Is this a good computer?

[Paladinleeds]

One luxury I'm amazed that no one else has mentioned tho: An SSD is literally the biggest single quality of life upgrade you can make to any PC, and they aren't expensive anymore. If you really aren't keen on doing any tinkering yourself, consider getting a build that's got one out of the box. You can thank me later.

Only spotted this thread just now, but you're right. I moved from a 5400RPM drive to an SSD. Load times dropped from about 2 minutes (they seriously were that bad for me, worse than Sonic 06!), to about 15 seconds. It's such a breath of fresh air!

[cheolsu]

that computer is just fine for ffxiv. a ps4 has 8 gb of memory. if you continue to play ffxiv and similar games, you won’t need to upgrade (there’s tons of games you can play with that computer)

an ssd does make a big difference when you’re loading, but it makes little to no difference when you’re playing the game. you won’t be any worse of than ps4

[RitsukoSonoda]

Spec wise it should run FFXIV without issue. However given history with HP in the past selling generations of the same computer without addressing hardware defects I personally wouldn't buy it. Two that come to mind is a desktop series with defective motherboard that would stop recognizing drives connected to it and the series of laptops that would generate enough heat to cause the motherboard to delaminate and allow the components connected to it to peel off. Both cases HP continued to make and sell updated versions of the product while still using the defective component.

I'd research not just that model but the series that HP belongs to beforehand to see if people have been reporting issues with it's hardware.

[Lilseph]

Only spotted this thread just now, but you're right. I moved from a 5400RPM drive to an SSD. Load times dropped from about 2 minutes (they seriously were that bad for me, worse than Sonic 06!), to about 15 seconds. It's such a breath of fresh air!

Yup, an SSD is life changing. There is no turning back after getting one. I noticed the difference specially with hunts back in the day. Otherwise I'd sit on the loading screen as I read on the shout chat "ded" ; ;

[Estelle9lives]

That just seems a little low to me; and I'm fairly sure that with only 3gb graphics and 8gb system memory, you will be running with your graphics setting somewhere in the middle, and pushing 50-60fps at best.

This is wrong. Not only RAM has virtually no effect on FPS, but I run a similar setup as to what OP posted (except I use a 6GB 1060)and I can reach 90 fps+ in most areas - in situations like instances reaching over 100 depending on what's on screen, running at 1080p max settings. The difference between a 6GB and a 3GB isn't big enough for OP to have to drop to medium settings, specially since at 1080p max FFXIV sits at around 1400MB VRAM usage.

That said, I would definitely save a bit more for a better card unless OP is adamant they're only gonna play XIV and don't want to go above 1080p.

Also not sure what this 'ffxiv doesn't work well above 60fps' thing is? I aim for 100fps with my X34A and it's an absolute treat.

I think it's worth mentioning that framerate above the 60 mark will only benefit those who have high refresh rate displays, or else it will make the game look completely jittery.

[uvuvwevwevweonyetenyevweugwemu]

Personally I don't trust nvidia. Too much bloat comes from software outside their hardware stuff.
I had a 7 years old pc for 3.0 with 8gb, upgraded to 16 gb with new pc for 4.0.
It's the most important upgrade, the fancy graphics above 720p only worth it if you use 60+" screen.
Pretty sure the screen itself will cost more than the entire pc.