Want to build a new PC for Battlefield 3? Start here

EA’s Battlefield 3 will soon be upon us, and there is no question that the PC version of the game will be the definitive one. Icrontic provides three PC builds: $600, $800, and $1000, which will get you back into this amazing game.

[reynod]

I would disagree with the 600usd build as the GPU is too weak.

Tomshardware instead has a 500usd build which is better overall:

http://www.tomshardware.com...

[Motorola]

Actually no, the 600 Dollar GPU is fine. The 6770 can run the game good, not max but good. And for the tomsshardware build you have to add 100$ for Windows. This site has Windows added already.

[reynod]

Any gaming build should invest more on the GPU, its a mistake people typcally make. They go overboard on the CPU etc ignoring the GPU then complain why the system wont perform.

I personally feel 6770 is a bit weak for that sort of setup, 6850 is atleast 2x as powerful as the 6770 and for the small price difference i would highly recommend 6850 is a much better option.

[ATi_Elite]

Not happy with the $600 build cause the GPU is way too weak and plus no Nvidia alternative was given.

HD 6770 NO way! I would not go lower than a HD6850 plus you could get a Nvidia 460GTX which is way Superior than a HD 6770 plus it overclocks like a champ!!

You could get a $99 Black edition AMD dual core CPU or a $99 Athlon 4 core Cpu to run any game and multi-task well thus taking the money saved and put it towards the GPU which is the most important part.

And screw the SSD's! I would buy 3 HDD (1 HDD for OS and the other 2 in Raid O) and go Raid O. Not as fast as a SSD but you save more cash for your GPU and CPU. SSD would be great later on down the road or if you got $2000 to spend off the top.

[kornbeaner]

I have a HD6850 and it runs a ton of stuff on High, plus they are very good OC'ers, I got mine running at near HD6870 speeds, 830mhz at the core and 1175mhz memory. Granted one can get a 6870 and OC it but save a few dollars and get a 6850. The secret to running a PC game is don't over do it with the crazy resolution. Most games run at high to very high settings @1650x1080 which is a very good sweet spot especially if you turn up the textures and such, also keep shadows to a minimum, IMO a waste of processing power especially in a MP game.

[primesuspect]

Does the Tomshardware article factor in shipping and Windows? What's the ACTUAL cost?

[Motorola]

This site focuses too much on GPU. For 1000 dollars, you can get a better computer with an i7. The hard drives suck. 320 GB and an SSD? Just get a 1 TB Drive for 60 dollars. How long do you think that will last compared to the 320 GB?
Here: http://gyazo.com/fb420675a1... even the case is pretty but the power supply might be low, I made it in a rush.

[despair]

If I'm spending 600 bucks for that PC I might as well add another 200 and get something a lot better, the performance for 33% more in cost is exponential.

[dommafia]

why stop there? if you are going to spend 800$ why not 1000$? and so on...

The whole point of these type of articles is for those strapped for cash but want to have a better system than they currently have. And also, paying for windows? come on... but I wont say anything as I'm sure the morale police will come-a-hunting.

[despair]

not the point, what I'm saying is that the performance increase for $200 more is so much that spending $600 on a PC seems like a waste of money, the increase from $800-$1000 is not as good in respect to gaming at this current time and its would actually be $600 - $1000 not $800 as that's the starting point which makes your argument irrelevant.

If you buy this system you will be obsolete in 6 months, but $200 more you can have a good PC for a few years. Not max gaming but good performance over an extended period. Isn't that worth the extra $200 considering how much you might save later on?

[xAlmostPro]

Im upgrading my pc in hopes of playing this on atleast 1080p at 60fps..(however any higher will be a bonus of course)

do you think the rig im getting will cover it..

im planning to get an intel i5 2500k(heard it was better for gaming than the i7) and hopefully overclocking it.

8gb RAM

and for graphics i was planning to go Sli with the nvidia gtx 560..

What do you think guys?

[Ranshak]

I think thats a pretty solid build. You got everything covered.

I5 2500k or any I7 really are about equal in games, why because both of those chips are enough to keep the bottleneck at the GPU front at resolutions like 1920*1080.

GTX 560sli is a pretty solid GPU setup i think you are in for a real treat with this build.

[hiredhelp]

I hope he is lol.
I am running a i7 2600k but sli 560 i really hope it run bf3 at max.
Yet dice still not realese official figures.
@Almostpro. If you de ide to go with a 560 may i suggest 2 brands and the reason for it.
KFA2 EX OC , and lastly ZOTAC AMP" if you look for these youll fond these have bit better clocks than many such as gigabyte and asus and even msi.
But also very cool in temps cos they have a flat heat sink directly on the chipset board with heat pipes and 2 silent fans..

[xAlmostPro]

Thanks guys :)

@hiredhelp What is the reasoning for those brands over the official nvidia one? are they cheaper?

[hiredhelp]

Some what yes and no. the reason for this is both are Overclocked. and both have from 900mhz speed many dont go that high.
example

Asus GTX 560Ti DirectCU II 1GB £178
Engine Clock 830 MHz
CUDA Cores 384
Shader Clock 1660 MHz
Memory Clock 4000MHz (1000MHz GDDR5)
----------------------------- --------
MSI GTX 560Ti TWIN FROZR II £185
Memory Type GDDR5
Memory Size(MB) 1024
Memory Interface 256 bits
Core Clock Speed(MHz) 822
Memory Clock Speed(MHz) 4000
----------------------------- ----------
Now look at this £160
Zotac GTX 560 AMP!
Clock Speed 950 MHz
RAMDAC Clock Speed 400 MHz
Video Memory 1 GB
----------------------------- -----------
KFA2 GTX 560 EX OC Edition £164.99
Cores - 336
Graphics Clock(MHz) - 905
Processor Clock(MHz) - 1810
Memory Clock(MHz) - 2004 (effective 4008)
Memory Amount - 1GB
----------------------------- ------------
Dont always be fooled by the ti versions im running 2 of thoes kfa2 ex oc's there very nice cards dont beelave me please do a youtube search.

[dommafia]

at first I was going to ask why you are getting 8gb of ram for than I looked at my system info and I have i5 2500k, 8gb ram, Radeon 6950 xDDD. This setup eats up any game I've thrown at it in high settings @ 1080p. I don't use AA though (I find it redundant at such high resolution on my monitor, my personal opinion).

You sound like you will be just fine with bf3, comrade.

[primesuspect]

Just out of curiosity: Why the 560 instead of a Radeon 6970? It's $100 more for the same performance

[xAlmostPro]

@primesuspect A work mate suggested it since he is also going with that card, it looked like a good card for Sli so i thought i'd stick with it :)

No other reason

[Pandamobile]

Hooray for already having a PC capable of running the game well.

[Stangmar]

Currently I am in the process of getting the parts for a new AMD Bulldozer build. Any ideas on how well this would run BF3? My goal is to be able to max it out, if anyone has any changes that will help that I would be grateful.

AMD Bulldozer FX 8150p (3.6Ghz Base 4.2Ghz Turbo)
8GB DDR3 1866
Asus Sabertooth 990FX Motherboard
AMD 6970HD 2GB Video Card
Current 7200RPM 120GB HD as main extra 3TB for storage.

So anyone think this will max out BF3 for the most part? If not what more could I do without spending a ton more (preferably without changing the CPU)?

-Stangmar

[reynod]

You could replace the GPU with 6950 CF.

6970 costs 370usd
6950 CF will cost you 450usd

You will spend about 80 usd more but end up getting 2x the performance.

Also remember the 6950 is actually a 6970, its just been downclocked to compete in a lower segment. 6950 is currently the best bang for the buck you can get.

get 2 of those OC them to 6970 speeds, and you have performance 2x of what you were thinking just for 80 extra bucks ;-)

[dommafia]

when is bulldozer supposed to come out?

[Bladesfist]

Im just hoping crossfire support will be better than Bad Company 2. Loads of complaints about horrible scaling and screen flickering and no fix.

AMD Phenom 1055t
HD 6850 x 2
4gb ram

80fps...

[nepdyse]

Shesshhh I bought a PS3 for $400 and an Xbox for $200, taking into account all the shitty games i've bought and all the controllers(which is 4 btw) and headsets i've gone through, I have spent an upwards of $1000 on console gaming, kind of fucking ironic when the whole reason i decided to go with consoles was because it would be affordable in the long run............now i feel like a dumbass, thanks alot.

[latinalover]

it is cheaper think about the long term effects. you have to upgrade you computer for every new game

[Substance101]

"you have to upgrade you computer for every new game"

/facepalm

Why would you have to upgrade your computer for every game? thats the most retarded thing i have heard all day long, oh wait we hear that alot at N4G.

The 4 year old 8800GTX burries the upgrading myth and pisses all over it as 4 years into its life it still plays any multiplat out there today better then a console can.

@nepdyse

This topic has been beaten to death. In the long run Pc gaming is always cheaper. This is purely because console games cost much more then PC versions and they dont get the sort of discounts that are offered at Steam or the other digital networks. A single holiday season is more then able to make a Mid range gaming PC cheaper then console simply due to much cheaper games.

Regarding the upgrades, consoles need upgrades too. Look at it this way. Anyone buying a PS3 or Xbox 360 today will again need to buy a new box in the next 2 years(PS4, 720). The PC gamer on the other hand wont need to buy a whole new rig. A PC gamer buying a I5 2500k today would simply overclock that CPU and maybe buy a new GPU around 200usd and be ahead of consoles again for another couple of years. Save money on games bought and again in few years use some of that on upgrades.

[latinalover]

@Substance101
but you have to think most people have a console already even if you buy it now its cheap. how much is it for every part of the computer you have to update?

[Substance101]

@latinal

You can make an entire PC for 600usd. The 600usd PC will be far superior to console. You can even make it for 500usd and it will still be much superior to console it will play all games in 1080p.

Hence the difference between a midrange PC and console is only 200-300usd. This difference can easily be undone in 1 discount season from Steam or D2D. Also even at release every game bought on PC is cheaper.

Also realise that once you make a PC, then you already have the basic parts, next time when you want to upgrade it will be very cheap (you wont need to buy a casing again, DVD drive, HDs, maybe even wont need to upgrade CPU, motherboard for a very long time). Generally when PC gamers upgrade they only upgrade the GPU which is cheaper then getting a new console.

Also try and understand over the course of 1 generation you will be buying many games maybe 15-20 games a year at the end of the gen the games alone will be worth thousands of usd. On console you have no gaurantee that all that software you bought will even work next gen. With PC its mostly a given because has the best BC of any platform, It even plays all console games aside only the PS3 and Xbox 360, aside those 2 it can emulate every console ever released in history.

[latinalover]

@Substance101
600usd???????????

[Substance101]

Did you not check the PCs in the above links? There is one even on Tomshadware.com for 500usd.

I think you need to start researching.

http://www.tomshardware.com...

The above PC is more then capable of playing most games out in 1080p and only costs 500usd.

[despair]

@latinalover

you also have to take into consideration the cost of games as well, PC games are cheaper and even discounts are enormous especially compared to console games. I've saved over $1000 on steam because of the ridiculous prices they have on PC games and its not cheap or bad games either, we're talking the best of the best here and games I really wanted not just purchased because of the discount. Hell I got Batman AA for free with my video card back in 2009 just a couple months after it was released.

I play both consoles and PC games and don't really have a preference to either as they both do something different for me gaming wise. But when you want to talk about cost of PC gaming make sure you take into account all costs and not just hardware.

Not to mention the numerous other functions of a PC other than gaming, and while you can get those for a cheap PC it does not mean they are not there on the gaming PC either.

[NarooN]

Every game? LOLWAT? You only have to upgrade your PC once every 4 or 5 years maybe. Even if you build a beast rig now, it'll last you maybe until 2015 or something, then you'll be running everything on low or medium, but stuff will still be playable.

[MARKUS_MAX1MUS]

TO max it your going to need a good quad core like the i5 2500k and the GM of DICE said himself in terms of graphics cards you should "start aiming pretty high" so id guess atleast something along the lines of the GTX 560 Ti or above to max it, possibly would even need a GTX 580 to max the game out completely with full AA on etc.

[TitanUp]

well from nvidia gtx 560 ti and up

and amd 6850 and up