Member Since []
1
[OP] 127 views 0 replies Posted by Unknown 9 years ago Mar 29, 2:49 am forums.robertsspaceindustries.com
I have had an SC account for a while (did the $40 pledge for alpha/beta access) and am finally looking at assembling a rig to run it. Right now I am looking at this:
http://pcpartpicker.com/guide/tYgXsY/great-gaming-build
For those of you uninterested in clicking the link, the specs are as follows

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler*: Phanteks PH-TC14PE_BK 78.1 CFM CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97-HD3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard
RAM*: Team Dark 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
SSD: Sandisk Solid State Drive 128GB 2.5" (I plan on using this for the OS and Star Citizen)
Storage: Hitachi Ultrastar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
GPU: Zotac GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card
Case: Fractal Design Core 3500 ATX Mid Tower Case
Power: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply

After reading through the (surprisingly civil) comments section of that build, I have a few questions, as I am fairly illiterate on the matter of hardware.

1) Regarding my CPU, the unit in the build was chosen because it could be overclocked. I am weary about overclocking as a number of my friends have told me it could lower the lifespan of the hardware. If I elected not to overclock the CPU, would it still be able to run Star Citizen/Arena Commander reasonably well (medium to high settings, 1080p, 60 fps)

2) If I don't need to overclock, the comments section indicated I wouldn't need to buy a cooling unit (the CPU should come with one that will do the job). Would the money saved on the cooling unit be well invested in an additional 8GB of RAM? I read in one of the stickied threads that CR had mentioned 8GB as a minimum, but I was curious about how people were running currently with 8GB.

3) This is probably a stupid question, but I read in the build description that the motherboard "supports up to 32GB of memory, six SATA 6Gb/s devices, multiple expansion cards." What exactly are the SATA devices? Can the RAM slots of this motherboard only support 6GB sticks, or will it support 8GB sticks?

Thanks in advance for any advice!