Recidivist (DayZ)

CPU: You mentioned HyperThreading but it could do with further explanation. SMT is important for some things so you should clarify the benefits of HT vs no HT vs. AMD's CMT/TCS/whatevertheyarecallingitnow. Bulldozer, Sandy Bridge, Sempron, Nehalem etc. refer to the architecture not the series. The series would be i7, i5, FX, etc HDD: Your figures on HDD and SSD prices are way off. I mean, REALLY off. You say .50/GB for a HDD? LOL, 1000GB is £500 is it? I think you'll find HDD's are about $0.07 per GB ($70 = 1000GB, obviously it's different here in UK/EU but not that much, lol.). Thesea re pre-thailand flood prices, of course, so prices might be double this now, but not over 10x more. SSD's have dropped in price a lot recently and are still dropping, but they are still not "really affordable". You can still only really expect an OS disk unless you really sink some cash into it. You should also include that SSD's aren't going to turn your FPS from 15 to 60. They will potentially decrease load times by a huge amount, but the performance increase isn't that great. As far as SSD brands go you've said that anything but crucial or Samsung is "lesser". Ehm...OCZ, Intel and Patriot...While I am a big fan of Samsung, you really cannot say Samsung will be higher quality than any of those 3. This section really needs some revision. PSU: You have neglected to mention load and capacitor ageing when choosing PSU wattage. Find your minimum and add ~20-25%. (Edit: Has been added) A really good tool for calculating PSU wattage: http://extreme.outer...culatorlite.jsp Graphics: While it's true that VRAM doesn't dictate the card's power, it's still important. Explaining the VRAM could be useful, for exmple, 1GB is pretty much the lowest you can go and 2GB+ is what you should aim for. RAM: 1600Mhz really isn't the common speed. 1333Mhz is definately still the most common and will more than likely remain so until DDR4. I'm not saying don't get 1600Mhz, but 1333Mhz really isn't bad. I think you should clarify then need for DDR3 RAM and explain CAS timing. 9-9-9-24 is pretty much the average CAS timings (for 1333Mhz) you should look for (Corsair, OCZ, G.Skill, Patriot, Crucial should all offer this). A bit of deviation from that won't hurt too much but the lower the better. Remember also that the higher the frequenchy the higher the CAS timings (generally). So 1333Mhz at 8-8-8-23 is not better than 1600Mhz at 9-9-9-24. As far as capacity goes, while mobo's can handle 16GB - 24GB it's definately not common to have that and not at all necessary. I would guess that 4GB is still the most common capacity and 8GB is probably the highest most people will actually need, though I doubt many will get close to hitting full load. Perhaps cover some good practises when choosin RAM? For example, single/dual/tripple/quad channel RAM. Related is the amount of modules: 2x4GB is better than 4x2GB as you aren't taxing the memory controller as much. Higher capacity modules are more expensive but also allow for more upgrading. If you want 8GB now, get 2x4GB and you can upgrade to 4x4GB later on without trashing the old modules. This stuff's pretty important for choosing RAM. You should also add some about 64bit vs 32bit, otherwise some people might waste their cash on extra ram they can't use. Peripherals: DPI/PPI is something people need to experience on their own, to be honest. If you're a semi-serious gamer you should definately be looking at gaming mice, but it's pretty irrelevent for most people. Software sensitivity is usually enough for most people and they probably won't even notice the difference between DPI/PPI vs sensitivity. Back/forward buttons are definately a must, I can't imagine using a mouse without them. You didn't mention SteelSeries which is probably the best gaming peripheral maker in terms of quality. Razer are really a pretty gimicky brand where lights and shiny-ness mean more than anything. It should also be noted that Logitech mice with the multi-directional mousewheel have some issues with the mousewheel giving up after fair-use, so it's not so good for heavy gaming (not all their mice have it). I think you need to remember that a majority of the people that are asking here are looking for budget builds and aren't really interested in the gains of SSD's and higher frequency RAM.

Hmm, skimping out on the graphics card to add a relatively pointless SSD is a bad suggestion. The SSD isn't going to help his performance greatly and will leave him with an underpowered graphics card - you mention CPU bottleneck in your thread but it goes the otherway too. As it is, the graphics card will run DayZ on maximum and pretty much any other game and last for several years. Again, for running DayZ the extra expense of 1600Mhz over 1333Mhz is pointless and isn't going to increase your performance that much. It will help to future the build, sure, but it can easily be upgraded later on and doesn't invalidate the build. The fact that ArmA2 is an old game doesn't mean much; it's relatively unoptimized and DayZ adds a whole load of extra crap that increases that load considerably. You're likely to run several more modern games with better performance than DayZ. Looking at your link you're saying most most PC's hold 16 - 24GB and run 1600Mhz - I'd like to see where you got that from. Sure, most have a max capacity of 16 - 24 and support up to 1600Mhz without OCing, but I'm quite positive most people are still running between 2GB and 8GB on 1333Mhz. There's going to be a very small percentage of people running 16GB or more even at 1600Mhz (we're talking dunking atleast ~£70 into RAM, which only power users will ever do these days). I don't mean to be mean but there's some sweeping generalizations you're making that just don't hold up and it'll cost people money if they take it on board. If we weren't trying to help people who simply want to play DayZ with decent performance I would actually agree with your suggestions but I don't think they are adapted for this circumstance. That's a pretty solid build there. It's a powerful CPU and a god graphics card, it shouldn't struggle with DayZ at all. I don't know your budget or your requirements but if you're looking to lower the price you can forget the SSD; it won't really help your performance but will lower loading times which may or may not be much of an issue for you. SSD's are great if you're a power user in any aspect, but they aren't at a price point that's reasonable for casual users (in my opinion). You could switch out the G.Skill Ripjaw for Corsair Vengeance for lower CAS timings and possible lower price (I personally much prefer Corsair to G.Skill). If you aren't planning to overclock you don't have to buy the CPU cooler right now, you can always wait until after you build the rig and see if you actually need it, the stock cooler should be sufficient if you don't overclock. You could also get a less powerful graphics card to save some cash, but if you're happy with the price I'd say just go for it. It'll last a good few years and should run most games. I'm running it on a Samsung 700GA which has a i7-2670QM and a AMD6970m. It runs for about £1400 which is about as good as you can get in terms of mobile price:performance. Atleast, it was when I bought it. The AMD7 series and nVidia 6 series came out after I got it, but I'm fairly sure they haven't made a big impact to Notebooks yet. AMD's mobile GPU's are superior to nVidia's so you should wait for AMD 7 series to hit Notebooks.

No.

I run ArmA2 maxed with v-synch (120Hz@60FPS) on a Notebook. If you're moving around even semi-frequently a desktop is a pain in the arse (don't get me wrong, I would love to have bought a desktop instead but it was impractical for me). Anyway, you're better off with a desktop if you're looking for a decent price:performance. It's hard to say exactly what spec will run DayZ on max, especially consistantly; it will depend on what you're running in the background and what you're doing in-game as well. It's also hard to suggest any hardware without a set budget. You say "really cheap" but to me, a "really cheap" PC means around £600 which may or may not be more than you were thinking. So, suggest a budget and see what happens.

Eh...you want to upgrade a Notebook? :|

Get killed by hackers.

In the ~200hours I've spent playing in DayZ, I have never once seen anyone play how you describe a "good" bandit. I'm not sure that would be particularly successful either, as it goes both ways; most survivors are just gonna shoot at him and kill him/be killed. Most "bandits" in DayZ are just deathmatchers, not interested in anything but MANSHOOT.

Pointless PSU, weak CPU, average video card, over kill RAM, standard HDD. I hope you didn't pay too much.

Hahah, I did this to someone :P Some bandits tried to kill me while I was unarmed in the NW airfield. I ran around him in circles shouting "shoot me" down the mic and he put like 3 M9SD mags into the wall. I went behind him, into his backpack, pulled out his M107 and shot him and his buddy with it. Thanks for the Coyote backpack, NVGs, rangefinders, M107, M24, MP5SD, M9SD, GPS and all the ammo, guys! (Names were "beno" and "Chumpkins Exploaded", if anyone seems them, I'd love it if you could laugh at them for me.)

610 is terrible. The Radeon 7750 is the best I can find for under $100 ($99.99 :D). http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102969 I don't so much care for Sapphire, but it's a tight budget. Remember that ArmA2 is very CPU intensive, so don't rely on a new video card to solve everything.

Or you could...y'know, not waste your money on Alienware.

After spawning I rarely go 30 minutes without a gun. If you break LOS the zombies will de-aggro. Start sneaking, stop sprinting. Weapons are already extremely common. In just 10 hours, 1 life and on my own I gathered: 2x M1911 1x Revolver 3x Makarov 2x G17 1x M4A1 CCO 1x FN-FAL NV 4x AKM 1x AKS-74 1x AKS-74 Kobra 2x Remington 2x M16M203 (+ 4 HE nades, 2 smokes, 2 flares) 1x Winchester 2x Lee Enfield 1x M24 2x M1014 2x Frag grenades With heaps of ammo. This isn't anything special, it can be done. The starting weapons caused a bloodbath on the coast. Fresh players would just shoot each other, take their ammo and supplies and leave. No gun means the newly-spawned occasionally band together to find things. It also stops some of the coast-camping by inlanders to get easy supplies. There is "Side" chat on some servers. Personally, I choose ones with it disabled. It's terrible and breaks all immersion. It's either "anyone in cherno?", "friendly?" or Russian spam. It happens. Just wait till you get decent gear and run into leavers and server hoppers. The amount of times I've manaed to out-wit some bumbandit who failed an ambush just for them to disconnect as I put a round into them. They just join another server, heal, move behind your location, rejoin and shoot you in the back. So fun. I don't care about PVPers who actually accept their death and die honourably. Reaper1Actual, Word, johm and AntiMatter - fuck you, server hopping, leaving pricks. Break LOS. Again.

Trust at the beginning of a life has increased since the "nerf" of starting items; why waste your ammo on someone without a gun who will only drop a flashlight? Other than that, it is exactly the same as it was pre-"nerf". You missed out on nothing there. Keeping your items after you die because of how you played last life shits all over the whole permadeath premise and is just....bad.

Well' date=' thank you. But would you please explain to me how to do it right then? I am not able to move around in a building (2nd floor), sneaking or crawling, without attracting zombies from the street. Is this realistic in your opinion? I agree with most if the things you said, but not with insulting people who think this is over the top (which it clearly is). [/quote'] I'm not insulting those who think it is over the top; it is, which I said. I'm insulting the "impatient morons" who think the game is entirely unplayable because they think sprinting around a town shouldn't aggro anything. Visability IS broken and from what I've read Rocket has said so himself, but in no way is it unplayable. Stop trying to play the game like any other FPS you've ever played. In DayZ, crouching isn't the sneakiest thing you can do. You say you're getting spotted "sneaking" in the second floor of a building, but perhaps you aren't being very sneaky. Even crouch walking I haven't been spotted on the second floor and rarely the first floor, either. Remember, you make noises too. In a town where there is no other noise, your footsteps on the hard wood floors will go right out the glass-less windows. Zombies should/would/could be able to smell as well, so while this isn't taken into consideration in DayZ, you could imagine that some of the "unrealistic" aggros are down to them sniffing you out. After all, when was the last time you took a shower, eh? Dirty bastard. ;) Dr_Gichtelstein, chill out babe. Your post history is pretty cute, though. Keep trying to troll, you'll get the hang of it eventually.

Anyone who says the game is currently unplayable is an impatient moron. For the past few days I've been through 1.7.1, 1.7.1.1, 1.7.1.2 and 1.7.1.3/4 and STILL been able to play normally. I even lost my gear on the x1.4 patch and still managed to sneak all the way through Stary Sobor into the military camp, loot every tent and left with a G17 and M16. Not a single shot fired. A few minutes later I looted a crashed huey with out firing a single shot either. So if you're currently saying this game is "unplayable", it's not; you're doing it wrong. This game is not for you if all you want to do is run and gun and get instant gratification. However, that's not to say that visibility isn't a bit dodgey right now. There definately is something up with zombies being able to spot you from quite a distance if you are crouching. I don't think it needs too much changing though, it's just the range they can see you from that needs tweaking. Perhaps crouch walking could benefit from ever-so-slightly less visibility as I've had a few annoying surprises during some town-looting that just didn't seem right (mostly where you need to crouch to enter buildings as you get stuck when prone, getting you spotted from 20m away). As far as FPS goes, I've never had it go below ~18 and that was when the loot cleanup was messed in 1.7.1.x. Other than that, it's always somewhere above 30. I haven't noticed it dropping over time, but I don't monitor my FPS; even after 8+ hours in the same session it has never dropped low enough for me to notice change atleast. I haven't really tried melee yet as I prefer my M107, but I've been a bit hesitant about picking up a hatchet. My whole group lost their hatches from gear so finding wood has been a bit of a problem. Are we able to just pickup a hatchet as the gear item? We're all pretty paranoid about picking up the hatchet and it dropping our primaries into the the abyss. Starting with no gun was probably the best change this mod has received. Before, I had gotten to the point where I just shot on sight as it was all anyone else did; there was no point waiting to see if people were "friendly" or not, I lost far too much gear doing that. Now though, because we were so dependant on each other at the start, I've gone from a group of 3 to a group of 5-6. It's quite an experience; meeting two random people in Electro, NOT shooting each other, helping one another find weapons/gear then exploring the entire map for several days with them. So yeah, Rocket, please keep experimenting. This is a mod AND an alpha. The two best things for experimentation. I don't give a shit if you try something and it doesn't work or even if it breaks the entire game (temporarily, of course, you better fix that shit). Although I do like some good booty I have no appetite for the man-variety, but I will say that I, and many others, are extremely appreciative of the time and effort you have put into this mod. Also, please remember that a majority of the people who really enjoy your work don't have the time to post about how much we do; we're playing it.