Kenworth, A separate SSD is probably something I'll go for. One for windows and some other programs and one for ARMAs. My budget puts a limit on the GPU, so I think I'll stick with the GTX 660.
I think I'll get a gigabyte Z77 Mobo, since I read that the ASROCK board's plastic is really fragile, and since I'm not the most gentle person with the building part, I'm pretty sure I'd brake it!
And for the cooling, I'll stick with the box cooler. I'll get 3 120mm fans on the case and later, if I wan't to do some upgrading, I'll buy another GTX660 and a better cooler for the processor for Over clocking.
But any opinions about the HASWELLs coming? Should I wait for them or buy straight away? Since the release is so close, I don't know what should I do. But I'm kind of ready to run to the store and purchase all the parts right away!
(03-04-2013, 03:30 PM)Bubba link Wrote:And about the RAM, I've thought about starting to use a ram disk for Armas. Though it might be a little useless with a SSD drive. But I'll think about it. RAM is also probably the easiest way to upgrade a system, so it wouldn't hurt to buy only 8Gb now.
I've got 16GB so tried using an 11GB RAMdisk (leaves enough for Windows and ArmA to run) with all of Common (3.67GB) and the most used files from Arma2/Addons and Arma2OA/Expansion/Addons and it caused nothing but problems, so I wouldn't recommend trying it. It's quite slow loading the RAMdisk each time as well, although obviously if you stored it on the SSD it would load a lot faster.
The RAMdisk is about 4x faster than SSD though so it would be nice if it worked. As you say, you can always upgrade later, unless prices are particularly low at the moment (RAM has gone up a fair bit here in the UK recently, so it's not the best time to buy).
I'd agree that a 120GB SSD is a bit small and you should look at a 256GB if possible (heck, my Arma2OA folder is 87GB right now). I can't imagine leaving the addons on a HDD is a good idea, as that would cause slowdown when loading them, which might not matter for all but probably would for some such as islands.
Putting addons on your slow HDD is just silly:Â Arma accesses them when you look around to load the model (if not in memory) So you need everything on your SSD. Maybe less performance sensitive mods like soundmods can go on the hdd, but that's not really worth the space saving.
All right. Thank you people for all the opinions!
Now What I'm going to change is to get a Z77 MOBO, two SSDs (one 60Gb and one 120Gb) and I'll stick with 8Gb of RAM for the time being.
But the last thing. I'll get at least either GTX 660 TI or GTX 670. Now, I'm already 100⬠over my budget with the 660 TI. But I read that the 192-bit memory interface of the 660 cripples the Anti Aliasing on games. Is the 670 worth the extra 80�! I'm really torn between the two. Almost as torn apart as my budget ended up! ;D
Why would you have 2 SSD's? Isn't one with 180Gb much cheaper?
Hmmm.. I guess I'm still living in the time of spinning disks...
I don't know how SSDs work, but wouldn't it be faster to have windows on a separate SSD HD?
If the penalty for using only one is really small, then Sure as hell I'm going for one!Â
It would make a difference if you had both running at full speed, but I can not think of a case where this would be the case, since with a SSD and this much RAM you will not have a swap file anyway. Windows doesn't really access your disk during gaming.
BTW if this is your first SSD experience, I recommend reading this:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1156654/seans...-ssds-hdds
I have my OS on intel ssd (40gb) and ARMA 2 on ocz ssd (30gb) and the addons that I use rarely on my hdd like sound mods and other big addons that take up much space that I don't have.
For video card I would still recommend GTX660i instead of just GTX660. Check the reviews.
Don't stick with stock cooling! It's not meant for gaming! You will have high temperatures!
Also there is a big difference from stock ghz to overclocked ghz, believe me.
Overclocked ivy bride 4.5ghz runs the same as overclocked 4.8 sandy bridge.
You should know that ARMA engine has a bad optimization so it mostly uses one core,
so if it's higher then it's better.
I don't really know about ARMA3.
Does anyone know if ARMA3 now uses all cores?
From the reports I've read on the BIS forum, it's not any better than ArmA2
Of course it might get better by final release but it's not a good sign.
So yeah, definitely get the fastest Intel processor you can, as AMD doesn't work as well with ArmA2 and this may be the case with ArmA3 too, although it's too early to say.
Allright. Got the computer. Using it at the moment and downloading ARMA3.
I got GTX 670 and the fastest i5 CPU I could get, which was 3750K.
There were no 180 GB SSDs so I took one 120GB. I'll probably get another one later. And I'll keep only Armas on the SSD with windows so the size isn't a problem I hope.