Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
My, Pick a PC thread...
SatansPuppet
Member Posts: 55
... Well after my abysmal benchmark score. I'm deciding on whether or not to take the plunge....
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/packard-bell-ipower-i9521-uk-04144137-pdt.html <-- The Expensive one
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/dell-studio-xps-8100-4433-04802650-pdt.html <-- Still Expensive but you know.. 
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/dell-studio-xps-8100-650-04144013-pdt.html <-- Low low low...
Well I don't really have a budget for it but what can ya do? needs must and all that...
I can't build PC's and I have over £300 in vouchers for the retailers that stock these pre-built systems so, mention building a PC and I stick a spear in yer eye!!
Thankies in Advance... comments would be welcome
Comments
With any of those you're going to need a better video card if you're planning on running FFXIV at medium to high settings.
I'd recommend this one:
DELL Studio XPS 8100/4433
It's basically the same as the 999 one, but with a better video card, and cheaper. Can't beat that.
The IPower one really isn't even an option as the video card isn't as good as this Dell, and I'd recommend getting this Dell because it has an i7 processor instead of the i5.
Regardless you're going to need a better video card.
If you're looking for a decent budget card, I'd recommend something like this.
Or for a bit cheaper with not a big decrease in performance, this card.
While the bare minimum I would recommend would be something comparable to this card.
"There is as yet insufficient data for a meaningful answer."
The Dell was the one I was leaning towards
However will it play FFXIV on release (on lowest settings) as I'd need to save some pennies for a newer card after the initial purchase? lol
Why would someone spend 1000£ on a dell...
You need to learn how to put together a computer so you can buy the parts you want, and assemble it yourself, you can make a good comp for half that of the dell.
I know, i know, spear in eye, oww...
But it will only take you a couple of hours to learn how to assemble it, once you have all the parts, it's piss easy. And when you have assembled 1 comp, then you won't forget, it's like riding a bike, I would seriously recommend you to learn it ASAP.
You say that... however....
A bad build in the past has put me off building machines. Might look into folks in teh local area who build machines and see what they can do for me but I'd probably end up selecting all the poopy stuff
Well not an easy choice option 1 and 2 seems similar option 2 does provide u with a better graphic card (the HD 5770 will be more than enough to run ff14)
Option 3 might be best just judging from the prize and what u get out of it true u do get an i5 and not an i7 but for gamers an i7 doesn't really provide much advantages anyway and the more speed u get from option 3 per core will make it up anyway.
That said would i recommend to look for different options none of them is really worth its money at least look for an pc which will allow u to add a second graphic card at some point (so at least 2 PCIe16 slots on the motherboard)
Since i wanna play ff14 ill not mention a self build pc and risk loosing my eyesight...but u could get way better for that money tho.....
/hides
CPU: Intel i7 920
Motherboard: ASUS P6T SE
GPU: ATI Radeon HD5870
Ram: 4-8 GB of DDR3 Ram
PSU: 500w +
OS: Windows 7, 64bit
HDD: 1TB or use what you already have.
Case, monitor, keyboard, mouse, headphones, CD-rom/ DvD etc, you just use w/e you have..
Unless your case is a mini tower. Both the motherboard and the GPU is big so you need a real tower.
And if you already have a 500w+ in your current rig, you can use that too.
Decent and cheap comp that can run every game out there, and supports DX11... The GPU also supports up to 3 screens (Eyefinity) on one card, 2 on DVI and 1 on HDMI, or use an active display port adapter to get all 3 monitors running on DVI. (Make sure it's an ACTIVE adapter though, and not a passive)
Sure, you can beef it up if you feel you have the cash for it... But no point in doing so right now as this will run FF XIV on max settings for sure.
This would give u way more upgrade possibilitys than any of the 3 options yet if u feel like building an own one consider an mainboard u can keep for a while and offers sata 3 already also keep in mind that the mainboard only support Crossfire (of course wount matter if u know u will not use Nvidia cards)
Also as far as i know would it make more sence to go with 3/6/9 gb ram using 3 equal ramstones to work best with the I7
*head explodes*
I'll try and track down my hippy friend... pretty sure he built my last PC... Think I still have the cool tower somewhere.
Suppose it would be cheaper... hmmmmm DVD-RW drive is a no no though as the flippin thing don't open or close properly now lol
Seee now you got me thinking... Shame on you!
You know you can always ask the community here too, I've been building PCs for the past 12yrs, and I'm sure many others here have too. And if ya use Newegg which pretty much everyone does, the reviews and comments sections helps in selecting parts, as well as Newegg suggesting what others bought with each item to help match up products that work well together.
Its really very simple, as 95% of all the cables have specific plugs they go into, and won't fit anywhere else so its hard to mess up. The only part you'll wanna slow down at is when you're connecting your frontal case cables cause they're all similar in size and appearance, but even that takes a few mins from the manual to figure out. A short run through bios on bootup and you're done... At most 2-3 hrs, maybe longer if you're trying to hide all your cables behind the MB or along the walls inside to provide better airflow.
Just gotta get in and read if ya get stumped ask the interwebs....google will link ya to answers to any question ya have too...
You can run nVidia cards on a Crossfire board, I've been doing it for years as I've found them to be more what I wanted than those SLi configured. You just can't run 2 nVidia cards in SLi mode, because its designed for a Crossfire configuration with ATI, but really with the newest cards from nVidia starting with the 200 series, one card has been plenty to enjoy every game at high>max settings.
Ok isnt this getting abit ridiculous? Im seeing this on many FFXIV related threads.
I7s ..... 5850s... 6-8GB RAM? I mean cmon, this game isnt anywhere near Crysis graphics and my:
Ati HD 5700 1GB RAM
3GB RAM 800 MHZ DDR2
Q6600 2.4 GHZ
Runs Crysis on Very High, 2x AA 1920 x 1080 with a second monitor in use aswell.
And this game thats light on the texture work compared to say Age of Conan is suppose to not run maxxed out on these machines?
Its abit ridiculous dont you think? some of these reccomendations.
The reason for that is because too many people are making judgements based on the benchmark. Some high spec computers are getting rather low scores, and, in some cases, lower scores than lower spec computers.
The truth is the benchmark is terrible as I know a few people who failed it and yet could run the alpha perfectly fine. The benchmark doesn't permit fullscreen, it isn't optimised and it doesn't make full use of the available hardware. Everyone should assume their score is at least 1 or 2k higher than what the benchmark gave them (or find the tweaks available for it to give a proper result).
After some basic adjustments to enable my hardware properly my benchmark score rose from 2700 to 4200...
That is exactly what i meant when i was saying it only supports Crossfire and it doesn't matter if u do not wanna use Nvidia cards (plural/ cards not card) but i see now that my statement could have been misleading and i do apologize for any confusions it might have caused and thx Khrymson to clarify it here.
Very true. And I routinely get variances of 20-30% between back to back runs on the benchmark, which just makes it that much more useless. I seriously have no idea what Square was trying to accomplish with the benchmark, as any hype it created is probably being doubly-offset by frustrated people with otherwise perfectly decent rigs.
@OP: Honestly, for gaming purposes, the only one of your three choices that I'd even touch is #2. The other two just don't have the necessary graphics horsepower to deserve to be called "gaming" machines. And the price on #2 is still pretty lousy. I'm given to understand that Euro-land pricing is poor to begin with, but I'd really hope something better was available to you if you shopped around a little.
A Modest Proposal for MMORPGs:
That the means of progression would not be mutually exclusive from the means of enjoyment.
Before you go buying piece-by-piece, you might check out Cyberpower. Sometimes they can build a PC to your specifications for less than what buying the individual components from newegg would cost you. Since I'm in the market soon for a PC myself, I priced out the components from Beazt's post on newegg (cheapest brands I could find + a tower) and it came out to $1,474 (979.37 pounds), before shipping. The only difference was I priced the i7 930, instead of the 920 and I priced a 700w PSU. Cyberpower will build me a machine with the same specs for $1,432 (952.76 pounds), and that'll include a 3-year warranty, tech support, a gaming mouse & keyboard, and the game Just Cause 2. You'd have to find a way to work out the shipping though, as Cyberpower won't ship overseas. You may be able to lower Newegg's costs by working through some of their combo deals, but those usually don't save you much. I've built my own PC before, and I've had Cyberpower do it for me. Although there's some satisfaction in knowing you built your own, I'll attest that CyberPower does a pretty good job. Anyway, just thought I'd throw out another possible option for you.
No, I'm not a rep, nor am I affiliated with CyberPower; other than the fact that I've bought a computer from them.
'bad builds' generally stem from cheaping out on the motherboard. I always crack up when people spend $600+ on hardware and have a cheap motherboard supporting it all. I got an EVGA board that cost me $250 and this thing is a dream. They always update the BIOS to support newer hardware and whatnot. I cant ever go back to buying prebuilt.