New "20 month" PC - Please check for stupid oversights

[Kiine]

Hi,

So my old PC (Win XP E8400 (3.0ghz), ASUS P5Q, 4GB, Saphire 4870 (1GB)) is getting a lot of lag and some odd behavior on that system, so... I figure it is upgrade time. I hope this system could last me about 20 months at a min.

Looking to upgrade to:
Antec 900 Case
Corsair 750TX
Corsair Dominator (2GB x3) DDR3 Memory
ASUS P6T Deluxe
i7-920 2.66 ghz
Windows 7 64bit Pro
Pioneer BRay Burner BDR-205
Intel X25 80GB SSD
----------------
~$1,550 from Newegg

I'll move my 4870. I don't intend to overclock this system.

I've looked to see if I've chosen stuff that is blatantly incompatible, and I don't think I have.

Right now, the only game I play often is FFXI. Pretty sure I won't jump on the XIV bandwagon right away. Yes, I know these system specs should be overkill for FFXI,- which can probably run a shovel, with a bit of string, 3 ferrets and a usb controller if you want.

So is this a viable system? Suggestions on cutting some corners on price would be welcome.

Thank you.

[Vinto]

That is almost a carbon copy of my current PC. I love it and it runs lightning fast, I think you'll be able to get more than just 20 months out of it honestly with an upgrade of the gfx card a year or so down the line. I currently have a 4870 as well (2GB variety) and I have been able to play all recent releases at top video quality including mass effect 2, borderlands and dragon age.

[naninani]

This is very similar to a machine I'm building now as well.
I have an HD 4870 X2 now that's being bottleneck'd like hell in my current rig.
What you've got (save for, as noted above, a GFX adapter upgrade in a year or so) should definitely last you 2+ years.

I've been struggling with whether or not to go SSD.
I need a lot of space, so it would be complimented with other standard HDDs, but if anyone who is using an SSD would like to sing its praises to help me make up my mind, I could use a push over the edge to drop the money on one.

[Olo401]

Same here.. I'm running identical parts except the motherboard and OS, and my 4870 is only 512MB. This is this build is still fairly new and should be just fine for gaming for at least another year.

So before we get into working on a new machine, let's see if we can figure out what's going on. What kind of slowdowns are you seeing? Are you running XP 32-bit, 'cuz with a 1gig video card I'm thinking your might be running really low on available memory.. which leads to a really slow swap file on your hard drive, which leads to fragmentation and more slowdowns...

BTW Vinto - they made a 2gig version of the 4870? Link me up!

[Isiolia]

If you're not overclocking, you're probably better off going with an i5 750 over the i7 920. The more aggressive turbo mode on the 750 actually can give it better performance in some applications (notably games). The P55/H55/H57 platform is cheaper, the CPU is quite a bit cheaper (unless buying in-store at Microcenter), and you can do a 4GB RAM kit.
Anyway, that'd certainly be a way to knock $100-150+ off the price without really sacrificing performance. If, however, you change your mind about overclocking, the 920 will be better for that.

Honestly though, I've got a slightly different config (E8500, HD4850) than what you have now and don't really feel I can justify an upgrade just yet. Are you experiencing problems even after a format, etc?

re: SSD, I've got a cheap 30GB one in my HTPC, and the reviews aren't exaggerating, they're quite zippy >_>

[Kiine]

So before we get into working on a new machine, let's see if we can figure out what's going on. What kind of slowdowns are you seeing? Are you running XP 32-bit, 'cuz with a 1gig video card I'm thinking your might be running really low on available memory.. which leads to a really slow swap file on your hard drive, which leads to fragmentation and more slowdowns...

Hi, (shamelessly F5ing - sorry)

You can see my problem(s) at http://www.bluegartr.com/forum/showthread.php?t=87383

It is XP 32bit. I've got about ~5500MB dedicated to virtual memory. You could be right about the memory swap file thing. I don't know. All I do know is that when I'm scrolling through inventories it is brutal. I can hear my HD grinding constantly as I scroll. It will sometimes just outright stop and spaz-leap ahead if I don't give it a rest. Sometimes it crashes.

I like to think I'm pretty good with PCs in terms of rescuing/fixing/diagnosing (plus small hands FTW for assembly), but I've been stumped on this one. I didn't ever get around to installing ATI 9.12 drivers and ATI Tray. Been rather curb-stomped by work and RL lately. So when I do get home and have playtime, I want to play - not fix, but I know ripping out drivers and installing clean may be a good thing.

Also considering a Ripley and reinstalling everything on a new drive.

Thanks

[Isiolia]

Have you done any drive diagnostics?

If you have another drive, or don't mind buying one to test with (worst case, another drive for data), then that'd probably be a good thing to do without wiping out your current install. 'cause what you have could well be a drive issue (or simply a corrupt filesystem, which a checkdisk may resolve).

[Bardicrune]

I would go with the ASUS P6X58D instead of the P6T. It'll give you usb3.0 support and SATA 6Gb/s for just a very little more money.

[Kiine]

Have you done any drive diagnostics?

If you have another drive, or don't mind buying one to test with (worst case, another drive for data), then that'd probably be a good thing to do without wiping out your current install. 'cause what you have could well be a drive issue (or simply a corrupt filesystem, which a checkdisk may resolve).

Yes, I've defragged and run disk check (upon reboot). IIRC, the log entry under winlogon in the event viewer didn't report any errors. I suppose I could bust out the install CD and run "chkdsk /r" from there. I'm not adverse to a new drive, so maybe I could do that too.



p.s. Nice Claymore avatar (pretty sure). I need to find time to watch more.

[Olo401]

Hi, (shamelessly F5ing - sorry)

You can see my problem(s) at http://www.bluegartr.com/forum/showthread.php?t=87383

It is XP 32bit. I've got about ~5500MB dedicated to virtual memory. You could be right about the memory swap file thing. I don't know. All I do know is that when I'm scrolling through inventories it is brutal. I can hear my HD grinding constantly as I scroll. It will sometimes just outright stop and spaz-leap ahead if I don't give it a rest. Sometimes it crashes.

Yeah that constant hard drive activity is a sure sign that your system's working off a pagefile. Upgrading the OS to 64-bit will take some of that load off by liberating your physical memory.

Try these settings in your registry (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\PlayOnlineUS\SquareEn ix\FinalFantasyXI) tho and see if it makes a difference:

0000 - 6
0001 - 480 (1152 decimal)
0002 - 360 (864 decimal)
0003 - 840 (2304 decimal)
0004 - 720 (1728 decimal)
0007 - 1
0011 - 2
0017 - 1
0018 - 2

I get the feeling that the crashing is because you have the resolutions in there as hex (aka 4434x2148 / 8964x8964 decimal), which would literally kick your video card's ass. I made the same mistake a couple times myself b/c the registry defaults to hex. As for the drivers it shouldn't make too much of a difference for Radeon cards (I think I'm using 9.7 or something?), but the older versions do work better with DirectX 8.1 so if you want to roll back go for it.

[Isiolia]

Sometimes what I've found is that checkdisk won't necessarily pick up on errors with the actual drive mechanism.

Did you wind up doing the RAM check as described in your other post?

[Lucavi]

I'd upgrade to the Antec 902. It has superior cooling to the 900, and only at the cost of a -slight- bit of space in the middle card slot. I recently picked one up and the 200" on the top is beastly.

I'll probably be picking up a 250 or a 300 over the summer for the side.

You might want to invest in a heatsink for your processor too, depending on how hard you plan on running that rig. A 30 dollar investment can drop your temps by as much as 15-20 degrees while running hard.

[Kiine]

Yeah that constant hard drive activity is a sure sign that your system's working off a pagefile. Upgrading the OS to 64-bit will take some of that load off by liberating your physical memory.

Try these settings in your registry...

Yeah, that makes sense. As far as the registry settings go, I know I do not have hex/decimal values mixed up. I have the background resolution square (2304x2304), is that bad? I also don't think I have a '6' in first field... uhm? mipmapping I think it is? I can't check now, for I am at work. And yet, I'm responding in this thread often...

[Kiine]

Sometimes what I've found is that checkdisk won't necessarily pick up on errors with the actual drive mechanism.

Did you wind up doing the RAM check as described in your other post?

Agreed. It's possible there's actual hardware fault in progress.

I started to do the mem check, but then it was running a very long time - and I had to go feed my MDB/MDT PLD to an obnoxious crystal for a LS event. So I bailed on the test. Actually, now that I think about it, when I quit out of MEMTEST it originally didn't find my windows install (the NTLDR or some similar error) on my HD for whatever reason. I got it back up and running, and counted myself lucky.

I guess that's additional info supporting the "get a new HD, Kii" school of thought...

[Vinto]

BTW Vinto - they made a 2gig version of the 4870? Link me up!

I dunno if they still produce it :s

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102826

[Isiolia]

Agreed. It's possible there's actual hardware fault in progress.

I started to do the mem check, but then it was running a very long time - and I had to go feed my MDB/MDT PLD to an obnoxious crystal for a LS event. So I bailed on the test. Actually, now that I think about it, when I quit out of MEMTEST it originally didn't find my windows install (the NTLDR or some similar error) on my HD for whatever reason. I got it back up and running, and counted myself lucky.

I guess that's additional info supporting the "get a new HD, Kii" school of thought...

Sometimes you can get the NTLDR error if the machine doesn't see the drive at all. That -can- be the board on the drive, or it could be a flakey cable or something too.

[desertigloo]

I didn't read the entire thread, but twice in a row i've had similar symptons, and there's been the same root cause each time.
The power supply.

After a year it started to fail out on me, would get bad graphic lag amonsgt other things. Mind you I always buy an overpowered wattage.. I guess I just got some that weren't up to snuff.

Anyhow, may want to take a look at that, it would have saved me several thousand dollars over a few years.

[Kiine]

Thank you to everyone that responded.

Ok. Looks like I got a pretty good list of things to check. I'll stop by my local computer store, pick up a few things, and have them test my PSupply as a favor while I'm there. I'll also finally run that memtest this week.

I'll poke back in sat/sunday - I hope - with results.

Guess it's a good thing I didn't get that i7 just yet, huh?

[Amastacia]

Seeing as how your system really isn't obsolete, especially for playing FFXI at any resolution, it's a very good thing you didn't get that i7.

Worst case you drop $140 on Win7 Pro 64, more likely Olo was right and you were asking your PC to generate enormous textures. Even if that isn't the issue, it's almost certainly a software issue.

Core i7 is great, but only the most modern games really make good use of more than 2 threads (FFXI is not one of them). Unless you're a heavy-duty multitasker or play a lot of new games, spending the upgrade money won't net a $1500 improvement, and fixing configurations and/or reformatting will fix your issues for a lot less money.

[solsirt]

Just wanted to echo what has already been said. Save yourself the money. Your current machine will pretty much max out ffxi.