So I have been doing intensive research on what PC parts I should get for my first pc build to run UE4 smoothly at a budget of $1000. I have seen various answers to this and I’m not sure which one I should really go with. Then I stumbled upon a post on the answerhub with these parts listed below for about $2,000.
That processor choice doesn’t have much options for upgrading. It’s a Ivy Bridge-E processor which is getting replaced as soon as next month with Haswell-E and they aren’t compatible with the same motherboards. Haswell-E should be very good, but since it requires a new motherboard along with DDR4 memory it’s going to be expensive to upgrade to so I wouldn’t wait for that unless you have the money to spend.
If you want something that you can upgrade later, there’s the i7 4790. When Broadwell releases next year they will support the same LGA 1150 motherboards that the 4790 uses. Also, it comes with a fan and heatsink so you don’t need to buy a CPU cooler unless you want to improve cooling. The 4930k doesn’t come with a CPU cooler which is why you would have to buy one separately if you got that.
As for memory, you can go down to DDR3-1600 without noticing much of a difference and it’s cheaper since it’s more common. You could also drop that down to 16GB if you really needed to.
You also don’t need a 1TB solid state drive, what I do is have something like a 128GB solid state drive for Windows and the most important programs, and then a regular 1TB drive (or two) for things like installing games and other programs and storing files.
I concur with everything darth said above. Your real issue I think will be your price target - I normally have to spend at least $1300 to get a decent, discounted medium range machine put together.
For video card and CPU benchmark and price comparisons, the following two links are valuable references:
If you would like the system custom made and burned in for you (which is marginally more expensive than building it yourself, but without the added risk), two of the better sites for this:
As a general rule, I don’t spend more on the CPU than the GPU(s). I would go with 16GB as well, that will save you $160. The SSD is a huge chunk of the cost too. Here’s an older build I have sitting around: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/BtQXf7 Most of that stuff isn’t on sale anymore, but it’s $1200 so it’s close enough to your budget that you can see what kind of hardware you can get. High end Intel builds are expensive, there’s just no way around it. You could buy used if you’re comfortable with it.
Hello, i agree with all what have been said before but i would point that 1 : computers products are a money lost product like cars or all other products which are in the " perpetual evolving spirit to have a bit more result than last version for higher price" 2 : i bought my last computer to have fun with skyrim, it is a phenom 4 core 955 ghz with 16 go ram and radeon r9270x that i bought only because old one burned. Only thing i had to change to be fair with ue4 was windows from xp to 7…
So, if you don’t have so much money, i would say don’t spend in some stuff which will be useless soon (like 3 monthes) : buy useless 3 monthes stuff now, you’ll save a lot and can begin use engine time to have money to buy better stuff next year.
thanks guys for the responses, I just recently updated it and came out with this. Is it decent enough to run UE4 and is there anything I should change around or remove to get a better bargain? Still not too satisfied with the motherboard, but I suck at finding what is decent enough for that price or lower.
I found my 128GB SSD got crowded with all the extra assets. I suggest a 256GB Samsung EVO, or if you can stretch, a Corsair MX100 512GB.
The i7-4790 is a great choice, especially for value for money. You won’t need to replace that anytime soon. I think you could save a little on the motherboard, but I haven’t kept up with all the various boards so I couldn’t give any further advice on that.
Other than that, it looks good, and building it yourself will give you an idea as to how you will upgrade it later. Remember, you have not bought a console. This is upgradeable, so you don’t have to look at this as the only PC you will ever own. 8)
You’ll probably want to upgrade the GPU first, but the 770 will get you to Christmas/Hanukkah/Ramadan/Saturnalia/etc. (The already mentioned GTX780Ti is a good one).
Also, a second 1080P monitor is a must when developing, as you can get a dirt cheap TN panel, as you won’t use it to game.
If you’re going to have the SSD for your Windows installation remember to get a regular 1TB drive to store everything else.
Also, I forgot to mention but Nvidia is probably releasing their new line of graphics cards soon so you may want to wait and see if you want to get one of those instead, should be releasing soon as well. The price on the old ones don’t usually drop much in case you were wondering.
Well, I have no problems with a 128 gb SSD with just the system, visual studio and unreal engine installed on it. And 1 TB Hard drive.
You can cut the RAM to 16 or 8 GB and just upgrade it in near future. Because it’s just buying another stick and pluging it in.
About the grahpics card, I suppose it’ll be good for sometime, although I really recommend 780ti, but it costs around 750$ so it’s not an option. You could get one gtx 680 and later add another one to it because I think it supports SLI.
Also, you forgot about the screen, but this costs around 100$ for a decent one.
I think you could get a cheaper motherboard ( I was recently getting myself a new pc and mine was twice as cheap if I remember well) .
Cutting on the processor is a bad idea because this is totally nonupgradable, and you have to sell the old one.
Already been mentioned but you won’t last long with only 120gb storage. I’d say get that one for OS and a few important heavy softwares and then put the rest on a mechanical drive, you can get a 500gb or so for dirt cheap, look at the Western Digital Blue, they’re perfect for this case (not as slow as green or red and cheaper than black but doesn’t come in as big sizes). Other than that I think it’s a solid build that will last you for quite a long time.
If anything I’d upgrade the GPU but the 770 should work great, it can run BF4 with 1080 resolution at Ultra settings with average 54 fps (according to this benchmark) which is good, should work great with UE4. But you might want to wait until the new 800 series cards are released (in September) as older cards are likely to go down in price quite a lot after that.
Alright I decided to buy all the parts listed except the GPU. I will purchase one of the Nividia GPUs from the 800 series when it comes out, since my budget will be better by then.
Anyone still got any suggestions on a better, lower price motherboard? Thanks
The practical reason to get the biggest rig you can afford is not to just run UE4 but all the secondary applications you may wish to run at the same time on the same machine.
More than one or twice I’ve had UE4, 3ds Max, Motion Builder and Photoshop all running at the same time
I add two upgrades since buying it at a thousand bucks.
Nvidia 780ti
2 terabyte network cloud server.
So as far as the basics goes CPU and memory selection is key and and the rest you can budget as an upgrade if and when you feel you need in under practical loads.
By the way I was using a GTX 570 and everything ran fine but I wanted the Shadowplay feature that is only available with the 6 and 7 series.
(The already mentioned GTX780Ti is a good one).