FFXIV Hardware Requirements

[alecrast]

Thanks both of you guys! looking at wishlists has helped see what to flesh out the system with, and I think I'm going to go with the i7-950 and the gtx480. One question though, would it be better to get 2 gtx460s or 1 gtx480? It's about the same price but I don't know much about SLI.

If a GTX480 or a pair of GTX460s are in your future, then why not wait until GTX475 refresh and get a pair of those:

http://www.fudzilla.com/graphics/gra...as-384-shaders

Faster than the 460, cooler and less power than the 480.

If it were my $$ at stake, I'd get the i7 930 over the i7 950 and take that extra money and put it towards a pair of 475s. There is very little reason to get a 950 over a 930 unless you're afraid of typing 146 in place of 133 in the BCLK section of your BIOS. 3.06GHz is a laughable overclock for the i7 930.

[Adajer]

Nevermind what I asked, someone showed me this and I have my answer. The thing I liked best about those results was that those were on stock settings. Two overclocked 460s will do for me.

[alecrast]

Nevermind what I asked, someone showed me this and I have my answer. The thing I liked best about those results was that those were on stock settings. Two overclocked 460s will do for me.

Keep in mind that a GTX475 is imminent. If you cannot wait, go for the 460s and be happy with your purchase. If you have an extra month under your belt, look forward to the GT104 variant of the 475.

NVIDIA's naming/numbering scheme just keeps getting more obfuscated.

[Maguile]

Building your own PC is relatively simple.
You need:
A Case
A power supply
A motherboard
A processor
RAM
Graphics card
Hard drive
CD/DVD drive

Ok, Ive been looking at various products, just want to know what brands I should be looking for, and which to avoid

[Ghostsix.Midgard]

Ok, Ive been looking at various products, just want to know what brands I should be looking for, and which to avoid

Go to Newegg, and browse using the search filters. Narrow your choices down and read the user feedback/star Rating for anything you have your eyes on.

[Amele]

Keep in mind that a GTX475 is imminent. If you cannot wait, go for the 460s and be happy with your purchase. If you have an extra month under your belt, look forward to the GT104 variant of the 475.

NVIDIA's naming/numbering scheme just keeps getting more obfuscated.

it bothers me a little that it'll be a 475 and not a 485 - unless the reference board they're putting the GT104 chip variant onto is a 470...


recently, nvidia uses 80(0) as the flagship card, 700 as the little brother, 40(0)-50(0) as the budget cards and usually uses 60(0) as the first major refresh (which is almost always a mainstream card instead of a flagship). then uses xx5 to represent refreshes of the other products (eg. 285gtx &c.)

it's just that they never quite do it the same each time... (remembering GT/GTX/GTS "fun") and the refreshes have gotten more effective so frequently a 'lower number' card outperforms a higher number card if the lower number is a refresh... a few gens ago this wasn't the case.

[Ladymist]

So I found out I can upgrade my computer and i am trying to decide what to get. As for a Mother Board i haven't even looked but here are my choices for CPU and Video card and i was wondering what are my best choices based of price and preformance.

CPU:

AMD Phenom™ II X6 1090T Black Edition 3.2GHz w/ 9MB Cache - $319.99
AMD Phenom™ II X6 1055T 2.8GHz w/ 9MB Cache - $219.99
Intel Core™ i5 Processor 760 2.8GHz w/ 8MB Cache - $229.99
Intel Core™ i7 Processor 920 2.66GHz w/ 8MB Cache - $279.99

I am used to AMD CPU's but i hear a lot of really good things about the i5 and i7's. Not to sure what the best one here is based on price.

Video Card: (i would only be looking at one, i have no clue have to work with 2)

Sapphire Radeon HD 5830 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E w/ Dual DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort - $269.99
Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E w/ Dual DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort - $319.99
Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E w/ Dual DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort, Dirt 2 - $319.99 (Can't figure out the difference between these two other then the Dirt @ comment)
eVGA GeForce GTX 460 SuperClocked EE 1GB PCI-E w/ Dual DVI, HDMI, External Exhaust - $279.99
eVGA GeForce GTX 465 1GB PCI-E w/ Dual DVI, HDMI - $299.99

Again not sure which is best here as the prices are realy close. The website for the store i am buying these from is Memoryexpress.com in Canada.

I would be putting 4gb ram into this and i have a Western Digital 1TB HD 7200rpm Cavier Black.

I also currently have a 650W powersupply, would this be enough or should i look at a 850w? I can't afford anything higher then that.

Thank you for any help or direction on this.
Lady

[Adajer]

What retailer are you using? newegg has that 460 at $249. The Galaxy SC edition is better for $10 more.

edit: Newegg is sold out. Amazon has them for the same price though.

[Tonks]

If I upgraded my computer, I'd likely be looking at an i7 and a 5850. As for the power supply, I think 650W would be fine, unless you wanted to eventually run 2 graphics cards. Then you would need higher. But if you're only running one, 650 should work.

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/

Check out the CPU and Graphics charts there, and you can see them tested in various benchmarks. From that you should be able to pick which one should give you the best performance for the price you're looking to pay.

[Sithel]

I'm really digging my GTX 470 I just got from newegg. Cost me $272 with the rebate and my benchmark score jumped 1100 just from the swap from my 9800GTX.

[Pluged]

Anyone know if you can RAID a SATA HDD with a SAS HDD if your mother board supports SAS? or can it only be one or the other.

[Triplesea]

Hey everyone, I'm fairly new to gaming on pc and was hoping to get some advice. A couple years ago I bought a pre built pc with no intentions of gaming on it, but with 14 looming, and unable to afford a new one, im gonna have to upgrade a few things.

Currantly I have a Intel Q6600 2.4 ghz quad core, 4GB ddr2 ram, nvidia 9500GS running 64 bit vista. This got me around 800 on low on the benchmark, (pretty bummed).

I assume my graphics card is the problem so I looked into what I can upgrade to be able to play. After doing a bit of research I find out my pc only has a 300w pcu which turns out to be really bad for any cards required to run this game, (even more bummed).

So one of my questions is, is it worth it to get an upper end card (GTX 460) since im dishing out for a new pcu anyways, or would it be somewhat pointless with the processor i have? If it is pointless what do you guys recommend for a best bang for your buck kinda thing with the pc i have.

Also how much of a difference would upgrading to windows 7 make with my setup? Worth dropping the cash if im kinda broke right now? Again i just wanna be able to play and would appreciate any help.

[shaddix]

get a better heatsink for your cpu and overclock it, then it will be worth getting a GTX460

[Jojimbo]

That CPU should be ok for FF14, moreso if OCed or you could bottleneck on some cards. GTX 460 is pretty good price/performance, HD 5770 is a cheaper but is quite a bit less powerful. Both should be able play FF14 with decent/high settings. Both GPUs require at least 450W PSU, however I would try for a 550~W unless there is a huge price jump (allows for OCing, although you would need a 3rd pt cooler).

Win7 is more of a personally decision, if you are broke/ok with vista then I'll say stick with it. Win7 is a nice upgrade but I wouldn't bother upgrading if tight on cash myself.

[Triplesea]

I looked into overclocking and I'm not sure if im ready to try it yet being so new to pc's. Just installing a new pcu and graphics card seems daunting to me at this point lol. Mabye what I'll do is get the new pcu and a GTX460, then mabye a few months down the line after some research and I feel im ready to possibly destroy my computer ill give it a shot. Thanks guys for the quick responses. Any other input/opinions is also appreciated.

[alecrast]

I looked into overclocking and I'm not sure if im ready to try it yet being so new to pc's. Just installing a new pcu and graphics card seems daunting to me at this point lol. Mabye what I'll do is get the new pcu and a GTX460, then mabye a few months down the line after some research and I feel im ready to possibly destroy my computer ill give it a shot. Thanks guys for the quick responses. Any other input/opinions is also appreciated.

For what it's worth, I think a lot of people overclock just because everyone else does it. You should only overclock if you have an actual reason to do so. If a game runs at 90fps if you overclock or 80fps if you don't overclock, have you really bought yourself anything besides additional wear and tear on your parts? If the difference in performance between overclock and non-overclock is purely in theoretical numbers gained from a benchmark, then it's not worth it. If the change between OC and non-OC translates into a meaningful difference in the gaming experience, then it becomes more interesting. Always do a before and after comparison to see if you're actually getting any value out of running your parts beyond their specifications.

[shaddix]

I just feel like I'm not getting all my money's worth if I don't OC it

[MakinBaconNeked]

Sorry if this is the wrong thread >.>.

Since I will be new to pc gaming starting with FFXIV, should I be looking at any certain types of security software? Obviously, other than anti-virus which I am currently running Vipre and could easily switch to Norton if needed (provided free from Comcast).

EDIT: On a side note, I have started trying to work on Overclocking my CPU a little. So far I have gotten it from 2.9 GHz to 3.11 GHz without any apparent issues running Windows. I also reran the benchmark and was able to move up from 2391 to 2562. I am using a Gadget on the desktop to monitor the temps (works with the CoreTemp application) and it appears to be running about 28-35C during the benchmark. My only concern is that the CoreTemp application is off from the actual temperature but when I enter the BIOS then it appears to be pretty close as much as I can tell.

[Destinye]

I'd use Avast AV, had nothing but good from it. Firewall eh there's many out there, I personally use Comodo..but many use Zone Alarm.

[shaddix]

28-35C during the benchmark.

wow dude, crank that bitch up!