Ultimate OFP Gaming Rig

[Tigershark_BAS 0]

I'll try and get this thread started and hopefully people will run with it.

Mods, could you please make this topic a sticky.

Objective of Thread

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This thread has been created as source of community inspiration and advice on hardware for a gaming rig that will support the OFP of now and even future version of OFP that may released.

People can access this thread to view recommended hardware configurations and gain some information on why the components for the rig were selected.

What is in this thread?

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The thread contains both "Best bang for buck" hardware recommendations as well as "Money is no object" recommendations.

Who can contribute?

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Anyone is welcome to contribute their interpretation of the "ultimate OFP rig" but we ask that you don't engage in debates about other peoples submissions and that we keep the posts simply to recommendations.

Rules for this thread

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1. With your hardware recommendations please offer as much information about why you selected certain components. This will allow the reader to draw their own conclusions from your recommendations.

2. Refrain from questioning recommendations in the thread. If you have a question please contact the author directly using a PM for further information.

3. For those who add recommendations and you wish to update your "ultimate rig" with new hardware specs, please edit YOUR ORIGINAL POST and DO NOT create a new post with the new recommendation.

4. Any brand of processor/mother booard/video card is welcome in your recommendation. Please refrain from any arguments about which is better. When you post your recommendation try and explain to the reader why your selection may be superior to the competition product.

[Tigershark_BAS 0]

Suggested format for Submissions

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Recomendation Type: (Bang for Buck or Money No Object)

Motherboard: (Manufacturer and Model including any justification)

Processor: (Manufacturer and Model including any justification)

Graphics card: (Manufacturer and Model including any justification)

Memory: (Amount, Manufacturer and Model including any justification)

Hard drive: (Size, Manufacturer and Model including any justification)

Sound card: (Manufacturer and Model including any justification)

DVD/CD: (Manufacturer and Model including any justification)

Case: (Manufacturer and Model including any justification)

Power Supply: (Manufacturer and Model including any justification)

Comments: Any general comments explaining above selections and maybe even some links justifying your picks or providing any extra information.

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

Quote[/b] ]Motherboard: (Manufacturer and Model including any justification)

DFI SLI DR Expert

DFI is definetly the best Board manufacturer currently on the market, at least this is what the modding scene out there declares. The board shown above still doesnt support 2x16 pipelines in Sli but 2x8 will still be more than enough during the next year. I tested my card yesterday at 16 pipelines and then at 8 pipelines, the differences were insignificant and probably due to some other minor differences between the 2 tests!

In contrast to Asus the boards from DFI have the best Tuning potential (and TONS of great accessories). The layout of the board is better. The 8AN32 from Asus is not comparable yet, too young! I bet when you put in 2 Sli cards they will melt in a day. The Asus SLI Premium on the other hand cant be used in all cases because of the rather weak passive cooling. The SLI Deluxe from Asus has a bad fan which is known to get loud or break within weeks. But Asus sends replacements for free (of course by that I mean they only send you a new fan )!

Quote[/b] ]Processor: (Manufacturer and Model including any justification)

Athlon 64 X2 4200

I hear so much complaining about dual core and that it isnt realy supported yet by neither by Windows nor by Games. Maybe thats true. But the Futuremark benchmarks I carried out yesterday with my Dual Core Processor were more than just satisfactory and for the price already quite competitive. I believe in the future software will adapt a bit more to this technology. So I suggest Athlon X2 4200

Quote[/b] ]Graphics card: (Manufacturer and Model including any justification)

Asus Extreme N7800GTX

It just costs a little bit more than the ordinary 7800GTX but proofs to be much quicker in games. see Toms Hardware. Why not taking Ati? Well I always did up until today.The major problem these days is ATIs availability and price.

Quote[/b] ]Memory: (Amount, Manufacturer and Model including any justification)

OCZ in combination with DFI offers great opportunities for Tuning. If you dont want to tune them, well then you can buy any you want. I think nowadays 2048 MB Ram realy makes a difference. The advantage nowadays is, you can buy just one with 1024 and it will work, and you buy more, whenever you can afford it.

Quote[/b] ]Power Supply: (Manufacturer and Model including any justification)

Well, we already had that discussion here not to long ago. I bought a Be Quiet with 520 Watt. Important is not the total Watt power but the Amper performance on 12V.

Quote[/b] ]Case: (Manufacturer and Model including any justification)

Well, you see, here it realy depends. I bought a realy "trendy" case and I seem to have problems to keep it cold. If you wish to go for a proven functional case then the Chieftec Mesh is definetly the best. Nothing beats the clear unproblematic architecture, the perfect cooling opportunities and the tons of tons of accessories you can buy for it. Probably the most sold Midi Tower in Germany. However I dont want to take the prooven best, thats boring. I like getting angry and insulting the stupid foreign engineers because they have three holes for harddrive-fans but none for the graphic card. And I love trying to find a silly solution myself.

the best solutions I came up with untill yesterday evening. I am still checking how I can make this board satisfy me needs.

http://img476.imageshack.us/img476/5884/comp21uz.jpg

http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/2558/computer1xg.jpg

temps are not soo good

http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/9315/heat1xy.jpg

[Heatseeker 0]

Erm... Ultimate Flashpoint rig Albert . I doubt OPF will use 1 third of that beast you got there .

This could be moved to the flashpoint general area of the forum? .

[monkeygoat 0]

Erm... Ultimate Flashpoint rig Albert . I doubt OPF will use 1 third of that beast you got there .

This could be moved to the flashpoint general area of the forum? .

I believe the point of this thread is to inform people of the current cream of the crop hardware and the more budget orientated hardware too. If it were only for OFP we may as well just post specs from a 3 year old rig.

[BlackScorpion 0]

My rig is 2 years old and OFP still doesn't run perfectly... I very rarely get over 40 fps when actually playing...

[echo1 0]

My old system (2.26GHz P4, 512MB RDRAM, 64MB Quadro4 700XGL) worked perfectly with ofp on good settings, but when I started using mods and dxdll, it was slow as hell. My idea of a good midrange gaming pc spec (face it, how many people have the money for a 7800GTX just lying around ) would be:

CPU: Athlon 64 3500: Dual core isnt likely to be a necessity for a good while, and by the time everyone has to have it, the current creme of the crop are going to be outdated and slow. At the moment if you dont want to spend too much, the 3500+ provides excelent performance-for-money.

RAM: Corsair or Crucial Value, 1024MB: Corsair and Crucial are well known for their ridiculously exoensive overclockers RAM, but their cheaper stuff is still excelent. Avoid buying cheap RAM, this will impede the performance of your system. 1GB of RAM is the minimum for a gaming PC.

Graphics: Radeon X800GTO, GeForce 6800GT: These are at the upper end of the midrange section, and provide the best value for money. Flashpoint will happily work with a GeForce FX 5 or a Radeon 9800, but the newer games need a better card to be playable. Note that although the 6800GT is somewhat more expensive, it is more suited for games that require HDR, as most ATi cards dont support HDR.

Hard Disk: 250GB SATA-2: SATA-2 is very fast, and thus chops down loading times. Its also faster than a SATA-1 RAID, and doesnt require as much system power.

Sound Card: Soundblaster Live: If your motherboard doesnt have good integrated sound, the Soundblaster provides excelent sound quality, and doesnt cost alot of money.

PSU: Seasonic 500W: Seasonic has gotten alot of good reviews for its PSUs. Always make sure your PSU comes from a good brand, cheap ones have a nasty tendency to go boom when the PC needs alot of power

EDIT: Check out http://www.komplett.com

[EiZei 0]

Personally I would just call it Hardware thread so you could get all of those "what should I buy" "look at this new fancyass product" "bwaah my computer is broken"-type of messages under one roof so to speak.

[Jinef 2]

The PC I plan to build at some point. Aiming at 2000 US Dollars Max.

Quote[/b] ]

Case: Antec Sonata 2

+

PSU: Antec 450W PSU

Cooling: Optional Antec Fans

MB: Asus A8N-SLI Premium

RAM: DDR 400 (3200) 2GB

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+

HDD 1: Seagate 80GB (OS)

HDD 2: Seagate 80GB (Data)

Drive 1: DVD-ROM = Standard Black DVD-ROM

Drive 2: DVD+-RW = Plextor PX-716A

Drive 3: Floppy = Standard

GPU: ASUS Geforce 7800GT 256MB

Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS (7.1)

Monitor: LG Monitor - CRT, High Refresh Rates, Low Dot Pitch, Flat Screen.

OS: Windows XP Pro X64

Keyboard (PS2)

Optical Mouse (USB)

Headphones + Mic

Surge Protector

As you can see I am not sure about some things. Make some reccomendations please

[Baz 0]

I have a logitech G15 USB keyboard, I recomend it for flashpoint players becasue you can assign 18x3 ( G-key modes) macros for commanding AI. And it works quite well. Also the added backlight feature is a + and so is the LCD screen, which I use to run a 3rd party TS app that shows who joins, leaves and is talking in TS channel you are in. Works similar to an overlay but instead of being on the monitor its on the LCD screen of the keyboard. The keyboard also has a toggle between game and windows mode. So that when you press a windows key accidently while gamming... It will not take you back to windows and crash your game. Has some media keys and mute button... And also has a button to record quick macros on the fly while in game. Though the profile editor lets you do more advanced things. LCD screen also shows CPU and RAM usage as well as Time and in the latest fraps it shows your FPS on the LCD screen instead of in the game its in the LCD screen. The keyboard itself is a little pricey but its not too bad as far as cost wise... To anyone that can afford to get one, I recomend that they do. No more guessing who's talking on TS or who joins or leaves

[EiZei 0]

HDD 1: Seagate 80GB (OS)

HDD 2: Seagate 80GB (Data)

Why not get one big 200GB hard drive instead? Costs less, generates less heat and takes less power.

[Commando84 0]

yeah or a 120 gig and a 80 gig if you want to save money

im thinking you want a harddrive with windows on and another with games & stuff on jinef?

[EiZei 0]

yeah or a 120 gig and a 80 gig if you want to save money

im thinking you want a harddrive with windows on and another with games & stuff on jinef?

I don't know about hardware prices where you live but around here a decent 7200RPM 80GB hard drive goes for 65-70e cheapest while 90e will get a 200GB drive.

Talk about saving in the wrong place..

[echo1 0]

Im getting one of these for my PC - http://komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=307913&cks=SPK I was originally considering getting a 600GB RAID but I decided against it. I have read alot of great reviews about the drive, and I'll post any info when I get to test it.

[Heatseeker 0]

Sound Card: Soundblaster Live: If your motherboard doesnt have good integrated sound, the Soundblaster provides excelent sound quality, and doesnt cost alot of money.

Dont do that . Go with audigy2 zs, sob live isnt supported for a very long time and i experienced issues with some games (OPF included) in the past, think there are better onboard options around .

[Acecombat 0]

You guys know any good SCSI drives? Plus is there fast speed any beneficial to the FPS of games or so as the access to it is faster along with quick paging memory (i assume).

[bn880 5]

HDD 1: Seagate 80GB (OS)

HDD 2: Seagate 80GB (Data)

Why not get one big 200GB hard drive instead? Costs less, generates less heat and takes less power.

Ah there are a few small reasons.

One, data integrity, you are less likely to be SOL if one fails. (you can preinstall a bootable OS on both if you want)

Two, you can set up a swap file on the second HDD, meaning the CPU can interface with both at the same tiem while it may be reading a piece of software and writing a swap file.

Three, it finally gives you a reason to have a PSU of 600W..... (well not really)

[EiZei 0]

HDD 1: Seagate 80GB (OS)

HDD 2: Seagate 80GB (Data)

Why not get one big 200GB hard drive instead? Costs less, generates less heat and takes less power.

Ah there are a few small reasons.

One, data integrity, you are less likely to be SOL if one fails. (you can preinstall a bootable OS on both if you want)

Two, you can set up a swap file on the second HDD, meaning the CPU can interface with both at the same tiem while it may be reading a piece of software and writing a swap file.

Well, why not buy two 120GiB - 160GiB drives then? Almost as expensive.

[bn880 5]

I don't know.

[Jinef 2]

Well you bloody geeks decide and I will do as I am told!

Btw, i got a 30 dollar PCI-E GFX card and I will get a proper one when ArmA comes out.

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

Well you bloody geeks decide and I will do as I am told!

Btw, i got a 30 dollar PCI-E GFX card and I will get a proper one when ArmA comes out.

For your own cashflow this might be a wise decision, but price-wise this wont help you much. The period before, during and after christmas is the absolute supply-bottleneck. This basically means prices wont go down. If we expect ArmA to come out in january then it will be hard to get your desired card till then (instead of simply a good alternative) and you wont get it cheaper either.

http://www.geizhals.at/deutschland/?phist=155932

[shadow 6]

HDD 1: Seagate 80GB (OS)

HDD 2: Seagate 80GB (Data)

Why not get one big 200GB hard drive instead? Costs less, generates less heat and takes less power.

Ah there are a few small reasons.

One, data integrity, you are less likely to be SOL if one fails. (you can preinstall a bootable OS on both if you want)

What if your data-drive fails?

If you really want a safe disk environment without having to back up your data there is only 2 options:

RAID-1 (mirroring) or RAID-5 (redundancy with a performance boost, but at the cost of storage-space).

My next computer will be running a Adaptec 2420SA controller and 3x300GB S-ATA2 or something in that range in RAID-5. 3x300GB = 600GB. Should be enough for the next year and a half. Could always expand the array with another 300GB to get 900GB in total.

Best of all; no need to worry if a disk dies on me. No data lost.

Some people might say its overkill for a gaming rig, personally I see it as a way to continue to not do backups and get a performance-boost at the same time (not so much when writing ofcourse).

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

Excuse my naivety, but what exactly is the use/purpose of a Controller?

[shadow 6]

Excuse my naivety, but what exactly is the use/purpose of a Controller?

A RAID-controller?

Its like a IDE-controller only its for running a disk-array (stripe-set, mirroring etc).

RAID1 is two drives doing the exactl same job (mirroring) so if one drive fails, you can unmount the other drive from the array and start up as normal without any data-loss. RAID1 is safety (disk-redundancy), nothing else.

RAID5 however is alot more complex. I'm not going into the details here, but the idea is that all data is being split up (by the controller) and put on multiple drives at the same time. This is the same as RAID0, but the similarity also stops here. RAID5 automatically adds a parity-bit at the end of the data. That parity-check also takes up some disk-space. That's why you loose one drive in total capacity. The good thing is that thanks to the parity-check you can loose a drive without loosing any data. The more drives the faster the solution, but RAID5 will always be alot slower than RAID0 when writing and slightly slower when reading because reading the non-useable data (parity check) also takes some time.

Ooops! Got a little carried away here. To answer your question: that controller is the heart of the different disk-solutions mentioned here.

In case you were wondering:

Redundant Array of Inexpensive/Independent Drives (depending on wether you ask IBM, Sun or Microsoft)

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

ok, got it! thanks!