Wanted to Doublecheck my Hardware choices

[mattig89ch]

Hello everyone,

I wanted to double check my hardware choices for a Linux Gaming machine, to run X4. I based the list on the recommeded hardware list, from the steam store page. But I'm not 100% on my choices.

this is the hardware list I'm currently thinking of getting. I have windows 8.1 on there, but its just for my older games. And will prob be removed. What do you think?

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/mattig89ch/saved/9xFyxr

Edit: updated link

[Alan Phipps]

Moved to Off Topic where hardware discussions and recommendations are conducted.

[Vovadrik]

I am not a big pro, but why choose that CPU, if for example I5-12600K is cheaper and 30% better?
https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/I ... 3502vs4120

And why not M2 SSD, as far as I understand they are much faster and for example Western Digital Black SN850X 2 TB M.2 is much cheaper. I use WD myself, never had troubles with it. Chose it because it is very fast, but I don't know if it can last longer


Update. Saw that you chose 4TB, so it may not be cheaper, but faster for sure

[mattig89ch]

Rodger, thanks Alan!

In regards to my choices, I purely went off the steam store page recommended specs. Literally my only reason for making that choice. I want to play this game with high specs, to get the visual delight as well as the fun of the game.

Will the I5-12600k work just as well with the rest of the hardware and the game?

[Vovadrik]

As long as motherboard supports it (you can probably check on the website you use) it should be fine, I don't see any reason it wouldn't work. I think recommended specs in steam are not the only option, it is more like the minimum they checked to work, but it is not necessarily the cheapest or the best option. And if you want to buy new computer, I think it is worth spending some time to make more optimal PC, because with new DLCs and patches you may need better PC (maybe a year or two later)

Other people can correct me if I am wrong

[burger1]

The prices are odd. What prices are you actually paying? Are you buying used?

The cpu cooler isn't good.

The case is full size and can take a normal size atx mainboard.

If you go with a i5-12600k then you will have to redo part of your list. Not all coolers support lga1700 (i5-12600k) .

If you look on sites like camel camel camel or honey then you can see estimated sale dates and prices for some stores.

Look in amazon usa reviews to see the ratings and look at why. Add the 1 and 2 star rows together and compare it to the 4 and 5 star row reviews total. Might drive you nuts. Newegg, best buy and micro centre also have reviews and sales.

The ssd is dramless. It's also a sata cable type drive which means it's slower but doesn't seem to make much difference. Cache = none is dramless based on pcpartpicker. Maybe an m.2 drive for a newer mainboard if you go that way.

Psu might not come with a 12VHPWR. Probably not a big deal.

[mattig89ch]

Lol, ok I'm going to go line by line here.

The prices are odd. What prices are you actually paying? Are you buying used?

I was going to buy new. Idk where to find these parts used. Ebay hasn't be great to me, too many parts I've had to call them to get a refund for.

The cpu cooler isn't good.

Do you have a recommendation? What should I look for?

The case is full size and can take a normal size atx mainboard.

Belive it or not, that was the cheapest mobo I could find, which supported the processor and video card. Same with the case. I went with cost over size.

If you go with a i5-12600k then you will have to redo part of your list. Not all coolers support lga1700 (i5-12600k) .

Yea, I'm not 100% on that one yet.

If you look on sites like camel camel camel or honey then you can see estimated sale dates and prices for some stores.

PC part picker is supposed to agrogate from like 12 different sites. Do those sites do the same?

Look in amazon usa reviews to see the ratings and look at why. Add the 1 and 2 star rows together and compare it to the 4 and 5 star row reviews total. Might drive you nuts. Newegg, best buy and micro centre also have reviews and sales.

Yea, those are actually checked with PC Part Picker. Amazon just happenes to be cheaper with almost all of the parts in this case.

The ssd is dramless. It's also a sata cable type drive which means it's slower but doesn't seem to make much difference. Cache = none is dramless based on pcpartpicker. Maybe an m.2 drive for a newer mainboard if you go that way.

I'm not against using an M.2 SSD, but it worked out that the mobo didn't have it. So while its not amazing, its still pretty good.

Psu might not come with a 12VHPWR. Probably not a big deal.

I think it does. Not 100% on that though.

I actually started with the processor and Video card. Then chose the other parts that supported it.

[burger1]

You can ask / look at builds in https://www.reddit.com/r/buildmeapc/ probably get mostly amd builds though.

The cpu in your build was released 9 years ago in 2015. Probably can't get the cpu or the mainboard easily available new anymore.

You might get a cpu that supports win 11 just in case you want to use it for a modern gaming pc.

Not sure how well a i3 13100F would run x4. Pretty much already outdated at 4 cores 8 threads. A i5-12600k (6 cores 12 threads + 4 e cores) would be better but costs more. Might last 8-10 years before needing to be upgraded for 1080p 60fps gaming. Cheaper than the newer i5-13600k currently.

Buy the cooler when you figure out which cpu you are getting.

[mattig89ch]

Hm, I'll check it out.

I don't mind amd builds, so long as it's under budget and runs linux I'm happy.

It just so happened that Intel is the cheapest option atm.

Any suggestions on what I should ask for?

[burger1]

Not really sure. Depends on your budget/expectations. X4 doesn't really benefit a lot more from the highest end cpus but requires some cpu power. There's a very outdated X4 cpu benchmark thread. Look at other games also.

viewtopic.php?f=146&t=427248&p=5142095& ... k#p5142095

[Falcrack]

Rodger, thanks Alan!

In regards to my choices, I purely went off the steam store page recommended specs. Literally my only reason for making that choice. I want to play this game with high specs, to get the visual delight as well as the fun of the game.

Will the I5-12600k work just as well with the rest of the hardware and the game?

I have the i5-12600K, and it is fantastic for X4. Also have 3060Ti

[mattig89ch]

Hm, ok then. The I5-2600k isn't much cheaper, but it's still 10ish bucks cheaper. I went ahead and updated the parts list with a new CPU, cooler, and mobo. How's it look now?

[Daemonjax]

There's no way you should be buying a i7-6700K in 2024. Is this a joke?

A 10700k is the absolute lowest you should be shooting for... and that's factoring in you overclocking it to 5ghz stable, probably watercooled with a decent aio -- but it doesn't sound like you'd be comfortable doing that. If you can't afford it, wait a week or whatever to save up more money. And I think you should ask around and find a friend/family member/friend of family member/friend of friend to help you, someone who's computer savvy enough to build a gaming pc.

[mattig89ch]

Hardware has always been a weakness of mine. Software I can figure out easily enough, but keeping up with ever changing hardware has been a struggle. That's why I ask around. Once I got these parts figured out I'm then going to ask around the linux community, and verify it's all supported. Ubuntu is pretty good with it's hardware support, but the latest and greatest can struggle.

[burger1]

Parts list link is the same.

If there's $10 difference between a i5-13600k and a i5-12600k then maybe get the i5-13600k. A small improvement in games but in some apps you might notice more improvement but the i5-13600k cpu can pull more power than the i5-12600k. I wouldn't buy the i5-14600k which is the newest and likely most expensive.

[mattig89ch]

huh, ok. I updated the link

[mattig89ch]

Safe to assume this machine can run X4 at high graphics?

[burger1]

The 8 gb vram on the gpu might not age well.

The game probably won't run at 60 fps under every situation for anyone.

What resoluton do you play at? 4k, 1440p, 1080p etc...?

At max graphics maybe no one can play at 60 fps stable??? No idea. There's some more demanding setting choices like AA type.

Might be able to get a cheaper but still good power supply? They go on sale.

[jlehtone]

why not M2 SSD, as far as I understand they are much faster

Not so simple.

The "M.2" is a physical connector. One such connector may support either or both of SATA and NVMe connections. What each connector supports is up to the motherboard. Each SSD drive that fits to M.2 is either a SATA or NVMe type; never both. The SATA drive in M.2 slot is no better than a more traditional 2.5" SATA drive. It is the NVMe that could be faster. The NVMe essentially connects the "drive" directly to PCIe lanes. However, motherboard may connect two or four PCIe lanes to particular M.2 connector and they could be PCIe gen3, gen4, or gen5.

The "ASRock B660M Pro RS Micro" has two M.2 slots for drives: https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/B660M%2 ... cification
* One NVMe that has four PCIe gen4 lanes directly from CPU (nominally 64 Gb/s)
* One that can have NVMe or SATA drive. If SATA drive is connected (nominally 6 Gb/s), then one of the four SATA connectors is disabled. The NVMe mode gets four gen3 PCIe lanes from chipset (nominally 32 Gb/s)


The "much faster" is somewhat subjective. The jump from SATA HDD to SATA SSD is usually observable, but SATA to NVMe less so. We do know from experience (with older version of X4), that speed of the drive was not the bottleneck -- and hence being "faster" made no difference.

[mattig89ch]

oh, I actually didn't check on that. That might be cheaper, thanks for the heads up!

Edit:
Ok, so I was able to save a bit more and changed the storage. Its half of what I had, but its an M.2 SSD instead now. So there's that.