xcelsior

It's all about personal experience. Many people have had no issues with Logitech, just as many have. Personally it's all I use is Logitech and have no issues, anything that does go wrong is replaced without question anyways. They aren't perfect, nothing is, but a lot always depends on what model one chooses. I, and friends, use the G35/G930 (Wired/wireless) and aside from a couple tiny complaints they're great. I've only tried the new G230/430 ones a tiny bit so I can't comment there, but they were certainly comfy.

First be sure you have the system for an upgrade (space/power). If you do, basically the best current-gen card for ~$200 would be an R9 270X. Sapphire 270X is $190, or $220 for a better cooling solution (Tri-X cooling).

It's a great card. Have the Sapphire 290 Tri-X myself. :) Worth it, no. But you can if you really wanted, it won't be any form of XFire though.

It's always best to get the single most powerful card you can at first. XFire and SLi can cause issues and aren't always guaranteed to work in game "X". The 5770s, even in XFire, aren't amazing by any means so finding a single card to beat them is easy for $500. An R9 290(x) can beat them so easily for the 4-500$ range. Nvidia side, the 780 would do the same. Be sure you have a Power Supply to power something beefier though. If you really wanted XFire though, the best you could do is 2x R9 280s or 2x R9 270s.

Not quite true, though there is a definite point where it becomes pointless to go further for DayZ. Anything under about a 660 or 7850 would be pushing it for enjoyment, and anything over a 770 or 280X won't help any for now. 001, if you're building as you say, just remember; don't skimp on parts, most importantly don't skimp on the PSU. Saving $10 isn't worth it dying in 6 months. If you can afford it go SeaSonic, second choice would be Corsair.

It's about right as it is, assuming the in-game .357 is similarly sized to the .357 I have used. The only thing that might be off, and it's hard to tell with the camera positions, is the width. It looks a little small, but it could very well be perspective. Length and height seem right though. I can't comment on the FNX though as I don't have access to our .45 atm. Maybe they should model in a J-Frame or my .38 and make the current guns feel....big. :P

That is a myth that needs to stop being pushed around. It "might" help keep FPS from spiking from loading, but it won't boost FPS. Any decent 7200RPM HDD will work perfectly. As to OP; It will likely not cut it, or if it does it will not be enjoyable at all. The CPU, should be fine, though I'd suggest FX-6xxx or better. The GPU though is horrid. Anything below an Nvidia x5x (ex 550, or AMD equivalent) is not really made for gaming. You "can", but it won't be pleasant. the x1x in particular is essentially on-board video made for office use.

It's not a bug since the game requires unloading the round and then loading a full set. Basically to load a round(s) you need the Bolt pulled back, to chamber a round (properly) the Bolt is forward. You can load all 5 rounds then chamber a 6th round, but it's not common practice as it requires holding down the loaded rounds while you manually chamber one. What would happen if you went to load after chambering a round (video): As you go to access the mag the chambered round ejects. :)

I haven't got any real-world way to test any 2-4th gen i5/i7s, are they really that much cooler than the first gen? My FX-8320 @ 4.5GHz runs under 20c idle (cores) and ~35c full load with an H80 cooler. A friends i7 950 (? forget exact model) at 4GHz runs over twice what mines does with an H80. When my H80 was in RMA I had to use a stock cooler from a Phenom II (worse than the FX stock) and under game-load the cores were hitting ~55c at stock speed, so at that point I'd call it getting too hot for my liking. :) I know Intel can be cooler, but that (~20c) would be an amazing leap.

For gaming, an i5 is plenty. If you planned to do any heavy editing or the likes, then an i7 would be better. Either will last you a long time eitherway, but given the budget, likely better off with the i5. Another option would be the AMD FX-83xx series. It would save enough money to be able to bump up the GPU a notch. Some people are...less than keen...on AMD though (for stupid reasons) so it's something to consider.

The 7970 is likely not the issue unless somehow you have it severely underclocked. For DayZ (atm), or just Arma in general, nothing is amazing as optimizing is...nonexistant. It will depend on what settings you are running and what the rest of your system is. Towns are killing everyones FPS, no one is keeping 60 in Cherno atm. You may just need to fiddle with settings or even the system settings some more. The 7970 is AMD's last-gen top of the line card, and now is second in command behind the 290(x). The 280X is a rebranded 7970 to give an idea where it stands in the R9 series. Unless you plan to spend $400+ (USD) then you've got the best you're really gonna manage to get. Hell, my 7970 is tying with a friends 780Ti due to the utter lack of optimizing right now.

With the FX line, keep is under 61c on the cores under load and you're good.

Going off the latest list; Personally, though it's a little more, I'd suggest the following PSU: http://pcpartpicker.com/part/seasonic-power-supply-ss750km It's basically impossible to go wrong with SeaSonic, but it's a bit more efficient (Gold). Going off what Mos1ey said, I'd also suggest a different mouse (+pad). The MX310 is more of an office mouse that Logitech doesn't even make anymore. Anything in the G-series from Logitech would be best. G100s is their cheapest, though I would say for gaming, nothing less than the G400s (as mentioned by Mos). Personally I use a G700(s) and love it. As for the pad, mostly anything that looks decent likely is. I use an X-Trac Pads Ripper (Black) and it works fine. Logitech also makes 2 pads now, the G240 and 440.

FX-6100 to 8150 is not going to help in DayZ. The only change is the number of cores (6 to 8), and DayZ/Arma doesn't make use of that many. If you play something like BF4, yes it may help. To get any change you'd have to go to Vishera (from Zambezi), and it's likely not worth the price/performance if you only play DayZ...or change to Intel. Best bet would be get a good cooler and overclock. RAM, you're fine assuming you're running 2 or 4 sticks. Power Supply, to check you'll have to remove the side of the case and look at the sticker if you don't know it off-hand. If you have a pre-built system (Dell, HP, etc), a model number will do just as well.

Would say stay away from Turtle Beach, they went down the drain several years back. The other two I don't know anything about. I'm personally a big Logitech person so I'd say G430, G35 (Little over budget), or if you can live with 3.5mm over USB, the G230. Performance would be G35>G430>G230. Each one has a braided wire so there is virtually no way you could mess it up without cutting it. All have Mics, all USB (save for 230), all very comfortable and very nice sound quality. Personally I think the 230/430 feel better than the 35, but the 35 has nicer features and potentially better quality sound (I don't have the ear to notice minute differences). There are other good ones as well from other companies, but I don't know them off-hand.

Did you make sure they are the selected Out/In-put devices in TS? Sometimes TS won't recognize a new set and still just have an older set selected but crossed out. In TS go to 'Setting>Options>Playback' and set 'Playback Device' to what you want. Do the same in 'Capture' / 'Capture Device'.

Assuming you have the options in BIOS, you "can" overclock. The Motherboard looks rather budget-y though and lacks VRM cooling which could lead to issues. I wouldn't suggest pushing much of an OC out of it, and keep an eye on temps.

If it were any other game, you'd be perfectly set, just unfortunately ArmA/DayZ is so horridly "optimized" and single-threaded which only hurts AMD. If ya have a good enough GPU, you should be able to pull decent FPS though with an overclock. I get ~25-35 in Cherno atm, with any luck that goes up after some patches. Outside cities I keep 55+ though.

The 83xx is as good as it gets really for AMD. The 83xx and 9xxx series are all the same chip with different clocks. All of them are 'lack-luster' in Single-threaded performance, which (for now?) is what DayZ uses. A good cooler on the 83xx and OC'd will get you as good of performance as is worth the money from AMD. The price of a 9xxx is a waste, even if you didn't already have the 8320. Basically they took an 8350, factory assured it can hit 4.9-5GHz, and gave it a new name and price tag. Hell, under an H80i cooler my 8320 hits 4.8GHz stable... Either you'll have to swap out to Intel or change something else in your system to get any better performance without wasting large chunks of money. Personally, unless you have lots of money to switch to Intel, I'd say get a good CPU cooler and overclock to ~4.5GHz.

Price fluxs back and forth depending on vendor mostly anymore, though AMD does tend to be a hair cheaper (discounting the market inflated 280/290). An NVidia GPU + AMD CPU is perfetly fine, there is no other way round though (less you mean Intel + AMD, which is also perfectly fine). The whole 'conflict' issue people think there is is 100% myth. I personally use AMD CPU + AMD GPU + NVidia GPU w/o issue. A 660TI is a great card and would work perfectly fine. Your FPS will be a bit worse due to your CPU though as the i7 is a lot better single-threaded. It will still be good FPS though, just fiddle with settings. As for fitting, you can open the case and measure the room your PCI slots have, but likely it will fit,

As mentioned above, the CPU/RAM are good enough for now. Not worth spending potentially large amounts of money for a small boost at this point. A new GPU and PSU would be in order first. Being that, in the US anyways, anything above an R9 270X is out of stock or largely inflated prices, I'd suggest NVidia or an R9 270X for now. Something like this R9 270X would work. You'll also need a new power supply, there's no getting around that. 300W is not enough for anything above what you have. I'd suggest A SeaSonic, a 650w would work and give some headroom for later on too. That would be a total of ~$300 for those 2 parts and would help vastly with FPS issues. If you are willing, and I do not recommend it if you aren't 100% confident, you could get a new CPU cooler and overclock some to get a little more boost from that.

Being that I doubt you're going for OC world records, the M5A99X will be perfectly fine. I personally use the Sabertooth but I felt like splurging...and it fit my color scheme. It is a damn nice board though. Unless you already have the money aside for a good cooler, I'd say put the $50 difference towards a good cooler, personally I use a Corsair H80i for my FX-8320 (@4.4GHz).

The most important parts to look at for compat (as seen under Motherboard Specs); CPU Socket Type LGA 1155 - Match with CPU socket CPU Type Core i7 / i5 / i3 (LGA1155) Number of Memory Slots 2×240pin - Meaning no more than 2 sticks of RAM Memory Standard DDR3 1600/1333/1066 DDR3 1600 with Intel 22nm CPU, DDR3 1333 with Intel Sandy Bridge CPU. Maximum Memory Supported 16GB Channel Supported Dual Channel - Meaning use 2 sticks of RAM PCI Express 3.0 x16 1 - Meaning enough room for any 1, and only 1, GPU. Form Factor Micro ATX - Meaning it will fit in any case that supports Micro-ATX (mATX and most ATX/eATX cases)

That's almost identical to my own build. I use an FX-8320 + Sapphire 7970 (R9 280X is just a rebadged 7970) and it runs amazingly. If you want to save some money I'd say go for the 8320 and get a good cooler for it and just OC it to 4.4GHz. I cool mine with a Corsair H80i (Push-Pull setup) and it stays below 35C under typical load. Since the 8320/50 are the same chip just the 50 being more factory assured for the higher power it's no loss in performance in 99.9% of cases. You'll likely want an aftermarket cooler no matter the chip since they do tend to run hot, so that's be a good way to even out the price. It will run the games you listed easily, though maxing them will be a small issue. BF4 on a 7970 you're gonna get best performance at custom Very High setting (@1080p). Arma 2 will have some small CPU hiccups in DayZ, in particular around cities, but it should hold 30+ easily at High/Very High. The rest of the games I have no experience in, but should run flawlessly on either GPU/CPU. Personally I went AMD GPU due to price/performance (at the time) and am not dissapointed at all. I have used Nvidia (and still do for PhysX) and was perfectly happy with them, and would use them again when it comes to upgrading, but I wanted to try AMD and have had none of the issues others have. If you can avoid installing CCC that avoids the vast majority of issues. Eitherway, you won't be dissapointed. :)

I'm not forgetting the budget of $500 at all, having had that budget a few times myself. :) Though it is rather silly how some shaped and folded-up steel can cost upwards of $300+. True it's less of an issue, but considering the price point it's likely not a modular PSU...just tends to lead to a gobble of wires jammed around blocking airflow quite badly. I still have an old IDE HDD in a spare comp, man those cables suck. :lol: Eitherway, it's silly to 'argue' about something so meaningless. AMD/Nvidia is, for the most part, gonna come down to personal choice. I've personally had no real issues with AMD or NVidia (some small kinks on both at times). Features is an iffy area to try and sell on, but drivers...that's a dangerous game to gamble on. There has been praise and hell-on-earth stories about both, it changes so often is the issue. True AMD has some bad drivers, but the majority of that seems to come out of CCC from what I've experienced, and that is an optional install. A 7790 is ever so slightly faster stock than a 650Ti, but again, it will come down to personal choice and which has a better deal at the moment. I personally use a 7970 with a PhysX GTX260 with no issues on either so I can't really pick a side.