First Gaming Rig

[TouchandFeel]

playing at 1980x1020 with normal settings, dont care for shadows but i would like to see other peoples moves instad of nothing like its on now. FPS wise i want over 40 if possible

Honestly, if that is all your looking to get, it would really just be cheaper to get a PS4 to play on, even with buying PS4 copies of the game.

[SavageRico]

Honestly, if that is all your looking to get, it would really just be cheaper to get a PS4 to play on, even with buying PS4 copies of the game.

After playing FFXI on console (both ps2 and xbox) i dont want to go that route again

[Noxifer]

Your right, i have been taking all the advice given and to be honest, its overwhelming for someone who only has used a pc for basic school work and internet use. After the premades were shot down for some part issues i looked into building a rig to make sure Im getting something worth the money,

Oh, it can be very overwhelming, trying to figure out what parts you need and which parts do what when it comes to "gaming horsepower". It can be a lot easier just to find a place that specialize in computers and buy something ready-made that's labelled "gaming pc". But the good thing with building one yourself (apart from not needing to go "oooh, this looks good *read through specs* oh, damn, it hasn't got that one thing I wanted" on several of them) is that it's often a lot cheaper than a ready-made one =)

Like people have said, the RAM isn't an immediate issue; you can always get more RAM sticks later. Just try to get the same type (or at least same size and same Mhz), since they work better with each other than if they're not.

The GPU can be good to go the little extra mile on. Me and my flatmate recently upgraded our GPUs. Of course, the difference between our old GPUs (Radeon 7870 and 6870 respectively) and the new ones (GTX980) was bigger, but we more than tripled our benchmark scores with just that upgrade alone.
Looking at videocardbenchmark.net, the 980 has a score of ~9,700, 970 has a score of ~8,600 and the 960 has a score of just below 6,000, so the difference between 970 and 960 is bigger than between 980 and 970. In fact, both GTX 770 and 780 score higher than the 960. (That site can over-all be a good help when you're trying to decide which parts to get -- it also has lists for CPUs, Hard drives and RAM -- and how much you gain/lose by choosing a newer or older CPU/GPU related to how much money you'd spend/save.)

One word of warning, though: I've heard that many people experience lower performance in FFXIV with the 970 than with lower-performing cards (which is why me and my flatmate decided to splurge on two 980s instead), so you might want to look that up first.

As for OS, you might want to consider looking at OEM license Win7 (or 8 if you prefer that OS). It's legal -- if borderline, since they're intended for companies who sell those ready-made, pre-installed PCs -- and often a lot cheaper than non-OEM licenses, and other than the packaging there's no real difference between them other than what kind of support you get from Microsoft if something goes wrong (since with OEM you're supposed to get your support from the company that sold you the PC).

Honestly, if that is all your looking to get, it would really just be cheaper to get a PS4 to play on, even with buying PS4 copies of the game.

And the drawback of going with a console is (apart from giving up gaming mice/keyboards) is that you can't tab out and look things up while playing, and sharing links/youtube videos or other fun facts with your party/FC/linkshell is trickier, since you can't copy-paste but have to re-type it by hand ^^;

[TouchandFeel]

I don't believe we have talked him/her into "a bunch of upgrades".

We suggested a standard ATX sized mobo over a microATX, which is beneficial for a first time builder as it has things more spaced out and therefore is easier to put together.

We also suggested getting a 970 over a 960 as that will be a noticeable performance increase for not too much money. This one is actually an upgrade.

The memory suggestion was a tentative maybe, with a start with 8gb and get more if you end up needing it.

Lastly was the CPU heatsink, which you may get by "okay ...ish" with stock , but stock coolers are pretty much always louder, suffer from greater instances of fan failure and tend to be worse with case airflow set ups which cause greater heat build up inside the case which causes increased temps for all your components. Most cases have a forward to back airflow (front intake, back exhaust). Stock only tend to blow straight down onto the heatsink or pull up from it, flowing perpendicular to the established airflow of the case, hence the greater heat build up.
This one was also an upgrade.

That is only two upgrades that have been highly recommended and both for very good reason.

OP, if you can't afford the 970 right now, I would suggest waiting just a little bit to build your comp so you can afford it, it'll be much better in the long-term for you.
In the end it's a "you get what you pay for" situation and you just need to decide what you really want to end up with and how you can get that or something close to it.

Lastly, these are all only suggestions on what you should do, in the end just make the decision that you feel is right for you.

[TouchandFeel]

FX11 was crap on PS2 and Xbox, I remember that.

FF14 on the other hand runs amazingly well on PS4 (I have it on both PC and PS4 and they both link to your same account). It's about the same performancewise as a mid-level PC.

I did a comparison between my old gaming laptop that was running an i7 processor and a gtx680m gpu and the PS4 version, and I could barely tell the difference.

The only real drawback to the PS4 version is if you want to use specialized peripherals, like an MMO mouse or gamepad, those tend to not work because they require special software. A standard plug and play USB mouse and keyboard or even Bluetooth ones will work (although I experienced some lag with the Bluetooth connections).

[SavageRico]

FX11 was crap on PS2 and Xbox, I remember that.

FF14 on the other hand runs amazingly well on PS4 (I have it on both PC and PS4 and they both link to your same account). It's about the same performancewise as a mid-level PC.

I did a comparison between my old gaming laptop that was running an i7 processor and a gtx680m gpu and the PS4 version, and I could barely tell the difference.

The only real drawback to the PS4 version is if you want to use specialized peripherals, like an MMO mouse or gamepad, those tend to not work because they require special software. A standard plug and play USB mouse and keyboard or even Bluetooth ones will work (although I experienced some lag with the Bluetooth connections).

Thats my main issue, i have a razr naga from wow that i can imagen not playing with. PS4 is not an opition at all. Im sorry

[TouchandFeel]

If it is one of the pre- Naga 2014 models that has the onboard memory, people have reported that and the Logitech g600 mice as working on the PS4 but the keypads default to the 1 through = keys.
Haven't tested it myself though.

Again, as a I said before, make the decision that you feel is best for you. Myself and others are just trying to provide you with information so you can get the performance you want for the $ you can afford.

@Noxifer

The whole lower performance on 970's thing, it wasn't so much that they performed worse it was that people thought they should perform better than they were. The why this is has to do with how the gpu RAM allocation is setup. Its not a singular 4gb chunk like it says it is, its a 3.5gb chunk plus another 0.5gb separate chunk of slower memory. This caused issues with some people when the would try to run games at max settings and at 4k resolution. They would use up the 3.5gb and start to dip into the slower 0.5gb which would result in visual stuttering and hitching for some people. Outside of scenarios like that, there weren't any issues. Also Nvidia kind of got burnt at the stake for that and have been working on improvements to the RAM allocation to make the separate .5gb RAM not, or at least less of an issue. Iirc, they said they were going to just allocate the .5gb for firmware storage, that way the 3.5gb of faster RAM is dedicated solely to graphical processing, therefore improving performance by more effective resource allocation.

I did a lot of research on this issue because it was a big thing when I was building my current comp. I ended up going with dual oc'd 970's in SLI and I have had no performance issues.

The gtx970 is still way better than the 960.

However if this game is really the only one that is going to be extensively played and only with mid-level settings, a gtx960 will be enough.

[SavageRico]

Wow i didnt think it would be that far of a gap between 960 and 970.... if i just get my current build with the 970 card, i should bbe set. if im gonna spent 200+ on the GPU i should just wait and get the 970 to not have to worry about FPS issues.

So with the input i got this is:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/hpzdVn
this is with the normal sized MOBO a 970 card. not sure if its a good one or not because there were so many 4GB cards and brands......
the SSD is for OS, FFXIV and WoW, everything else if possible will be on the HDD (got to research how to do that as well)
I dont want to pay for windows 8 at all. i find it gross that win7 is more expensive then 8, like they know of the mistake they made but i have never downloaded a OS nor now how to get a code.

i will say you guys/gals are so knowleadgeable that just having this back and forth over my last posts have given me so much more incite into this wonderful building