New PC for FTB

[Dzura]

I'm looking to get a new PC so I can play FTB mod packs specifically dw20 and or monster my current computer gets like 5fps or worse minuts after starting a new world. but i dont know what kind of PC to get
I have seen where buildin your own is cheaper but i dont know what parts i should get i know a i5 CPU and a beefy graphics card but thats about all i have come up with so far
If anyone has a good build or have any suggestions it would be apreciated I'm expecting to pay about $800 but I'll go up to $900 if the computer is worth it

 

[ThatOneSlowking]

Well m 600$ PC can run ressurection at max settings with faithful at a stable 60 FPS. Mine personally is 8 gigs of RAM (you can survive with less if it is ourely for minecraft.) GTX 750ti (a good mid-range graphics card, though with your budget a 970 might be nice, though overkill if for only minecraft. Unlessmyou are using HD texturepacks and multiple shaders you may be able to go cheaper, though if you are doing what I said before and you play other games you may want a 970 or 980 for better preformance, though I do not remember the price of either off the top of my head.) I reccomend a GTX 960 if you want somethin a little better for around the same price. CPU is i5 4690, which is what you intend to get. Z97 gaming mobo, and a rosewill case. I am using stock cooler since im not overcloking, and I do not remember the PSU off the top of my head. Cheers.

 

[SinisterBro :3]

I suggest this one.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jjvZjX

Its a good computer with enough beef in it to be able to easily walk over FTB.

 

[zemerick]

If you're getting it just for minecraft ( including modpacks ), you can save quite a bit more on the video card. A $150 vid card will be practically asleep playing MC. You could then put that money towards an even better CPU, which will help.

If you do plan to play other games though, a good video card is usually a good investment.

I would not get less than 8 gigs of RAM, as you can quickly use that up these days. ( Especially if you use Chrome for your web browser. Between just modded MC, Chrome with a youtube video at 720p, and windows...I have ran out of memory at 8 gigs. )

Also, if you want future proofing ( so you can just upgrade instead of buying a whole new PC again in a couple years ), you'll want to get a very good/modern motherboard. Currently on the Intel side, this means LGA-2011 V3 socket. This will allows both DDR4 RAM, and a 6 or 8 core CPU. ( Games are already requiring quad core, so if you get quad now...in just a couple of years you will not meet minimum specs. ) Make sure to also get a FULL tower. It will allow the full range of upgrades, including a larger PSU and a large video card. They're big and heavy, but it would really suck to go to upgrade something and find it just doesn't fit.

Another tip: For video cards, the first number is the generation, while the numbers after that tell you how powerful the card is within the generation. You do have to be a little careful each time they rearrange their generation numbering though. ( IE: An Nvidia 280 is better than an 8800 because the 200 series is after the 9000 series. ) This means the later numbers tend to be more important than the first numbers. There are some exceptions, such as when new direct X version come out, or if you're talking a bigger difference. ( A 960 is still better than a 280. ) For regular gaming, I always recommend x60 or better. For MC/general computing, you can go down to an x40, but lower than that usually has a sharp drop in performance, and very little ( if any ) price difference.

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/ is a good place to get a rough idea of performance and cost. ( Always assume about a +/- 10% margin of error in benchmarks though. They have a lot of issues, NTM different games will actually perform better or worse with different cards. )

 

[Dzura]

I thought about a six core processor but I know that Minecraft is only optimized to use a single core so I was looking at a four core in the idea that the individual cores would be a little bigger to handle ftb packs

 

[Wagon153]

If you're getting it just for minecraft ( including modpacks ), you can save quite a bit more on the video card. A $150 vid card will be practically asleep playing MC. You could then put that money towards an even better CPU, which will help.

If you do plan to play other games though, a good video card is usually a good investment.

I would not get less than 8 gigs of RAM, as you can quickly use that up these days. ( Especially if you use Chrome for your web browser. Between just modded MC, Chrome with a youtube video at 720p, and windows...I have ran out of memory at 8 gigs. )

Also, if you want future proofing ( so you can just upgrade instead of buying a whole new PC again in a couple years ), you'll want to get a very good/modern motherboard. Currently on the Intel side, this means LGA-2011 V3 socket. This will allows both DDR4 RAM, and a 6 or 8 core CPU. ( Games are already requiring quad core, so if you get quad now...in just a couple of years you will not meet minimum specs. ) Make sure to also get a FULL tower. It will allow the full range of upgrades, including a larger PSU and a large video card. They're big and heavy, but it would really suck to go to upgrade something and find it just doesn't fit.

Another tip: For video cards, the first number is the generation, while the numbers after that tell you how powerful the card is within the generation. You do have to be a little careful each time they rearrange their generation numbering though. ( IE: An Nvidia 280 is better than an 8800 because the 200 series is after the 9000 series. ) This means the later numbers tend to be more important than the first numbers. There are some exceptions, such as when new direct X version come out, or if you're talking a bigger difference. ( A 960 is still better than a 280. ) For regular gaming, I always recommend x60 or better. For MC/general computing, you can go down to an x40, but lower than that usually has a sharp drop in performance, and very little ( if any ) price difference.

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/ is a good place to get a rough idea of performance and cost. ( Always assume about a +/- 10% margin of error in benchmarks though. They have a lot of issues, NTM different games will actually perform better or worse with different cards. )

x99 is a terrible waste of money for gaming. It's expensive, the motherboards are unreliable, the RAM is stupidly expensive, and almost all the cpus for it need an after market cooler(admittedly, you can get an Hyper TX3 for 16 dollars). As it is, future proofing is a fools errand. Upgrading your CPU if it is Intel is a joke(Tick tock release, where every tock is a new socket.). GPU is the only thing really upgradeable, and that can be done in a regular i5 build. Maybe dish out a little extra money for a motherboard that supports overclocking and SLI/Crossfire. OP is better off sticking with LGA 1150 then making a new build if he chooses to upgrade to Skylake(if the improvements are worth it, considering the improvements between Sandy Bridge and Haswell were negligible.) But the rest of your points I agree on.

 

[ScottulusMaximus]

CPU clock speed is basically all that matters, so go for a really high clock speed with 4 cores.

Load with 16gig RAM

Mid-low range graphics card.

SSD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's an MC PC build

Will fail hard at most other games

 

[Wagon153]

CPU clock speed is basically all that matters, so go for a really high clock speed with 4 cores.

My eyes. They burn.

 

[ScottulusMaximus]

My eyes. They burn.

Why? For the main process you need a high clock speed. MC is not entirely single thread but is damn close.

Don't pick and choose single statements out of a whole post to seem clever. The post as a whole is perfectly legitimate advice, if I had just said that then yes you're right to be dramatic.

 

[Wagon153]

Why? For the main process you need a high clock speed. MC is not entirely single thread but is damn close.

Don't pick and choose single statements out of a whole post to seem clever. The post as a whole is perfectly legitimate advice, if I had just said that then yes you're right to be dramatic.

Sorry, that's not how it works. For example, an A8-6600k has a clock speed of 3.9 gigahertz, but an Intel i3 with a clock of 3.6 stomps on it in Minecraft. It's not about clock speed, it's about IPC(instructions per clock). Different architectures have different IPCs. The clock speed argument is a common mistake.

 

[MigukNamja]

@ScottulusMaximus @Wagon153

You're both right. I'm pretty sure Scottulus wasn't implying AMD == Intel. Rather, when it comes to chips in the same family, go with the 'client' chip with higher click speed and fewer cores vs. the 'server' or 'multi-function' chip. In Intel, for instance, an i5 with a high clock speed should be virtually the same as an i7 with the same clock speed. You don't need the hyperthreaded cores nor the graphics in the i7. Although, the slightly larger cache in the i7 does help, yes.

And, yeah, Minecraft is mainly a CPU-bound game, even for clients. The 'rendering' is mainly CPU calculations that occur before the graphics rendering calls are executed. AFAIK, no GPU or graphics driver on the GPU runs Java JRE. Hence, the CPU *must* do the bulk of the rendering work in Minecraft.

And, SSD is damn right. Minecraft is a disk-hungry game, moreso than other games.

In short, Minecraft was *not* built from the ground up to be a high-performance game. It was built rapidly with little attention paid to optimization. I think 1.8 is a good attempt at this, though Forge is not quite there yet so the modded community can't move to 1.8 just yet. And, hats off to LexManos. Amazing and amazingly hard work.

 

[ThatOneSlowking]

CPU clock speed is basically all that matters, so go for a really high clock speed with 4 cores.

You fucking wot m8?

 

[DZCreeper]

Alright, let me just settle this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.88 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($28.75 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI Z97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($62.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.24 @ Directron)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card ($323.99 @ B&H)
Case: Corsair Graphite Series 230T Black ATX Mid Tower Case ($57.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $865.82
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-22 01:03 EST-0500

This build will shit all over even the most obscenely bogged down modpacks. It will also do very well in all other games @1080P @ Ultra setting or 1440P @ mid-high settings.
The important thing to note is Minecraft relies heavily on single thread performance for everything pre 1.8 as do most older games. A processor, cooler, and motherboard that can overclock well are important. The GTX 970 is downright overkill for Minecraft but does great in all games. Minecraft favors Nvidia video cards in my experience so if this computer is strictly for Minecraft, a GTX 750 Ti or a used 760/770 would also do just fine. An SSD is excellent for world generation speeds and loading times but would push you over the $900 mark if you don't downgrade the video card. If you do decide to get one, I suggest the 850 EVO or 850 Pro from Samsung, currently the fastest consumer storage on the market.

 

[MigukNamja]

Alright, let me just settle this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.88 @ OutletPC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($28.75 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI Z97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($62.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.24 @ Directron)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card ($323.99 @ B&H)
Case: Corsair Graphite Series 230T Black ATX Mid Tower Case ($57.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $865.82
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-22 01:03 EST-0500

This build will shit all over even the most obscenely bogged down modpacks. It will also do very well in all other games @1080P @ Ultra setting or 1440P @ mid-high settings.
The important thing to note is Minecraft relies heavily on single thread performance for everything pre 1.8 as do most older games. A processor, cooler, and motherboard that can overclock well are important. The GTX 970 is downright overkill for Minecraft but does great in all games. Minecraft favors Nvidia video cards in my experience so if this computer is strictly for Minecraft, a GTX 750 Ti or a used 760/770 would also do just fine. An SSD is excellent for world generation speeds and loading times but would push you over the $900 mark if you don't downgrade the video card. If you do decide to get one, I suggest the 850 EVO or 850 Pro from Samsung, currently the fastest consumer storage on the market.

Well said. Your list is for a traditional gaming machine, which is good to mention. And, as you said, upgrade the HD to an SSD (and downgrade the video card to save costs) to make it a Minecraft machine.

I did a very similar build for my client a few months ago. I went with a 760 video card and 850 EVO SSD because I don't play many other games outside Minecraft. I also went with 16GB of RAM so I don't have to close my wife's web sessions when I play ;-) My marriage is happier that way.

My dedicated server uses the i4590s (65w max. power draw), a Gold power supply, an 850 EV0, and on-board video so I can run in low-power super-silent mode. All fans are 140mm and run below 1000rpm. I can barely hear the server boot up.

 

[Dzura]

Wow I'm surprised at how helpful everyone has been I really like the build you suggested creeper is it possible to add a SSD in addition to the HD to keep my avalible storage higher?
(This is my first time building my own computer)

 

[Wagon153]

Wow I'm surprised at how helpful everyone has been I really like the build you suggested creeper is it possible to add a SSD in addition to the HD to keep my avalible storage higher?
(This is my first time building my own computer)

With SSD:
If you choose to spend the extra money on the SSD, REMEMBER TO INSTALL YOUR OS ON THE SSD.

Also, I can get a different GPU to save you money, but the trade-off would be heat and possibly a little performance(still unnoticeable in Minecraft).

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.95 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($30.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI Z97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($62.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX100 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($62.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.24 @ Directron)
Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card ($323.99 @ B&H)
Case: Corsair Graphite Series 230T Black ATX Mid Tower Case ($67.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $971.12
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-22 12:21 EST-0500

 

[DZCreeper]

Wow I'm surprised at how helpful everyone has been I really like the build you suggested creeper is it possible to add a SSD in addition to the HD to keep my avalible storage higher?
(This is my first time building my own computer)

Absolutely. Any SSD is much faster than a normal hard drive, so all you have to remember is to plug in the HDD after you install the OS to the SSD. Wagon153 has the right idea with the Crucial MX100 if you want a more budget oriented SSD, I prefer Samsung 850 drives for the higher performance. You do need to make some choices on what your going to use this computer for though if you want to stay within budget.

 

[KingTriaxx]

Agreed. Though personally I sub out Seagate and Gigabyte wherever the options exist. I've had far better luck with those than I have with Western Digital and MSI.

 

[DZCreeper]

Agreed. Though personally I sub out Seagate and Gigabyte wherever the options exist. I've had far better luck with those than I have with Western Digital and MSI.

I just picked the MSI motherboard because it was the cheapest Z97 board available. The Western Digital was just brand preference, although all the drives I have had from both companies have yet to die. I tend to replace them within 5 years though.

 

[KingTriaxx]

I retire my old drives to back up duty. I find that Gigabyte is always a little more expensive, but that it tends to a more durable version of the same product.