Just wanted to say "Hi" to everyone here and start out by begging for some advice. Nice first impression, eh?

the iambecomelife-mobile is now seven years old and has survived countless upgrades. I'm looking for a new PC. Just wondering what advice you all have for a good OFF rig, which will also be used extensively for modding work (Silent Hunter IV, not OFF). Current setup has a Core 2 Duo E8400 at 3GHz and a Radeon 5850. Played OFF with pretty good results, but considerable stuttering at times.

What are the big bottlenecks for OFF? CPU, RAM, or Graphics card?

Where do I sink my money?

Also, since I do a lot of graphics editing and 3d modeling would a SSD be worth it?

Thanks.

Bottleneck's going to be single-threaded CPU performance. 8 slow cores is the worst thing you could do. OFF can't use more than 3gig of RAM, and any modern mid to upper level graphics card should be alright, unless you're running really high resolutions and then you'll need extra graphics power.

I have almost the same rig with a Core Duo E 8500 and an ATI 5850 with XP Pro and I run OFF 1920 x 1080 without any stuttering ( I also run RoF with no problem, just lowering landscape to medium...)
By the way, I am a long time Silent Hunter player (3 NYGM / Living SH3 v5.1 and 4) and use many of your fantastic boats, so I will take the opportunity to say thank you for your work...

What Corsaire said, I have the E8500 with 8gb ram, and SSD main drive (for windows 7/64 only) with a Nvidia 460 GTX V2. Runs smooth and fast. Have terrain on 3 and scenery on 4 all else on 5. This rig runs cool (which is a real plus in Upstate California) and love the Win 7 operating system.

Beard

OFF likes speed more than it needs power, my last rig ( XP ) was a Quad but at 2.4ghtz I played like a second class citizen.

I now run an i5at 3.6. . No need to go cutting edge on a video card, I run a GTX 480. Ram is the cheapest part now, no reason to go below 8 gig

I'm running 4 on scenery and terrain, 5 on the rest. With 60 FPS

Just go for an aftermarket cooler, air is fine, in SW Florida I wouldn't Last Long without one. Don't forget the silver paste, this is no place to scrimp

Thank God Windows 7 supports FFB

I am using an Asus-Mainboard with an i5-2500K-Core (4x 3,3 GHZ)and 8 GB RAM, and a Geforce GTX 460. Sound Card is a Asus Xonar D2. Fantastic Results with all Sliders on 5 (except Scenery and Terrain) and FPS always at 60.
Highly Recommended !!!!

Welcome Over Flanders Fields, Iambecomelife!

I run OFF with the quad core Intel Core i5-2500K, 3,3GHz.
I had overclocked it slightly, but I'm back to default, and it performs fine.
Your graphic card should do all it's work fine, I think; and the RAM is more than enough.

I would ask you to check my detailed advice for graphics setup, over at Combat Ace:

http://combatace.com/topic/60374-graphics-setup-an-easy-pictorial-guide/

You should definitely try the slider settings like this:

Overall graphics: 5

Aircraft: 5
Terrain Detail: 3
Scenery detail: 2
Effects Quality: 5
Clouds: 5

Winder's Terrain does look great at 3, and a higher resolution for the "tiles" is really not necessary.
I found it even looked too grainy for my taste, which makes it appear closer than it should from the air.
(But that is of course a matter of taste).
"Scenery detail" seem to be houses, trucks, trenches - all the models above the terrain tiles.
On 2 or 3 it will be great already.
Some say, Clouds make a difference for them, but I used an ATI HD4870, and they were always fine on 5.

At last, let me ask you for your town & country/state - I'd like to add your name
to our "OFF Pilots Maps" over at the other forum.

Greetings Chaps,

I am also looking for some advice on this subject for both gaming and personal computing. After much research this is the configuration to build out a new PC. My goal is to keep the total price below $1200. Any feedback greatly appreciated!

CPU -Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler -Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
Motherboard -Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard
Memory -Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Hard Drive -Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Boot Drive -Intel 320 Series 40GB 2.5" Solid State Disk
Video Card -Asus GeForce GTX 560 Ti 2GB Video Card
Power Supply -OCZ 600W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply
Optical Drive -Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer
Operating System -Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit)

Tailspinner . . . the only possible problem is that 600 Watt PSU with the GTX 560

Myself I stopped at a GTX 480 bacause of my 750 W PSU

Yes the book calls for a 600, but for the extra $15 when building a 750 is under a lot less pressure to deliver so theoretically at least it SHOULD Last Longer

That plus very few PSU's Deliver their Rated Amperage, usually it's less, by how much that's a crap shoot

Unless of course you pay for an 80%er but those are rather costly

A PSU is no place to scrimp

But that's private opinion

While this is definately opinion . .Why spend extra Bucks on a Cooler, and not use the Artic Silver Paste, it's $10 extra today . . .But

I agree with Uncleal, fine build for OFF but you're going to want to put a little more into the PSU. And if the (2 x 4GB) RAM leaves you room to add more later, Windows 7 64-bit really shines with even more memory. A cheap (slow 5400 RMP 'eco') external drive for backups is a good idea as well.

When I initially had the computer built for me at "I BUY POWER" ( poor eyesight ) I originally had a GTX 260 as it was all I could afford at the time ( I had planned an upgrade when the money became available )

Now the GTX260 had 896MB of DDR3 and I must admit I saw the Jaggies from my Trackir when I moved my head too Fast. But with the GTX480 it has 1536MB of DDR5 and the Jaggies are Definatly a thing of the Past

Now my question is why go for a 560 or better when it's not needed, aside from a cost saving, the size of the PSU required to maintain a safety margin is much Less ?

There are so few times that "More is Not Needed"

This seems to be one of those times

Lothar and Uncleal,

Thank you very much for your responses and advice. I will be making a change to a 800W Modular PSU. My budget is $1200 built and can afford to add a top of the line Video card. The 560 TI was highly recommended for both graphics and longevity. I am not a seasoned IT guy, so any input is greatly appreciated.

Thank you for the kind words! I have a WWI submarine mod in progress for SHIV (Wolves of the Kaiser), and this got me back into WWI aviation.

Thanks to everyone else for the advice, especially about processors. I'll also probably go with an i5-3570K like Tailspinner because it's the cheapest Intel my builder offers that's easy to overclock.

I've been wondering if I can be a cheapskate with memory and get DDR3 1333 Mhz instead of 1600 Mhz?

Leaning towards not getting a SSD - I have many gigs of modding files and SSD's are just too costly per gigabyte of space. Hopefully a SATA-III will be good enough?

I hope anyone who is serious thinking of overclocking their CPU is seriously considering some HD cooling, AIR is fine but the silver past is essential

I don't hold with the SSD anyway, while many rave about it's speed. What's to stop running a small SSD, with a huge SATA

Why be a cheapskate on memory, just how much are you gonna save. I'd go with 2X 2big sticks of the 1600 upgrade later

It's kinda hard, maybe I'm confused. Much of my confusion is who if anyone is building this dream machine, you, a building house

Your considering skimping on the memory, and your 5850 stutters at times

Let's get down to cases. I was never an ATI fan, but many are, there are settings that Will eliminate the stutters totally, but Silent Hunter might suffer

You can't have your cake and eat it too. This sounds crazy I know, OFF runs smoother at higher resolution, I run at 1920 X 1080 and I only stopped there because I can't afford a 32"

Tailspinner: get the biggest monitor you can afford at TIGER.com a 24" goes under $200

My Wide 27" is the same resolution as the 24" 1920 X 1080. When I picked up the 27" over a 22" I was running a Quad@ only2.4Ghtz gained 8 FPS, Which don't sound like much but 24 to 32 is one helluva jump

Video Card was 8600GT w/ 512DDR3 Top of the heap for an older unit. FPS is easily obtainable in OFF by pressing ( Z ) anytime. Not to toot my own horn. .BUT. Go to the Sticky OFF Tips and Hints. . Page 4

When you see my name start reading . . Bring a Sandwich

You can...
I also have an ATI 5850 and I use the tuning of graphic settings for ATI cards as advised by other OFF users in the forums. I run 1920 x 1080 on a 27" monitor and have a steady 29 / 30 framerate (I limited to 30, more doesn't make any difference) without stutters.
I can confirm at the same time my Silent Hunter III keeps running at same 1920 x 1080 resolution between average 60 fps (Living SH3 mod) and over 100 fps (NYGM 3.6 mod). I limited both to 60 by using vertical refresh.

So list your settings, a forum such as this is for the free transfer of ideas. Not NA, Na, Na, Na,Na,na

With my GTX480 I get a constant smooth 60 FPS, but OFF is all I care about

Also a word about MODS for any game. YOU are doing the testing, no one else

The OFF Developers OFFER the Best SUPPORT I've EVER Seen, but only on the plain vanilla OFF

Well, you just stated that you cannot run both OFF and Silent Hunter at the same time with good settings on an ATI 5850 GC, I just wanted to say there is no problem to run both. The OFF settings are already available to everyone either on the OFF website or on the CA forum.

Thank you all for your advice to this thread. The following is my updated ultimate gaming pc build:

CPU -Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler -Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
Motherboard -Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H ATX LGA1155 Motherboard
Memory -Corsair Vengeance 12GB (3 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Hard Drive -Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Boot Drive -Intel 320 Series 40GB 2.5" Solid State Disk
Video Card -Asus GeForce GTX 560 Ti 2GB Video Card
Power Supply -OCZ 800W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply
Optical Drive -Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer
Operating System -Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit)
Total Cost to build is approx $1130.
Already own a Dell HD 24" Monitor