MosaicM80

In the most recent bombcast Patrick says he has the go ahead to build a new gaming PC next month (November). And while I'm sure he can get a lot of help specing and building the rig, I thought I'd give him a little help with a build as well. Please feel free to include your own! Now what he said is that he only wants to spend between $700-$800, so lets keep it in that range. He mentioned he would primarily use a TV as a monitor so I won't include an actual PC monitor in my build. No matter what you choose Patrick, I wish you luck and good gaming with your eventual gaming PC!

Case = The Corsair Carbide Series 400RI feel is a decent case. It's tool free, looks to have good room and has 3 fans.

Motherboard = ASRock P67for a Intel Processor, USB 3.0 and onboard sound card.

CPU = Intel Core i3-3220is considered a very good gaming proc by Tom's Hardware. Not great for overclocking, but I'm assuming Patrick isn't into that. Can be swapped for something beefier if need be.

Power Supply = OCZ ModXStream Proprovides 600W of power, should be more than enough to run whatever hardware you need.

RAM = G.Skill 8GBram is super cheap now a days. 8GB should be enough for any current games.

Video Card = RadeonHD 7850also gets a good review from Tom's Hardware. Good performance, good price and doesn't use a ton of energy.

Hard Drive = WD 1TBI didn't go with a SSD, but it's certainly possible to add one to this setup as the primary drive and this one as a secondary. I did this to save money, but if Patrick is willing to spend the extra dough on a SSD it will be a bit faster for sure.

I would also include a DVD drive, but those are so cheap I didn't include it here. Same with Mouse/Keyboard. Any suggestions on my build or builds of your own? I'm actually thinking about building a new PC for myself (my 6th) in December. May use this case, as i like the way it looks. Not too flashy.

The price I get for this build is right around $800. And with the decent power supply and motherboard I feel like it's very upgradeable with a new GPU or a SSD.

@Turambar said:

Part of it is a bit of luck with council missions, which reduces global panic, and the locations of abduction missions. But you need to get a few more (3 is a good idea) satellites up as early as possible, launching one over another country and saving the other two until either right before a council meeting or when a country goes in the orange. Don't be afraid to sell sectoid and thin man corpses post research projects to make a little extra cash. They are only used for consumables for air combat, and you don't really need them in normal. Maybe on classic or impossible.

Also, while I wouldn't suggest rushing for it, don't put off doing any story missions. Some of them also give global panic reductions.

@MosaicM80 said:

@SeanFoster said:

Have you been accomplishing primary objectives? Completing those and doing the "story" missions they unlock always soothes tensions around the globe in my game, lowering panic levels in all countries.

I have done all of the story and primary objectives up to assaulting the first alien base. Which I surmise will be very difficult. So I stopped there and decided to research and build up my gear. When it became available I still only had base gear (no lasers or better armor). Is this something I should do somewhat quickly?

It's quite possible to do the first alien base with only base equipment (I did). Though how easy it is depends on what map layout you get and what your party load out is. I managed to get that one layout that had a long corridor all the chryssalids would come down in, so two grenades brought all of them to 2 hp.

I had no idea that sectoid and thin man corpses were only used for consumables! In fact I rarely even bothered with the grey market because I was afraid of not having enough materials to build stuff. Now I clearly have to take a harder look at it! Maybe that is how I need to make more money. Oh and chryssalids can go die in a fire.

@SeanFoster said:

@MosaicM80 said:

@SeanFoster said:

Have you been accomplishing primary objectives? Completing those and doing the "story" missions they unlock always soothes tensions around the globe in my game, lowering panic levels in all countries.

I have done all of the story and primary objectives up to assaulting the first alien base. Which I surmise will be very difficult. So I stopped there and decided to research and build up my gear. When it became available I still only had base gear (no lasers or better armor). Is this something I should do somewhat quickly?

I was in a similar situation going into the Assault the Alien Base mission, things were quite grim and victory in that mission turned the tide for me (for awhile anyway...) I didn't find it TOO difficult, just take your best guys and take it slooooooow. I'd only move up several spaces at a time, making sure everyone was in overwatch mode at the end of each turn.

Will try that. I think I may restart and play a little differently next time. Build a few more sat's if I can and try to go into the Alien Base mission sooner rather than just hold off. I don't want to go down to Easy because the combat I feel is pretty good at Normal. Heck, I might be able to handle the combat on Classic, it's just the country meta game that's bugging me. Appreciate the thoughts!

@SeanFoster said:

Have you been accomplishing primary objectives? Completing those and doing the "story" missions they unlock always soothes tensions around the globe in my game, lowering panic levels in all countries.

I have done all of the story and primary objectives up to assaulting the first alien base. Which I surmise will be very difficult. So I stopped there and decided to research and build up my gear. When it became available I still only had base gear (no lasers or better armor). Is this something I should do somewhat quickly?

I'm not sure if I'm playing the game wrong or what. But I just cant seem to keep any countries happy. I'm a few hours in and I've already lost three countries and the rest are in the red/yellow. Even though I've won every single batttle I've waged and hardly even lost any soldiers. I'm trying to build satellites as fast as possible, but it's slow going and not much money is available. I'm playing on Normal and while the combat is challenging and fun, the meta game with the countries is totally kicking my butt big time. Am I doing something wrong or is there another way to keep countries happy apart from satellite coverage? Do you have to constantly be building sat's and sat rooms as soon as the game starts and mostly nothing else? I hardly had enough money in the beginning to buy decent gear. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

I do really like the game, I think the combat is very tactical and fun. Not to mention the good writing. But soon I won't have enough money or countries to do anything.

@Atlas said:

Pre-loaded. I'm one of many people coming into this game with zero history with the XCOM franchise, but I'm on board due to the Firaxis association. Played me the shit out of Civ 5, and loved that game to all hell. Expectations and excitement are pretty high for this one.

I'm in the same boat for the most part. I've seen the previous XCOM before but never played it. Heard it was hard as hell though. But I'm getting this because Firaxis. They are on my instant buy list right up there with Valve. I still consider Civ 5 the best civ and I know that's heresy for a lot of people. I've played them all since Civ 2, but I just love Civ 5. I think mostly because there are no more "stacks of doom". I have faith Firaxis can make a fun XCOM game! I'm really looking forward to it! Preloaded and ready to go!

Mine is gone. Have fun out there!

If I can get in here before the mods close this down, I have an extra key as well. Any duder want it?

On a side note, I hear Planetside 2 is a real beast. I hope my older machine can handle it okay (downloading now). I really need to build a new gaming rig.

@ArbitraryWater said:

It'd make for a good quick look, but I wouldn't necessarily call it live show material.

Agree with this, would make a good QL. But doubt it will be or should be in the live show. Will say I was disappointed FTL wasn't mentioned in the podcast this week, not even just as a game being released this week. Maybe next week after all this live show business is put to bed, I'm sure the crew are quite busy!

@SethPhotopoulos said:

@jayjonesjunior said:

@MongoosePL said:

@mcmax3000 said:

Fuck Konami. I would say I'll never buy their games anymore, but I honestly don't think I've purchased a Konami game this generation.

I would perhaps reconsider my console choice instead. Sure, Konami shipped a broken product, and that's not to be commended... But it's interesting how there have been more and more problems with publishing and maintenance on the Xbox lately.

buy a PC then cuz PS3 owners have bethesda fucking them over too.

Then you have to worry about poor PC ports. It's a vicious cycle.

Indeed, the PC's port of LA Noire was pretty shitty. Plus the whole no Red Dead Redemption thing. Still not sure why RDR "isn't viable" on the PC according to Rockstar. As much as I think competition is a good thing, I sometimes wish it was easier to just decide on one gaming platform.