Mw3 pc

[ak27]

Hey,

i'm building a pc for a friend, he only plans to play MW3 on it, and thats it.

He has a screen on 1440x900 resolution. I want the cheapest parts you can get.

Remember this PC is only made for one game, it will not be upgraded in the future. It's basically made for 1 year.
He already has Windows 7, keyboard, mouse, speakers and screen.

Either AMD or Intel, AMD or Nvidia, doesn't matter.
Also 4 gb of ram will be enough.

Budget should be around 500$

I just want to be able to run the game at smooth 60 fps.

you can either base your prices on newegg.ca or canadacomputers.com

Thanks guys, have fun being creative, do whatever you want

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS FOR MW#
OS: Windows® XP/ Windows® Vista / Windows® 7
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6600 or AMD Phenom™ X3 8750 processor or better
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Graphics: Shader 3.0 or better 256 MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8600GT / ATI® Radeon™ X1950 or better
DirectX®: DirectX® 9.0c or later
Hard Drive: 16 GB free hard drive space
Sound: DirectX® 9.0c or later
Internet: Broadband connection and service required for Multiplayer Connectivity. Internet connection required for activation.

[Masaki 7-11]

This combo newegg has right now will actually work quite well: Newegg.ca - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!.

The power supply it contains isn't too bad, it's probably over rated so it's more like a 360W power supply, but since you won't be upgrading it, should work fine as the computer will use closer to 250W. Should be able to do 60fps @ 1440x900 fairly easily.

If you want to lower the price more, you can drop down the hard drive to a 250GB or something like that (or a little more risky you could go for a recertified drive which go for even less). Since the price of hard drives are so high right now, SSDs are an option too if you don't need much space and want max speed.

[ak27]

thanks for the answer.

I've actually watched benchmarks, and on black ops you could get around 40 fps...

i'd like to see if someone could come up with a dedicated graphics card though. an old gtx or gts that would be able to run mw3

[Masaki 7-11]

Originally Posted by ak27 thanks for the answer. I've actually watched benchmarks, and on black ops you could get around 40 fps... i'd like to see if someone could come up with a dedicated graphics card though. an old gtx or gts that would be able to run mw3

The only review I've seen it being tested with Black Ops is AMD A8-3850 Gaming Performance | bit-tech.net. Note that they are using a higher resolution for 40fps (1680x1050 vs. 1440x900) and they have settings on high as well as 16xAF. If you take out AF and run it at 1440x900, you'll have at least 60fps. MW3 also doesn't have much of a graphics requirement increase over Black Ops, so Black Ops should give be a fairly decent indicator of fps.

That being said, if the plan is to max the settings on MW3 and have over 60fps, yes, you probably will need a stronger video card then the one built in to the processor. Something like this should work:
Newegg.ca - Antec Three Hundred + BP430 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 430W Power Supply
Newegg.ca - LITE-ON DVD Burner - Bulk 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model iHAS124-04 - CD / DVD Burners
Newegg.ca - Seagate Barracuda ST3250312AS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Newegg.ca - SAPPHIRE 100328L Radeon HD 6770 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
Newegg.ca - ASUS P8H61-M LE/CSM (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel H61 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
Newegg.ca - Intel Celeron G530 Sandy Bridge 2.4GHz 2 x 256KB L2 Cache 2MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor BX80623G530
Newegg.ca - Mushkin Enhanced Essentials 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model 996586

$502.02 including shipping and GST (not including PST/HST if that applies to you). For hard drive you also have 74GB raptor and 750GB seagate for less than the 250GB seagate if you don't mind it being recertified.

[glc]

The only thing I don't like in there is the Mushkin ram. I don't like the Seagate hard drive either, but with the hard drive price situation I'm not going to be picky.

[ak27]

thanks so much masaki.

i like what you chose, the only thing i'm not sure about is the processor.
Do you think it'll actually be enough, black ops had huge problems with dual cores, the game was coded by trey arch though. Now its infinity ward on MW3.
But i was just wondering how could a phenom 2 x4 perform. i see a lot of them are in 120-140$, which isn't bad.

Oh and don't worry about going over 500$, I'm pretty sure 500-600 would be ok.

thanks again

[David M]

Put as much as you can afford into the graphics card. It is going to be tough to run this game at 60 FPS at higher settings for $500-$600. Your compromise will be what game settings will still get you 60 FPS. Don't expect the highest settings to get you 60 FPS.

[glc]

With the above system, you could look at the i5-2300 if you want a quad.

[ak27]

@David M : yea i know, but benchmarks of the card show people playing black ops (not well coded game) with 60 FPS and thats with actually good video settings. AND MW3 uses the same specs as black ops, and is better coded. I will play on a lower resolution as well.
So i'm really not worried about the graphic cards.

@GLC: i was actually looking at the i5 2300. But, will i have to upgrade the psu?

[Nuclear Krusader]

What's MW3?

[David M]

Originally Posted by Nuclear Krusader What's MW3?

Don't you know all your game acronyms?...get with it man.

Modern Warfare 3.

[David M]

Originally Posted by Nuclear Krusader What's MW3?

Don't you know all your game acronyms?...get with it man. You're such a "noob".

Modern Warfare 3.

[Nuclear Krusader]

I don't game anymore. Unless it's old games. I was thinking MW3 = Morrowind 3.

[glc]

I'd recommend a separate case and PSU - in my personal opinion a BP430 is not quite strong enough to reliably support a 6770 video card.

Newegg.ca - COOLER MASTER Elite 430 RC-430-KWN1 Black Steel / Plastic Computer Case

Newegg.ca - Antec High Current Gamer Series HCG-520 520W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS12V v2.91 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

[Masaki 7-11]

Originally Posted by ak27 @David M : yea i know, but benchmarks of the card show people playing black ops (not well coded game) with 60 FPS and thats with actually good video settings. AND MW3 uses the same specs as black ops, and is better coded. I will play on a lower resolution as well. So i'm really not worried about the graphic cards. @GLC: i was actually looking at the i5 2300. But, will i have to upgrade the psu?

I put the system I linked to with the HD6770 through a PSU calculator and the recommended wattage for it is 352W with 100% usage on cpu and system as well as 20% capacitor aging, so there's plenty of headroom for a better processor. The HD6770 is a fairly low power card (midrange).

Running the system with a Core i5 2300 instead of the Celeron brought the recommended wattage tp 388W also at 100% usage with 20% capacitor aging. Under normal day to day gaming use, you'll see more like 300W usage, way below the 430W the PSU can supply.

[glc]

I'm going by AMD's recommendation for a 450 watt unit. I have no doubt that a 430 can handle it, but the BP430 is a Basiq and I would feel a lot more comfortable with a HCG.

[ak27]

i think i'll go with what you proposed GLC i5 2300 and the HCG 530

[ak27]

for 10$ i can get an EVGA 550 GTX ti.

Newegg.ca - EVGA 01G-P3-1556-KR GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) FPB 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

but it uses 400W though, would it still be compatible with hcg 530

[glc]

No problem at all. However, the 6770 is a very slightly better card.

[ak27]

The only thing is i know nvidia better, and evga is awesome.

now the PSU, i found this at my local store for the same price a 600W Corsair CX 600

Canada Computers | Power Supplies | Corsair Builder Series CX600 V2 600 Watt 80 PLUS Certified Power Supply (CMPSU-600CXV2)

[glc]

Not a big fan of the CX series. I think the Antec HCG series is better.

[DOS_equis]

If you go the nvidia route you can go to geforce.com/optimize and select the card you are going to use and the game you want to play. It will show you the optimal settings @ three different screen resolutions with the expected fps. The minimum fps they are shooting for during the calculation is 30fps. I don't think ATI/ AMD has a similar setup for optimal settings though.

[David M]

I think that optimal games settings are better found through experimentation over Nvidia's estimate. It would be impossible to estimate what is the best game setting given all of a computers variables that determine frame rate. It is not just resolution and which graphics card that determines how fast a particular game will play.

It could be a useful tool for roughly estimating how fast a particular Nvidia graphics card will play which game. This could be helpful in selecting a card to drive a particular game that you want to play.

[ak27]

thanks i completely forgot about the nvidia optimize website. looks like my gtx 550 ti will run it at 60 fps or more.

and I'm probably stick with the cx600 psu

[DOS_equis]

Originally Posted by David M I think that optimal games settings are better found through experimentation over Nvidia's estimate. It would be impossible to estimate what is the best game setting given all of a computers variables that determine frame rate. It is not just resolution and which graphics card that determines how fast a particular game will play. It could be a useful tool for roughly estimating how fast a particular Nvidia graphics card will play which game. This could be helpful in selecting a card to drive a particular game that you want to play.

When I posted that I wasn't saying it was a end all, be all type of thing. It was a way for him to guage what kind of card to get and typically what he could expect out of it.

Of course, it depends on how the system is overclocked, overvolted, etc. I can get more fps out of the Crysis benchmark that what Nvidia says I should since I have my system mildly OC'd on my Xeon w3550 to 3.8 and have run the PCIe bus from 100 to 110 MHz. I get high 40's to very low 50's with it fully maxed (except textures I think) using a GTX560 and a 9800GT for PhysX (I know the 9800GT is just idling on that game). I could get better fps having a higher CPU OC or actually overclocking the 560. They have what their "benchmark" system spec is on the page for reference.

[David M]

Got a link? This could be a good reference.

[DOS_equis]

Originally Posted by David M Got a link? This could be a good reference.

Link to what, my benchmarking stuff? I have never posted anything like that up anywhere. I could try to get some screenshots or camera pics of it or cpuz but I just recently got into overclocking and gaming in general so you might have to give me some tips to help me out with that. I do have 3dmark11 advanced too since I got it for free with the card purchase from evga.


System specs:

evga e770 (I think it's on BIOS 82)
intel xeon w3550 3.06 @ 3.8
Intel dbx-b cooler from the boxed extreme procs
6gb g.skill PI 2000 MHz @ 6-9-6-24 1T 1.65v
GTX560
9800gt
corsair hx1000
sony optiarc dvd/rw combo AD-7240S-0B
CM Cosmos S
Icydock 5 in 3 sata backplane
WD Black 500GB x2 user folder
WD Black 1TB x2 backups, storage
misc case fans



planned stuff since I'm still building and tweaking:

-OCZ Vertex turbo 60GB w/ barefoot controller (planned boot drive) This is in my old P4 machine (which hasn't been turned on in awhile) and hasn't been imaged or moved over yet.
-RAID 1 in pair of 500gb and the 1TB drives
-Corsair h100 w/ 4 scythe ultra kaze 3000 fans on a lamptron touch controller. have the fans and the h100 but need the controller.
-Sleeving all cables w/ mdpc stuff and tucking them away. The cables need major management attention ATM

Do you have any pics of your current rig? I'm pretty sure you have a way better setup than me from what I remember reading in the past. I won't embarrass myself with a pic of my rig since it's not finished yet (unless pics of wiring spaghetti farms or rat nests excites you).

[glc]

and I'm probably stick with the cx600 psu

I recommend that you don't.

[ak27]

Originally Posted by glc I recommend that you don't.

I know... but i really had to buy one at my local store. If ever it doesnt work i can bring it back instead of sending it back to RMA.

I"ll see what happens. Thanks for the help though

[David M]

Originally Posted by DOS_equis Do you have any pics of your current rig? I'm pretty sure you have a way better setup than me from what I remember reading in the past. I won't embarrass myself with a pic of my rig since it's not finished yet (unless pics of wiring spaghetti farms or rat nests excites you).

I don't. Maybe this weekend I will take some and post them to a photo sharing site.