The OFFICIAL FFXIV Benchmark & Beta Performance Thread

[Rasengan]

With buying a prebuilt computer at least you don't have to troubleshoot stuff... something goes wrong during the warranty you just send the whole thing in. And if you get the 2 year best buy replacement plan you just bring it up to the store.

That's taking the easy way out and that's exactly what BestBuy wants you to do. If you learn how to do things yourself (or learn how to google), you don't need that kind of service. The warranties on computer parts are usually better than the overall warranty from a manufacturer and buying a replacement plan is just retarded. With that extra money available ($200+ over what markup you pay to get the system in the first place), you would be able to get a better system. Don't forget the ridiculous return policy. 14 day and 15% restocking fee? Eff that noise.

[Amele]

Indeed, building your own computer will always be cheaper, however, i did not wish to go that route due to my lack of experience, and my desire for a warranty. To each his own i suppose.

take the plunge next time. best way to get over lack of experience is to get experience!

building computers really is easier than it sounds, and you get some nice fringe benefits w/rt to understanding how the system actually works and what the problems are/aren't. you get to snub people who buy complete systems, and while you have to handle warranty on parts individually, you often get much longer warranties included in the price.

you also get to use exactly the components you want and nothing extra, and load exactly the software you want, without any bloatware bundles clogging up the drive when you start it the first time.

[shaddix]

I kind of doubt that the next round of price cuts on the i7 920 or 930 will drop ~100$, so you might end up spending more if you update again within the next year after buying a used quad.

I'm pretty sure you'll be ok with just the GTX460, guessing you have an E6600 or so, I'm sure you'll hit 3k in high. what's your monitor res? hell, if they leave it 30fps capped anyone over 2k is probably playable at high res. waiting until september/october to see how the actual retail title plays is probably smart either way^^

Yeah I can't believe the beta is capped at 30fps, I will kill myself if it ends up having such a horrid cap in September, I won't even play 14. [email protected]. I use two 1600x1200 21" Dell(Sony) CRTs I got for 70 bucks ea. off ebay

[Amele]

Yeah I can't believe the beta is capped at 30fps, I will kill myself if it ends up having such a horrid cap in September, I won't even play 14. [email protected]. I use two 1600x1200 21" Dell(Sony) CRTs I got for 70 bucks ea. off ebay

if you run FFXIV on one of those you'll be fine.

and yeah, I'd like to see at least a 60fps cap. 30 is just.. bleh.

[Kurokikaze]

Better go on the forums and spam "Remove FPS cap" then... I don't see it happening by launch if at all. As much as I would like to see this myself.

[Sephiroth]

Building your own computer isn't always cheaper. Sometimes companies like Dell will put on amazing deals but you have to wait for them. I nearly went the build your own route a couple of years and then I found an amazing deal which would have cost about £100 more to build myself. That's a big difference when what I bought came to about £350.

[bluefan]

Building your own computer isn't always cheaper. Sometimes companies like Dell will put on amazing deals but you have to wait for them. I nearly went the build your own route a couple of years and then I found an amazing deal which would have cost about £100 more to build myself. That's a big difference when what I bought came to about £350.

Dell uses POS RAM, motherboard, RAM, stock everything etc...

Sure, sometimes a pre-built may offer a good deal, but it'll either suffer in performance or quality. Building yourself will always offer the best bang for buck and quality.

[mintyice]

is this computer any good?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883227243

[Cylo]

I got my new system and I am in the process of overclocking it. I installed MSI Afterburner, and Kombustor. To get Kombustor to run, I had to install the special DirectX 11 installation from August 2009 that came included in the package. After I did this, and found a stable overclock the performance went from 4700 on high to something like 2300. Ouch.

I think it's related to that damn Kombustor DirectX installation. Now, the DirectX 9 installation on Microsoft's site fails.

Since it's DirectX and I don't have a restore point I think I will have to reinstall the OS to revert back to the factory version, unless someone here has any advice?

[Amele]

is this computer any good?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883227243

the price is pretty good, throwing parts that match the listed spec into a wishlist I came up with a newegg price of 930$

that said, an i7 860 and a gts 250 are not the greatest components, and I don't think I'd recommend this particular build if someone proposed it themselves instead of as a pre-built.

(i7 930/1366 is maybe 30-50$ more than the i7 860/1156, and for the 40$ difference, it's also probably worth getting a 5750 1GB instead of the GTS 250 at this point in the game. etc.)

also, pretty sure that particular build doesn't need a 700W supply, so I'd shave some watts to save some bucks (or buy a higher end smaller supply for the same price) and would seriously consider a different tower.

edit: if you're definitely not going to build your own machine or are happy with those component choices, the pre-built is a very good price. remember that the mockup wishlist I did is of brand name components, and I can't guarantee they match the exact OEM parts used by ibuypower - it's possible the tower is full of POS whitelabel internals from bad manufacturers.

[Kawfee]

I had bought from ibuypower in the past, and would not recommend the experience. Basically they shipped me a computer with a POS motherboard, but thought it was the PSU. I had to wait for the PSU to arrive (weeks) to try that, which was a HUGE hassle to put in myself not knowing how to build a computer at that point (kind of makes the idea of a "warranty" bullshit when you are doing all the work even though they supply the part).

When that failed, they told me they'd ship me a new motherboard and I'd have to install it... at that point i told them screw that, I'm returning this broken hunk of junk. They said, fine, as long as you pay shipping. Shipping provided by them, with a fee of $200. I returned it, complained to VISA, who also felt that was bullshit (and gave me the $200 back), learned how to build my own computer (since I just did 1/2 of that working on their POS), and never looked back. (edit: I should mention all of these problems appeared 5 days after I got the computer.)

Granted this was like 4 years ago, perhaps they have improved, but given the way they market their products, the way they don't explain what brand you are getting on the internal parts unless you pay a premium, and the way I was treated, makes me want to never, ever help them get business.

[Kylewhataru]

I had bought from ibuypower in the past, and would not recommend the experience. Basically they shipped me a computer with a POS motherboard, but thought it was the PSU. I had to wait for the PSU to arrive (weeks) to try that, which was a HUGE hassle to put in myself not knowing how to build a computer at that point (kind of makes the idea of a "warranty" bullshit when you are doing all the work even though they supply the part).

When that failed, they told me they'd ship me a new motherboard and I'd have to install it... at that point i told them screw that, I'm returning this broken hunk of junk. They said, fine, as long as you pay shipping. Shipping provided by them, with a fee of $200. I returned it, complained to VISA, who also felt that was bullshit (and gave me the $200 back), learned how to build my own computer (since I just did 1/2 of that working on their POS), and never looked back. (edit: I should mention all of these problems appeared 5 days after I got the computer.)

Granted this was like 4 years ago, perhaps they have improved, but given the way they market their products, the way they don't explain what brand you are getting on the internal parts unless you pay a premium, and the way I was treated, makes me want to never, ever help them get business.

Yeah, they skimp on their components, they'll show you a PC that looks good in theory, but you have to assume the PSU/Mobo/Ram aren't generic bargain bin crap.

Nowadays they actually let you choose different models for motherboards and PSU though, but I still haven't used them since I did once in 2005/2006, it's just easier to build your own.

[Kylewhataru]

Building your own computer isn't always cheaper. Sometimes companies like Dell will put on amazing deals but you have to wait for them. I nearly went the build your own route a couple of years and then I found an amazing deal which would have cost about £100 more to build myself. That's a big difference when what I bought came to about £350.

It depends on what you need.

Sometimes they do have awesome deals, they'll throw in a nice LCD and printer, but what if you already have that covered, not worth it.

Also, when you build you can re-use alot of components, I already have a case so that's -$100, I already have good hard drives so that's another -$100, my old power supply is still great and still worth $150-200, so I already have like $400 in components, if I want a "$1000" PC it only costs me $600. If you're starting from scratch yes sometimes you can catch a good deal.

[alecrast]

that said, an i7 860 and a gts 250 are not the greatest components, and I don't think I'd recommend this particular build if someone proposed it themselves instead of as a pre-built.

My i860 which runs quite nicely at 3.9GHz at stock voltage disagrees with you and is very sad now.

Saying the i860 isn't a great component is like saying the Celtics suck. It's not the best CPU available but it's close and, in terms of bang for the buck, it's right there at the top (sells for $199, not newegg's crazy $289 price). The 860 TDP is also only 95W versus the 130W 930 which has its own advantages, as well.

What makes or breaks the 860 vs the 930 is what you want to do with the platform. The X58 offers more in the way of PCIe lanes for 3-way-SLI if you go for a high-end motherboard, or if you have some enormous disk IO requirements. The P55 with NF200 controller (a good design like the Gigabyte GA-P55-UD7, for example) bridges the SLI gap that formerly existed between X58 and P55 designs.

[Eyedea-Seraph]

is this computer any good?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883227243

same price better for FFXIV and more OC head room i am sure of it, grab another stick of the same ram at 2gig so your running triple channel and if your really hurting for more preformance get a 2nd 5770 and Xfire them and OC to about 3.5-4.0ghz and your gonna score 5000+ low and 3500+ high settings.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883227257

[Amele]

My i860 which runs quite nicely at 3.9GHz at stock voltage disagrees with you and is very sad now.

Saying the i860 isn't a great component is like saying the Celtics suck. It's not the best CPU available but it's close and, in terms of bang for the buck, it's right there at the top (sells for $199, not newegg's crazy $289 price). The 860 TDP is also only 95W versus the 130W 930 which has its own advantages, as well.

What makes or breaks the 860 vs the 930 is what you want to do with the platform. The X58 offers more in the way of PCIe lanes for 3-way-SLI if you go for a high-end motherboard, or if you have some enormous disk IO requirements. The P55 with NF200 controller (a good design like the Gigabyte GA-P55-UD7, for example) bridges the SLI gap that formerly existed between X58 and P55 designs.

for 200$ I'd say it's a sweet part, idk why newegg has such a weird price on it right now, if it's normally 199$ - supply issues maybe?

you're right on everything else of course, and that's a sweet clock speed for stock volts.

[mintyice]

same price better for FFXIV and more OC head room i am sure of it, grab another stick of the same ram at 2gig so your running triple channel and if your really hurting for more preformance get a 2nd 5770 and Xfire them and OC to about 3.5-4.0ghz and your gonna score 5000+ low and 3500+ high settings.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883227257

oh that has hdmi out so i could theoretically hook it up to my 46" inch hdtv and play on that?

[bluefan]

You can.

I've played a good chunk of beta on my 46".

[mintyice]

now you're making me wish i had $900

[BlackheartX]

Pretty much what I did as well. (in before 1080p Limitations)