Building a computer timeline.

[Calloutman]

So I have a laptop right now that works for BF3, even though games look awful through it, it plays acceptably and I get about 35fps in BF3 (on minimum settings and resolution set to 1024x600). I don't need to upgrade but it would be nice.

BF4 comes out in about a year which will probably force me to upgrade, how much better of a computer will I be able to buy in a year compared to now with the same money? I know its speculative but is there much point in waiting?

[Henidhor]

Are you looking to buy a new laptop or build a new desktop PC?

[.Sup]

You joined the competitive team. You wont be very competitive on a laptop.

[Calloutman]

Are you looking to buy a new laptop or build a new desktop PC?

Building a new desktop.

You joined the competitive team. You wont be very competitive on a laptop.

My M416 says differently.

[A Docile Sloth]

I have specked theoretical rigs over the last few years. They have all been high end and about £1200. It has stayed pretty much the same price since I've done it except when I added a SSD which bumped he price up to ~£1400.

So I'd say wait. You would get more performance for your money in the future on the same performance you could get now for less.

Now everyone can go ahead an tell me how wrong I am

[DaFi]

So I'd say wait. You would get more performance for your money in the future on the same performance you could get now for less.

Now everyone can go ahead an tell me how wrong I am

Problem is, this is probably alwys right. So no matter when, you'll always get a better deal in the future... At some point you just have to do it. IFAIK the next gen of video cards will be released soonish, so I will probably upgrade my PC in the next ~2 month. Dunno if this is the best time, but its a time with a possible price drop.

[Henidhor]

What sort of budget are you looking at? Will BF3/4 be the only games you play? If you're going to build a budget rig then I'd probably put it off as long as possible.

Or you could build a cheap rig now and then do a small upgrade once BF4 comes out, perhaps keeping your graphics card and crossfiring/SLIing it with a newer one. Your case/RAM/Mobo/HDD/PSU options probably won't change drastically by then.

However, regardless of what you do, I would try to put it off as until we know a little bit more about the system requirements and performance of BF4. If it's going to be released on next generation consoles, we probably can expect a fairly substantial increase in requirements.

Looking at the current market, NVIDIA and AMD are probably going to release their new line of GPUs in a few months which will probably be the only update until BF4 releases. They will be expensive, but current generation cards will drop in price then.

I don't know as much about CPUs, but Battlefield 3 at least isn't especially CPU intensive.

But from someone who went from a shitty computer (though not as bad as yours) to a pretty decent one I can tell you it's amazing.

[Calloutman]

I'm probably looking to spend around £800, excluding a monitor/keyboard/mouse/OS as I already have those. I will probably pay RTS games on it too at some point so a decent processor is a must.

Or you could build a cheap rig now and then do a small upgrade once BF4 comes out, perhaps keeping your graphics card and crossfiring/SLIing it with a newer one. Your case/RAM/Mobo/HDD/PSU options probably won't change drastically by then.

This is something I was considering. So far as I can tell the major things that get outdated is CPUs and GPUs. How does crossfiring/SLIing work? Do the cards need to be identical?
Could I buy a cheap card off of Ebay now, and then double it up with a nice card in a year when BF4 comes out?

[Henidhor]

Or you could build a cheap rig now and then do a small upgrade once BF4 comes out, perhaps keeping your graphics card and crossfiring/SLIing it with a newer one. Your case/RAM/Mobo/HDD/PSU options probably won't change drastically by then.

This is something I was considering. So far as I can tell the major things that get outdated is CPUs and GPUs. How does crossfiring/SLIing work? Do the cards need to be identical?
Could I buy a cheap card off of Ebay now, and then double it up with a nice card in a year when BF4 comes out?

I've never actually done it myself, so a google search could probably help you more than I could. I don't believe they need to be identical, just made by the same company. (SLI is for Nvidia cards, Crossfire is AMD)

Regarding processors, do you have a preference of Intel/AMD?

[expandas]

Next-gen Intel chips are rumored to have minimal CPU performance increases over the current Ivy Bridge stock. AMD has delayed the release of the HD8000 series cards until Q4 2013. No word on their Geforce counterparts. IMO you can't go wrong with picking up an HD7850 and overclocking it for the time being.

[TheYonderGod]

You can build a very nice computer right now for £800, there's no reason to wait. There's always something new coming around the corner, you'll always be waiting.

For example:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£163.19 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£101.98 @ Dabs)
Memory: Patriot Intel Extreme Master, Limited Ed 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£36.23 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£128.34 @ Aria PC) [and reuse your current HDD or just get a 1tb HDD instead]
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card (£299.75 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case (£31.18 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply (£47.99 @ Novatech)
Total: £808.66
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-10 22:54 GMT+0000)

[iRawPeanut]

I'm probably looking to spend around £800, excluding a monitor/keyboard/mouse/OS as I already have those. I will probably pay RTS games on it too at some point so a decent processor is a must.

Or you could build a cheap rig now and then do a small upgrade once BF4 comes out, perhaps keeping your graphics card and crossfiring/SLIing it with a newer one. Your case/RAM/Mobo/HDD/PSU options probably won't change drastically by then.

This is something I was considering. So far as I can tell the major things that get outdated is CPUs and GPUs. How does crossfiring/SLIing work? Do the cards need to be identical?
Could I buy a cheap card off of Ebay now, and then double it up with a nice card in a year when BF4 comes out?

SLI is indeed for Nvidia cards only but also only the same type(like only a 670 with a 670), even though they're the same (GK104) chip as like a 680 only with some less cluster units and a lower clock, nVidia doesn't let you SLI them by software.

Crossfire is for AMD/ATI cards but you can crossfire them as long they've the same architecture (like a 7870 with a 7850, or a 7950 with a 7970).

But it's still recommended to get the same type/brand, not saying it's needed tho..

[Calloutman]

You can build a very nice computer right now for £800, there's no reason to wait. There's always something new coming around the corner, you'll always be waiting.

For example:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£163.19 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard (£101.98 @ Dabs)
Memory: Patriot Intel Extreme Master, Limited Ed 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£36.23 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£128.34 @ Aria PC) [and reuse your current HDD or just get a 1tb HDD instead]
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card (£299.75 @ Scan.co.uk)
Case: NZXT Source 210 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case (£31.18 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply (£47.99 @ Novatech)
Total: £808.66
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-10 22:54 GMT+0000)

I'm not waiting for the sake of waiting, it's mainly because I have no reason to upgrade right now. Sure the game looks bad, but I don't mind so much.
But now that I look at that list... damn that sounds good. I need to do a bit more research before I go too much further.

[Calloutman]

Right, I think what I'm going to do is hang around ebay for a while till I find a good deal for a dirt cheap gpu. Then when BF4 comes out I'll upgrade that.

Like this: Link.
When I've bought the card I'll buy the rest of the components and start building myself a PC

[BotoloLover]

Right, I think what I'm going to do is hang around ebay for a while till I find a good deal for a dirt cheap gpu. Then when BF4 comes out I'll upgrade that.

Like this: Link.
When I've bought the card I'll buy the rest of the components and start building myself a PC

I actually own a 6870, and I can still run practically everything with it. BF3 on Ultra can have some problems in PEW BANG POW situations, but can run it at 60 fps on medium and probably high without problems. It's been 2 years now, I can say that I'm pretty happy with it.