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Computer Recommendations For A2
SkylarckTheBotanist
Member
Hi Everyone,
So to preface this, I have never owned a desktop and haven't owned a personal laptop in ~5 years (work provides a computer for software development). This will be my first MMORPG, and first PC game, I grew up on console.
With the new specs now out: https://support.ashesofcreation.com/hc/en-us/articles/26658550834835-What-are-the-minimum-and-recommend-computer-specifications-for-Alpha-Two
I was hoping to get some help on picking out a computer for it. With A2 going to last years I don't know if I should get a computer thats going to be good then and now, or just buy one for A2 and upgrade when the game comes out.
What's a reasonable budget for a computer that will be great for A2? Where do you buy your computers? Any information is helpful as this is a new space for me.
Additional context: I am geographically located in Canada.
Thanks!
So to preface this, I have never owned a desktop and haven't owned a personal laptop in ~5 years (work provides a computer for software development). This will be my first MMORPG, and first PC game, I grew up on console.
With the new specs now out: https://support.ashesofcreation.com/hc/en-us/articles/26658550834835-What-are-the-minimum-and-recommend-computer-specifications-for-Alpha-Two
I was hoping to get some help on picking out a computer for it. With A2 going to last years I don't know if I should get a computer thats going to be good then and now, or just buy one for A2 and upgrade when the game comes out.
What's a reasonable budget for a computer that will be great for A2? Where do you buy your computers? Any information is helpful as this is a new space for me.
Additional context: I am geographically located in Canada.
Thanks!
1
Comments
I would check if you have something similar in Canada where they can do custom builds with the specs needed for AoC. It typically starts around $150+ for custom or upgrade parts.
Im not saying buy this PC, Im just giving you something for reference.
This, IMO, is about where you should start to get yourself something that will last 3 or 4 years (maybe longer). It will at the very least cover the Ashes recommend specs, with some room to spare.
Are you going for pre-built or do you want to try building it yourself?
Also, consider the monitor and resolution you want, because even though upscaling is a thing now, the choice of resolution you want to play at affects the GPU choice.
Edit: Either way, I would look at a system based on the AM5 platform. Specifically one with a 7800X3D CPU. It's probably the best overall gaming CPU currently, and because AMD support their platforms for much longer than Intel, by the time Ashes releases you can upgrade to the latest AM5 CPU from AMD then without having to also replace the motherboard. With an Intel solution, you are changing both CPU and motherboard. Possibly even the RAM too if DDR6 is out by then.
The 7800X3D also uses quite a bit less power than the Intel equivalent, so you can save a little on the CPU cooler and on the power supply, or at least save a little on your electricity bill. Over the years it'll add up, depending on how much you use the PC. We are easily talking a 100W less here.
If you are going for a pre-built, check if your local area has reputable sellers. Being able to go to their place, get whatever fixed or upgraded on the spot, same day, is a huge benefit, compared to having to pack everything up, ship it, wait for a couple of weeks and then get it back, possibly damaged from shipping.
Edit2: Just for fun, I did some math. The avg. kilowatt-hour price in Canada is about 20 cent. If you play Ashes 4 hours every day on average for 5 years, going with AMD over Intel will save you roughly $150. It's not gonna break your bank (I hope), but it's a good chunk of the price for the next CPU upgrade.
Or you can look at it as roughly 2 months of Ashes subscription for "free" every year.
What's a reasonable budget for a computer that will be great for A2?
Completely depends on your expectations. You can get away with under 1k, and anything up to 2k is justified, if only because you might also want to account for peripherals you don't regret buying. (Monitor, headphones, microphone - it's not just keyboard, mouse, and a mousepad that won't tear within a few weeks.)
Personally I'm gaming on a 250€ used machine with a graphics card that used to be midrange 8 years ago, and I probably still won't have to invest more than a few hundred € (<100€ CPU, 50€ MOBO, ~50€ PSU, 200-300€ graphics card) to upgrade for a reasonably smooth experience at low-to-medium settings. But that's probably not the range you should be shopping in, if you're not struggling to pay rent.
Know that investing at the upper end of your budget almost always pays off, if you put some thought into your upgrade plan, because you get to resell at a time when people actually still want the parts you're replacing. Don't buy parts that literally came out this semester, but also don't go 2 generations back, if you can avoid it.
There are much better local price comparison services than Amazon.
It's almost always a good decision to game on a desktop PC. Laptops break if you carry them around too much, and the lack of upgradability ensures you're almost always getting away cheaper with a laptop + desktop setup than sticking to one machine for everything.
Also, we're not in a supply chain crisis of anything (save perhaps for the top of the line, which there can apparently never be enough for) for a change. Which if there's anything we've learned in the last decade essentially makes it a necessity to buy now (or at least before you can feel the storm a-brewing) if you don't want to regret it later.
If the answer is no.
Don't worry about upgrading till open Beta comes along.
You will get a much better machine for a fraction for a fraction of the price.
it depends. what is your budget and what screen resolution are you going to play at?
It's a cheap upgrade for a mid-spec computer.
Yes I do have A2 access.
This is the specs for my main monitor:
Specifications:
Screen Size: 31.5 in
Resolution: 1080p HD
Native Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Display Type: LED
Viewing Angle: 178(H) / 178(V)
Response Time (Grey-to-Grey): 1 ms
Refresh Rate: 165 Hz
Static Contrast Ratio: 4,000:1
Colour Gamut: 16.7M
For my budget I am thinking 1-1.5k CAD$
2. Since you’re building this for ashes, it’s okay to spend more than normal on the CPU. MMO’s tend to be more CPU intensive than your average game, so while GPU is still very important, it’s not unreasonable to go for a high end CPU and a mid range GPU. Especially considering the price gap in CPU’s is way less than on GPU’s
3. I’d stay away from buying pre-built computers because the value is much worse. However, if you do go down the road of building your own, do a ton of research so you can get comfortable with what performance you can reasonably attain with your budget. This is something that takes time to figure out, and that you need to arrive at your own conclusion on.
Dive into YouTube and start doing your research, people here are going to give a bunch of different opinions, most of them will be contradictory because only you know what your needs are.
Youtube is your friend. Lot's of diy guides out there how to do build your own pc.
for chosing CPU and GPU you can research 'item' gaming benchmark 1080p. This can be time consuming but you will feel a lot more sure of your decision.
I would view this as upper-medium class build. an example..
CPU first. Basicly the more expensive your CPU, the more expensive your motherboard. There are 2 options AMD or Intel. for gaming purposes i would go for (depending on the price in your area)
AMD 7800X3D with a B650 chipset motherboard and DDR5-6000 speed RAM. or
Intel 14600KF (F means no 'ipgu' you don't need it and save some money) with B760 chipset motherboard and DDR5-6000/6600 speed RAM. 32GB RAM is decently priced. if you go for 16, take only 1 dimm and add a second one later.
==> check motherboard website for RAM Compatibility!!! when booting, go into your Bios and enable the correct RAM Profile to get the speeds that you bought it for.
RTFM: read that motherboard manual, most is in there, take your time, enjoy
Use drivers from motherboard website.
DDR5 prices are stabilized and good for upgradability in the future.
check the TDP (power requirements) for your items. you will probably need a 750 or more likely a 850W PSU. i advise strongly going for at least 'GOLD' rated PSU. this thing litterly gives all your components power. If something fail at this point, you might fry/brick your components.
As for GPU. some options are nvidia 3070, 4070, 4070 Ti Super or AMD 6900 XT, 6950 XT, 7700 XT, 7800 XT
take at least 1TB pcie 4.0 NVME SSD for your windows OS and some games.
pcpartpicker is indeed a good tip. good luck
With 1080p you can definitely save some money on the GPU. If you are going with pre-built, check out the secret shopper 3 series that Linus made. They are based in Canada.
However, I would still check if there are any reputable local shops.
Best value is always spending the time to research and building it yourself. This way you also know better how to fix things. The downside is lack of warranty if you break something.
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/58757/looking-to-upgrade-your-pc-for-alpha-2#latest
I like building since you can control all the components, like case and cooling
ok since you are going t play in 1080 and you arent going to do creative work (i forgot to ask about that, but you said you are going to buy the pc to play ashes, so i assumed you wont, or do architecture stuff or use auto cad or something like that), you dont need the best cpu or gpu out there.
a 3060, 4060 or the ti versions are fine or the amd equivalent rx7600 or rx7600 xt. they cost around 300 usd. you can always lower the settings for mass pvp. games nowadays at low settings look better than games 12-15 years ago at max settings. consider that a low end gpu today is several times faster than a high end gpu of 10-15 years ago. if you want somethign more future proof or play at higher setting sor resolutions you can look into the 4070 or 4080 gpu (dont recommend the amd equivalents for those, only for the low end, but they would work fine as well)
ram is cheap. i recommend 32gb. you can buy 2 x 8 = 16 and then later on buy another 2 x 8 of the same if you cant afford the 32 gb right away. 16 will be too little to play ashes, considering you also need ram for the os and other stuff you might want to open, like discord, chrome, etc. also, you dont really need the fastest possible ram to play video games
hard drive. an ssd or m2 of 500gb ~ is fine. you will probably want to install more games later or or do more stuff with your pc. 500 gets filled up fast nowadays, but adding more storage is cheap and easy and you can add a good 1 or 2 tb later on if you need to.
cpu. anything from ryzen 5 or 7 3rd gen onwards or the intel equivalent will do just fine (and of course the appropriate board). you are looking to spend around 200-400 usd here + board. try to get the latest gen of closer as older gen are similar in price. try to get some coolant or fans too
about power supply. this will depend on the other parts you buy. i dont know a lot about them, i just always buy corsair since ive always had good experiences with them. you can call them and tell them to help you choose after youve picked the other parts.
surge protector. i dont know how the electricity situation is where oyu live, but power surges are common here. i dont know a lot about surge protectors. i just always buy trip lite since ive had good experiences with them. you can give them a call after you ve picked all the other parts and they can help you choose.
mouse, keyboard and headset. you dont really need anything fancy here. fancy stuff are more of a luxury. you can start with cheap ones and buy fancier ones later. "mmo" mouse and keyboard can go from 50-200 usd, so you might want to start with cheap ones and upgrade later.
its better to spend the most money on a good cpu, gpu, power supply and a board. ram and storage can be easily upgraded later and arent that expensive.
also, buying the parts and assembling the pc yourself is cheaper than buying it prebuilt. you can also take the parts to a computer store so they can assemble it for you and its also cheaper tha n buying it prebuilt.
i always buy on amazon but you can find deals on other sites like new egg. dont buy used stuff or refurbished or re certified. never. buy everything new.
If you are new at this and don't want to make building a PC a side-hobby, I'd recommend a pre-built. I used to build them myself. Now I have family and a lot less gaming time. I do some looking around for a good deal on a pre-built and save myself a bunch of hours of research and building/installing/tuning.
I've always managed to find someone to buy my old computer (fairly cheap), so I'm not bothering with re-using a case/etc
If the OP is wanting to get close to their native refresh rate (165hz) then they won't want to go with something like a 3060 or 4060. A 4070 Super or the new RX 7900 GRE would likely be the cheapest options to realistically hit that framerate without dropping settings to low (and even those GPUs are probably going to fall at least a little short on higher settings). 4070 Super will likely be the better choice as this game is built in UE5 with Lumen enabled, which means ray tracing is used by default and Nvidia's RT performance is far better than AMD's at the same price point.
Also, 16GB total should be perfectly fine. The amount of memory listed in the requirements for games isn't for the games themselves, it's for the entire system. Intrepid is recommending 16GB of RAM total for your PC, not 16GB just for AoC.
I'd also recommend a minimum of a 1TB SSD, or a separate SSD for Windows alongside a 500GB SSD for programs/games. 500GB SSDs actually only have around 460GB of usable space and Windows can take up well over 150GB by itself (including a page file and restore backups will drive this even higher) and this game will only get larger, not smaller, in the lead up to release. You'd be looking at least roughly 60% of your SSD being used by Windows and this game alone. You also want to try and leave at least 20% of your SSD free as filling it up too full will impact write performance.