Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

[Chicanery]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

not sure about the ATI cards, I stopped using them, but I do have teh GTX 20, and its really nice, not had a problem with it yet. Findout and see what other CPUs your motherboard can take, and if possible get a core 2 quad, they are pretty good.

Well I just found out about these two sites...
PassMark Intel vs AMD CPU Benchmarks - High End
PassMark Software - Video Card Benchmarks - High End Video Cards

Basically ranks all the top cpu/gpus by performance very useful
As for ATI I've read great things about their GPUs so far and they seem much less pricey than NVIDIAs. Thanks for the pointer on the Core 2 Quads that was what was mainly holding off my decision... the Q9550 is a core 2 quad and after looking at the benchmark site I'd say it's a great option for now, just need to see if prices drop in the next few weeks

[Malacite]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

There's a place down on St. Joseph Blvd. that has PC parts etc but idk how reliable it is.

God DAMN YOU Newegg, it's not like Canada is all that far! You're not even shipping overseas! it's across the f'ing border ffs >_<

[Mhurron]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

Didn't see the 295, but the 480 is $599.99 at futureshop....


orz


This is why I hate PC gaming...

Future Shop (Best Buy) is a horrible place to buy anything. Your best bet is to find the small shop that has the best prices in your area.I can give you the name of a place in Calgary, but a little bit if looking should find a decent one in any major city.

Of course there are always EBay stores. EBay doesn't only have used crap.

[Kailea]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

As for GPU, I'm split between an ATI Raedon HD 5850, GTX 275, or GTX 260... but I don't know as much about GPUs as I'd like to haha

Any advice/suggestions are well appreciated

not sure about the ATI cards, I stopped using them, but I do have teh GTX 20, and its really nice, not had a problem with it yet. Findout and see what other CPUs your motherboard can take, and if possible get a core 2 quad, they are pretty good.

[Chicanery]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

Hey, I've been looking to upgrade my PC for a while now, as it's a bit outdated (scored 2419 on low benchmark if that's relevant)

Currently Have:
Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 2.4 Ghz (OC'd to 2.88 Ghz)
NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT
Windows 7 Premium 32bit
4GB RAM DDR2

Looking to upgrade CPU definately, possibly GPU (not sure if it's completely necessary but I'll put in the money). Currently I've been trying to decide between an E8500, E8600, or Q9550... Q9550 and E8600 are priced around the same, but the E8600 has a much better clock speed, however Q9550 would have 4 cores. E8500 is just cheaper . Is it worth it to upgrade to quad core or should I stick with dual (only use PC for gaming really and as far as I know FFXIV will only utilize 1, maybe 2 cores)? I've looked at i7's and such but I'm not looking to get a super computer or anything and that would also mean paying for a new mobo.

As for GPU, I'm split between an ATI Raedon HD 5850, GTX 275, or GTX 260... but I don't know as much about GPUs as I'd like to haha

Any advice/suggestions are well appreciated

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

All that heat's got to go somewhere. Using a smaller die reduces the heat your laptop will produce, being well ventilated just means your laptop is going to give off more heat rather than the hardware overheating.

Yes, I know how ventilation works but if you read all my posts, the extreme heat created issues with my laptop on more than one occasion. I knew it would run hotter than my other laptops but was hoping the ventilation it had would be more than adequate. It was a word of warning to Tipsy since he's interested in a high end gaming laptop similar to mine and commented on all the vents on the laptop he's interested in. I'd rather arm someone with my experiences instead of letting them run in blind.

[WishMaster3K]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

OH! Speaking of Benchmarks, I wanted to point out that I think the bench was running with full effects, shadows, etc and all that.

Hence; Benchmark. People with PCs rated lower can run the game without all the bells and whistles and be just fine, I think. The biggest change this game is experiencing is the move from dial-up based to Real Interwebs Speed.

[Malacite]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

I got girlfriend aggro, so I haven't been able to update the main thread.

The Best Kind of Aggro

[Kafeen]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

Thats the first thing I looked at when I took mine out of the box, fans and ventilation. I thought it was well ventilated but I guess I was wrong

All that heat's got to go somewhere. Using a smaller die reduces the heat your laptop will produce, being well ventilated just means your laptop is going to give off more heat rather than the hardware overheating.

[Telera]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

So yeah, not been around in...idk how long? Anywho. Just thought I'd add what my benchy score was, and my rig set up, as it's not anything that would be very pricey at all anymore, and may be of some use to someone looking to build a PC without spending a ton, if they only want 'decent' performance.

Scored a 3010 on the benchmark on low res and a 28-something on high but since I lack one of those fancy HD monitors, the high res is irrelevant to me. If it's relevant to you, this may or may not still be of any use. 2800-odd isn't a great score, but it isn't terrible, either. The video in the benchmark ran very smoothly, I never noticed any slowdown or stutter. In fact I was pleasantly surprised by that. I don't consider my PC that powerful. It's decidedly 'last gen' now, in any case.

CPU is an Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16GHz
GPU is a Nvidia Geforce 9800GTX+ from EVGA, which I believe may be slightly OC'd out of the box. I've read, at least, that EVGA tends to do that. I don't know fuck all about overclocking and couldn't tell you.
4 Gigs of RAM
Windows 7 Home 64 Bit (if this is at all relevant :p)

I could run Aion on all max with 30-60+ FPS (depending on zone) most times, though of course not in big Fort battles, and I run LotRO on full max getting even more than that save for 21st Hall in Moria. Not that either use the same engine, nor look half so pretty, but I've had no issues out of either. Only problems I ever really had out of Aion were due to the memory leak on 64 bit systems, and I quit playing in Dec, so I don't know if anything was ever done about it. Doubtful.

I'd planned on playing on the PS3, to be quite honest, but recent developments forced me to abort that plan. And a 3010 was much higher than I'd anticipated, to be frank. It'll at least hold me over until the PS3 release in March, and my only weak point for the heretofore released reqs is my video card. But I can handle turning things down for a half year until I can get my console version.

[Rostum]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

You could easily get a laptop that would run FFXIV and not have to fork out a fortune for a boutique laptop seller (like Alienware or Voodoo). But if you really wanted true HD and highest settings, you'd be better off buying a decent desktop and a couple of 22-24" LCD monitors.

Btw this is a slight tangent, but I think I remember when TGM was looking for an Alienware laptop around 2006-2007? If that was the time, then those desktop replacements were a risky product. Boutique laptop sellers like Alienware and Voodoo were shoving desktop CPU's in there, so they always had over heating issues. But since then they've really designed laptops better (however the more powerful you go, the more heat and battery consumption it'll have).

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

Yes a desktop pc would be incredible at the price point he is going to pay for an Alienware. I would absolutely go that route too if I was shopping around. I was talking with my son about this thread and he said "Well tell him for the price of a top of the line Alienware, I can build him a damn nice PC that will run FFXIV great and then some, fly to where he lives, buy him a desk, set it up in his room, set up his PC, fly back home, AND still have money left over." We had a good chuckle.

[wrongfeifong]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

Why would you play MMORPg on laptop anyway. Laptop can't really stand full power for more then 3 hours a day.

My laptop can play both wow and ffxi well. I keep it going and eventually it is boinked. It is a Toshiba and it was consider state of the art back when i brought it (well can't compare to Alienware)

[WishMaster3K]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

For the amount you'll pay for a gaming Laptop, you can get a Gaming PC that is easily 2-3 times more powerful.

The initial build of my rig (including Monitor) came to $1300. There is no way I could get a laptop as powerful as my rig for the same price.

Food for thought, I suppose. Thanks for all the feedback, everyone! I got girlfriend aggro, so I haven't been able to update the main thread. Between the GPU research/comparison I've seen posted and the base stats SE posted for the Beta, there is a lot I need to modify on my OP.

Thanks, all!

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

I think you've inspired me to upgrade to the 3 year (or 4 if available) plan. Looking at the M15x, it seems to have plenty of ventilation (around 6-8 vents) so there's to hoping the heating problem was resolved. I was looking at other laptops, but aesthetics are a big thing for me, and Alienware is unmatched.

Unless anyone knows of a few other brands that are similar?

lol Thats the first thing I looked at when I took mine out of the box, fans and ventilation. I thought it was well ventilated but I guess I was wrong. I would put the top of an oak tv tray table on my lap and then set it on that just to make sure that I wasn't stopping up the ventilation too after I burned myself. But I think the 3+ hour sessions of FFXI on a regular basis were just too much. I can understand wanting to buy an Alienware for the looks because I loved the look of mine too but at the expense of my pocketbook just for looks? Never again. It was like throwing money out the window. My advice to you is to get over it and buy another brand and save yourself the headaches and some money.