Suggestions on upgrading or replacing PC

[Ohai]

Hey. I'm fairly new to these forums, so this might not be posted in the right place. Was debating between putting this in "Tech" or "Random question thread", but since this is more about the game's operation rather than content, figured it would fit best here.

I'm trying to decide whether I should upgrade my PC or just get a new one. My whole intention for use is to play XIV decently. Since my PC is only 2 years old (if that), I'd like to know if I could get away with just upgrading my graphics card or something, or if it would just be better to get a whole new PC.

Now, keep in mind that I'm a girl (in b4: GIRLZ DONT PLAY MMOZ!)... and completely computer illiterate, so I'll probably need some hand holding... and detailed reasons as to why this or that needs to be done this or that way...(etc etc).

These are my specs:
support.gateway.com/s/PC/R/1015332R/1015332Rsp2.shtml

I know.. integrated.. bad!
Unfortunately.. I knew even less about PCs when I bought this than I do now..so I'm not even sure if its any good to begin with. I did manage to install and run FFXIV, but all that is good for is to play with character creation. Once I get in.. I'm so lagged I can't do much besides look at people. Not to mention my graphics are pretty bad, but I already know my card has to be upgraded at the very least.

So, if someone would be kind enough to respond to my awesomely boring wall of text, I would really appreciate it! And if I put this in the wrong place, I'm sorry. Nuke away!

[KoRnpedo]

If u dnt want to go through all the annoying details, u can just get a new graphic card.. it should work kind of fine,, im not familiar with AMD processors, so I dnt know about it much..

If u're replacing it, how much are u welling to pay?

[KoRnpedo]

and for upgrading u'll need a PSU too ..

[Ohai]

I think $1,000ish would be my max, though I'd obviously prefer to spend a lot less if I could. If I'm replacing, I don't want something that will be outdated soon (I know.. a PC is outdated the minute after you buy it...etc etc). I wouldn't even know where to start looking though because there is so much debate about what is good right now. I thought I7s were good.. but I've read that they aren't... and you should do something to an I5 instead ..overclocking?.. or something. Again, I have no idea what that means.. so not sure if I would be a candidate for that.
On top of that.. the whole argument about having multiple cores being useless because it doesn't use them all... or something along those lines.
The whole PC debate is like latin to me.. lol

[KoRnpedo]

i7 processors are always good haha..
replacing the VGA and the PSU is like giving ur desktop a CPR.. with a budget of 1000$ I think u can make a rig with GTX460 or 465....
i'm really bad wen it comes to building a desktop, its hard for me to limit myself with budget.. ><

[Ohai]

Here comes the hand holding...
VGA? PSU? CPR?
Apparently I'm out of the loop with abbreviations >.<

Also, I heard there are issues with the GTX460s..unless it was fixed recently. Or unless its related to the benchmark only.. and not the game itself. I've read so many pages of forums.. I can't keep facts straight anymore.. its all one big gd blur with all these 100 page threads everywhere >.<

Edit: Off to bed. I'll check this when I get up. Thanks for the help! ^^

[KoRnpedo]

VGA is the Graphic card, PSU is the power supply, CPR is Cardiopulmonary resuscitation >.>...

hmm, i ddnt know about these problems, but then again, in the next couple of weeks both AMD, and nVidia will be releasing new drivers updates with FFXIV mainly in their mind..

[Gentaro]

I you're willing to pay 1000$ you should think of a complete new PC, since even the CPU isn't worth keeping.

feel free to pm/msn/whatever if u need help getting the parts together

[KoRnpedo]

its sad, there are some japanese websites that sells u PCs that were built for FFXIV and for good prices, there arent any English websites for that..

[Darwinion]

Can't help too much with the new build. But I can tell you that the FFXIV Beta has all the graphical settings at maximum as default. Go into the configuration part of the main menu and turn off shadows, weather effects etc. It helped a ton for me. You can also change the resolution and other settings within the FFXIV configuration program. (This is a separate program to the Beta game. You can find it in your Programs/Games/SquareEnix folder alongside the Beta itself)

If you set the resolution to match your desktop you will play in full screen. But be warned that Alt-Tab will still crash the game if you try to access your desktop. I really hope that they don't keep that shit in retail because that blows!

[Ohai]

Oh, thanks for that. I'm able to move around now.. kinda! lol
Ok, so I've been doing some looking and I came up with these two.
Can anyone recommend which is better? Or direct me to another good site to look? Or even provide links to something that would be a good deal? This site doesn't have as great of deals as they did a few weeks ago. (wish I would've just caved in then and bought something. But I wanted to make sure I got some advice first)

(I can't post links.. so these are partial >.<)
#1- tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5395929&CatId=4928

#2- tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5611886&CatId=4928

First one seems to have less memory(but can install more), but bigger power supply. Also I know nothing about geforce cards.
Second one seems ok, but I'm not sure how big the power supply has to be. Also, I don't know if I5 would be good enough.

Thanks so much for helping me with this!

[Cooleko]

both are a ripoff :/

if you go to the http://www.bluegartr.com/forums/70-Tech thread you can find 100 PCs that are better priced and will give you better performance.

[Ohai]

Hmm. Thanks for the suggestion, but I can't seem to find what I'm looking for in that area.. unless I'm blind. Seems like everyone talks about building PCs.. and that is just gibberish to me.
Guess I'll keep looking.

[Cooleko]

there are two prebuilt threads that link newegg prebuilts for 800-1200

[Ohai]

Ok. So I did some more looking and I came up with these links.
Now, I don't know the relation of processor quality across brands.. so some of these might be obvious red flags to you guys...
Also, I don't understand how the processors progress, even in the same brand. I mean.. I know the I7 is supposed to be better than the I5.. but I don't quite understand the numbers attached to them..
Like how an I5-650 can do 3.2 ghz.... compared to an I5-760 doing 2.8.. or even an I7 doing 2.8...
Maybe I have that whole thing backwards.. but I thought the higher the I#.. the higher the ghz number should be.
If anyone could give me in depth reasons why any of these computers are acceptable.. or not acceptable, I'd really appreciate it. I'd love to understand more about this, lol. ^^
Ok.. on to the links (all partial ofcourse since I'm not cool enough to post links yet...)

1) tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6362907&Sku=I455-57700
2) tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=28732&CatId=4925
3) tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6325074&CatId=4925
4) tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6076476&CatId=4925
5) tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6435922&CatId=4925
6) newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227288
7) tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5766611&CatId=4928

Also, if anyone can suggest some sites to check if all these suck. Newegg(unless I'm overlooking something, since I don't understand the whole processor brand spec ratios) didn't have much in my budget, and neither does Dell. And tigerdirect isn't the bargain it used to be.

Thanks again! ^^

[Gentaro]

The amount of Ghz isn't the main difference, the i5-650 for example is a 2-core processor while the i5-760 has 4 cores which is (if an application uses all 4 cores) obviously better The i7 compared to the i5 has some other features that make him better than an i5. You should either get an i5-760 or an i7-CPU, the i5-650 is crap.

The links you posted don't work,only the newegg one and that one doesn't look too bad :3 If you got someone who can build a pc for you you should consider asking him since building it yourself is way cheaper :3

[Ohai]

Just need to put w w w . in front of the link, then it works. (At least for me).
Guess I can eliminate some then.
The green IBUYPOWER is an I5-655, and the SYX SG-1601 is an I5-650. So I guess those are a no-go.
Odd how they are the two of the more expensive options...

The only person I know who is any good with computers is the GM where I work. Guess I could try and ask him, but I doubt it. I highly doubt he'd have a decent turnaround time anyways.. So in the meantime, I'd like to find something I can fall back on if building isn't an option.

[Gentaro]

I'd go with wither 1) or 7) - I'll go into detail after taking a shower >_>

[Gentaro]

Okay, back >_>

I'd look for some local PC-store, they often offer you to build the PC for a small fee or even for free if you buy the parts there since I still dislike complete PCs ;3

But IF it has to be one of the ones you linked, I'd probably take the one from newegg. They are more or less the same, the only difference is the CPU (AMD 6-core on 1) vs. Intel 4-core on 7)). I can't tell you which CPU performs better in FFXIV, but I know that both CPUs are capable of running the game properly. The reason why I'd take 7) is that the other one uses water cooling - a nice feature,but who wants to waste 170$ for a bit of noise? You probably won't start overclocking it (where water cooling would be really helpful).


EDIT: Just browsed through newegg - if you want to buy a PC,take this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883229199

It's 70$ more but you get the best Graphics Card in that price range

It should be in stock on time for FFXIV

[Ohai]

Yea, that one looks pretty good. But isn't the GTX460 the one having all the issues with the beta?