Techy Corner: Tired of Slow FM? Here’s the Cure!

by Chappers  7/08/2013 | 1:03 3 Posted in FM 2014, Football Manager 13 

With Football Manager 2014 expected to yet again see an increase in system specifications, some of us may need to make that long overdue upgrade to play FM smoothly. With that in mind I’ve put together a bit of a guide to buying a gaming PC/laptop.

Boost what you already have!

If you’ve already got a desktop or laptop that you’re fairly happy with but just want to give it a little boost to cope with the rigours of FM there are a few things you can do to improve the performance.

For smoother graphics on a desktop try upgrading your graphics card. My best buy would be this Asus Nvidia GeForce GTX 660, that’s a great price for the high level of performance you’ll see. If you have a laptop I’m afraid the only viable upgrades are a Solid State Hard drive to make load times quick and extra ram if your programmes are bogging down, that’s about all you can do I’m afraid.

Asus Nvidia GeForce GTX 660
Samsung 840 Series 250GB 2.5 inch SATA Solid State Drive Full Upgrade Kit
Komputerbay 8GB (2x 4GB) DDR3 SODIMM (204 pin) 1333Mhz PC3 10600 8 GB Laptop Memory

Laptop or Desktop?

Probably the most important decision to make when buying a computer is; do I need a laptop or desktop? It comes down to your needs and your funds. Personally I’ve gone for a desktop pc as my powerhouse for Football Manager and other games but I have a laptop for work and surfing in the garden.

Some people prefer to just buy a laptop capable of both. The advantage is that you’ve probably saved money compared to having to have both and you’ll have more space at home. The advantage to a desktop is that you can get much more power for your buck, you can expand it and you can change components (almost) at your heart’s content.

Laptops

There is such a vast array of laptops available these days that it’s hard to spot a good deal and even harder to know whether what you’re buying is any good. Here are three options all capable of running FM14 but some better than others.

The Budget Option

£330 for an i5 laptop is in itself awesome.

Okay it’s possibly not everyone’s idea of a budget Laptop but if you can fork out the extra view quid it’s worth it. In my opinion £200 laptops aren’t worth looking at, they’re slow and outdated quickly and won’t get you the full FM experience, after-all that is the only reason to own a computer isn’t it?.

This

Fujitsu is a very good deal and, while it may look dull, a very good laptop.

The Lifebook will run Football Manager 2013 and I’d expect it to run FM2014 too. Don’t expect the matches to run on high superbly but that i5 will handle the games’ CPU needs admirably.

Heres the best place to check out the spec and prices.

The Middle Option

£634 for i7 and dedicated graphics, bargain!

It’s not a serious gaming machine but it will play games like Fifa to a good level. This would be my weapon of choice for Football Manager 2014 if I wasn’t sticking to desktops. It’s excellent value and powerful enough for most people’s needs.

Heres the best place to check out the spec and prices.

The Hardcore Gamers Option

Want your laptop to play FM 14 and make you sandwiches? Try this bad ass laptop out.

This laptop is the argument for buying a desktop for your gaming needs, sure it’s powerful but the equivalent desktop PC will be at least £2500 cheaper. If you have the dosh to buy one of these you truly won’t be disappointed though, lightening start-up and most games on Ultra graphics. If you want a gaming desktop computer though, my best advice is to keep reading…

One final point for those people asking: “Should I buy a Macbook?” Unless you have a beret on, thick rimmed glasses and a meat-sword up your orifice, no.

Desktops

Desktop pcs seem to be going out of fashion, at least as far as sales are concerned…it’s not true though. What’s really happening is that more and more people are realising that the only way to buy a desktop pc is to build one. Sales of motherboards and graphics cards are skyrocketing. It sounds complicated but quite honestly if you can manage lego blocks, you can manage this.

I’m not going to go into how to put a PC together, it’s simple and there are millions of guides out there already. These prices don’t include Windows, it’s up to your whether you want Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8. I’d go for Windows 8, it’s actually very good, people just like to moan about Windows.

The Budget Option

This little baby will only set you back £270 but is well capable of out-performing very high-spe shop-bought PC’s, here’s the components we recommend.

Fractal Design Core 1000
Palit 2GB Nvidia GeForce GT 630
AMD Athlon II X4 651K 
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB
Corsair Builder Series CX 430 Watt
Asrock Socket FM1 A75M-HVS
Corsair CMX4GX3M1A1333C9 XMS3

The Middle Option

It’s not going to be as fast as the £3500 Gaming Laptop but it’ll probably be better than the mid-range laptop I chose and will certainly run most modern games on low at least. A definite FM14 PC. My tip would be to spend £30 quid on a CPU cooler and look into overclocking if you want a little more power too.

This lot will set you back £550, but what you get back is amazing performance and an ultimate desktop FM machine!

Zalman Z11 Plus Midi Tower Case
Asus Nvidia GeForce GTX 650
Intel Core I5-3570 Processor
Western Digital 1TB internal Hard Drive
Corsair CX750 Builder Series CX 7
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO (120mm)
Asus P8Z77-V LX2 Motherboard
Corsair CMZ4GX3M1A1600C9B 4GB

Make no mistake, this is a powerful PC, perfect for gaming and if you have any friends obsessed with Macs you can show them this and make them weep for their wasted money. The CPU might seem expensive but it’s worth it for a super-slick experience. This PC will play most games on high, and for all you console fans it’ll perform around the xbox one/PS4 mark, if not better.

The Ultimate Option

I’m not going to list the better pc’s you could build, the sky’s the limit really.  But I would personally recommend the above as a bench-mark then to upgrade using these parts if you so wished.

This will deliver much better graphics:

Asus Nvidia GeForce 2GB GTX 680 DirectCU II OC Graphics Card

FM will run smoother and your PC will run faster with these:

Intel Core i7 4770K Quad Core Retail CPU (Socket 1150, 3.50GHz, 8MB, Haswell, 84W, Intel Graphics, BX80646I74770K, 4th Generation Intel Core, Turbo Boost Technology 2.0)

Asus Z87-PRO USB 3.0 Motherboard (4x DDR3, ATX, 2x PCI Express 3.0/2.0, Intel, Wi-Fi )

Your new FM PC will start at the speed of light with this little fella:

Crucial CT256M4SSD2 256GB M4 SATA III 6Gb/s MLC 2.5 Inch Internal SSD

And to add a final bit of class to your awesome new FM PC, you must buy one of these:

Fractal Design Define R4 PC Case – Black/Pearl

I hope this helps you choose a computer for playing FM14, in all honesty some of the suggestions were a bit silly but the more reasonable ones are ideal for avid FM fans.