Ultra tower on a budget - Page 2

Hmm.. Yeah, I don't think so.

I mean look at it like this.. I run a $330 CPU, and about $400 in GPU's. (Had a 580.) and I'm very playable at Ultra but what you have to understand is that Battlefield 3 is VERY GPU demanding. Not only that, but you'll need some extra VRAM depending on what resolution you're wanting to game at. Anything above 1200p I'd go with something over 1.2GB.

Ouch. While $500 is a very doable budget build, you won't be seeing Ultra with playable frames. (Once again, depending on the resolution.)

This.

Honestly OP, if you're seriously on a TIGHT budget then wait and check out Newegg deals, NCIX, and if you have a MicroCenter near by GO TO IT... But other than that, check out the OCN Marketplace and see if you can't find some used stuff there. Because honestly, that's where 99% of these budget builds shine is because people buy second-hand parts and wait for the perfect deals all over the internet.

To max it out on Ultra you are going to need quite a rig... I can run everything on Ultra with my sig rig, but not maxed out. Budget is too low.

First off, here's the rquirements for BF3: http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/09/21/battlefield-3-39-s-official-pc-system-requirements.aspx

Minimum System Requirements
OS: WINDOWS VISTA (SERVICE PACK 2) 32-BIT
PROCESSOR: 2 GHZ DUAL CORE (CORE 2 DUO 2.4 GHZ OR ATHLON X2 2.7 GHZ)
MEMORY: 2 GB
HARD DRIVE: 20 GB
GRAPHICS CARD (AMD): DIRECTX 10.1 COMPATIBLE WITH 512 MB RAM (ATI RADEON 3000, 4000, 5000 OR 6000 SERIES, WITH ATI RADEON 3870 OR HIGHER PERFORMANCE)
GRAPHICS CARD (NVIDIA): DIRECTX 10.0 COMPATIBLE WITH 512 MB RAM (NVIDIA GEFORCE 8, 9, 200, 300, 400 OR 500 SERIES WITH NVIDIA GEFORCE 8800 GT OR HIGHER PERFORMANCE)
SOUND CARD: DIRECTX COMPATIBLE
KEYBOARD AND MOUSE
DVD ROM DRIVE

Recommended System Requirements
OS: WINDOWS 7 64-BIT
PROCESSOR: QUAD-CORE CPU
MEMORY: 4 GB
HARD DRIVE: 20 GB
GRAPHICS CARD: DIRECTX 11 COMPATIBLE WITH 1024 MB RAM (NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 OR ATI RADEON 6950)
SOUND CARD: DIRECTX COMPATIBLE
KEYBOARD AND MOUSE
DVD ROM DRIVE

How much are you looking to spend on this build? I'm guessing to run it on Ultra, you could probably build a fairly cheap rig with a Phenom II X4, and 4 gigs of ram. The GPU I'm not going to recommend, as I have trouble picking those out myself. More than likely, the most expensive part in the entire build would be the GPU. The rest you could probably do for about $300, but you should be prepared to drop a good chunk of change on a decent GPU and another $100+ on a decent power supply.

Another thing to take into consideration is the monitor you'll be using. A cheap monitor will just waste the graphics power, as well as using a lower end LCD or LED TV as a monitor.

Hard drives are also WAY expensive right now due to the flooding in Thailand. But if all you are going to use it for is a few games and basic browsing, you shouldn't need a large hard drive.

When I built my rig (My first "gaming" rig) I used the forums here and everywhere else to help me decide on parts. The folks here are plenty knowledgeable. If one person doesn't know, someone else will.

Best advice I can give is to ask questions. Lots of them.
Get several opinions on each question you ask.
Research everything.
Read reviews on multiple sites on any part BEFORE you purchase it to avoid a hassle later.
Try to avoid used parts from untrusted sources. (Ebay) The marketplace here is a great place to get good deals on used hardware, as people here aren't going to try and rip you off or sell you a bunk part.

Wow... Didn't expect so many replies by the time I finished writing. lmao
Edited by NeighborhoodGeek - 1/29/12 at 2:10am

Well, with building a PC, you get what you pay for usually. You buy the good stuff, and you get a good system.

Yea as deafboy said, even my sigrig cant run it on 100% ultra, you really need more than 2gb vram to run at 1080p with 4xmsaa or youll get some massive drops in fps during intensive spots in the game, i get 50+ fps (usually around 65, up to 80, down to 45) with my sig rig, but thats with CPU at 3.6ghz (bad batch :/),my GPU running a 900/1800/2050 OC. CPU and GPU water cooled aswell to handle the OC's. I run it at mostly ultra, high on mesh and 0xmsaa as that just CHEWS through resourses. If i have it on 100% low WITH 4xmsaa it runs at around 70fps.. shows how intesive it is. So good luck with this build, but honeslty its impossible, or someone else would have already done it. Sorry to be a party pooper (lul) but its true :/

Well he suggested one of the best. This place is never ending help. lol

Honestly, I think you'd be pretty satisfied without ultra. My sig rig can't max most games, but can run most above medium, and it still looks good. I'm looking at getting a better GPU right now. I just got the 450 because it was on sale for a steal at the time, and I was running on board graphics. But it's a decent card for what I paid for it. But like most gamers, I want bigger and better.

Check the Online Deals section in the Marketplace regularly for some pretty good deals. Also, subscribe to Newegg and TigerDirect's email alerts to see what's on sale every day.