Yes

But keep in mind, how many accounts dont get used anymore? 30%/40%?

Good point, I hadn't thought of that. This is after all the most popular tracker site ever, if I'm not mistaken. Yes, I do think many many players will pour in.

Well the bigger question is A) Where is Homey and B)Is BF3 even trackable? BF3 has already announced a free in-depth tracker to counter the somewhat free COD Elite too so we'll have to see. Speaking of BF3, anyone have suggestons for building a new CPU to play it? I've never built a CPU before, but it's time to upgrade if I want to play any game that comes out nowadays and I know building is the way to go.

Quoted from "[SoTF]Dolphin"

Well the bigger question is A) Where is Homey and B)Is BF3 even trackable? BF3 has already announced a free in-depth tracker to counter the somewhat free COD Elite too so we'll have to see. Speaking of BF3, anyone have suggestons for building a new CPU to play it? I've never built a CPU before, but it's time to upgrade if I want to play any game that comes out nowadays and I know building is the way to go.

Build a CPU?!?!?! WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!

if you mean build a new computer I'd go with AMD based system and an ATI GPU, cheaper better performance like for like cost.

AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1100T Black Edition 3.30GHz (Socket AM3)

But in my opinion mate, you shouldn't build a gaming computer around your CPU, CPU for gaming means very little, its all about the motherboard and GPU.

Something like this should be your foundation.

Asus Crosshair V Formula AMD 990FX (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard

Then you can get two of these.

XFX ATI Radeon 6950 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

Flash their bios and make them in to 6970's. Only difference between the two is the processing cores, and the 9650 has the same amount of cores, just some are disabled by the Bios.

You definitely will get 1 million member by Christmas I think. The only problem is their BattleLog system, and the fact that a lot of people will rather be using that as it will be merged in game, and be easier to access than going online and onto the Tracker.

[Offtopic]

@ Demon_{Kamikaze}

I'm sorry? it's not about CPU?

So your trying to say here, if you have a Single Core CPU you could play Battlefield 3?
Well ive got a surprise for you, that will never ever happen. A CPU is one of the most important things (Actually every part because it's connected to eachother) you need in a pc because it handles all your process speed, better CPU, the faster the process goes.

I would go for an i7 CPU or better.

Quoted from "Demon_{Kamikaze}"

AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1100T Black Edition 3.30GHz (Socket AM3)

But in my opinion mate, you shouldn't build a gaming computer around your CPU, CPU for gaming means very little, its all about the motherboard and GPU.

Great processor (I still prefer my core i5, LOL). However I have to disagree with the next statement. While the motherboard is extremely important the SOLE PURPOSE of the motherboard is so that you can use MORE RAM, BETTER PROCESSOR, AND BETTER GPU. The last 3 are what make the difference. The motherboard simply ALLOWS the integration of the other 3.

By build a CPU, I meant a computer. I should of been more careful when using my abbreviations. I just want a system that will be able to handle BF3 at max settings. Yes, I know we don't know the system requirements yet, but I'm sure people have a reasonable idea. My current computer was bought In June or July 2005 and is stock everything, with the exception of a Nvidia 6600 256mb PCI-e card I bought for it. Yes, I know that's horrible. That's how old my computer is.

@ TeamEarth: Demon was exaggerating a bit, what he means is CPU matters less than GPU. Which is true. But not to the extent that you're suggesting. Core i5 will be enough for gaming.

Also, @ Demon, how much do you think he has to spend?! He hasn't said his budget yet!

which leads on to my next question:

@Dolphin, how much ARE you willing to spend?

Quoted from "TeamEarth"

[Offtopic]

@ Demon_{Kamikaze}

I'm sorry? it's not about CPU?

So your trying to say here, if you have a Single Core CPU you could play Battlefield 3?
Well ive got a surprise for you, that will never ever happen. A CPU is one of the most important things (Actually every part because it's connected to eachother) you need in a pc because it handles all your process speed, better CPU, the faster the process goes.

I would go for an i7 CPU or better.

Never said such a thing, in fact if you looked at my post my recommendation was an AMD Phenom 6 core CPU (buck for buck outperforms the Intel i7). the CPU is not the most important component in a gaming rig the Motherboard and GPU take higher priority. As for process speeds, to a limited degree yes it does, but only to the extent of the system, not the graphical power, this overhead is far less than the GPU overhead which is the gaming PC's powerhouse. multi-core processing allows multiple threads to be run simultaneously, it's impact on overall performance is limited by the Motherboard you choose, ergo the most important part of any computer is the Mother Board, All well and good spending £500 on a shitty Intel i7 with a £50 motherboard... What the point, it's a massive waste of money. I would spend much more cash on the Motherboard (as the mother board dictates the scalability of the system, and most importantly the data transfer rates between the components.

Quoted from "pbk.Mystik"

Quoted from "Demon_{Kamikaze}"

AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1100T Black Edition 3.30GHz (Socket AM3)

But in my opinion mate, you shouldn't build a gaming computer around your CPU, CPU for gaming means very little, its all about the motherboard and GPU.

Great processor (I still prefer my core i5, LOL). However I have to disagree with the next statement. While the motherboard is extremely important the SOLE PURPOSE of the motherboard is so that you can use MORE RAM, BETTER PROCESSOR, AND BETTER GPU. The last 3 are what make the difference. The motherboard simply ALLOWS the integration of the other 3.

No the core purpose of the Motherboard is not now much ram you can stick in it or which processor you can use. when designing a gaming rig the Motherboard is all about the volume of data and the speed of transfer between the north bridge and the south bridge, the CPU and Ram sit on the Northbridge and the GPU as well as Audio processing traditionally sit on the south Bridge. The first bottleneck on any computer system is the motherboard its the nervous system of the computer. The CPU provides command logic the GPU provides processing power.

I used to be very much an NVIDIA man, but now I'm AMD all the way, why? when you look at performance verses cost, AMD win every time hands down. I used to be reserved about the ATI graphics drivers, but since I've upgraded to a Radion 6970 with 2Gig RAM i have to say, i would never buy an overpriced underperforming NVIDIA again. I multi screen and the ATI drivers are quite frankly light years ahead of NVIDIA on this front and to a keen eye on graphical quality. Not to mention the joint architecture of AMD processors and ATI Graphics cards, same company unified development. Something you don't get with Intel and NVIDIA.

Edit: As Dolphin is asking for a system that would run BF3 at max graphical settings your Intel i7 isn't up to the job it's a Quad core CPU, meaning the game will use 4 cores for management process, you'd want more than 4 cores to negate system processes which would adversely affect system performance when sharing cores. Ergo the processor I suggested is far superior. 2 cores of OS and utility threads 4 cores devoted to game processing. BF3 uses the Frostbite 2.0 game engine and this requires 4 CPU cores. Another huge misconception with CPU is that the more powerful a CPU is the faster its clock rate its WRONG its a combination of processing cycles per second (Clock speed) and how many pipes the care has going in to it. i.e. how much data can be pumped in.

I would as a suggestion if building your own computer go with the following hardware.

AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1100T Black Edition 3.30GHz (Socket AM3)
Asus Crosshair V Formula AMD 990FX (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard
Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-16000C9 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (two of)
XFX ATI Radeon 6970 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (Two of in Crossfire)
RAID PACK - 2 x OCZ Agility 3 60GB 2.5" SATA-3 Solid State Hard Drive (two of Riad 0 for OS)
Asus Xonar D2 7.1 PCI Sound Card
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache (four of Raid 0/1 2Tb of software/storage space)

All the above excluding below would come to £1477.87 or ~ $2400.75.

That would run Bf3 at full detail 1080p easily. If you wanted to splash out on a Samsung Triple monitor display stand it would also be able to easily cope.




Your choice of Case/OS/Keyboard/Mouse/Monitor/Headphones/Bluray/DvD/850Watt PSU

While I will agree with demon that the dollar per performance that AMD has is slightly better than Intel at the moment, as far as their CPU and GPU teams working together in tandem, there has as much improvement that Intel or nVidia has done themselves. I'd actually say that Intel and nVidia has actually done very well in the past couple years than the rest of the past decade compared to AMD.

Nonetheless, I still find puzzling why people buy i5s or i7s to play games. I would rather save a hundred dollars than to gain several FPS that I can easily live without. Yes the CPU is important, but not for games. People don't need an i7 to play games. Stupid people.


While motherboards do take an important role, only in the whole scheme of things. Transfer rates are limited by the chipset themselves and very rarely by the quality of the motherboard. If a chipset can output data at 300Gbps, then the designers usually have to design lanes that can output at that datarat. Anything more is really turned into the whole quality of the board and just excess gold that may or may not be reached. After all, you're only as fast as your slowest part, so there's really little point of designing more quality things unless you're aiming for the enthusiast market.

The differences of the quality of motherboards realistically vary by very little. Where they really only show is when people overclock.


In the GPU market, not sure if I would go for AMD this generation. And for those who remember, I used to be a big fan of ATi since the X800 was released, so saying that I'd go for nVidia this generation is a big change for me. Other than the unlocked 6950 (not sure if AMD locked it yet) I'd probably opt for nVidia this gen. It would be the prices that would actually sway my decisions, but if they were of equal prices, then nVidia gets my bid.

Graphical quality is also, minimal at best. Yet again, this is not back in the GF6800/X800 era. Not to mention that I don't stop to compare what looks better when I'm using my uber wallhax to kill people.

Quoted from "Demon_{Kamikaze}"

Quoted from "pbk.Mystik"

Quoted from "Demon_{Kamikaze}"

AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1100T Black Edition 3.30GHz (Socket AM3)

But in my opinion mate, you shouldn't build a gaming computer around your CPU, CPU for gaming means very little, its all about the motherboard and GPU.

Great processor (I still prefer my core i5, LOL). However I have to disagree with the next statement. While the motherboard is extremely important the SOLE PURPOSE of the motherboard is so that you can use MORE RAM, BETTER PROCESSOR, AND BETTER GPU. The last 3 are what make the difference. The motherboard simply ALLOWS the integration of the other 3.

No the core purpose of the Motherboard is not now much ram you can stick in it or which processor you can use. when designing a gaming rig the Motherboard is all about the volume of data and the speed of transfer between the north bridge and the south bridge, the CPU and Ram sit on the Northbridge and the GPU as well as Audio processing traditionally sit on the south Bridge. The first bottleneck on any computer system is the motherboard its the nervous system of the computer. The CPU provides command logic the GPU provides processing power.

Your upper end motherboards vary only slightly as far as that data transfer between the north and south bridge. The Processor and GPU that goes in it makes the difference. The MB's really aren't that different unless you decide to purchase low end. BTW - saying that RAM has nothing to do with it then stating that volume of data does.................. um.................. oxymoron much? RAM determines data volume. When I switched from 4GB to 6GB it made ALL the difference.

Quoted from "pbk.Mystik"

RAM determines data volume. When I switched from 4GB to 6GB it made ALL the difference.

That is largely dependant on the tasks of the user. While some may use 4GB, other may need 6, or maybe 8. Some might be able to get away with just 2. The user makes all the difference, not the quantity. Do you use professional apps or an internet surfer? Do you allow prefetch on or off? Backround tasks? Etc. The user needs to ask themselves that before they go buying stuff. I could stick 8GB into my laptop, but that won't do squat more than my 4GB will allow me to do due to the limitations of the rest of the components and the programs I use. Hopefully excel doesn't need 8GB either.

It's also dependent (although minor) on the speeds of the CPU, NB/SB, and HDD, but the differences that accompany this is usually overseen with the performance the other components bring.

Quoted from "pbk.Mystik"

Quoted from "Demon_{Kamikaze}"

Quoted from "pbk.Mystik"

Quoted from "Demon_{Kamikaze}"

AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1100T Black Edition 3.30GHz (Socket AM3)

But in my opinion mate, you shouldn't build a gaming computer around your CPU, CPU for gaming means very little, its all about the motherboard and GPU.

Great processor (I still prefer my core i5, LOL). However I have to disagree with the next statement. While the motherboard is extremely important the SOLE PURPOSE of the motherboard is so that you can use MORE RAM, BETTER PROCESSOR, AND BETTER GPU. The last 3 are what make the difference. The motherboard simply ALLOWS the integration of the other 3.

No the core purpose of the Motherboard is not now much ram you can stick in it or which processor you can use. when designing a gaming rig the Motherboard is all about the volume of data and the speed of transfer between the north bridge and the south bridge, the CPU and Ram sit on the Northbridge and the GPU as well as Audio processing traditionally sit on the south Bridge. The first bottleneck on any computer system is the motherboard its the nervous system of the computer. The CPU provides command logic the GPU provides processing power.

Your upper end motherboards vary only slightly as far as that data transfer between the north and south bridge. The Processor and GPU that goes in it makes the difference. The MB's really aren't that different unless you decide to purchase low end. BTW - saying that RAM has nothing to do with it then stating that volume of data does.................. um.................. oxymoron much? RAM determines data volume. When I switched from 4GB to 6GB it made ALL the difference.

Not all motherboards are created equal. The scalability of a motherboard can heavily impact its data transfer rates. When your spending most of your computer budget on a crappy Intel (overpriced underperforming CPU) i7's currently (only quad core) retail for at the highest for £769.99 ($1249.31).

Why spend so much money on a CPU that doesn't have the largest impact on performance while gaming, when you could purchase for that money a top of the range AMD 6 core CPU top of the range AM3 mother board with the ability to use 3x PCIe x16 ports for graphics processing. 3 standard PCIe ports for additional sATA ports, USB 3 ports?

You also neglect tot think about the consequences of high end audio?

Are you suggesting you leave audio processing to the motherboard instead of investing in a high end ASUS audio card like a Asus Xonar D2X 7.1 PCI-E Sound Card?

I'll tell you one thing a high end Audio card can have significant performance boosts over on board sound for high end games, leaving the MB to process audio is a real hit to FPS and quite frankly stupid.

Upper end motherboard can vary significantly from one another, this can be in the form of over clocking, to inter-connect ability of components to support for certain types of components, its stability and warranty. for all these things I've always gone with Asus because quite frankly they are the best.

Getting back on topic dolphin is asking what would be a good spec for BF3 at full graphical detail, in this case nothing short of bare minimum quad core, 6 cores would be perfect as I stated earlier freeing 2 cores for system overhead while devoting the other 4 cores to game processes.

You're not going to get a 6 core processor from Intel in the same price and performance range as AMD. And you're not going to be able to build a unified architecture system i.e. AMD CPU/GPU with Asus MB/Audio with professional high speed RAM 4GB would be more than adequate.

As for the powerhouse the graphical processing $ for FPS AMD crossfire 6970's will blow out the water any NVDIA solution like for like in SLI. You simply can't justify the extra £519.98 for 2 6970's £1339,96 for 2 GTX 590's... Its just a no brainer...
NVIDIAs slant is 3D (who wants 3D it's a shitty gimmic) ATI's slant is eyefinity (multi monitor gaming) much better for full panoramic gaming.

Quoted from "Demon_{Kamikaze}"

Quoted from "pbk.Mystik"

Quoted from "Demon_{Kamikaze}"

Quoted from "pbk.Mystik"

Quoted from "Demon_{Kamikaze}"

AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1100T Black Edition 3.30GHz (Socket AM3)

But in my opinion mate, you shouldn't build a gaming computer around your CPU, CPU for gaming means very little, its all about the motherboard and GPU.

Great processor (I still prefer my core i5, LOL). However I have to disagree with the next statement. While the motherboard is extremely important the SOLE PURPOSE of the motherboard is so that you can use MORE RAM, BETTER PROCESSOR, AND BETTER GPU. The last 3 are what make the difference. The motherboard simply ALLOWS the integration of the other 3.

No the core purpose of the Motherboard is not now much ram you can stick in it or which processor you can use. when designing a gaming rig the Motherboard is all about the volume of data and the speed of transfer between the north bridge and the south bridge, the CPU and Ram sit on the Northbridge and the GPU as well as Audio processing traditionally sit on the south Bridge. The first bottleneck on any computer system is the motherboard its the nervous system of the computer. The CPU provides command logic the GPU provides processing power.

Your upper end motherboards vary only slightly as far as that data transfer between the north and south bridge. The Processor and GPU that goes in it makes the difference. The MB's really aren't that different unless you decide to purchase low end. BTW - saying that RAM has nothing to do with it then stating that volume of data does.................. um.................. oxymoron much? RAM determines data volume. When I switched from 4GB to 6GB it made ALL the difference.

Not all motherboards are created equal. The scalability of a motherboard can heavily impact its data transfer rates. When your spending most of your computer budget on a crappy Intel (overpriced underperforming CPU) i7's currently (only quad core) retail for at the highest for £769.99 ($1249.31).

Why spend so much money on a CPU that doesn't have the largest impact on performance while gaming, when you could purchase for that money a top of the range AMD 6 core CPU top of the range AM3 mother board with the ability to use 3x PCIe x16 ports for graphics processing. 3 standard PCIe ports for additional sATA ports, USB 3 ports?

You also neglect tot think about the consequences of high end audio?

Are you suggesting you leave audio processing to the motherboard instead of investing in a high end ASUS audio card like a Asus Xonar D2X 7.1 PCI-E Sound Card?

I'll tell you one thing a high end Audio card can have significant performance boosts over on board sound for high end games, leaving the MB to process audio is a real hit to FPS and quite frankly stupid.

Upper end motherboard can vary significantly from one another, this can be in the form of over clocking, to inter-connect ability of components to support for certain types of components, its stability and warranty. for all these things I've always gone with Asus because quite frankly they are the best.

Getting back on topic dolphin is asking what would be a good spec for BF3 at full graphical detail, in this case nothing short of bare minimum quad core, 6 cores would be perfect as I stated earlier freeing 2 cores for system overhead while devoting the other 4 cores to game processes.

You're not going to get a 6 core processor from Intel in the same price and performance range as AMD. And you're not going to be able to build a unified architecture system i.e. AMD CPU/GPU with Asus MB/Audio with professional high speed RAM 4GB would be more than adequate.

As for the powerhouse the graphical processing $ for FPS AMD crossfire 6970's will blow out the water any NVDIA solution like for like in SLI. You simply can't justify the extra £519.98 for 2 6970's £1339,96 for 2 GTX 590's... Its just a no brainer...
NVIDIAs slant is 3D (who wants 3D it's a shitty gimmic) ATI's slant is eyefinity (multi monitor gaming) much better for full panoramic gaming.

ROFLMAO!!!!

You assumed WAY too much from my post. Just in case you forgot, I stated that the 6 core AMD is a good cpu. I simply stated I like my i5 (not i7, I didn't think it was worth it for the money). I also use a laptop as my main gaming computer and the price on a custom built laptop with the AMD made my i5 look like a bargain basement price.

I've noticed that your 'ideal' components are near reaching the high end on all components mentioned so far. According to my numbers you have spent $800 on two graphics cards and $200 on a sound card. You just spent my entire computer budget on 2 components. I think that your whole concept of 'bang for buck' has long gone and now you are into the realm of it truly doesn't matter wait 1 year and when the new parts are out those will be MUCH CHEAPER. LOL

JMHO

Yeah but Demon's loaded.

Having fun living it up there in the high life?

Quoted from "pbk.Mystik"

ROFLMAO!!!!
You assumed WAY too much from my post. Just in case you forgot, I stated that the 6 core AMD is a good cpu. I simply stated I like my i5 (not i7, I didn't think it was worth it for the money). I also use a laptop as my main gaming computer and the price on a custom built laptop with the AMD made my i5 look like a bargain basement price.

I've noticed that your 'ideal' components are near reaching the high end on all components mentioned so far. According to my numbers you have spent $800 on two graphics cards and $200 on a sound card. You just spent my entire computer budget on 2 components. I think that your whole concept of 'bang for buck' has long gone and now you are into the realm of it truly doesn't matter wait 1 year and when the new parts are out those will be MUCH CHEAPER. LOL

JMHO

I've taken the highest performance core parts that I stated would cost around £1700 or $2500 you'd spend around $4000 for a machine that equals that performance from Alienware/Dell/HP. They aren't reaching high end they are high end mate. yes I've spent $800 on 2 ATI 6970's and they are still cheaper than 1 GTX 590 (that's 3-4 years gaming performance).

You evidently aren't a performance computing enthusiast or aware of the hardware and its merits in high end gaming lulz i7...

@dawn

Not as high as I like mate.

A sound card isn't needed for games. Realtek has gone a long way since the era of netburst, and dedicated sound cards are really only needed for high-end stereo equipment (not something lame like logitech). I'd rather spend the money towards a CPU or GPU. Definitely a SSD over a sound card.

And WTF is a unified architecture system? Stop making shit up. Multiple components of the same brand doesn't make it more unified than an Intel CPU and a GPU that came out of my butthole.

On the plus side, the chicken pot pie I just had was delicious.