New rig thoughts

[Zante]

Just want to know what you guys think of this for a new computer upgrade for fffxiv/gaming in general i dont want to spend alot of money on a new computer but im having this built for me my old comp runs ffxiv but is about 4 years old so in events where alot of things are happening on the screen makes my fps drop pretty low so decided to upgrade thoughts?


Processor :- intel core i5-2500k Quad core (3.30GHz 6mb cache) + HD Graphics

Motherboard: -ASUS P8Z77-M: Micro- ATX usb 3.0 SATA 6GBs ATI crossfireX

RAM:- 8GB Samsung dual ddr3 1333MHz (2x4gb)

Graphics card :-1GB Nvidia geforce gtx 550 TI-dvi hdmi vga 3d vision ready

(Btw im not great with computer building so jargon free would be great)

[Onisake]

If you're not good with computer building, I would buy a retail model.

To be perfectly honest custom rigs require a lot of work. they are a lot like a car and require maintenance and a lot of TLC to keep things running smoothly. you will get quickly overwhelmed by the work if you jump into it too fast. if you don't know the jargon, that's a good indication you're not ready to build your own rig. stick with retail. there is a whole realm of compatibility you have to worry about. and unless we build your rig for you, and set it up. you wont' be running smoothly or anywhere near the true capabilities of the machine. you're really going to want to know how to tell the difference between a CPU and a GPU bottle neck before you make such an attempt.


check the dell outlet store. you can find a lot of nice machines for very cheap. they may require some trouble shooting, but it will help you get an idea of what you might be getting into as far as a custom rig. if you're unwilling, or incapable, of high level troubleshooting spend the extra money for a bread-and-butter retail model.

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also check your settings. change your FPS cap to 30 FPS if you haven't already.

your FPS drops may not be your PC either. it could be the latency issue. i'd wait for the new engine to be released and SE to release the new specs for the game and use that as your baseline for getting a new machine.

[REDace0]

Looks ok to me as far as the performance parts you've selected go. That should let you run the game at standard settings at 1080p, which is what I do with a comparable system, or higher settings at lower resolutions. I see you mentioned having someone else build this for you, and that's great. Putting together a PC, while not really difficult, isn't as simple as just putting the parts together and powering on. I recommend, if you haven't already, have someone with experience building PCs help you pick out a power supply, a case with plenty of room, and enough fans to keep the air circulating and the pieces cool. That latter option can include buying additional fans, since many cases leave some slots for fans empty, or buying a third-party cooling system for your CPU, since the included fan, heatsink, and thermal paste can be rather awful.

Good luck!

[Ketone]

Looks great, if not ideal. The only bottleneck would be the GPU, though I don't imagine that many games other than XIV would need much more power than that. Still, it's always a good idea to get as much power from a GPU as you can feasibly afford. Futureproofing by spending the extra $50-$100 on a better GPU from the outset spares you from spending another $150-$300 on a brand new one too soon due to the quick obsolescence of the cheaper cards.

[Synfrag]

Processor :- intel core i5-2500k Quad core (3.30GHz 6mb cache) + HD Graphics
This is a good starting point for CPU, you could even get away with an i3 for now.

Motherboard: -ASUS P8Z77-M: Micro- ATX usb 3.0 SATA 6GBs ATI crossfireX
I would suggest you go with a SLI motherboard if you are getting an nVidia card and generally ATX is a better choice unless you are trying to make a small PC

RAM:- 8GB Samsung dual ddr3 1333MHz (2x4gb)
I recommend going with GSkill, Mushkin or Corsair RAM

Graphics card :-1GB Nvidia geforce gtx 550 TI-dvi hdmi vga 3d vision ready
Like others have said, putting a little more money into the graphics card will go a long way. I would opt for a 600 series if I were to buy today.

The #1 most important and slowest part of any computer is your hard drive. So if you stick with these original specs and instead tack on a fast SATA III SSD or a 10k RPM hard drive (Western Digital VelociRaptor) you will see better overall speed than any other single upgrade. Other than that, you have a good starting point. You can upgrade a lot of it later on if it isn't enough.

NEVER, EVER, EVER buy an OEM system. It will leave you with nearly 0 upgrade options. Have an experienced builder build you one if you are not comfortable learning how yourself.

What I can tell you, my PC which specs just slightly higher than what you are talking about delivers "Hitchy" 50-60 FPS in FFXIV. Cities still drop it down to 30s sometimes.

AMD Phenom x6 1090T
EVGA gForce 560
Corsair 750w PSU
8GB Gskill Ripjaws
500GB WD Caviar SATA II
60GB OCZ Vertex Plus SATA II SSD
Liquid cooled

[Shokun]

I agree with Ketone and Synfrag here, they have very valid points. I would steer well away from ready-made builds, as most of them are completely terrible and inbalanced (they sell on big numbers, say proper Intel i5 processor, 16GB RAM, 500GB hard drive and then you get Geforce gt540 as graphics card. Not gonna play much on that before you get new graphics). Having someone experienced build one for you is a lot better choice, he should know about bottlenecks and cooling and power supplies. Point about custom computers requiring more maintenance is not very true either, all computers require some maintenance, and if pc is built well, no more maintenance should be required when compared to ready-made.

As for the parts. They look very good in general, but you could still get a faster graphics card and not have other system hinder it. If it fits to your budget, consider 560 or 560ti or even something from 600 series instead of the 550ti, I'm running overclocked 560ti with i7 930 (2.8 GHz quad core, should be a bit slower than that i5 if I remember correct) and cpu is nowhere near full utilisation.

Amount of memory is good, but I would also suggest going for a better brand, those Synfrag said and Kingston are very good.

Importance of a good quality power supply cannot be expressed enough. Get a good quality PSU, pay a bit extra for that if you have to. When power supply fails, it can and will take other parts with it too, and that's no fun. Corsair, Seasonic, Antec, Cooler Master come to mind as brands that are known for quality. For your system, I would get ~600W supply, 500 might make it and 700 is just too much with just single graphics card.

SSD drive can make your computer run faster (significantly) but will take the price up too. You will need normal hard drive with or without as SSDs have limited space, they're fast but small, large enough to have operating system and some software on them, rest will have to be stored to the normal hard drive.

Intel i7 930
6GB Corsair Dominator @1600MHz
MSI GTX560Ti Hawk
Samsung F3 1TB
Antec 300
Cooler Master GX650W