Melody's Technical Tantrum [Custom or Retail?]

[Melody]

Ok I've been now getting around to finally playing 14. I'm currently working and I have saved up a bit of cash so I am close to the 800-1000 Range now after I paid bills and what have you. So I am unsure of what to do with my money when investing in a gaming PC. I was thinking of doing the following.


A) Going to a computer store, tell them the budget I have and see what they can make me for a reasonable price. Since I looked at the specs on the XIV PC Requirements. It's not an easy game to run. The Newegg laptops are i7's but only go up to 2.30 Ghz. When XIV demands 2.66 or higher. I've seen some Intel i7's that are about 3.4 Ghz and are boxed and sell for a decent price of 200ish or so. Which isn't bad.


B) Buying a retail store computer, but filling it with my own custom parts? Does anyone know of a store that does this? Since it does sound like option one but more tweaked with my own ideas.

C) Wait for the PS3 Beta Release.

I would like to take XIV on the go with me, but I am having trouble on figuring out what I want. Since I know some XI players don't like XIV and I've heard all the bad rumors about it, but those were from XI Veterans. I myself like the new change and want to give it a try.

I also read a review on XIV and something very good sparked my interest. Players can finally begin to solo on their own and not everything requires a party from what Yoshida said from the E3 interview. I am not sure if this is true or not since I know some of our members here on the forums do have XIV. I know Cid swore it off. xD


Like I do remember and know in XI you could solo with DNC subbed, but if you're new and don't really like asking for help on many things (which goes against playing an MMO lol) but want to keep your individuality as someone who does work on their own then XI would be hell in a hand basket. XI also had a loooot of drama. Especially with that idiot Welfare and that annoying Mithra Ryuakago. So XIV is a chance for me to get a clean slate and possibly do things on my own instead of bothering end-game players.

[Raydeus]

If it's for XIV alone I'd say wait for the PS3 release and keep saving.

And/or you should really consider building your own rig. You'll get way more performance per dollar than you would buying a computer from X retailer and the experience will allow you to upgrade for less later on.

[cidbahamut]

Step 1 is to not bother with laptops. If you are building a gaming computer, you want a proper tower. It'll be more powerful, more flexible, better in the long run and simply cheaper as well. Drop the notion of a gaming laptop entirely, such things do not exist.

If you're looking for a store that will do custom builds I highly recommend searching for a Microcenter in your area. I've had nothing but good experiences with the folks there and it's one of the few retail places I know of that actually offers a good selection of components for building your own machine.

[Nandito]

Maybe we should have a PC building party...

Planning on building my own in a month as well. I've learned a lot looking into it for a week; It's definitely the way to go.

Not sure about laptops. Giving a quick search, it'll probably be way more expensive trying to find one with a CPU that goes above 2.5GHz. (Is it even possible to OC a laptop?)

[Malacite]

Just wait.

ARR Beta begins next month, and the new engine will have dramatically reduced requirements. My rig runs the game just fine (though my tower is too small which causes heating issues) and my PC is like 5+ years old now, minus the new GPU and power source to run said GPU.

Core 2 Duo (Quad Core) @ 2.66 Ghz
4 GB RAM (not sure on type/speed)
E.V.G.A. GTX 465


You can pretty much get a PC equal to what I have now for $500 or less, and that's including the GPU (where as I've paid about $2200 in total so far)

[Melody]

Does anyone have any light on the beta PS3 release and I was thinking if I made my own rig I could run a bigger pool of games with it.

[Armando]

Step 1 is to not bother with laptops. If you are building a gaming computer, you want a proper tower. It'll be more powerful, more flexible, better in the long run and simply cheaper as well. Drop the notion of a gaming laptop entirely, such things do not exist.

My Asus G-series would like a word with you. It's not for everyone, but depending on how much you move around and what games you're hoping to play, it's viable. I have a desktop with specs similar to Malacite's, and my laptop will play anything the desktop can.

But if you do all your gaming from the comfort of your own house, then yeah, a desktop is always the better investment.

[cidbahamut]

A desktop tends to be a better investment regardless just because it's so modular. A laptop might be able to play stuff right now, but down the road it will be considered old and slow and it's difficult and in some cases impossible(read: possible but infeasible) to replace the components that need upgrading.

If you're investing in a machine specifically so you can run games on it, you really should be buying a tower.

[Armando]

A desktop tends to be a better investment regardless just because it's so modular. A laptop might be able to play stuff right now, but down the road it will be considered old and slow and it's difficult and in some cases impossible(read: possible but infeasible) to replace the components that need upgrading.

Yeah, I agree with you. But a tower fails you when your friends get together frequently for some good old-fashioned TF2 or L4D2. Or when you want to play any PC game somewhere that isn't your house. You don't need a tower if you don't plan on constantly buying the Latest and Greatest Graphics-Hungry Game, or if you can put the graphics settings on something other than Highest and still live with yourself.

There's a legitimate use case for gaming laptops. There's a big difference between saying that a desktop is a better investment for most people, and saying it's a better investment for ALL people.

[Melody]

I move from my room to the living room. My air mattress popped due to a nail issue so I have to use my couch. Also I like to relax. So I guess a desktop is a good plan. Next to a PS3 I guess. I also realized if I have a custom desktop I can repair/upgrade it myself since I know what components it will need right off the bat.

[Mezlo]

Drop the notion of a gaming laptop entirely, such things do not exist.

I have one.

[Malacite]

A desktop tends to be a better investment regardless just because it's so modular. A laptop might be able to play stuff right now, but down the road it will be considered old and slow and it's difficult and in some cases impossible(read: possible but infeasible) to replace the components that need upgrading.

If you're investing in a machine specifically so you can run games on it, you really should be buying a tower.

To say nothing of the heating & battery issues. A friend of mine almost burned his lap a few times sitting down playing XI on his laptop O.o

Gaming laptops can work fine if you want them to, but I wouldn't say they're ideal.

[Melody]

I've had that issue with mine before. Plus desktops can get liquid coing yeah? The best gaming laptop I've seen was the MSI series on Newegg.com. I'm also not computer savvy I know I need a motherboard but whatever is after that I don't know at all.

[Raydeus]

Watercooling. /faints

It's not worth the hassle unless you really want to get into overclocking or your video card is so big and your case so small and badly vented that it overheats even on default settings. orz

Plus damn waterblocks are expensive and non-reusable man! 100-200 bucks a good Graphics waterblock which probably wont fit your next card, and then you need the radiator/pumping system. Or 300-500 bucks for decent watercooling and around 20°C of reduction in temperatures all around.

[Firewind]

Keep this in mind when considering a Gaming Laptop:

For the same price a a real Gaming Laptop (not just a powerful Desktop Replacement Laptop) you can build you own badass custom rig for gaming and get a pretty decent desktop replacement laptop that will run most games that aren't RAM hungry anyway.