PC Just for FFXI

[Klutz]

Ok so I am thinking of buying a PC specifically for playing FFXI. And only that. I have a laptop for internet and school shit, but I want a PC that is only for FFXi if I choose to do so.

Anyways.

My question is, if I bought a good graphics card for it, would buying one of those $400 Dells be good for it? If I only played FFXI and did nothing else on it?

[Olo401]

You'll be able to run it fine, but those $400 Dells have shitty Celeron CPUs with low clocks and that will kill your performance.

Building yourself a machine with new parts, at that low a pricepoint, is tough. Especially if you don't have a monitor and/or need to buy a copy of Windows. That's where Dell gets you - by giving a monitor away and including the OS with the low-end computer.

I'm thinking the best alternative in this case is to start looking around on eBay or Craigslist for high-end used machines. Thankfully FFXI doesn't require a dual-core CPU so you can even get away with looking at machines with good ol' Athlon XP, Pentium 4 or Pentium D procs as long as it's running at say 2.4gHz or more.

[oldoldman]

For FFXI it all hinges on the CPU, the graphics are nothing to right home about so even integrated cards should get you a decent visual but FFXI is ridiculously CPU heavy. So focus there.

[Auspice]

A point of comparison for how little XI uses GPU: when I'm at the Whitegate AH my GPU only runs at about 55-60% load.

I run XI at 1600x1600 3d resolution and I've got a 3.16 Dual Core P4, 2 gig of PC6400 RAM, and a 512mb ATi4850; my framerate never drops below 20 even in Dragon's Aery or Dynamis and I keep everything maxed.

Although, I wish I could keep 30fps everywhere but I think at this point it's more of a handicap of the XI engine(right?).

[Klutz]

So if I did an Ebay search for a used comp, I would have to type in like...

2.4 Ghz Used computer?

Sorry for being such a nub... not sure what would be the best search option.

[Shuemue]

Can you build Lego?

If you answered yes, you can build your own PC.

[Kerberoz]

You want the best processor you can afford, an average (Ati) GPU, 2 monitors, windows XP, and a G15/G11 keyboard.