Improving my computer experience. HALP! :3

[Psion]

I know, I know, title looks familiar. Reason I'm posting is that I found out recently that I'll be getting a FAFSA for about 3000 dollars, and I get to spend about half of that on a new comp or so. I might be able to go slightly over that, but not much, and I want a new comp that can run FFXIV smoothly on hopefully high settings, while still being able to run some of my old games as well, hopefully. Also, I really would appreciate a quiet comp, since noisy comps irritate the hell out of me even with headphones. XD

So I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions for a comp that can do these things? I'm a pretty stupid person when it comes to the latest comp technology, though if given instructions I could probably assemble a comp if it doesn't require too many complicated tools. (I'm fairly skilled with putting things together. More of an instinct than anything but it works <,< )

I'm a windows user kind of guy, DESPISE macs with a passion. Other than that, some extra hard drive space would be nice, since I'm running with 160 gigs currently on a 4 year old comp, and although that used to be pretty damn good back in the day, in today's heavy media world it's constantly filling up and requiring deleting of older stuff just to make room. :/

So, let's hear those suggestions, gods of BG tech! HALP!

[nitsuj]

If you despise macs with a passion you're going to have trouble with windows 7, as it's new menu/taskbar is very OSX influenced... so I hope you can rethink that position at least.

If you think you can build your own PC, you can save some money and get some better hardware. I'm not sure where you live, but if you have a Fry's or Microcenter near you I recommend buying a few pieces locally (so that when you blow one out with static/overclocking you can just walk in and exchange it same day)

If you look into the i5/i7 1156 motherboards and cpu's, they're super affordable right now and easily overclocked for fun. I have an i5-750 overclocked myself, but i'd recommend trying to get hyperthreading if you can get it for only slightly more money (take a look at the specs of all the 1156 proccesors. Or you can move up to the newer i7 stuff, but it'll get a bit more expensive. Both are nice though.

For cases, I always buy antec, that may be a good place to start. Ram/powersupply I recommend Corsair (had good luck, just make sure to find ram that matches your CPU/motherboard specs).

One of the biggest upgrades you can do, in my opinion, is a solid state harddrive. Save money elsewhere and invest here. I have the intel 80gig (make sure it's a generation 2, or G2 on the end of the model number) and it was under $200. Well worth the money, without a doubt.

FFXIV, also, is a very beastly game. I have a brand new 460 nvidia card and it runs great, but I have to tone down the antialiasing and shadows. If you want to run it full blast, you're gonna have to look at dual 480's in SLi mode (about $500 a pop). But if want best bang for your buck, look at the 460. It runs great once you play with the settings.

Good luck!

[Blabj]

I don't see a reason to hate an operating system. I think what you despise is your perception of what the average OS X user is.

Spoiler: show

They're just people.

Having said that, FFXIV isn't playable on a Mac. Pretty much any off the shelf computer built within the last year will run FFXIV, it's just a matter of whether you're capable enough to construct a computer that's quieter than usual. This step usually involves a larger case that you can pad with sound insulating material, replacing stock coolers with silent heatsinks and swapping out the standard case fans with quieter ones. The more and more noise cancelling you go for, the more it'll end up costing you, and you have to be realistic about what you can and cannot achieve because it's near impossible to completely silence a PC and have it be able to run modern games at decent settings.

Best of luck!

[Kerberoz]

If you despise macs with a passion you're going to have trouble with windows 7, as it's new menu/taskbar is very OSX influenced... so I hope you can rethink that position at least.

...eh? The UI is almost identical to XP, assuming you take a couple minutes to configure it and disable the stupid widget/dock crap.

As for HDDs/SSDs, you only need one *fast* one for OS/important programs. Just buy more big slow storage drives as needed.

[Psion]

...eh? The UI is almost identical to XP, assuming you take a couple minutes to configure it and disable the stupid widget/dock crap.

As for HDDs/SSDs, you only need one *fast* one for OS/important programs. Just buy more big slow storage drives as needed.

Glad to hear that, i despise the layout of macs, even the newer ones. That being said, yes, FFXIV wouldn't play on it, so a moot point heh. Anyways, here's my basic layout, but I'd love to hear tweaks:

*Monitor: Undecided at the moment, but will reserve about 300ish or so for it. I might go a bit cheaper than that, but not too cheap hopefully. I do want a good display, since what's the point of a good graphics card if it can't display the pretty graphics? But I'm not horribly picky on this.

Old Monitor for comparison: emachines eview 17f2 model 786n... 2003 model <_<;

http://www.amazon.com/eMachines-Flat.../dp/B00009QKT5


*Case: COOLER MASTER RC-692-KKN2 CM690 II Advanced Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...scrollFullInfo

Old Case for comparison: emachines T5082 case ::cough::

http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/ema...-32329694.html
And no, it didn't come with a monitor despite the picture. <,<

*Motherboard:ASUS Sabertooth X58 LGA 1366 Intel X58 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-665-_-Product

Old motherboard for comparision: Intel Desktop Board D102GGC2 - motherboard - micro ATX - Radeon Xpress 200
It's either this or something exactly like it.

http://shopper.cnet.com/motherboards...-31901649.html

*Processor: Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor BX80601950

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115211

Old processor for comparison: Intel Pentium 4 Processor 631 (supporting Hyper-threading technology)

http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=27479

*RAM: CORSAIR XMS3 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMX6GX3M3C1600C7

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145286

Old RAM for comparison: Centon MemoryPower 1GB667DDR2 x 2 (2 GB total)
I upgraded this from the original 512 MB RAM.

http://www.costcentral.com/proddetai...DDR2/10590492/

*PSU: Antec EarthWatts EA750 750W Continuous Power ATX12V version 2.3 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC "compatible with Core i7/Core i5" Power Supply

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...scrollFullInfo

Old PSU for comparison: Hipro 300-Watt Power Supply - HP-P3527F3

http://www.impactcomputers.com/hp-p3527f3.html

Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136218

Old Hard Drive for comparison: Hitachi HDS721616PLAT80 ATA Device (guess the new drives don't really spin any faster than the older ones unless you like losing limbs for it.

http://www.streetprices.com/Computer...P14874669.html

*Video Card: SAPPHIRE 100314SR Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-909-_-Product

Old Video Card for comparison: ATI... Radeon... Xpress ... 2... 2... 200. /cry And I think it's integrated onto the motherboard or something. I think it's 128 MB max. All I know is it can't even run black and white 2 cause it has no pixelshader support, much less FFXIV.

http://shopper.cnet.com/motherboards...-31583293.html

*Optical Disk: LG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache IDE 22X DVD±R DVD Burner - OEM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827136144

Old optical Disk for comparison: TSSTcorp CD/DVDW TS-H652D ATA device

Couldn't find a link for this. >.<

*Operating System: Windows 7 64 bit Pro
(never knew about this student edition, woot!)

http://www.microsoft.com/student/en/...s/default.aspx

Old Operating System for comparison: Windows Vista Home Basic 32 bit... orz. Stupid store didn't sell the system with XP despite how intensive vista was for this comp.

No link, because no one needs it to know how terrible vista is.


As far as costs go, this runs about 1230 without taxes(I'm presuming no state taxes for online stuff in California? /hope), but including shipping, leaving about 300 or so for a good monitor. This doesn't leave any money for a decent pair of headphones, but I sold off my old ps2 and games, which netted me about $110 to spend on headphones. Any suggestions for headphones around there that are comfortable to wear without hurting the ears for long periods of time?

The only real thing's I'm worried about with my preliminary picks are:

A) Do all the parts I picked work well together, without any conflicts? Is the 750W power supply enough to power everything properly?

B) How good will my FFXIV gaming experience be? Will I be able to run it on max settings with no FPS lag? High settings? Medium, or barely run it on low?

C) Will I need additional cooling fans or systems? I'd prefer it to be fairly quiet, though as long as it doesn't go into really loud territory, it's not a big deal. I don't want my parts overheating though!

D) Is there anything I'm missing, or could swap around to something better for less price, or the like?

E) Is 7200 RPM a speedy enough hard drive? lol

Thanks for the help!

[sruon]

This is a great monitor : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824236047

A) Everything should work together fine, and yes 750W is enough.

B) Don't know what the 6870 is worth but going to assume it's GTX460-470 level : 1920x1080 8xAA Textures on High, 60 fps about everywhere, 45-50 at aetherytes < more or less that, basically: (very) good experience

C) You're going to want a cooler for the CPU (don't really know models)

D) Not that I see, may want to throw in a SSD if you have the dollarz as pointed out earlier.

E) That's the common speed.

[Kerberoz]

This is a great monitor : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824236047

Second that, using it as my primary and it's great. Whatever you do, don't get some random 16:9 cancer-inducing monitor.

7200rpm is normal. 5400rpm is acceptable for long-term storage. You'll want an SSD (or raptor but SSD kinda obsoletes them) for your OS if it's within your budget. If not, it's easy enough to upgrade down the line.