Building a new PC and looking for some feedback.

[JaSamHen]

Hi! As stated in the title, I am building a new PC to play the game. Here is my current build:

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+
Motherboard: Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe
Memory: 3GB Corsair DDR2 PC2-6400 (800MHz)
Video Card: AMD Radeon HD 7770 1GB

What I will be building:

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 EXTREME6
Memory: Corsair Dominator GT 16GB DDR3-2133 Memory
Storage: Samsung 850 Pro 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Video Card: GeForce GTX 970 4GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express

My question is will I see a significant improvement? The game is playable now, but really bogs down when in populated areas (less than 10 FPS). It also utilizes 100% of my CPU while playing, regardless of location. I'm also curious as to feedback regarding which GTX 970 to purchase. I've read reviews on several and feel that the Gigabyte version might be the one to go with, but would like other opinions if possible. Thanks for your time.

[NyarukoW]

The difference will be night an day.

[Lollie]

You should be able to hit 120 fps+ with your suggested build on max settings.

[Welsper59]

Yes, you will see HUGE differences. Probably enough to make you cry if you're a very emotional person LOL.

Be sure you update your GPU drivers (pretty much a given for most people given that it's been out for a decent amount of time already). The 970 (probably all 900 series) had issues with distortion on FFXIV when the card first came out, but they fixed it a few updates into it. I use the 970 and it runs more or less flawlessly. SLIGHT graphical lag at times, but you really won't notice it as long as your processor manages it well enough.

I used to use the old i5 3570K a few years ago, and even for today, that thing would still perform very well. That said, I'm going to assume the newer gen models like the 4690K will outperform it. No hyper threading, but that shouldn't affect you much at all, at least not compared to what you currently use.

MOBOs IMO are really a trial and error thing for most people. With the exception of literal restrictions (socket type, RAM capacity/speed, ports, etc), you won't notice too much of a difference between boards as a normal user.

Your RAM selection might actually be too good for the needs of this game, but if you can afford it, I say go for it. Worst case, you can recycle it for any future upgrading you need to do.

Your SSD selection is fine, but you may want to look into getting a larger storage drive if you plan on using the computer for more than just FFXIV. If you want to save on cost, a generic regular 5400 or 7200 RPM 1TB HDD should be fine for storage. Again, depending on what you plan to do with it, it'll depend on how much storage you really need. I personally don't see a point in wasting a lot of money on very large storage SSD (unless you only have 1 drive space) or 10k+ RPM HDD, but that's just me.

Back to your GPU though, ASUS (not Gigabyte, like I first said) was definitely the best brand to get the 900 series cards, at least when they first came out. I ended up getting the EVGA version (considered a not-so-good choice for the 900 series) simply because it was the only one in stock and I needed a new card. I dunno, mines is still running fine and I haven't had any problems that I can recall after a little over 3 months. I think Gigabyte is perfectly fine though if you want to go with that.

[Aycee]

You could save a bit of money going with 8gb ram, 16 is overkill for just gaming.

Having recently built a new pc myself from a very outdated machine, I was blown away by the differences. Using MSI's 970 without any problems, though I picked it purely for aesthetics. Also I would agree with Welsper on getting at least a 1tb HDD, they're fairly cheap anyway and you'll need the storage space. I'd say install your OS and most played games on the SSD and everything else on the HDD.

[JaSamHen]

Thanks for the replies so far! I guess I should I have mentioned that I will be playing the game at 1920x1200, if that makes any difference. As far as storage, thanks for the recommendations! I have plenty of storage hard drives laying around that will be used in that capacity. I am currently on Windows 7 64-bit, but will be putting 8.1 on my new machine. I hope there are no issues with that, but I haven't read about any as of yet.

[Haibel]

I'd say install your OS and most played games on the SSD and everything else on the HDD.

Also don't partition your whole SSD, Leave some space unallocated for future dead space that you can just expand your active partition into. Also remember to move your User and temp folders off your SSD. This will help extend the life of your SSD. Myself I left about 50 GBs unallocated. What OS are you planning on using?

[MiniTofu]

Also don't partition your whole SSD, Leave some space unallocated for future dead space that you can just expand your active partition into. Also remember to move your User and temp folders off your SSD. This will help extend the life of your SSD. Myself I left about 50 GBs unallocated. What OS are you planning on using?

Wearing out a SSD as typical users is ineligible. It will takes 20 years before you replace it.

Those statistic online are meant for server use with constant read and write 24/7.

[Welsper59]

Thanks for the replies so far! I guess I should I have mentioned that I will be playing the game at 1920x1200, if that makes any difference. As far as storage, thanks for the recommendations! I have plenty of storage hard drives laying around that will be used in that capacity. I am currently on Windows 7 64-bit, but will be putting 8.1 on my new machine. I hope there are no issues with that, but I haven't read about any as of yet.

Personally, I'd say stick with Windows 7 if you still have the key and it wasn't an OEM and bound to your old mobo. 8.1, while fine, isn't really the most ideal gaming OS in general IMO. I think that's just a preference thing really (I play FFXIV on my Surface Pro 3 once in a while, which uses 8.1). The resolution you mentioned shouldn't affect your performance.

[NyarukoW]

Windows 7 for the win. Don't waste your time or efforts with Windows 8 anything, since that is a total disaster and Microsoft will be releasing its replacement any time now. So any money, time, and effort put into windows 8 will be wasted.