Best Cheap Desktop?

[Juront]

Hi Guys, I don't have a ton of money, but I was wondering if there was a decent PC that will run ffxi smoothly but won't eat my wallet. Any running ffxi on a cheaper desktop?

[Isiolia]

I've run FFXI on several hardware specs, and my HTPC would qualify as a cheap computer. Mostly machines I've built though, not Dell/HP/whatever.

What's "cheap" to you though? Are you willing/able to build it yourself?

[Fistandantilus]

I'm in a similar situation in that the laptop I used to play games on broke and costs more than is worthwhile to fix so I've been looking at cheap desktops. Ibuypower.com seems to have some decent deals from what I've seen as you can customize how expensive you want it. From what I'm told building it yourself will be the cheapest method, but I'm pretty noob with computers and am not sure how to go about that

[Isiolia]

From what I'm told building it yourself will be the cheapest method, but I'm pretty noob with computers and am not sure how to go about that

Depends on how cheap you're talking. When you're looking at, say, $350 Dell towers or something, it starts to get pretty hard to build something comparable out of all-new parts -and- a legal Windows license.

The advantage to building it yourself, IMO, is getting what you want/need instead of simply what happens to be included (or available as an option).

You can typically do better in putting together a gaming machine by building it yourself because most lower end machines are lacking in video card options and expandability (particularly). By the time most OEMS hit mid/high range, the margins start to get larger, so the potential savings for building really emerges.

Building is not that hard. If you have some experience with computers, in terms of swapping out the occasional component, reformatting, etc, then you've done most of what it entails already. Could also ask to see if someone in your circle of friends has some experience and would help.

iBuyPower basically lets you pick out components and builds it for you. If what you want is listed, that's a decent option. From what I've seen of them though, you don't exactly have complete freedom in what you can pick.

[jimbobsonofgod]

Personally I just went out and bought one off the shelf then threw in a video card.
Building your own just seems to expensive other wise.

If you want a higher end gaming machine sure build your own, but if you want to just play 11, might as well pick one up off the shelf for cheap.

Not like video card and a billion gigs of ram gonna make 11 any better.

[Fistandantilus]

Depends on how cheap you're talking. When you're looking at, say, $350 Dell towers or something, it starts to get pretty hard to build something comparable out of all-new parts -and- a legal Windows license.

The advantage to building it yourself, IMO, is getting what you want/need instead of simply what happens to be included (or available as an option).

You can typically do better in putting together a gaming machine by building it yourself because most lower end machines are lacking in video card options and expandability (particularly). By the time most OEMS hit mid/high range, the margins start to get larger, so the potential savings for building really emerges.

Building is not that hard. If you have some experience with computers, in terms of swapping out the occasional component, reformatting, etc, then you've done most of what it entails already. Could also ask to see if someone in your circle of friends has some experience and would help.

iBuyPower basically lets you pick out components and builds it for you. If what you want is listed, that's a decent option. From what I've seen of them though, you don't exactly have complete freedom in what you can pick.

That makes sense, but even when going budget at least for me I would want the possibility to upgrade later on when I have more money, so that I don't have to start from scratch yet again. With Ibuypower it looked like you could go as low as 350 or so but that's with a shitty vidcard and whatnot and isn't easily expandable later on. Seemed like 600ish was the area for budget-but still good and upgradeable later on.

[Isiolia]

I'd say that, yeah, 600-700 is probably what you'd want to start looking at for a budget build or purchase. Preferable, of course, to buy a good base to build on than to spend money on stuff you'd just have to replace.

[Pikarya]

Hi Guys, I don't have a ton of money, but I was wondering if there was a decent PC that will run ffxi smoothly but won't eat my wallet. Any running ffxi on a cheaper desktop?

Since I don't know your budget (as mentioned). I don't know what to provide. But heres a PC I just built for my fiance that you could use as a FFXI-PC template I guess for the $400-600 range.

Corsair 400w PSU
Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 Wolfdale 2.8GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core
ASUS P5QL PRO LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard
WD Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
ZALMAN CNPS9500 AT 2 Ball CPU Cooling Fan/Heatsink - Retail
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
ATI RADEON X1950 XTX 512MB PCI-E CROSSFIRE EDITION ($54.00 bucks openbox)

Came out to $502.54. This isin't including a DVD-RW SATA drive, Case, Case Fans, SATA cables, etc. And before lawl videocard, I've had two and it runs FFXI maxed out with 1-2 FPS drops max in Dynamis/summons/Whitegate. If thats all you play, thats all you need to have a enjoyable experience for cheap.

[Street]

If you are looking to build and want to go the cheapest route, take a look at Build Your Own AMD/Intel Computer Thread III (Updated 1.25.09) - SlickDeals.net Forums

They have a regularly updated wiki post. All parts listed should be able to run ffxi perfectly fine.

As a rule, i'd go equal or over 512mb video and 1gig RAM

[Juront]

Awsome thanks everyone. Building one seems to be the way I am going to go. I know nothing about it, so I have been talking to my buddy at work in the IT department and he is going to build me one.