Will my PC Run this? What CPU/GPU to get? What settings? System Specifications.

[Leon86 13]

I already know your Mobo needs to match the CPU (so Intel Core i5 3570K needs a Z77 mobo/chipset) but are there any other compatability issues I need to worry about?

I don't want to buy the wrong parts.

All Z77 motherboards are compatible with the 3570K afaik, but look it up on the motherboards' website (cpu support list) if you want to make sure, same with ddr3 ram (QVL).

only compatibility issue is making sure the case is big enough to fit the gpu and cpu cooler (otherwise the door wont close). with a 7850 and a standard or relatively modest aftermarket cooler this shouldn't be a problem for a standard atx case.

[max power 21]

EDIT: It looked like my earlier message was removed.

What is going on here?? Now it's removed again!

As a new user, your posts require moderator approval.

[ArmaIInoobATM 1]

All Z77 motherboards are compatible with the 3570K afaik, but look it up on the motherboards' website (cpu support list) if you want to make sure, same with ddr3 ram (QVL).

only compatibility issue is making sure the case is big enough to fit the gpu and cpu cooler (otherwise the door wont close). with a 7850 and a standard or relatively modest aftermarket cooler this shouldn't be a problem for a standard atx case.

Thanks. The Hyper 212 Evo fan I want to get is said to be large, but it's okay because I can return the case if it doesn't fit.

I'm ordering some stuff tonight, hopefully will get the PC built on the weekend.

Thank you very much for the help you've all given me. :D

Can't wait! :yay:

[[frl]myke 14]

EDIT: It looked like my earlier message was removed.

What is going on here?? Now it's removed again!

If you would have read the forum rules you've accepted upon registering, you would know what happened. No worries, i gave you another chance to read the rules once again.

[chrisb 196]

I run my HD5850 2gb Toxic (A2 pc) at 7850 stock clocks i.e. 860 & 1200. At the stock speeds of the 5850 it ran the game really well, at the 7850 clock it gains 4-5 fps, still runs smooth on either clock setting.

Now if you go for a 7850 and it overclocks to the same extent, then its happy days..:D

Of course don’t do that straight away…

Good luck with your new build anyway..:)

[ArmaIInoobATM 1]

I run my HD5850 2gb Toxic (A2 pc) at 7850 stock clocks i.e. 860 & 1200. At the stock speeds of the 5850 it ran the game really well, at the 7850 clock it gains 4-5 fps, still runs smooth on either clock setting.

Now if you go for a 7850 and it overclocks to the same extent, then its happy days..:D

Of course don’t do that straight away…

Good luck with your new build anyway..:)

Thanks mate :)

[domokun 515]

EDIT: It looked like my earlier message was removed.

What is going on here?? Now it's removed again!

1. 1.62.98866

2. http://i.minus.com/iKryTRrjC6MES.jpg

3. I understand that but Windows 7 wasn't any better.

4. I have done tweaks.

MP with lowest settings

Single-player with medium settings

1. Good

2. Interesting

3. Really?

4. All of them!? Because if you did you clearly missed the following:

Video Memory: Normal => Default or Very High - varies so to discover which is best run the E08 benchmark at least twice on each setting and choose the setting that offers you the highest framerates

Anisotropic: Disabled => Normal or Higher (yes it'll decrease framerates but the impact is so small on modern cards it's worth it given the visible improvement in visuals)

Antialiasing: Low => disabled

Shadows: Disabled => High or Very High (yes there's a hit but it's worth it)

Together all of these should improve matters.

Finally I'd consider overclocking your CPU.

Until a few months ago, I used to run OA on a E8400 overclocked from 3.0 to 3.8 Ghz. Your E8500 should easily be able to reach 3.6 GHz, even on stock cooling. 3.8 should be possible. An extra 600 or 800 Ghz may not sound like much but OA is, like most milsims, bottle-necked by the CPU most of the time. If you want to go any higher (4.0, 4.2?), I'd suggest an after-market HSF. No need to go with anything expensive, a Cooler Master Hyper 212 offers fantastic performance for only $30/€30.

---------- Post added at 00:08 ---------- Previous post was at 00:03 ----------

I run my HD5850 2gb Toxic (A2 pc) at 7850 stock clocks i.e. 860 & 1200. At the stock speeds of the 5850 it ran the game really well, at the 7850 clock it gains 4-5 fps, still runs smooth on either clock setting.

Now if you go for a 7850 and it overclocks to the same extent, then its happy days..:D

Of course don’t do that straight away…

Good luck with your new build anyway..:)

Quite. My 7850 easily runs at 7870+ speeds.

However I would never OC GPU until you're sure that your CPU is stable.

Take it slow and steady.

Best of luck and enjoy the game.

[ArmaIInoobATM 1]

Final specs:

Case: Cooler Master 430 Windowed

CPU - Intel Core i5 3570K

(CPU Cooler: Hyper 212 Evo)

RAM - Corsair Vengeance 2x4GB DDR3 1600MHz

MOBO - Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H

GPU - HIS HD 7850 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-E Graphics Card

PSU - OCZ ModXStream 600W Pro

OS - Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit

+Monitor, kboard + speakers = £813

[Leon86 13]

I take it you already have a sata harddrive?

[ArmaIInoobATM 1]

I take it you already have a sata harddrive?

No...some people said I didn't need a HDD or SSD.

I suppose I do need one though for all the memory I will need.

Am I right in thinking they're quite cheap though (HDDs)?

---------- Post added at 08:06 ---------- Previous post was at 07:51 ----------

The GA-Z77X-D3H motherboard has a Windows 32-bit operating system limitation :(

So I need the 32-bit version and I was told if you use a 32 bit it halves your RAM

Quote from eBuyer: "Due to Windows 32-bit operating system limitation, when more than 4 GB of physical memory is installed, the actual memory size displayed will be less than 4 GB."

[Leon86 13]

You will need a harddisk or a ssd to install windows on.

and it's not the motherboard that has the ram limitation but the 32bit version of windows, shouldn't be a problem, just install the 64bit version you're ordering and you'll be able to use all of it.

[ArmaIInoobATM 1]

You will need a harddisk or a ssd to install windows on.

and it's not the motherboard that has the ram limitation but the 32bit version of windows, shouldn't be a problem, just install the 64bit version you're ordering and you'll be able to use all of it.

Oh right of course that makes sense now. I feel like a right idiot, bit annoying I've got to get a HDD too but not that bad since I can afford £900 for the whole thing.

It's just the agonising wait for the rest of the components now. I ordered the case, keyboard + speakers and graphics card and they arrived today but they're just sitting there and I can't do anything wtih them. :(

[domokun 515]

Like I said earlier, try to get yourself an SSD.

The sweet spot has risen to 128, even 256 GB.

Seriously mate SSD are the biggest boost in performance since Voodoo

[ArmaIInoobATM 1]

Like I said earlier, try to get yourself an SSD.

The sweet spot has risen to 128, even 256 GB.

Seriously mate SSD are the biggest boost in performance since Voodoo

Ok I'll see what I can afford, TBH I don't want to spend too much more than I really have to though now.

A 120GB SSD is £75

(http://www.amazon.co.uk/OCZ-AGT3-25SAT3-120G-Agility-120GB-SATA/dp/B004Z0S6SO/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1353016275&sr=1-1)

For the same price I can get this HDD:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-255-SE&tool=3

Edited November 15, 2012 by ArmaIInoobATM

[domokun 515]

Ok I'll see what I can afford, TBH I don't want to spend too much more than I really have to though now.

A 120GB SSD is £75

(http://www.amazon.co.uk/OCZ-AGT3-25SAT3-120G-Agility-120GB-SATA/dp/B004Z0S6SO/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1353016275&sr=1-1)

For the same price I can get this HDD:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-255-SE&tool=3

First of all comparing a 120GB SSD to a 2 TB HDD is rather like comparing a 500CC sports bike and a 1.6L family car.

Yes the latter has a bigger engine, bigger boot space and can carry 5 passengers but the sports bike offers MUCH more performance.

The choice is up to you but given the rest of your machine choosing a 2 TB hard drive would be akin to hitching a caravan to TVR ;)

I understand you've got a budget to stick to but if go with an SSD get something decent like this

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-2-5inch-Notebook-Accessory-Norton/dp/B005OK6VJU/ref=zg_bs_430505031_3

Its only £4 more and offers much better performance.

And if you don't have a 2.5" to 3.5" adapator, get this one:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-2-5inch-Desktop-Accessory-Norton/dp/B005OK6VTA/ref=sr_1_4?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1353021105&sr=1-4

Your choice of HDD is good though

[doveman 7]

I wonder how much difference a SSD really makes. Even running from a RAMdisk, which is 6x faster than a SSD, it's not that amazing. Sure, things load a bit faster but you still have to wait, it's not instant (I guess the CPU has to do something with the data as it's loading in and that processing is the bottleneck). Loading DCS World drops from about 2.5mins to 1min. I haven't noticed any great benefit in game with ArmA, trees still show wierd white patches, buildings flicker and the grass right in front of me pops into view as I walk!

[PuFu 4600]

I haven't noticed any great benefit in game with ArmA, trees still show wierd white patches, buildings flicker and the grass right in front of me pops into view as I walk!

ALL of the above have nothing to do with SSD vs HDD or RAMdisk. There is a chance to happen no matter if you buy a 5400 HDD or a 900$ pci ssd.

a. white patches - due to (most likely) some AA settings (depends on card chip manufacturer)

b. flickering - zdepth - there was some sort of driver setting that was suppose to fix this

c. grass pop up - that is due to the limited clutter draw distance.

[doveman 7]

ALL of the above have nothing to do with SSD vs HDD or RAMdisk. There is a chance to happen no matter if you buy a 5400 HDD or a 900$ pci ssd.

That was kind of my point. It's a waste of money buying a SSD in the hope that it's going to make ArmA run wonderfully as it has so many issues that aren't anything to do with disk speed but rather down to the faulty engine. Hopefully BIS will sort the engine out for ArmA3 and then the disk speed might be more important.

I even noticed with the grass/terrain detail turned off that the bare ground ripples (caused by loading a higher quality LOD over the LQ one, not that they look much different) as I walk forward, so it seems to be loading only a couple of feet in front of my at a time, which is ridiculous.

[Leon86 13]

Ssd's are nice for boot and loadtimes, but if you use sleep instead of shutdown you'll have a fast responding system even with a normal hdd (windows caches stuff you acces often in ram, with sleep it stays in ram)

[domokun 515]

Ssd's are nice for boot and loadtimes, but if you use sleep instead of shutdown you'll have a fast responding system even with a normal hdd (windows caches stuff you acces often in ram, with sleep it stays in ram)

Not only that but SSDs also help reduce problems with LoD.

Don't believe me? Take an aircraft (helo or fixed wing) and fly with the draw distance set to 4km. Rinse & repeat using a HDD.

This isn't just an issue with A2/OA but also other modern flight sims, e.g. CoD.

[ArmaIInoobATM 1]

My case has three 5.25" slots (for ODD) and seven (5 hidden) 3.5" slots.

I can't decide yet since there are conflicting opinions.

[Leon86 13]

If you dont have 100GB of stuff to install get an ssd, otherwise get a hdd.

and sure, flying lowlevel over chernarus from a cold start is a good way to get some stutter and lod switching, but after a few passes the problem is gone.

[ArmaIInoobATM 1]

My case has three 5.25" slots (for ODD) and seven (5 hidden) 3.5" slots.

I can't decide yet since there are conflicting opinions.

Sorry for some reason went retarded this morning, yes there should be 2.5" slots, for some reason I was thinking of the front slots for Optical Disk Drives/Floppy Disk Drives and not HDD/SSDs.

By the way I'm going to get the HDD. I have considered your SSD reccommendations but I'll definitely need more space and I'd rather get more for my money right now. I can always upgrade later if I want to and they'll have gone down in price too.

We will build our PC next weekend when we've ordered everything. At the moment we're just looking for the best places to buy everything.

Overclockers is great (got Sleeping Dogs, Far Cry 3, Nexuiz and 20% of Medal of Honour Warfighter with the graphics card, plus £5 off gaming T-Shirts and a packet of Haribos -lol- with the order) but didn't have everything we wanted unfortunately.

Thanks again for everybody who's helped so far! :)

[ArmaIInoobATM 1]

Final specs (no really, final this time) So could you tell me how well this should run Arma II?

CPU - Intel Core i5 3570K

RAM - Corsair Vengeance 2x4GB DDR3 1600MHz

MOBO - Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H

GPU - HIS IceQX Radeon 7850-U

PSU - OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W PSU

HDD - Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 2TB

[domokun 515]

Very nicely (especially if you OC your 3570k).

Seriously what resolution is your screen?