FFXIV Hardware Requirements

[joxerthemighty]

some ssd can run TRIM through raid, i think the current Intel drives being one of them.

[Sanhedrin]

I was always under the impression that read/write usage for Windows and the read/write usage for applications were seperate and if both being read/written on the same drive it'd have a slower performance.

That's why I had 2 VelociRaptors on RAID0 with 2 seperate partitions, 1 for Windows and 1 for applications etc.

You'll get significantly increased performance, though as you're creating a single virtual drive as a result, there will still be the same (relative) reduction in performance when the OS/applications attempt to read/write at the same time. You just won't really notice it. It completely depends on disk usage, though.

[alecrast]

I was always under the impression that read/write usage for Windows and the read/write usage for applications were seperate and if both being read/written on the same drive it'd have a slower performance.

That's why I had 2 VelociRaptors on RAID0 with 2 seperate partitions, 1 for Windows and 1 for applications etc.

Read/write usage is per device, it doesn't matter what's actually using the device, just that the device is being used. Creating a RAID 0 LUN and then splitting that LUN into two partitions, one for Windows and one for apps, still generates the same amount of IOps to that device so you haven't really bought yourself anything in terms of performance.

To address your SSD situation, there's not really any point to doing RAID 0 with SSDs for home use. You can do it, sure, but I think you'll find that a single SSD will perform far better than you ever expected. Regarding SSDs in RAID 0, most RAID drivers do not pass TRIM down to the underlying devices at the moment. I know that Intel was working on this for their ICH*R but I am unsure of the current status. I do know they recently implemented it for AHCI mode with their own drivers rather than Microsoft's. If you plan on going RAID 0, what you need is an SSD that supports "garbage collection". Garbage collection is implemented in the drive's own controller and takes care of moving data and freeing "dirty" regions, allowing for more efficient operation. Since the state of TRIM support is still up in the air, most drives (Indilinx Barefoot, SandForce, the C300, etc) have all implemented garbage collection so not having TRIM isn't that big of a deal.

[shaddix]

Yeah seriously right. Why bother with Raid on SSD, I don't think I'm going to notice the difference between .0002 seconds and .0001. Not even close to worth the risk of losing all your shit if one of your drives gets fucked up somehow.

[Gethsemane]

I wish I knew a thing or two about computers, it's pretty depressing knowing I'm gonna be ripped off on a pre-built rig from Dell or somewhere just so I can play the game.

Well, it's a big learning experience if you go into it without at least doing some research. I'll link Part 1 of a series for you down below. My first build awhile back was scary but it's almost fool proof. All the connections can only fit in one certain way, video cards, sound cards can only go in one way. Not much you can really mess up and you don't have to be particularly gentle when you're putting stuff together.

Plus you have all of BG at your disposal if you ever have any questions about anything. I recently put something together and had a couple of questions and got answers within 5 minutes. Anyways here's the video series below.

KSSTUDIOS @ Youtube

[Youtube]VKSYpdGCQac[/Youtube]

PCWizkid @ Youtube

[Youtube]1y8T8QAsDZs[/Youtube]

TigerDirectBlog @ Youtube

[Youtube]5ETu53QfDwk[/Youtube]

[Freelancer]

I was always under the impression that read/write usage for Windows and the read/write usage for applications were seperate and if both being read/written on the same drive it'd have a slower performance.

That's why I had 2 VelociRaptors on RAID0 with 2 seperate partitions, 1 for Windows and 1 for applications etc.

What I'm thinking (for my Rig) is an SSD between 40-90GB for windows and the basic softwares I'll use and either a 10,000rpm HDD or a WD Black for FFXIV and other programs I don't want to lose. (250GB is more than enough 500GB will be more than perfect) and just leave the rest of my junk, movies and anime and not so important games on my Green WDs.

[Panacea]

Read/write usage is per device, it doesn't matter what's actually using the device, just that the device is being used. Creating a RAID 0 LUN and then splitting that LUN into two partitions, one for Windows and one for apps, still generates the same amount of IOps to that device so you haven't really bought yourself anything in terms of performance.

To address your SSD situation, there's not really any point to doing RAID 0 with SSDs for home use. You can do it, sure, but I think you'll find that a single SSD will perform far better than you ever expected. Regarding SSDs in RAID 0, most RAID drivers do not pass TRIM down to the underlying devices at the moment. I know that Intel was working on this for their ICH*R but I am unsure of the current status. I do know they recently implemented it for AHCI mode with their own drivers rather than Microsoft's. If you plan on going RAID 0, what you need is an SSD that supports "garbage collection". Garbage collection is implemented in the drive's own controller and takes care of moving data and freeing "dirty" regions, allowing for more efficient operation. Since the state of TRIM support is still up in the air, most drives (Indilinx Barefoot, SandForce, the C300, etc) have all implemented garbage collection so not having TRIM isn't that big of a deal.

This has cleared a lot of it up, thanks a lot.

[Klaatu]

Need opinions on this system:

Veriton M421G-ED250C Business PC
- AMD Athlon II X2 250 3.0GHz
- 2GB DDR2
- 160GB HDD
- DVDRW
- ATI Radeon HD3200
- Windows 7 Professional 32-bit w/ Downgrade to XP Professional

[Cooleko]

Need opinions on this system:

Veriton M421G-ED250C Business PC
- AMD Athlon II X2 250 3.0GHz
- 2GB DDR2
- 160GB HDD
- DVDRW
- ATI Radeon HD3200
- Windows 7 Professional 32-bit w/ Downgrade to XP Professional

Forget it...

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/25...on-hd3200-good

that is dated 2008, if it could barely play decent frames then... you are screwed now.

[Xaeon]

Need opinions on this system:

Veriton M421G-ED250C Business PC
- AMD Athlon II X2 250 3.0GHz
- 2GB DDR2
- 160GB HDD
- DVDRW
- ATI Radeon HD3200
- Windows 7 Professional 32-bit w/ Downgrade to XP Professional

Not enough Ram, cheap, old, graphics card, Dual core is weak, not gonna happen bro.

[Gekii]

Have a question that came up when I was talking to my brother, are floppy drives even needed anymore? Can drivers and bios update things be done from a usb stick

Nice videos too Gethsemane, really helpful stuff

[ufo]

Need opinions on this system:

Veriton M421G-ED250C Business PC
- AMD Athlon II X2 250 3.0GHz
- 2GB DDR2
- 160GB HDD
- DVDRW
- ATI Radeon HD3200
- Windows 7 Professional 32-bit w/ Downgrade to XP Professional

My laptop has the integrated HD 3100 (underclocked HD 3200) and it plays but it's pretty choppy. I'll probably use it to play from work but I wouldn't recommend. Definitely better than not running the game at all.

[Krandor]

Have a question that came up when I was talking to my brother, are floppy drives even needed anymore? Can drivers and bios update things be done from a usb stick

Nice videos too Gethsemane, really helpful stuff

Outside of Blu-ray movies I think any kind of floppy/cd drive is useless now on a PC.

But floppy drives are so far beyond outdated it's not even funny.

[Xajii]

128-bit graphics card (looking at Radeon HD 5750) enough? Building new pc.

[Rasengan]

It'd probably be worth it to jump to at least a 5770. If you don't mind spending more, the 1gb 256-bit 460 which just came out seems to be a great choice.

[Sanhedrin]

128-bit graphics card (looking at Radeon HD 5750) enough? Building new pc.

As a reference, a 5770 gets about 2500 on the benchmark on high. That's where I would start, maybe switching to a GTX460 if there's enough evidence that it performs well enough in FFXIV specifically (only available bench shows it barely beating the 5770 for $50 more, but it has much more potential).

[firion]

$700 is my budget for building a new tower. I've got to get the CPU and GPU under $350 to meet my goal.
I'm stuck between

AMD Phenom II X4 955 w/ Radeon HD 5770 1GB
or
Intel Core i5-750 w/ GeForce GTS 250 1GB

I'd like to up upgrade to Phenom 955 w/ GTX460 or maybe an i5 w/ 5770 but my wife is going to kill me if I spend anymore money I was going to spend paying off her student loan.

Both make it under my $350 price point, but I'm not sure if which setup will run XIV better?

[Kais]

Didn't want to make/bump another thread since I've already did that enough

Anyways, I needed a new mobo for i7 and $200, which I was directed to:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813188049

However, seems I can stretch an extra 50 bucks. I heard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-641-_-Product

works nicely. Anyone have any input to which I should get? (or something else completely different for that matter)

[Amele]

while we're on the topic of SSDs, I have one of the old MTRON ones from around 2008 (the 3.5" version of the drive previewed here by anandtech, don't remember the exact model number) and I'm wondering if the tech has matured enough in terms of performance to make it worth upgrading (not worried about capacity, I have a high capacity platter drive for media / storage that I'm happy with.)

I can see if I can dig out a picture of the box or detailed spec sheet if necessary, just haven't really been following the performance end of the SSD market (I know $/mb prices have crashed since I got mine! getting more capacity alone isn't worth it for me right now though.)

[alecrast]

while we're on the topic of SSDs, I have one of the old MTRON ones from around 2008 (the 3.5" version of the drive previewed here by anandtech, don't remember the exact model number) and I'm wondering if the tech has matured enough in terms of performance to make it worth upgrading (not worried about capacity, I have a high capacity platter drive for media / storage that I'm happy with.)

I can see if I can dig out a picture of the box or detailed spec sheet if necessary, just haven't really been following the performance end of the SSD market (I know $/mb prices have crashed since I got mine! getting more capacity alone isn't worth it for me right now though.)

Short answer: yes.

Long answer: yes.

The difference between the MTRON you pointed out and today's SSDs is night and day. The old drive has technology from before people really understood SSDs so things like over-provisioning, garbage collection, and TRIM weren't even considered. Not to mention new fab processes and faster flash. The MTRON lists a <100MB/sec read rate. SSDs now are hitting anywhere from 170MB/sec - 350MB/sec (SATA 6Gbps required). Seek times haven't changed too much but real-world random write speeds are waaaaay up compared to that drive.