Gaming Gaming PC for FFXIV

[Megane]

Hey I wanna buy a gaming pc for FFXIV and starcraft II but....I'm a total noob in pc hardware. ^^

My budget is 1500 $

I already checked for alienware but only because I think they look sooo badass.

Could you help choose the best pc for my budget ?

I totally open for any suggestion...I can even increase my bidget if a 1500 $ pc is not enough for FF14.(that would be surprising)

 

[Blaze163]

 

[Megane]

I already got one, and the 6 months wait..........no thanks lol

 

[Originality]

A system that's more than enough for FF14...

CPU: Core i7-930
RAM: 6GB Corsair XMS3 PC3-12800
Motherboard: Asus P6X58D-E (pretty much any motherboard would work, but this one's been rated the best budget X58 motherboard)
Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 5870
HDD: Samsung SpinPoint F3 (although you can prolly just reuse what you have)
Cooling: Thermaltake Frio (not necessary but it will keep the CPU cooler thus prolonging it's life)
Power: Corsair HX850 (anything over 650W from Corsair, Antec, OCZ and a couple others will be fine... just beware of non-branded PSUs - they may explode, seriously).
Case: SilverStone FT02R-W (although I like the Antec 902 or 1200)

Approximate price: $1300 from newegg.

The above system will handle just about any game released in the next 3-4 years with no trouble.

 

[Megane]

A system that's more than enough for FF14...

CPU: Core i7-930
RAM: 6GB Corsair XMS3 PC3-12800
Motherboard: Asus P6X58D-E (pretty much any motherboard would work, but this one's been rated the best budget X58 motherboard)
Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 5870
HDD: Samsung SpinPoint F3 (although you can prolly just reuse what you have)
Cooling: Thermaltake Frio (not necessary but it will keep the CPU cooler thus prolonging it's life)
Power: Corsair HX850 (anything over 650W from Corsair, Antec, OCZ and a couple others will be fine... just beware of non-branded PSUs - they may explode, seriously).
Case: SilverStone FT02R-W (although I like the Antec 902 or 1200)

Approximate price: $1300 from newegg.

The above system will handle just about any game released in the next 3-4 years with no trouble.

Good ! thanks a lot for your responce.

 

[Madridi]

interesting choice of cooler Originality

 

[Wabsta]

Lol, you want a PC good enough for FF XIV, and your budget is "just" $1500...

You can get waaaaaaaaaay more then enough for that money

Anyway, I have to agree with Originality. BUT, wouldn't it be cheaper (or, like, almost the same price) to go for a hexacore from AMD?

I mean, AMD Phenom II X6 1090T, a 3,2GHZ hexacore > that i7 amirite?

But, you'll prolly have to get another motherboard then too.

 

[keine]

What he said. Don't waste you money on PC's.....its a major major cash sink.

I just dumped 700$ on new components....and games still don't run the way I want them too.
I hear that this game in particular,at a minimum, needs at least a 3000$ PC. Just play it on PS3.

 

[Madridi]

Anyway, I have to agree with Originality. BUT, wouldn't it be cheaper (or, like, almost the same price) to go for a hexacore from AMD?

I mean, AMD Phenom II X6 1090T, a 3,2GHZ hexacore > that i7 amirite?

But, you'll prolly have to get another motherboard then too.

Nope. afaik, i7's quad core is still better than AMD's hexacore when it comes to gaming. I could be wrong though.
I think the i7 route is the way to go.

 

[Madridi]

What he said. Don't waste you money on PC's.....its a major major cash sink.

I just dumped 700$ on new components....and games still don't run the way I want them too.
I hear that this game in particular,at a minimum, needs at least a 3000$ PC. Just play it on PS3.

Huh? No.. Says who?
A good processor (i7 in this case) with a good video card is going to be more than enough.
With the parts that originality picked, I seriously doubt he will have ANY trouble running that game

 

[Originality]

The cooler was just copied out of CPC's choice from their "performance" build.

As for the PhenomII, the Core i7 range is better at games because it can carry out roughly 30% more Instructions Per Second, which is what games need (although, PhenomII is a little bit better at multi-media editing for some reason - probably better multi-threading support). I went through this whole AMD thing when helping another 'temper design his new gaming computer, the difference being that he insisted on a HD5970, which brought the overall price to $1550 before he started looking on eBay and finding some better deals. Sure, an AMD system will be cheaper, but Core i7 is just much better at gaming, based from my research. Oh, and being a "hexacore" doesn't really mean anything when it comes to gaming - games generally only use the first 2 cores anyway.

On one hand, a PhenomII X6 1090T will probably have no trouble with FF14 either. On the other hand, will it be able to handle any game released in the next 3-4 years? Probably not, or at least not as well as a Core i7 930. EDIT: Someone mentioned in another thread - AMD may be cheaper, but with Intel you're paying for a better product.

EDIT2: @keine, firstly, your post was unnecessary since Megane already has a PS3 (as pointed out in the third post). Secondly, a $700 will probably be able to play it fine at low/medium settings. Reportedly, the minimum specs for FF14 will be roughly the same as The Last Remnant, which needs a 2Ghz dual core CPU, 1.5GB of RAM, and an nVidia 8600 or equivolent. My media laptop can run it (although just barely) and it's 4 years old. A Core i7 and a HD5870 will be overkill for it, but if you've got a good budget, why not go for a future-proof system rather than a budget system that will only suffice for a year or 2?

EDIT3:

the system, originality recommended is much much better than any hardware the ps3 might have.

That makes me lulz (for no good reason)

 

[dysan]

What he said. Don't waste you money on PC's.....its a major major cash sink.

I just dumped 700$ on new components....and games still don't run the way I want them too.
I hear that this game in particular,at a minimum, needs at least a 3000$ PC. Just play it on PS3.

I'd really like to know what game is that....GTA4?
the system, originality recommended is much much better than any hardware the ps3 might have.

 

[Joe88]

the system, originality recommended is much much better than any hardware the ps3 might have.

its 2 completely different things

GTAIV on the PS3 is specially made to work on the PS3, the hardware never changes
where as the PC version they have to support tons of different hardware, from cpu's (dual, quad, and even six core, and amd / intel), to all different gfx cards (amd, nvidia, and possibly intel?), from all different OS version and DX versions
its just a completely different thing

 

[keine]

where as the PC version they have to support tons of different hardware, from cpu's (dual, quad, and even six core, and amd / intel), to all different gfx cards (amd, nvidia, and possibly intel?), from all different OS version and DX versions
its just a completely different thing

This is why performance/components ratio of consoles is LIGHT YEARS ahead of PC. I get bashed all the time at PC forums for saying this, but I stand by it. Console developers can squeeze every last drop out of the PS3/360/Wii. Whereas PC developers waste tons and tons of resources I think, cause they just can't optimize for every single variable. In the end PC gaming suffers, even with 1500$ rigs. PC gamers can have their core i7GTX480x210gB7000$liquidmetalcoolsystems. I'm fine with my Wii. Metroid Other M looks astounding to me.

Megane, think of it this way. ALL the time you spend DIDDLING w/ Final Fantasy on PC to get it to run decently/fix that error/update your drivers/etc/etc/etc/etc/etc....you could use to get another like 15 LEVELS>>>

 

[Megane]

This is my conclusion !

What do you think about it ?

PS. Don't misunderstand me, I love all my consoles but it's really hard to play Starcraft 2 on a Wii or a PS3.

 

[Originality]

The parts will definitely suit you fine. There're just two closely related points that make me cringe. Dell, and the Dell case. But I won't get into that... it'd just became a rather long rant.

I think the best way to go about the whole PC vs Console thing is to think of purpose, needs, and what each does to fulfill them. Consoles used to be designed for one thing - playing games. One day someone realised that PCs are also good for playing games, and in many cases superior, so they started making consoles that resembled mini-PCs, only without that tacky Microsoft OS. The result is a wave of RRoDs and YLoDs (and, occaisionally, fried Wiis, but I've yet to see that). Sure, with their dedicated OS making development and deployment of games so easy, gaming on consoles is much more reliable than PCs (not to mention cheaper, although that is easily debated), still I don't think anybody can make me trade (for FPS, RTS or MMORPGs) my mouse and keyboard for any controller (and yes, I've got some rather fancy gamepads for PC too, and a couple of those special left-hand control pads full of macro buttons). PCs are also great for web-scouring, socialising, homework, and anything else the average Human needs in life except hot chocolate. That's what the kettle's for, and the kettle > all game consoles + PCs. If only I had a toaster to go with it...

That said, I'm also the proud owner of a Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, Dreamcast, and nearly every iteration from the generations before them. Sure I'm missing a couple, but that's what emulators are for on the later versions (or PC, but that feels like cheating).

 

[moose3]

Speaking of emulators, last I looked the PCSX2 had improvements if you had an intel processor. While I'd love to tell you it runs just fine on my AMD Phenom II, I didn't count on a bad motherboard that locked my processor at the 'cool n quiet' x4 multiplier stage... or the board I got back from the RMA having a shot northbridge giving me 1/4 the processor benchmarks.... *sorry just a bit bitter at Asus till they send me a motherboard that runs my system at spec*

Also, since Nvidia cards have the physx chips, they can get a performance boost if the game has that available, so food for thought.

 

[Berthenk]

Go for triple channel RAM, it's faster than dual channel.

 

[keine]

YLOD and RROD asside.

I've had motherboards from Gigabyte, Asus, EVGA, and ASRock either DOA on me, break on me, have caps pop, bios chips that lose their memory, etc, etc. in general mobo support past your 30 day retail warranty is useless. they will snake out of anything, and RMA is an urban myth.
Recently had memory modules that wouldn't run at spec. Power supplies that die after a few years. When a 140$ PSU just dies after 1.5 years of use.......uhm...a 360 is 199$?
I feel its a toss up...and especially recently I say low power systems like my Wii have taken the crown from everything. Just some addons.

I know this doesn't add anything to OP.
5870 is a nice card. I'd avoid Xfire systems...personally. Plenty of ram and a nice proc. Only thing I'd watch out for is dell proprietary case and mobo/psu, if ever plan on upgrading this machine.

On the 5870....its on the back end of a cycle for sure. Southern Islands is coming out SOON, like next couple of months from ATI. MIGHT! want to wait on that......i personally would. big performance gains from what I've been reading.

OH! Is final fantasy an NVIDIA or ATI game? Whos got their hands on that one. I would simply just choose Nvidia/Ati that way. If its a "the way its meant to be played NVIDIA!" game, don't go ATI, go Nvidia. I have personally been slightly disappointed w/ ATI's driver rollout, fixes, and support as of late. In the last two months I think its picking up, but whatevs. whichever company got to put their LOGO on that game *will* have better performance. it just works that way.

I'd go w/ a manufacturer that has THE BEST warranty, w/ like advance RMA. I'd suggest that to anyone buying ANYTHING on a PCB these days. Tech is so hit and miss these days. I think the dell warranty is prolly pretty good.

and: buyer beware.

 

[Sefi]

I've been playing the FFXIV beta for a while and things are running great on my PC I recently built (i5 750 OC to 3.6 ghz, GTX 465 graphics card). There's the usual beta hick-ups but overall I'm very satisfied with the result. Starcraft II runs exceptionally well since it's much less demanding. The PC you're looking at is more powerful than the one I made so I'm sure you will enjoy the game.