Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

[Freelancer]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

I found this to be a pretty good guide on current parts, they give a couple of different builds depending on budget. I'm thinking about building one based on their Enthusiast Overclocker build with a few minor alterations.

This is what I have planned at the moment:

Antec Three Hundred ï¿¡ 41.99
OCZ 600Watt ModXStream Pro ï¿¡ 49.95
Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 ï¿¡ 85.76
Intel Core i5 750 ï¿¡149.99
Gelid Tranquillo ï¿¡ 24.87
Corsair DDR3 PC3-12800 4GB ï¿¡ 85.92
Palit GeForce GTX 460 1024MB ï¿¡180.94
1TB Samsung Spinpoint ï¿¡ 48.14
Samsung DVD-RW ï¿¡ 11.99

TOTAL ï¿¡679.55

I don't know about the CPU cooler but I'm sure its better than stock if you intend on overclocking. if not then stick with stock and get a better case.

Cooler Master C690 II
Antec 902

are my picks for Mid-tower cases, both have great airflow for an ok price.

Ninja Edit: People seem to complain about Palit 460 having issues like having clocks less than advertised, so go with another company if you can. (though so far its been happening to Sonic cards, dunno about regular)

[flex2slick]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

were do yous guys get those nifty pics?

[Murphie]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

Take your time and look up a guide on the internet. There are plenty of them out there, some with pictures or video. If I can do it, trust me, you can too.

True that. I guess it's just the fear of never having done it before, and worrying that my clumsy self will mess something up and ruin the darn thing forever.

[Bricklayer]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

What am I missing? The difference between the two CPUs is frequency and size of the L3 cache, right?

Yep, both are quad core CPUs; Intel has less L2 cache and more L3 cache. However, the PhenomII and the i5 are made by different designers.

Although the PhenomII is clocked faster than the i5, the amount of processes the PhenomII can perform in one clock cycle may be fewer than the i5. When Intel and AMD started hitting frequency limitations back in the Pentium days, they started looking to increase number of cores, and increase number of processes per clock (change architectures). So, a slower (frequency) Core2 may perform better than a faster Pentium, and a slower i3, i5, i7 may perform better than a faster Core2. Likewise, Intel and AMD architectures may not be "equal" in each generation. Hence, PhenomII's may require more clocks to do the same amount of work as i5's. If you get into i7's, a lot of the features Intel has provided are not even used by most software designers. So, for now, an i5 is probably good enough (actually it's probably overkill).

Tomshardware.com has a very nice CPU guide that they do monthly on the Best Gaming CPU's for that month. They consider anything over an i5 overkill for most games, because the limiting factor eventually becomes your video card. In other words, an i5 can handle any processing required by modern video games, whereas the video card will always struggle to keep up with the graphics side (for now). On the flipside, my Pentium D is obviously NOT keeping up with FFXIV (the Benchmark), even though I have a 9600GT (low-mid level video card). Hope that helps?

[flex2slick]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

th only thing aboput build in a pc is choosing the motherboard and chip, that is the problem i am having, but i settled on the asus m4a79xtd evo and the amd phenom black chip, i am 90 percent sure that is the one i want, if anyone can tell yes and why, or no and why, i would appreciate it!

[Kafeen]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

I found this to be a pretty good guide on current parts, they give a couple of different builds depending on budget. I'm thinking about building one based on their Enthusiast Overclocker build with a few minor alterations.

This is what I have planned at the moment:

Antec Three Hundred ï¿¡ 41.99
OCZ 600Watt ModXStream Pro ï¿¡ 49.95
Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 ï¿¡ 85.76
Intel Core i5 750 ï¿¡149.99
Gelid Tranquillo ï¿¡ 24.87
Corsair DDR3 PC3-12800 4GB ï¿¡ 85.92
Palit GeForce GTX 460 1024MB ï¿¡180.94
1TB Samsung Spinpoint ï¿¡ 48.14
Samsung DVD-RW ï¿¡ 11.99

TOTAL ï¿¡679.55

[Cyprius]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

What am I missing? The difference between the two CPUs is frequency and size of the L3 cache, right?

I wish I could tell you. I'm pretty new to the realm of PC parts. But I've been reading all sorts of reviews, looking at certain tests, etc... And they all say that the i5 750 is just a better CPU than most.

Good enough for me.

[DakAttack]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

At stock speeds, i5-750 is better in MOST tests. Please see Bench - CPU - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News (Note: In some tests, lower is better).

What am I missing? The difference between the two CPUs is frequency and size of the L3 cache, right?

[Freelancer]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

the heatsink is easy to install, though intel's design is stupid.

only hard part in the build is hooking up the case's front panel headers to the mobo and thats only because I keep forgiting which side is +/-.

[TheGrandMom]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

I'm beginning to wonder if building a PC for FFXIV is a worthwhile endeavor for me. I may just have to wait until March. It's all so damn complicated.

Take your time and look up a guide on the internet. There are plenty of them out there, some with pictures or video. If I can do it, trust me, you can too.

[Feba]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

the only issue I think I might have is installing the CPU and heatsink correctly.

Even that's pretty straightforward most of the time. Just take your time, line everything up, and don't forget the thermal gel.

[Cyprius]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

A bit of a bonus for me building a better PC. My buddy got me into StarCraft II Beta, and my PC could barely run it.

Now I can actually get SCII and play it, as well.

[Mhurron]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

I'm beginning to wonder if building a PC for FFXIV is a worthwhile endeavor for me. I may just have to wait until March. It's all so damn complicated.

No its not, and you are honestly not going to need the latest i7 to do it, or latest anything for that matter. My PentiumD and SLI 8600's scored just under 700 on the benchmark, technically not high enough to run the game according to SE but I bet it would still run the game if I could run it in full screen. Not that Im going to find out but whatever.

FFXI benchmark ran on things that the actual game wouldn't, SE doesn't have a good track record for making accurate benchmarks. The odd performance of the benchmark (and epeen) is what is pushing the demand for high (expensive) specs.

Yes, just playing the PS3 version is always going to be simpler, but you probably could use a PC for other things, so its not like a decent machine is really going to go to waste. Of course, if you can't use a decent PC, then the PS3 really is a no brainer.

[Cyprius]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

I'm beginning to wonder if building a PC for FFXIV is a worthwhile endeavor for me. I may just have to wait until March. It's all so damn complicated.

Nah, it really isn't. Expensive, maybe... Depending on how powerful you want it, and if you scour the web for deals. But complicated, no.

This will be the first time I'm building PC from scratch, and the only issue I think I might have is installing the CPU and heatsink correctly.

But on a side note, what is it that you think is complicated? Knowing which parts are right for you? Physically building it?

[Murphie]

Re: Guide: Building a PC to play FFXIV

I'm beginning to wonder if building a PC for FFXIV is a worthwhile endeavor for me. I may just have to wait until March. It's all so damn complicated.