New PC: Am I on the right track?

This is the only game I will be playing so I'm not going to spend a ton of money to play this game. I was able to get this to run on an Asus running 2 celeron 2815 @ 1.86Ghz, 4gigs ram, IntelHD(shared memory) and 5400 drive. I've decided I can get more bang for my buck if I build a PC myself. I already have monitors so that won't play into cost. I'm trying to keep the cost at $450 or below, but Windows threw a wrench in that idea. I was thinking of trying to use Ubuntu or another distro on the new PC, which will save me $84.00 off the price. I haven't used Linux since it was command line only, so, I was wondering how hard it would be for me to get going in Linux? Anyway, was wondering if the build I came upwith will be good enough to comfortably run the game and handle future expansions for the next few years. I have to do more research on the case and PSU so that doesn't appear in the list(any suggestions that will keep me under/at $450 is appreciated.) I want to make sure I have a reliable PSU. Anyway, here is the build I came up with:

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/FbsHWX

Any input/suggestion is appreciated!

 

That is a good build for a budget gaming machine. The gtx730 is a bit light, if you want to play with graphic settings on "beautiful".

 

OS:
Most people never switched to Windows 8 and instead went from 7 to 10. So i would suggest 7 over 8. 8 Was like Vista, pretty much universally hated. Also, if you have 7, you get 10 for free I think.
Linux is an option if and only if you have experience with it and know the pros/cons of going that direction. It's a great OS, but its not for everyone.

Video Card:
I agree that card is not a great option unless you are fine running with lower quality settings.

i3:
I think at least an i5 is in order.

The rest seems fine. If the budget is this tight, you probably can pick up used parts that are much better than those.

 

Also notice issues with AMD processors and unity not working well, and some Linex issues reported as well. I'm not sure of the status of the issues but something to consider. I won't buy AMD but that is just me. If you can upgrade to I5 at least, I think you would be better off. I just got rid of an I3 computer. I had an Alienware X51 and recently had a computer built. The game is so un-opimized at the moment it is tough for many low-end computers and even for high-end computers at times. I am loving my SSD though, that made a ton of difference for me. So best wishes , sorry if I was not much help.

 

I looked at benchmarks for an FX-6300(6cores/6threads) build compared to an I3-6100 and, althought he FX-6300 beat the i3(2cores/4threads) in a couple tests, the I3 faired better overall and is only a like $20 more. The AMD issues, from what i've read, revolved around the A8 processor. Regardless, I am going to go with the Intel i3 because of the increased performance. The free upgrade to Win 10 expired July 29. I'm running Win 8.1(preinstalled). It had a lot of bloatware and lots of other annoying things, but I was able to tweak it out by shutting down wasteful processes. I got SOTA to run on Celeron 2 core 2815 @ 1.86Ghz, 4gigs ram, IntelHD(shared memory) and 5400 drive. It was playable in most areas, but in Ardoris could barely move. I'm not concerned with having state-of-the-art graphics, and am ok with running lower quality. I'm more concerned with the gameplay. Better graphics is just a bonus for me! (^8

I figured if I was able to get it to run on such an underspec'ed PC that I could run SOTA fairly well with what I put together. I'm definitely on a tight budget, and, as I said, this is the only game I play. I really shouldn't be spending $450 just to play one game but I REALLY like Ultima(playing on/off since '98), and this game is enough like it that I'm willing to splurge!

I installed Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and installed Steam/SOTA. I really like Ubuntu by the way! It's much faster than my Win 8.1 setup and I haven't even done any tweaking yet. So, I figured the game would run better on here....I was wrong..LOL! I double-click the desktop shortcut and the screen turns black and the hard-drive is running. Somtimes, after about 5/10 mins the black screen goes back to desktop, other times it just keeps loading, the mouse freezes and I, not knowing enough about Linux yet, have to force a shutdown and reboot. I never received a crash. I read the forums but only a few posts seemed to relate to my problem. Someone mentioned that Steam was default loading the 32bit app rather than the 64bit. I'm not sure how to check for or change this. Any help regarding this is appreciated! Until then, I will spend my Saturday relearning Linux command line(been more than 10 years lol) and trying to find a work around to get this game to run. I have dualboot set up right now, so I can still play the game. But, if I can get this to run on Linux, reliably, I will forego Windows on the new build.

I'm going to wait a bit on building a PC, I think the prices will drop fairly soon, which may expand my options on a build. I will try to rework the build to get a better video card. Not sure if anyone knows, but is this game more GPU or CPU intensive? Would it be better to cut back the RAM to 8Gb and go with a better video card? I tried to do the most with each item to increase performance. The memory I selected is 2133(as opposed to the standard I normally see of 1600), with a CAS of 14(most were 15/16.) Any suggestions on a video card that's good but not too expensive? I thought the one I got would help with the 4GbDDR3/902MHz core would be good. Most I looked at in my price range only had 2Gb and, at best, 1.05Ghz core. Are there any other factors that I should be evaluating on these cards? I'm not up on tech like I used to be, so I've had to crash-course my tech knowledge to research this stuff. I'm not going out right away and buying something....prob won't untill after Thanksgiving. Anyway, thanks for the help!

 

Woohoo!! Got SOTA running on Ubuntu 16.04. I read a bad tutorial that said if you had 4gigs or more of memory you didn't need to create a Swap Space partition. Anyway, have it running now. It runs slower than Windows in certain areas and faster in others. I think I may try to rework the partition order, after reading an article about it, to put the swap directory in between / and /home. Think I am going to start trying lighter desktop environments for Linux. Anyone have any suggestions on which distros eliminate the fluff and works more efficiently with games? For the most part, i've noticed that Linux programs run much faster than ones that are comparable to Windows.

 

lxde and xfce are both rather light and there are -buntu distros based around them.

 

Building a windows machine in 2016 is insanity. In this day and age, Macs a are for people who want technology obfuscated and handled by someone else (that arguably knows better), Linux is for people who want total freedom when using their operating system and its software, Windows is for people who are utterly naive or want to have the worst computing experience possible. Youre wasting lots of money for really bad software, literally the worst you can get. The open source equivalents to anything Microsoft have surpassed their paid counterparts many years ago. Microsoft only maintains itself through the magic of brand loyalty and the fact that consumers rarely act outside of familiarity. How horribly insecure their platforms are should be reason enough, not to mention windows 10 is just a glorified spyware and big-data collection machine (which, combined with MS's history of being horribly insecure, is even more scary).

Ubuntu has come so far from the last time you used it, you will probably crap your pants. Stick to the LTS versions (16.04), and only ever use LTS versions. The incremental versions (e.g., 15.10, 16.10, 17.04, etc) dont offer a whole lot in terms of improvements and sometimes require a deeper knowledge (and love) of linux to work with non backwards compatible changes.

Forwarning: Port hasnt focused a lot on OpenGL, so as of now, SotA looks like **** with the latest proprietary nVidia driver for Ubuntu. This has less to do with linux and everything to do with the game industry as a whole being stuck in the past and being stuck on focusing for the worst platform possible (Microsoft / DirectX). I expect this to change by the time Episode 1 launches. In fact, I am only backing this game due to its alleged intention for cross platform, specifically linux, playability.

Just use Ubuntu, after a few months you will scratch your head anytime you see anyone use windows. Youll feel bad for the mac users but understand they dont like thinking, so they just pay many thousands of extra dollars to have someone think for them.

http://askubuntu.com/
https://superuser.com/
http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/
http://www.webupd8.org/
https://linuxmint.com/

You can likely figure out anything you need to know on askubuntu.com. Good luck!

 

I have a gtx760 spare if that helps, pretty reasonable card

 

Your going to need more video card to run this game. Good budget case and the best power supply you will find for that price.
http://pcpartpicker.com/list/Lv4Tm8
For the WIFI it's best to have a direct line if the router is in your house this is the next best thing.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833704164

 

I somewhat disagree. Only due to the fact that virtually 100% of all prebuilt PC's come with Windows automatically installed. It's a monopoly. The end-user has no say in the choice of operating system they have installed. So, MS maintains itself by giving users no choice, thus eliminating the competition. They did the same thing with IE when they bundled it with Windows. Mosaic became IE and remember Netscape? Luckily, Firefox has filled the void. Although, I have some bad feelings about the direction Mozilla is taking with Firefox. They seem to be edging toward appeasing the corporations that want access to it's users for adverstising purposes. But, unlike some other browsers, Firefox still has a great system for plug-ins and, especially, extensions to block junk, although they now have to be approved by Firefox for them to work.

This is my first time using Ubutunu Linux. The first Linux I used was RedHat 5.0 and then later I tried 8.0. There was a lot of missing functionality back then, but Ubuntu is very simple to operate, at least with regards to the desktop. I just have to get used to the command-line again. I am a tweak-freak, so I love trying to find ways to run faster.

Yeah, I was thinking about this. I don't want to get onboard with a project that may fold a year from now and have to reinstall another OS. Long Term Support(LTS) makes me more comfortable. I normally avoid Beta versions of software, especially OS's. Unless they are something really special.

Thanks for the insight!

 

I read about these. I may give them a try on a seperate partition. Just worried about ongoing support for them, as Black Tortoise pointed out. If it's just a slight bump in performance or slight decrease in overhead(memory/cpu usage), it probably wouldn't be worth it. Until I get a new computer I am trying to squeeze every bit of power out of this Asus! I have horrible freezes and very jerky movement. Not sure what my framerate is, but I would guess around 14fps...LOL

 

Cool deal...I noticed the CM case comes with a PSU. Is this one shoddy or something? For the router, I'm just going to run some Cat5 under the house to the room I play in. I get 20Mb/sec on a Fiber line, not sure how much latency would be involved if I were running wirelessly, but I will test it. As for the video card I'm still researching those. I don't want the video card to be a bottle neck in my setup. Thanks for the info!

 

Thanks for the offer Raistlyn...let me check a couple things out first. Might PM you about the details if you don't mind.

 

Sure, let me know

 

Any CM case you get that comes with a power supply is complete garbage.

 

Ok...ordered my new computer sans the GPU. I use the integrated graphics for now and get the GPU sometime Q1-Q2 next year. I was able to play(barely) on the ASUS, so my new PC should be much more playable than it curently is. Anyway, here is what I got:

Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz/3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor
ASRock Z170 Pro4S ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Mushkin Blackline 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory(15 CAS)
ADATA Premier SP550 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive(560MB/s Read, 510MB/s Write)
Corsair(CX 600) Builder 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply
DIYPC Zondda-O ATX Mid Tower Case
6ft HDMI Cable
6ft HDMI to DVI Cable(to support older monitor)

I think i got a decent build. The total price came in at just over $500USD(with rebates). I know with the video card this is going to put me way over budget, but I think I got a good system for the price. Can't wait till I get it so I can put it together and start playing! Let me know your thoughts/criticisms!

 

Remember that Sota is a CPU heavy game.
I have an ten year old Dell T5500 workstation, but with lots of added memory (48G).
I found it at Goodwill electronics, refurbished, with dual monitors, quad sound, mouse and keyboard for $350. The extra memory was about $100.

 

@CrandalltheFoole , I am running the game on a Celeron with 1.86GHz(2.15 Turbo)x2 with 4gigs of ram, so I think I will be fine when I get new one built....I will get a new GPU sometime next year. I think the i5-6500 will run it fairly smooth, and once the game gets optimized it should run even better. I'm working on a constrained budget, so I didn't go all out. I did think about getting on Opteron or Xeon server cpu but I didn't want to invest more research time into it....LOL.....me being lazy!

 

Just remember once you decide on a server CPU, you have to get a different motherboard, and registered memory (which can be pricey).
On the other hand I see on ebay that the Dell T5500 (the model I have) is going for less than $350 plus shipping.
They will have a Quadro video card which works just fine.