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Thread: New PC Advice     submit to reddit submit to twitter

  1. #1
    Hydra
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    New PC Advice

    My current PC is about 5 years old, and I've been thinking about getting a new one. FFXI is pretty much the only PC game I play these days, with the exception of some of the old "classics".

    Does anyone have any advice of what I should be looking for in terms of price/performance to run FFXI as best I can? It looks like most vendors offer an AMD or Intel CPU, is one better than the other? I don't really know much about computer hardware these days, so any advice would be appreciated.

    Thanks.

  2. #2
    A. Body
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    If you're just looking to run FFXI with normally selectable settings, most any decent PC with a midrange GPU will do quite well (obviously if you're tweaking stuff in the registry manually, you could still choke it).
    It's not just that FFXI is an older game, but it's also because it's just not written to take full advantage of PC hardware.

    If you think you may get into playing other PC games if you had a better PC, I'd look at what those games might be as a better measure of what sort of hardware to get. I've gone through a few video cards and a couple mobo/CPUs during my playing of FFXI...other games show a LOT more improvement.

    Far as FFXI goes, it's a bit more CPU bound than GPU bound. Since it's not going to be using many DirectX features, it's not particularly relevant if you spring for a DX10 card or pull an old DX8 one from the bargain bin.

    Both nVidia and ATi seem to have issues here and there with FFXI (among other things). However, I believe nVidia tends to have longer standing problems with things like Firaga and song effects. Personally I've never really had much of an issue with them though. Most of the driver revision issues that people mention for nVidia are specific to the 5x00 series boards.

    For a CPU, right now the Core 2 Duo is the way to go, though things like that fluctuate. A year ago it was Athlon 64, and those are still pretty solid.

  3. #3
    Cerberus
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    Hmm... I'd say get as much RAM as possible if you get a Radeon X-whatever. >.> ATI has gone to onboard+ sharing system memory on some of the cards. DO YOUR RESEARCH.

    Other than that... LOL@ Vista. Stick with XP, not the mediacenter version either. Make certain you get the discs for the software. Some of the major companies have been skimping on sending out the reinstall discs and swiping 3+gigs for reimage on the hard drive . Personally, my first action after getting a system is a clean install to get rid of all the proprietary BS.

    Make certain you get a DVD drive >.>

    Consider building your own system.

  4. #4
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    FFXI is soooo rediculously CPU bound. So, go for the fastest CPU you can get and a decent video card. The get at least a gig of ram(not cheap stuff either).

  5. #5
    Hayleystrator
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    Intel C2D blows anything AMD has out right now out of the water (not to mention Intel Quad's just being released, and them just finishing production on an 80-core processor). AMD, meet fish in barrel.

    As for RAM, don't play with anything less than 2GB unless you want to lag (not latency lag, hardware lag).

    Like everyone has said, FFXI isn't a graphics-card-intensive game, but it's still nice to have one. ATI Radeon X16XX series is a nice, affordable, mid-range card if you want to go that route.

  6. #6
    CoP Dynamis
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    Well.. I'll start with my PC Specs.

    Processor: 2.4GHz P4 w/HT
    Memory: 1GB DDR PC2700
    HDD: 320GB 7200RPM 8MB cache
    Video Card: ATI Sapphire Radeon X800 GTO 256MB


    This PC is pretty decent, but it does lag in FFXI.
    My recommendations are better processor(something above 2.5GHz, Core 2 Duo is good), more memory (2GB preferred, 4GB if you can afford), and a SATA hdd (that 10,000RPMs is sweet for zone changes and the like).

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by GSDragoon
    FFXI is soooo rediculously CPU bound. So, go for the fastest CPU you can get and a decent video card. The get at least a gig of ram(not cheap stuff either).
    I don't know about that... I upgraded my processor from a 1.7ghz 400mhz to a 3.2ghz 800mhz FSB and I barely saw any difference in FFXI gameplay.

    However I cannot vouch for Dual-Cores (i want one) but Epical is right about RAM. I have 1 gig of RAM and I can't see Fafnir pop....

    Make sure you get atleast 2gigs. And DDR2 if possible.

  8. #8
    Pens win! Pens Win!!! PENS WIN!!!!!
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    SE made this game based more on CPU then video power. It's weird, but a decent video card and a high end CPU with atleast 1 Gig of Ram and should be good.

    Core 2 Duo if you can afford it. It's sick. lol.

  9. #9
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    Core 2 Duo E4600 go!

    Everything after that, except minimum 1GB, recommended 2GB of RAM, is secondary.

    PC port of FFXI blows nuts, significant gfx card changes will not yield significant performance changes. Significant processor upgrades will.

    Getting the most bang-for-your-buck processor in the universe = win.

    Not sure how you're set for cash, but:

    CPU: Core 2 Duo E4600
    RAM: 2GB Corsair DDR2 (if money permits)
    Motherboard: Something with nVidia 680i chipset if possible, else Intel 965
    GFX: Radeon 1900GT if you're not looking for a top-end screamer with good bang still. Else 1950XTX.
    PSU: 500W+ (I'd recommend 550) ATX2.0, name brand

    Everything past that is just a matter of preference (i.e. HD brand preference, optical drives, etc.)

    Your best bet, if you can afford to, is to wait until the middle of the year to upgrade. AMD is theoretically releasing a new architecture revision sometime in the general neighborhood of Q2 '07, which could significantly alter the playing field. If you can't wait, there's no compelling reason to buy an AMD chip currently except for power consumption (Athlon 64 EEs are very nice for low-power-draw chips). Athlons tend to be cheaper, but performance/dollar still favors Intel.

  10. #10
    Hayleystrator
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    Just to touch on the above post:

    Buying a X1950XTX will cost him a lot of money, and is definitely not necessary. You can downgrade your card while still maintaining performance, and more importantly save yourself some money to invest in something worthwhile.

    Western Digital Raptor HDs are extremely expensive, mostly because of their read speeds. Buying a Seagate Barracuda 250GB isn't expensive at all, and it 's more than you'll ever need unless you get into enthusiast/performance building (even then it'll do the trick... Raptor HDs are really meant to be setup in RAID).

  11. #11
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    Thus the "1900GT if you don't want to spend an arm/leg/firstborn"-ish comment.

    I agree that 1950XTX is overkill, but depending on how much cash you want to burn, it *is* the best. Some like it, no matter the ludicrous price.

  12. #12

    You guys just like to hate on AMD, get over yourself. Athlon 64 X2 = Core 2 duo amd style, oh yea its 64 bit too.

  13. #13
    Relic Shield
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    Well... is there any really significant performance improvement on most applications if you run 64-bit system now?

  14. #14

    I'll be the one to back up AMD. ><

    I have the following:

    CPU: Athlon 64X2 5000+
    GPUs: 2x nVidia 7950GT KOs
    RAM : 2GB DDR2 RAM(Corsair)
    Mobo: ASUS M2N32SLi-Deluxe
    PSU: 650W

    with a bunch of other assorted goodies. But the nice thing about the AMD, other then the fact that it just laughs at whatever I do on my PC because it never goes above 40degrees, but it's easily overclockable(if you're into that sort of thing).

    I run 2xMonitors, FFXI full screen on my main monitor running at 1680x1050, and a whole slew of other applications on my other monitor. My system doesn't break a sweat. Not sure of the prices now, but when I built my rig, the AMDs were alot cheaper then the core 2 duos.

  15. #15
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    Those who are saying AMD is better, show any large'ish (so it's not just one obscure application where AMD is marginally faster than Intel while then ignoring Intel is faster than AMD in bassicly everything else) benchmark where AMD beats equally priced Intel. (in case of 5000+, either e6400 or e6600. Here 5000+ costs 300 euros, e6400 242 euros & e6600 338 euros)

    And when I was building mine (bassicly just when Cora 2 Duos came out), Intel was beating AMD in both power & price.

  16. #16

    Quote Originally Posted by Buzer
    Those who are saying AMD is better, show any large'ish (so it's not just one obscure application where AMD is marginally faster than Intel while then ignoring Intel is faster than AMD in bassicly everything else) benchmark where AMD beats equally priced Intel. (in case of 5000+, either e6400 or e6600. Here 5000+ costs 300 euros, e6400 242 euros & e6600 338 euros)

    And when I was building mine (bassicly just when Cora 2 Duos came out), Intel was beating AMD in both power & price.
    At the time I purchased my 5000+ it was cheaper and it's still close pricewise to the e6400 and way cheaper then e6600(In the US):

    2.6GhZ 5000+ = $265.00
    2.4GhZ e6600 = $317.00
    2.13GhZ e6400 = $223.00

    I'm not into saying one is better then the other, but I do believe that find what works best for you. For the price, the 5000+ was the better option for me.

  17. #17
    Bagel
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    not gonna argue hardware here, i was an AMD guy until two months ago, but i just put this together & i can run ffxi at 1280x1024 w/max settings & reg tweaks while burning dvds and doing anything else i need to do with zero errors (which i think is basically what you're asking about, running ffxi "just fine"). i'm positive i could bump the resolution up higher but i haven't really had a big reason to, maybe if i get bored:

    * Intel Core Duo2 E6600 2.4Hz, 1066FSB (Dual Core) 4096K
    * Spire DiamondCool Socket 775 Intel P4 EXTRA QUIET HeatPipe Copper fan
    * ASUS P5W DH Deluxe 975X, X-Fire PCI Express,1Gb LAN, WiFi,iEEE
    * 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 DDR2 800 Dual Channel
    * ATI CrossFire Dual Radeon x1600PRO 512MB DDR PCI Express 16x, tv out
    * 200.0GB Western Digital 7200RPM SATA2 UDMA 300 8m cache
    * Hard Drive Dual Cooling Fan Internal
    * AC 97 32 BIT Full Duplex sound card (onboard)
    * 10/100 Network card adapter (onboard)
    * APEVIA (Aspire) X-CruiserBlack, Side Window, front USB,iEEE,Temp control
    * Thermaltake TR2 550W ATX Power Supply, SLI ready

    (laugh at the videocards if you want, i don't mind)

    it cost a bit of $ at the time (few months ago) but i was in the same situation, a ~4 year old system and i wanted something new, mainly for dicking around online & FFXI

  18. #18
    Cerberus
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kross
    Quote Originally Posted by GSDragoon
    FFXI is soooo rediculously CPU bound. So, go for the fastest CPU you can get and a decent video card. The get at least a gig of ram(not cheap stuff either).
    I don't know about that... I upgraded my processor from a 1.7ghz 400mhz to a 3.2ghz 800mhz FSB and I barely saw any difference in FFXI gameplay.

    However I cannot vouch for Dual-Cores (i want one) but Epical is right about RAM. I have 1 gig of RAM and I can't see Fafnir pop....

    Make sure you get atleast 2gigs. And DDR2 if possible.
    Eh? I started playing FFXI with an XP 2400+ @220x11. Then I got an A64 3400+. Noticed a HUGE difference. Heck, I overclock the 3400+ now and can notice a difference with a few extra hundred MHz.

    As for ram, no way FFXI uses more than 2 gigs. I have tons of windows open, winamp, forums, VS2005 .NET, photoshop, ect and I don't use up the gig that I have now. Do people have that many useless/borderline spyware programs running that they think they even touch anything beyond 2 gigs with FFXI? Even after having my computer up and running for a few days straight and then going to dynamis with 64 people, I've never seen FFXI use up more than 600MB, including virtual memory.

  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by DoctorDonkey
    You guys just like to hate on AMD, get over yourself. Athlon 64 X2 = Core 2 duo amd style, oh yea its 64 bit too.
    I love AMD.

    But.

    I won't recommend inferior processors to someone building a new PC. Right now, AMD is using a 2 year old architecture, is mostly still stuck on 90nm manufacturing (the 65nm are just starting to come out, but since nothing else has changed, they don't run faster, only cooler and with less power), and simply cannot compete with Intel on a level playing field.

    Give it to Q2 when AMD releases their new architecture revision, and it might get more even again, but just as Intel was second best from the end of the Athlon XP era (when they just kept trying to up the clock on P4s but didn't do dickall to make them actually fast) all the way through the last 2 or so years of Athlon 64 and up until Core was released, AMD is now going to struggle to keep up until they have a competitive architecture.

    Is AMD done? No. Is there ANY reason to buy an Athlon over a Core 2 right now? No.

  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by Amastacia
    Is AMD done? No. Is there ANY reason to buy an Athlon over a Core 2 right now? No.
    There is one, but it honestly shouldn't be decisive reason (mobos aren't too expensieve really) & relies a bit on luck: Next generation AMD processors (using socket AM3) should be able to run on AM2 motherboards. But that edge only helps if they are better than Intel's (most likely they will be for a bit at least since from what I remember, Intel will release it's processors later) & person actually plans to upgrade.

    But yeah, I honestly don't have anything personal against AMD, but when I'm recomending (or getting one myself) a PC for someone, I will be recomending parts that are the best. Currently for processors it's Intel, but in near future it might be AMD.

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