, I've got the money now, so I'm going to be ordering the parts to my new computer in the next few days.  

Processor	Intel Core i5-4460
RAM	8 GB DDR3
Motherboard	MSI Micro ATX
Graphics	ASUS GeForce GTX 750Ti GDDR5 2GB, etc, etc.

 

So, yeah.  There's more, but I'm leaving a lot out.  I do plan to eventually upgrade to 16 GB of ram and even further along move to a GTX 970 or above.

go 1060 if you're gonna upgrade.  They've turned me, and now I'm gonna turn you. Just looks at the specs, and the price.  

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Endersmens said:

go 1060 if you're gonna upgrade.  They've turned me, and now I'm gonna turn you. Just looks at the specs, and the price.  

I will now go with a 1060 when I upgrade.   Maybe even a 1070.  

Edited July 19, 2016 by Guest

[Endersmens]

2 minutes ago, CliftonM said:

I will now go with a 1060 when I upgrade.   Maybe even a 1070.  

Where's my staples button? Cause that was easy  

It is a no brainer, I fought it for a bit because of budget, but then I realized for 25% more money I could get 200% more performance than from the 960.  

[Vanamonde]

Computer purchase question merged into the master thread for this sort of thing. 

[Endersmens]

6 hours ago, Gaarst said:

1. Don't buy a laptop
2. You want CPU power. Especially single thread performance (multithreading only occurs when simulating several crafts). An i5 is usually enough, no need for an i7
3. GPU is not that important
4. RAM is not that important, just don't try to play KSP with 4GB, but no need for 64GB. 8GB is fine for a "casual" use, if you want to play with a lot of mods, go for 16GB.
5. Don't buy a "gaming" computer. You'll pay it twice as much than if you put the pieces together yourself

Also, there is a thread that might help you, stickied in the Lounge.

(Note that these are things I think, might not be the best way to make a KSP-built computer, but it should be a good start. Wait for other people to comment before making any decision).

He never said he needed a good computer for KSP. KSP wasn't even mentioned. He said for gaming *and for designing games.* which might mean he would want something other than a ksp build, which has always been high single core speed and not very many cores. For game dev I would think having more cores would be a benefit, it sure is in animation/image rendering in a program like blender. A video card would serve this purpose good as well. Don't get me wrong, your advice is great, if he asked for a KSP computer. I just feel like everyone defaults to a KSP build even when the person never asked for a KSP build. Maybe I'm wrong, who knows. Just thought I'd throw that out there.  

[Camacha]

8 hours ago, Jeb-head-mug kerman said:

Hello Fellow kerbonauts! I have a big question i want to ask the KSP community, you see i am thinking on buying a new 

computer. Right now i am using a MacBook Air and its not good for gaming (& and for designing my own games) so i am

planing to buy a ASUS something... i don't now if they are really good for gaming but i think they are, but i am mostly asking the Squad Staff about this because you need a good comp to design a game like that. Do you have and suggestions? Please tell me soon.

Define designing a game. It largely depends on the choices you make what would be a good computer. What engine are you going to use, on what kind of development is going to be the emphasis (coding/assets/et cetera), what kind of game(s) will it be. Without anything specific, saying anything specific becoms hard.

[MircoMars]

since I'm on a very tight budget it's been way too long that I crawl along with my:

AMD Phenom x3 8400 2.1GHz on MSI K9N6PGM2-v2 with 2x 2GB DDR2, featuring a radeon HD 6450.

there, it's out. come back to me once you regained your breath and stopped laughing...

As mentioned my budget is between very tight and non-existent. I fear once I saved more than 600 bucks to invest in proper up to date hardware intel has a i7 9xxx series that supports QDR-ram... thus I'm thinking about gradually investing in older hardware to get the most out of my existing MB. what I'm actually looking at:

AMD Phenom II x6 1055t (6x 2.8GHz @ 95W)	$ 77.-	€ 70,-
2x 4GB DDR2-800	$ 20.-	€ 19,-
GTS 450 2GB DDR5 (2nd step investment)	$ 75.-	€ 68,-
excl. graphics:   (total	$ 97.- $ 172.-	€ 89,- € 157,-)

what do you guys think? for internet stuff, mid-oldish games and ksp, gimping and SketchUpping, should I rather go for a current low-end solution like Intel Pentium G4400 on MSI H110M board with 2x 8GB DDR4-2133 for around € 185,-? would that make me happier?! It would consume way less power, that's for sure....

[Alphasus]

11 hours ago, CliftonM said:

Well, I've got the money now, so I'm going to be ordering the parts to my new computer in the next few days.  

Processor	Intel Core i5-4460
RAM	8 GB DDR3
Motherboard	MSI Micro ATX
Graphics	ASUS GeForce GTX 750Ti GDDR5 2GB, etc, etc.

 

So, yeah.  There's more, but I'm leaving a lot out.  I do plan to eventually upgrade to 16 GB of ram and even further along move to a GTX 970 or above.

Don't order yet. Try this:http://pcpartpicker.com/list/PJpTBP

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6400 2.7GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($179.89 @ OutletPC) 
Motherboard: MSI B150M BAZOOKA Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  ($71.88 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($29.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card  ($109.88 @ OutletPC) 
Total: $391.64
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-19 06:36 EDT-0400

And if you plan to upgrade to a 970, you can likely afford a 1060 or 1070, both of which are quite a bit faster.

 

Edited July 19, 2016 by Alphasus

[Elthy]

How high is the price difference between the i5 6400/6500 for you? Its quite a big upgrade in clockspeed.

Also apparently the GTX 1060 reviews should be online soon, according to some rumors combined with availability of the custom designs. Im realy curios how the prices will look like, the other 10XX series GPUs are still far away from Nvidias recommended price (at least here in germany).

Also im slowly getting mad at the lack of custom designs for the RX 480. Rumors say its because the reference designs sells so well and there are not much chips left for custom designs, but i somehow doubt that. Its selling well, but not that far above expectations...

 

Edit: The 1060 is out, and from the reviews ive read its not as fast as thought before. Apparently its in the range of 5% faster than the RX 480 while using (way) less power. Now the interessting part: Custom designs are allready avaiable at the shops i checked, and with a price of 280€ those are propably a better choice than the reference designs of the RX 480 for 270€. Sadly most reviews are of the (totaly useless) "founders edition" which makes it impossible to recommend anything right now, but its will be interessting to watch the two chips in the next weeks...

Edited July 19, 2016 by Elthy

[Endersmens]

Well, the 1060 is sold out everywhere, as expected. The question is, were those reviews on base clock? Or did they overclock it to 2GHz?

[Alphasus]

4 minutes ago, Endersmens said:

Well, the 1060 is sold out everywhere, as expected. The question is, were those reviews on base clock? Or did they overclock it to 2GHz?

Those were at founders edition clock, so base. Thing is that it can theoretically be overclocked to a far higher speed than the RX 480.

[HafCoJoe]

I'm rocking a 970... 

[Endersmens]

Just now, Alphasus said:

Those were at founders edition clock, so base. Thing is that it can theoretically be overclocked to a far higher speed than the RX 480.

I've seen many people hit 2.025GHz with no other modifications. Just turning up the speed. However, I've also seen that it doesn't totally take the performance to another level. Most people are seeing 6%-9% increase in performance between base clock and 2GHz OC. It is something though, and after overclocking the 1060 puts it's foot down as being better than a 980. (Its nearly identical at base clock)

[Alphasus]

1 minute ago, Endersmens said:

I've seen many people hit 2.025GHz with no other modifications. Just turning up the speed. However, I've also seen that it doesn't totally take the performance to another level. Most people are seeing 6%-9% increase in performance between base clock and 2GHz OC. It is something though, and after overclocking the 1060 puts it's foot down as being better than a 980. (Its nearly identical at base clock)

A 6% increase amplifies 105% on the 480 to 112%, and a 9% bump increases it to 116% over the 480, validating(in a very very very twisted way) their 15% faster claim.