KSP1 Computer Building/Buying Megathread

[Elthy]

Several things:

You have an outdated Kabylake CPU in this build, the new Coffee Lake CPUs offer more cores for the same price. Alternatively you should consider a Ryzen processor.

You have a single stick of RAM in there, which halves your possible memory speed. Always go with two sticks when possible.

Your mainboard seems overly expensive, if you dont plan to do much overclocking the cheap ones are usualy good enough.

The CPU cooler is overkill for a budget oriented build, especialy with that GPU. If you want a cheap&quiet cooling solution for the CPU i would suggest a EKL Alpenföhn Brocken Eco.

The GPU is a "Founders Edition" which was Nvidias way to rip of early adopters. Its extremly loud, cant keep the GPU properly cooled (resulting in lowered performance) and often overpriced. The Gainward Phoenix or the Palit Jetstream are the best cooled 1070 versions.

Your PSU has poor efficency, maybe you can find something better for the same price...

Edited December 19, 2017 by Elthy

[Opus_723]

Thanks Elthy! That's exactly the sort of advice I was looking for.

Could you maybe clarify by means of an example what you mean by "the cheap ones" with regards to a mainboard? I don't plan on messing with overclocking, so that sounds great.

Also, what precisely do you mean by the "efficiency" of the PSU (is there a particular number you're looking at?), so that I can look for something better?

[linuxgurugamer]

On 12/13/2017 at 5:03 PM, sh1pman said:

I wouldn’t be so sure about that. I have an i7-4790k, gtx1070 and 16 gigs of RAM, and I have serious issues running the game at acceptable framerates. I have GPP (with Kopernicus), EVE and Scatterer installed, and sometimes I get framerates as low as 10 fps with 60-part MKS surface bases. In stock game I can have 500-part vessels and stable 60 fps. Mods can really destroy the game performance.

It depends on which mods you have installed

[invision]

the case and ram showed up, now waiting on everything else.

[invision]

11 hours ago, Opus_723 said:

11 hours ago, Opus_723 said:

I'm getting ready to attempt building my first PC. I've got a part list that's just a slight modification on a Logical Increments build, but I would still like to trim down the price some more. I know very little about this stuff, so I thought I could get advice from some more knowledgeable folks on how to build something of *roughly* this performance level for the best value. I don't care if it ends up sacrificing some performance, I just picked this out as a rough ballpark. But I don't really know all the pros/cons of, say, using a cheaper motherboard, or whether I can skimp on the cooling or not, or whether there is another graphics card with better value and only slightly worse performance. That sort of thing.

It's just the "Excellent" build from Logical Increments, only I picked out a cheaper case and I found a slightly cheaper version of the graphics card at Best Buy that had good reviews. Also, if I have made any mistakes (anything weird about the different graphics card, or maybe that case won't fit certain things well?) please let me know.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/QFNjPs

Thanks!

 

i would get a cheaper MB since you dont want to over clock and save 50.00

you could save another 30.00 buying a hybrid hard drive that has a small SSD inside for windows booting and normal 7200 RPM for everything else and buy the SSD another time.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178996

now take that 80.00 and buy a GTX 1070ti

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814137255

Edited December 20, 2017 by invision

[Elthy]

Those integrated SSD/HDD combos arent realy worth it, the SSD part is way to small (not even specified on the page). A 1070ti wouldnt realy bring him much more performance (its about 12% faster) while robbing him of a proper SSD, which would speed up his PC more than any other possible hardwareupgrade combined.

10 hours ago, Opus_723 said:

Could you maybe clarify by means of an example what you mean by "the cheap ones" with regards to a mainboard? I don't plan on messing with overclocking, so that sounds great.

Also, what precisely do you mean by the "efficiency" of the PSU (is there a particular number you're looking at?), so that I can look for something better?

Currently there are two great options for great value CPUs: The AMD R5 1600 and the Intel i5 8400. Both have 6 cores, the AMD one is slightly faster in multithreaded workloads (as video rendering or gaming while doint other stuff in parallel, e.g. streaming) while the Intel one is a bit better in single threaded tasks, e.g. old games like KSP. I have no idea how the prices are for you, but in Germany AMD is a lot cheaper since you only need a B350 mainboard (good ones come at 80€) while Intel mainboards start at 105€. Also the i5 is almost impossible to get for 190€ (which the R5 costs) due to extremly low stock form intel.

For AMD mainboards i would choose the MSI B350 PC Mate, for Intel i would go for the ASRock Z370 Pro. Both come witha Type C USB port, which will come in handy.

 

The efficency of the PSU is stated in 80+ classes, its roughly the percentage of power conversion efficency. 80+ bronze is the lowest tier, afaik there are at least 80+ silver available at that pricepoint. It wont make your pc faster, but more quiet and less costly in the long run...

[invision]

the pc parts are on a truck for delivery except.........the power supply........NEWEGG PLZ!

looks like ill be recycling the one in this pc for a few days cause it will drive me insane knowing its all there otherwise.

 

[Albert_E_A]

Hello you wonderful people out there, I am getting a new computer for christmas time, But I dont know where to spend all the funds...

My budget is 1100 dollars (or  10 000 swedish crowns). That includes keyboard tower and screen. I do have speakers and headphones. And also a mouse. So, no problem there. And I am ready to assemble all the parts myself. Lets cross fingers and hope for the best... NO, just kidding, I never cross my fingers, I just hope for the best  

My main goal with this setup is to play kerbal space program and do some video and photo editing (go cores, GO!!). But I do want to play more graphically intense games too. Like Fallout 4, Subnautica. And they aren't the most intense games from what I know...

By the way, I am upgrading from an old macbook pro (13" 2011, 8gb ram, i5 2435m and intel hd 3000 mobile(just a recommendation if you are using an macbook pro unibody(old), open it and remove the fan blow out all dust you can see, improved my thermals greatly)). 

And I am going to use lots of mods, tho not many graphics mods.

Thank you so much for your advice!

[Vanamonde]

Welcome to the forum, @Albert_E_A. Your question has been merged into the master thread for this sort of thing. 

[invision]

26 minutes ago, Albert_E_A said:

Hello you wonderful people out there, I am getting a new computer for christmas time, But I dont know where to spend all the funds...

My budget is 1100 dollars (or  10 000 swedish crowns). That includes keyboard tower and screen. I do have speakers and headphones. And also a mouse. So, no problem there. And I am ready to assemble all the parts myself. Lets cross fingers and hope for the best... NO, just kidding, I never cross my fingers, I just hope for the best  

My main goal with this setup is to play kerbal space program and do some video and photo editing (go cores, GO!!). But I do want to play more graphically intense games too. Like Fallout 4, Subnautica. And they aren't the most intense games from what I know...

By the way, I am upgrading from an old macbook pro (13" 2011, 8gb ram, i5 2435m and intel hd 3000 mobile(just a recommendation if you are using an macbook pro unibody(old), open it and remove the fan blow out all dust you can see, improved my thermals greatly)). 

And I am going to use lots of mods, tho not many graphics mods.

Thank you so much for your advice!

a good rule of thumb is place about 50% of the entire cost of the tower into the video card if you want the best possible gaming experience.

Ryzen 5 1600 CPU will most likely be the best choice as you want to edit videos and such. $200.00

16gigs of ram is a must and sadly ram and videocards are at insane prices. 200.00

unless you plan on overclocking heavily you dont need a super fancy motherboard. 75.00

1 terabyte hard drives are cheap 50.00

450-500 watt power supply 60.00

case 50.00

and that leaves you 350.00 for the graphics card

and 150.00 for a monitor

you easily be able to play any game at 1080p ultra settings

 

 

 

[Albert_E_A]

That was really quick... Way quicker than I expected. Thank you so much!!

[qzgy]

I would contest your recommendations @invision...

I know Albert wants to do some video editing and stuff, but AFAIK, KSP benefits from a better singlethreaded CPU performance, which (IIRC) is better on intel processors. As far as ram - I'm currently running fine on 8GB (mostly), but yeah, prices are insane. I would also pay a little less into the Graphics card and a bit more into a power supply (like 30 dollars or so.) The 1060 I run is enough to run stuff at 1440p so I think it should be sufficient for stuff at 1080p.

[invision]

3 hours ago, qzgy said:

I would contest your recommendations @invision...

I know Albert wants to do some video editing and stuff, but AFAIK, KSP benefits from a better singlethreaded CPU performance, which (IIRC) is better on intel processors. As far as ram - I'm currently running fine on 8GB (mostly), but yeah, prices are insane. I would also pay a little less into the Graphics card and a bit more into a power supply (like 30 dollars or so.) The 1060 I run is enough to run stuff at 1440p so I think it should be sufficient for stuff at 1080p.

that be true if KSP was the only game he plays, all other new games run 4 cores and will start to use more as time goes on.

also some games use more than 8 gigs of ram like Battlefield and Mass Effect where it will chew up 10-12gigs at any time.

my KSP uses 5 gigs with mods and if i had 8 gig id be close to max with other things running

its all good tho it gives the OP more to consider before purchasing

Edited December 22, 2017 by invision

[Elthy]

Do not forget an SSD, its the most important part in a PC.

[Albert_E_A]

What do you think about the next ryzen generation?

Maybe I could go for the ryzen 3 1200 and then wait for the next ryzen lineup. And of course upgrade then.

Would that be stupid or would it be an great idea?

Edited December 22, 2017 by Albert_E_A
Make some things clearer

[Harry Rhodan]

2 hours ago, Albert_E_A said:

What do you think about the next ryzen generation?

It will be a fairly minor update of the current generation. If it is like the last few Core i generations you can expect the same models with about 100~200MHz more. That is not really worth waiting and paying 50% extra for a temporary processor.

[Albert_E_A]

49 minutes ago, Harry Rhodan said:

It will be a fairly minor update of the current generation. If it is like the last few Core i generations you can expect the same models with about 100~200MHz more. That is not really worth waiting and paying 50% extra for a temporary processor.

You arr probablybright  

[invision]

10 hours ago, Albert_E_A said:

What do you think about the next ryzen generation?

Maybe I could go for the ryzen 3 1200 and then wait for the next ryzen lineup. And of course upgrade then.

Would that be stupid or would it be an great idea?

its more a refresh than an upgrade, and at 99.99 its a pretty safe purchase to do now rather than wait

[Albert_E_A]

Ok

[qzgy]

15 hours ago, Elthy said:

Do not forget an SSD, its the most important part in a PC.

Not really.....

[invision]

so right now i want to kick kerbal babies

 

got the pc built and it took hours.....ugh....got MB in and missed a stand off.....had to start over........

put mb back in and install CPU, go to install heatsink and....nope.....need to take off clips on MB it dont fit like that so had to start over

installed the heat sink and its too big and covers the ram slot.....what....the....hell......EVO 212 problems 

okay stock heatsink it is, its actually nice so not too much of loss but it doesnt look as badass.

GPU and ram go in as planned lol

i bought 3 better fans for the rear and top exhaust. unscrewing case fans will make you hate life, 2 screws stripped and had to remove them with pliers. i found a flat head screwdriver that fit in the screws better than the pillips so i ended up using that, and the rest of the fan installs went much easier.

got all the wires nice and hidden, kept as short as possible so everything looks nice and open.

steal CD drive from this pc and get windows 7 disc and then upgrade to 10

push power and hope for the best

woot it posts!

set the bios things, ram hates its stock speed and crashes...will fiddle later

okay lets boot windows.....loading........select language.....hmmmm my keyboard has stopped working.....try everything for 30min resort to google

so you wanna run windows 7 on ryzen do ya? well that aint happening the way you want it too.....why?apparently someone though it was a good idea at Asrock (motherboard) to not have legacy  ps/2 support in the bios...i mean who needs that stuff anyways amirite? 

so what happens is windows will boot but because ryzen isnt supported CPU and my motherboard doesnt have legacy ps/2 support the USB ports on the computer dont work so the keyboard isnt detected.......nice.

so tomorrow ill go buy a dinosaur keyboard so i can finally install windows lol

thats my excitement for tonight.

 

 

 

[Albert_E_A]

3 hours ago, invision said:

so right now i want to kick kerbal babies

 

got the pc built and it took hours.....ugh....got MB in and missed a stand off.....had to start over........

put mb back in and install CPU, go to install heatsink and....nope.....need to take off clips on MB it dont fit like that so had to start over

installed the heat sink and its too big and covers the ram slot.....what....the....hell......EVO 212 problems 

okay stock heatsink it is, its actually nice so not too much of loss but it doesnt look as badass.

GPU and ram go in as planned lol

i bought 3 better fans for the rear and top exhaust. unscrewing case fans will make you hate life, 2 screws stripped and had to remove them with pliers. i found a flat head screwdriver that fit in the screws better than the pillips so i ended up using that, and the rest of the fan installs went much easier.

got all the wires nice and hidden, kept as short as possible so everything looks nice and open.

steal CD drive from this pc and get windows 7 disc and then upgrade to 10

push power and hope for the best

woot it posts!

set the bios things, ram hates its stock speed and crashes...will fiddle later

okay lets boot windows.....loading........select language.....hmmmm my keyboard has stopped working.....try everything for 30min resort to google

so you wanna run windows 7 on ryzen do ya? well that aint happening the way you want it too.....why?apparently someone though it was a good idea at Asrock (motherboard) to not have legacy  ps/2 support in the bios...i mean who needs that stuff anyways amirite? 

so what happens is windows will boot but because ryzen isnt supported CPU and my motherboard doesnt have legacy ps/2 support the USB ports on the computer dont work so the keyboard isnt detected.......nice.

so tomorrow ill go buy a dinosaur keyboard so i can finally install windows lol

thats my excitement for tonight.

 

 

 

What a day!  Good luck!

[Harry Rhodan]

5 hours ago, invision said:

so you wanna run windows 7 on ryzen do ya?

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO

[Elthy]

12 hours ago, qzgy said:

Not really.....

It is, there is no upgrade Upgarde in the last decades that improved a PC that much. A 5 year old mainstream PC with an SSD will feel orders of magnitude faster than a current enthusiast build with a HDD. An SSD wont improve FPS in most games, true. But EVERYTHING else will be so much faster you will never want to work ona HDD PC again.

Ryzen (and Intel Kaby/Coffee Lake CPUs) are not supported by Windows 7 and wont get official security updates. Afaik there is some way around those issues, but i wouldnt rely on them...

[qzgy]

1 hour ago, Elthy said:

It is, there is no upgrade Upgarde in the last decades that improved a PC that much. A 5 year old mainstream PC with an SSD will feel orders of magnitude faster than a current enthusiast build with a HDD. An SSD wont improve FPS in most games, true. But EVERYTHING else will be so much faster you will never want to work ona HDD PC again.

Ryzen (and Intel Kaby/Coffee Lake CPUs) are not supported by Windows 7 and wont get official security updates. Afaik there is some way around those issues, but i wouldnt rely on them...

Yes as a usability thing, SSDs are amazing. Are the essential? No. I have a nice shiny fancy computer and it still has a hard disk cause I only have a tiny SSD which is full. Also, I would argue taking a crap machine and sticking in the latest and greatest Graphics card will give you more of a performance boost in game, assuming that it originally didn't have one or it was a really crappy graphics card.