Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

[KeechwaTembo]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

weird. I'm sending to MelkiahFox@aim. tried a second time and still says you're offline

[Melkiah]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

just made an aim account and sent you an im Melkiah. hit me up when you get a chance

I never got a message


-Make sure you are messaging MelkiahFox

[KeechwaTembo]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

just made an aim account and sent you an im Melkiah. hit me up when you get a chance

[Melkiah]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

I have a question.

I'm getting ready to order some part's so that I can run ffxiv on the 21st and want to make sure I'm getting what I need.

So here is what I'm wanting to buy.

1: Phenom II X4 965 Black AM3 3.4Ghz 512KB 45NM 125W 4000MHZ OR AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban 2.8 GHz 6x512 KB L2 Cache Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Processor - Retail HDT55TFBGRBOX

2: CORSAIR XMS3 DHX 4GB ( 2 X 2GB ) PC3-10666 1333MHz 240-pin DDR3 CL9 Dual Channel Desktop Memory Kit - TW3X4G1333C9DHX

3: ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 - AM3 - AMD 890GX - DDR3 - USB 3.0 SATA 6 Gb/s - ATX Motherboard (Might get a cheaper one if I can)

4:Corsair CMPSU-650TX 650-Watt TX Series 80 Plus Certified Power Supply compatible with Intel Core i7 and Core i5.
Not really sure about the power supply for this set up.

5: XFX ATI Radeon HD 5770 1 GB DDR5 2DVI/ HDMI/DisplayPort PCI-Express Video Card

Will I need anything else and does this set up look like I can do what I need it to do?

With that setup, you are looking at a good cpu, a good video card, decent ram, and a decent board.

You'll probably get about 2300-2400 marks on HQ and about 4k-4 1/2k marks on normal.

That rig will probably run from medium to high settings, as far as an "ultra" setting, might be pushing it.

Try to get faster ram if you can. your PSU is too much, all you need is 450w to comfortably run that rig.

[Melkiah]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

strain of dynamis? Dude I was doing dynamis with a 4850 512 gddr3 EASY

And I highly doubt that the games graphics are going to continue to improve, that wouldn't make it a very good looking product in the consumers eyes. Look at WoW.

Has that game gotten any better looking in the 8 years it's been in biz? no.. Sure there are more players, but this problem is an easy fix regardless of your vid card. The 5770 is past par on modern games of today, and I don't see this game getting a huge graphical prowess update. That'd be an insane update and would destroy business for Squeenix. How can they even sell a game that has fluctuating graphical changes. Not going to happen.. No game has ever done it, no game is going to do it now.

gg

---------- Post added at 06:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:19 PM ----------




Also, since you want to mention dynamis/besieged crap, that stuff is highly dependent on mainly CPU. not gpu. gg again.

Because this can't run FFXIV LOL

[Melkiah]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

I'm not the least bit concerned with 2-3 years from now though. I'll probably upgrade the GPU and CPU once or twice in that time frame. I'm more focused on it playing the game at launch with little to no lag.

Also keep in mind that my definition of "little lag" is probably very different than most of yours. I played FFXI on PS2 for a couple years, and 360 for the last couple, so I'm used to a decent bit of lag, such as dynamis, lower jeuno, whitegate, campaigns, and more than anything, besieged. I lagged out of besieged literally 80% of the time on 360, so as long as FFXIV plays on whatever pc I get better than what I experienced on PS2/360 with FFXI, I'll be a happy camper. My only real concerns atm are that I get it on the 22nd for the collector's launch, and that I can play it, at least till endgame's implemented, with as I said before, little to no lag on a small, 720p tv.

And the only reason I'm really trying to go the pre-built route is cause I'm completely computer illiterate, and even if I believe I can manage to figure out how to put it together piece by piece, and figure out things like OCing, I cannot no matter how hard I try, get a straight answer about which parts to get. Everyone has very differing opinions on which parts are better than which, and not having any personal preference makes it impossible to make heads or tails of any of it.

It wasn't easy coming up with $700 for the pc in the first place(not working atm), and I really want to avoid listening to the wrong suggestions when it comes to what I'm putting in this thing. Plus, as I said earlier as well, the OS is gonna run me $200 by itself, so $500 or so for a pre-built where all I need is a better graphics card is the best setup as far as I can tell.

So unless I can have even two or three people agree on one build, it would probably be the best setup to just pick one of the pre-builts I listed earlier, slap a 5770 or something similar in it, and be done with it till I can upgrade the CPU and whatever else needs to be. So can anyone tell me which of the pre-built towers is my best bet based on CPU, upgradability, etc? Remember, it just has to play decently on a small 720p tv, not a heavy duty 1080 monitor at max settings.

Dude, get on AIM, I'll walk you through everything about building a machine step by step, it's no problem, really simple, and will save you a lot of money in the long run. As far as purchasing an OS, not really.. I 7loadered this machine and got ultimate for free :3. As far as building a machine, it's like sex.. you stick it in her here and there, and button it up. real simple game bro.. And as far as a decent build, there are tons of DIY kits on newegg that will get you started. I wouldn't worry about what everyone is saying regarding the differences of products available, but no matter what, if you spend 500-700 in raw components, there's a good chance you are going to have a good machine in the end. It's a lot better than buying prebuilt..


If you want to just upgrade, that's fine too.

IM me at MelkiahFox @ AIM and I'd love to talk to you about what options you have and what you specifically want out of your GPU. I need to know your existing hardware and other information as well. I've been building and maintaining machines since I was 13 and It's not a challenge. Hit me up :3


- MelkiahFox @ AIM

[KeechwaTembo]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

I'm not the least bit concerned with 2-3 years from now though. I'll probably upgrade the GPU and CPU once or twice in that time frame. I'm more focused on it playing the game at launch with little to no lag.

Also keep in mind that my definition of "little lag" is probably very different than most of yours. I played FFXI on PS2 for a couple years, and 360 for the last couple, so I'm used to a decent bit of lag, such as dynamis, lower jeuno, whitegate, campaigns, and more than anything, besieged. I lagged out of besieged literally 80% of the time on 360, so as long as FFXIV plays on whatever pc I get better than what I experienced on PS2/360 with FFXI, I'll be a happy camper. My only real concerns atm are that I get it on the 22nd for the collector's launch, and that I can play it, at least till endgame's implemented, with as I said before, little to no lag on a small, 720p tv.

And the only reason I'm really trying to go the pre-built route is cause I'm completely computer illiterate, and even if I believe I can manage to figure out how to put it together piece by piece, and figure out things like OCing, I cannot no matter how hard I try, get a straight answer about which parts to get. Everyone has very differing opinions on which parts are better than which, and not having any personal preference makes it impossible to make heads or tails of any of it.

It wasn't easy coming up with $700 for the pc in the first place(not working atm), and I really want to avoid listening to the wrong suggestions when it comes to what I'm putting in this thing. Plus, as I said earlier as well, the OS is gonna run me $200 by itself, so $500 or so for a pre-built where all I need is a better graphics card is the best setup as far as I can tell.

So unless I can have even two or three people agree on one build, it would probably be the best setup to just pick one of the pre-builts I listed earlier, slap a 5770 or something similar in it, and be done with it till I can upgrade the CPU and whatever else needs to be. So can anyone tell me which of the pre-built towers is my best bet based on CPU, upgradability, etc? Remember, it just has to play decently on a small 720p tv, not a heavy duty 1080 monitor at max settings.

[Melkiah]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

Because the game is going to stay the same in 2 to 3 years, right? You're the bigger idiot for not considering the fact that this game will continue to improve graphical qualities and the end game will strain the crap out of your system. You're only thinking about how it's running in beta and never considered once that retail is a more accurate picture. If you ever participated in Dynamis, then that is what I'm talking about.

strain of dynamis? Dude I was doing dynamis with a 4850 512 gddr3 EASY

And I highly doubt that the games graphics are going to continue to improve, that wouldn't make it a very good looking product in the consumers eyes. Look at WoW.

Has that game gotten any better looking in the 8 years it's been in biz? no.. Sure there are more players, but this problem is an easy fix regardless of your vid card. The 5770 is past par on modern games of today, and I don't see this game getting a huge graphical prowess update. That'd be an insane update and would destroy business for Squeenix. How can they even sell a game that has fluctuating graphical changes. Not going to happen.. No game has ever done it, no game is going to do it now.

gg

---------- Post added at 06:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:19 PM ----------

Because the game is going to stay the same in 2 to 3 years, right? You're the bigger idiot for not considering the fact that this game will continue to improve graphical qualities and the end game will strain the crap out of your system. You're only thinking about how it's running in beta and never considered once that retail is a more accurate picture. If you ever participated in Dynamis, then that is what I'm talking about.

Also, since you want to mention dynamis/besieged crap, that stuff is highly dependent on mainly CPU. not gpu. gg again.

[Aeni]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

Windows rates graphical experiences at 7.6 with the 5770 and 4gb of ddr3 1600 with that phenom II X4 955. People telling you that the 5770 is dying can be called idiots.

Because the game is going to stay the same in 2 to 3 years, right? You're the bigger idiot for not considering the fact that this game will continue to improve graphical qualities and the end game will strain the crap out of your system. You're only thinking about how it's running in beta and never considered once that retail is a more accurate picture. If you ever participated in Dynamis, then that is what I'm talking about.

[wrongfeifong]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

FFXIV High res benchmark of 2570 with the forementioned parts. I think that'll be fine to play this game. Windows rates graphical experiences at 7.6 with the 5770 and 4gb of ddr3 1600 with that phenom II X4 955. People telling you that the 5770 is dying can be called idiots. Sure, it's not a 256 bit interface, but who cares. You don't need to upgrade PSU, it takes MINIMAL POWER. and ONLY USES 1 PCI-E.

Some folks don't consider every end of the spectrum.

You can get away with building a machine like this and run pretty much EVERYTHING great. honestly. 5770 is a great card, and it's at a great price, you aren't going to look at much competition in this price/performance range other than the 460. All in all, you can have a great budget rig running FFXIV beautifully for just a little over 600. You just need to pay attention to your build and budget.

I do agree.

Especially if you have 3 monitor and play FFXIV with like 5760 x1080, which what i am doing right now.... WOW...if only ATI put their own 3d ready then.....i would be a happy taru.

[Melkiah]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

FFXIV High res benchmark of 2570 with the forementioned parts. I think that'll be fine to play this game. Windows rates graphical experiences at 7.6 with the 5770 and 4gb of ddr3 1600 with that phenom II X4 955. People telling you that the 5770 is dying can be called idiots. Sure, it's not a 256 bit interface, but who cares. You don't need to upgrade PSU, it takes MINIMAL POWER. and ONLY USES 1 PCI-E.

Some folks don't consider every end of the spectrum.

You can get away with building a machine like this and run pretty much EVERYTHING great. honestly. 5770 is a great card, and it's at a great price, you aren't going to look at much competition in this price/performance range other than the 460. All in all, you can have a great budget rig running FFXIV beautifully for just a little over 600. You just need to pay attention to your build and budget.

[wrongfeifong]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

Now I'm wondering if I should just buy an already built tower from Best Buy or somewhere similar, seeing as how computer illiterate I am. Plus I just found out windows 7 is $200 or so if you don't have another OS to upgrade(I'm starting from scratch so I don't have a base OS like vista), so it might just be cheaper to buy a tower for like $450-$500 with windows 7 already built in, and just buy a better graphics card to pop in. Here are some that I was looking into:

Asus - Essentio Desktop / AMD Athlonâ„¢ II X2 Processor / 4GB Memory / 640GB Hard Drive - CM1630-03

Asus - Essentio Desktop / Intel® Pentium® Processor / 4GB Memory / 1TB Hard Drive - CM5671-05

Dell - Inspiron Desktop / Intel® Pentium® Processor / 4GB Memory / 500GB Hard Drive - I560-2050NBK

Gateway - Desktop / Intel® Pentium® Processor / 6GB Memory / 1TB Hard Drive - SX2801-01E

HP - Pavilion Desktop / AMD Athlonâ„¢ II Processor / 4GB Memory / 750GB Hard Drive - p6510y

Figured I could just buy one of the Asus towers and upgrade the card to the one I mentioned earlier:

Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100283-3L Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

Or any card in the $150-$200 range. Also keep in mind I'm gonna be playing on a 30-" 720p HD tv, and not a 1080 monitor or anything, so graphically, I won't run FFXIV on NEAR max settings.

So what I want to know is ...
A: Can I even upgrade these pre-built towers.
B: Which of the towers I listed is my best bet, at least in regards to processor power and upgradability.
C: Any better graphics card suggetions under $200, preferably closer to $150 to go with whichever tower.

Thanks again for any advice.

You know about the GTX 450 ? Well it is coming under 200. Should be better than 5770. It should be better than 460 768mb as well. But i am not too sure, i have only heard these by words of mouth.

You should worry about the length of the 5770, even with a full tower i almost ran out of space fitting my 5850, if i bought 5870 i definitely have to cut that card in half.

I don't know why we got so much intel lover. phenom 965 x4 BE is better OC than most of the i5 in general. While it is cheaper by half and perform as good as a stock i7 @ OC.

I like my 1055T but 1090T can OC up to 4.5 and stable which is somewhat similar performance to a i7 x6 extreme. It actually beat 930 (which is same price before) when both OC by miles.

However, AMD limit to only dual channel and 1333 by stock. Yes you can OC 1600 or even 2000 but those stat won't come until you OC. It is set 1333 even if you go buy a 2000 right now on stock.

also MSI motherboard have OC genie which auto OC even noob can do it, but my board suck so much that i limit myself to 3.7GHZ, because i know my 890-GD70 MSI will toast on 1.4v+ (which is the set require on 4ghz+) since there is actually a toasted board club with over 20 pages.

Also i don't understand why people say FFXIV is CPU intensive, i am using only 20% of my CPU

[KeechwaTembo]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

Now I'm wondering if I should just buy an already built tower from Best Buy or somewhere similar, seeing as how computer illiterate I am. Plus I just found out windows 7 is $200 or so if you don't have another OS to upgrade(I'm starting from scratch so I don't have a base OS like vista), so it might just be cheaper to buy a tower for like $450-$500 with windows 7 already built in, and just buy a better graphics card to pop in. Here are some that I was looking into:

Asus - Essentio Desktop / AMD Athlonâ„¢ II X2 Processor / 4GB Memory / 640GB Hard Drive - CM1630-03

Asus - Essentio Desktop / Intel® Pentium® Processor / 4GB Memory / 1TB Hard Drive - CM5671-05

Dell - Inspiron Desktop / Intel® Pentium® Processor / 4GB Memory / 500GB Hard Drive - I560-2050NBK

Gateway - Desktop / Intel® Pentium® Processor / 6GB Memory / 1TB Hard Drive - SX2801-01E

HP - Pavilion Desktop / AMD Athlonâ„¢ II Processor / 4GB Memory / 750GB Hard Drive - p6510y

Figured I could just buy one of the Asus towers and upgrade the card to the one I mentioned earlier:

Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100283-3L Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

Or any card in the $150-$200 range. Also keep in mind I'm gonna be playing on a 30-" 720p HD tv, and not a 1080 monitor or anything, so graphically, I won't run FFXIV on NEAR max settings.

So what I want to know is ...
A: Can I even upgrade these pre-built towers.
B: Which of the towers I listed is my best bet, at least in regards to processor power and upgradability.
C: Any better graphics card suggetions under $200, preferably closer to $150 to go with whichever tower.

Thanks again for any advice.

[WishMaster3K]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

First cut that ram, you can't use 1600 in AMD. All AMD is limit to 1333 unless you overclock.

On the right motherboard, Overclocking is as simple as going into the Bios and selecting "1600" instead of "1333". I have 1600 on my ram easily.
Motherboard
RAM
CPU

Just depends on the components you buy. I don't have to change the voltage or anything like that (I CAN, if I want a more "Stable" OC), so for the most part, I can change ONLY the multiplier in my CPU up to 19.5x and get 4GHz.

Thirdly, triple core CPU are "dead" market. Don't brother. Pay that extra for a 955 x4 phenom II BE for 4ghz OVERClock with a 870 motherboard.

Agreed.

If you are willing to spend 600...@least make sure everything is OCable and make it a 1000 buck worth machine with overclocking.

An exaggeration, but I agree for the most part.

[wrongfeifong]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

I've been trying to build a pc as well, and my budget is about the same. $600 is the goal, not counting Windows 7(so $700 total). But after seeing all the dozens of suggestions on several forums like this one, I've had a hard time deciding which build to go with.

So I ended up asking the only friend I have that's any good with computers(I'm about as clueless as it gets when it comes to pcs), and he gave me the following suggestions after looking up the recommended specs for FFXIV.

Now, I'm running this by you guys cause he admitted he's a bit out of date regarding newer parts, since he built his last pc over a year or two ago. That, and if any of these parts can be downgraded even a little bit and still run it with little to no lag, that'd be great.

Keep in mind, I'm literally only using this for FFXIV, and nothing else. I have a laptop for everything else, and I play all my others games on PS3/360.

K, so here's his recommendations:

Case - $54.99
Newegg.com - Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Motherboard - $99.99
Newegg.com - MSI 870A-G54 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

CPU - $79.99
Newegg.com - AMD Athlon II X3 445 Rana 3.1GHz 3 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Desktop Processor ADX445WFGMBOX

Graphics Card - $144.99
Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100283-3L Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

RAM - $86.99
Newegg.com - A-DATA Gaming Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model AX3U1600GB2G9-2G

Power Supply - $79.99
Newegg.com - Antec EarthWatts EA650 650W Continuous Power ATX12V Ver.2.2 / EPS12V version 2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC "compatible with Core i7/Core i5" Power Supply

Hard Drive - $44.99
Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3320418AS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

All of that comes to $636.88 + S/H. There are $40 worth of mail in rebates as well which puts it at just under $600.

Any adjustments I should make, please let me know. Thanks^^

First cut that ram, you can't use 1600 in AMD. All AMD is limit to 1333 unless you overclock.

Secondly, why is US selling radeon more expensive than canada? I am looking @ 120 CAD here, i know radeon is "Canada" but still... get something that is on deal.

Thirdly, triple core CPU are "dead" market. Don't brother. Pay that extra for a 955 x4 phenom II BE for 4ghz OVERClock with a 870 motherboard.

and 49 buck in canada can get a 1TB sata 2 HDD or 500 gb sata 3 already...You need better sources then Neweggs. try ncix.com.

If you are willing to spend 600...@least make sure everything is OCable and make it a 1000 buck worth machine with overclocking.