Building my Computer for FFXI ... your thoughts please

[HAGAKURE]

ok I had a Sony Vaio and my orginal plan was just to upgrade that but I recently found out that everything on that was intergrated to a crappy MoBo soz it virtually made it impossible to upgrade ...

My Goal is to surpass the "5000" score on the benchmark so with a help of a computer programmer that I know we' have decided to build a computer from scratch ... and so far this is the specs that will be one the computer

-VAV ATX Case with 400W Power Supply Model
- Win XP Professional
-Intel Pentium 4 / 2.6CGHz
-ATI All-In-Wonder RADEON 9800 PRO
-Maxtor 120.0GB 7200RPM
-1024 DDR RAM w/ platinum silver heat spreader
-Voyetra Turtle Beach Santa Cruz Sound Card

these are the main parts that im buying for my computer ...
does anyone know what to expect as far as gaming wise because i've heard of some people with specs related to mine having only scores in the 2000's on the benchmark and thats my worse fear ...

any thoughts?

[GeekRock4Life]

that computer should last you a LONG time hehe, kinda overkill for this game actually..but ya, haha good choice on everything
(personally i prefer AMD over Pentium, but, whatever)

all-in-wonder radeon 9800 pro *drools*

[XZiLe]

the all-in-wonder version isn't necessary at all. it wont perform any better than the regular 9800 pro. the all-in-wonder series from ati come with extra hookups to connect your computer to a TV screen for display purposes, and for connection to vcr's etc. if you want it, then go for it.. and makes it easier to record videos straight onto a vcr... but if you're not into that, it'll be cheaper to go regular 9800 pro and there wont be any difference in graphic performance.

dont get me wrong, that's a great computer that will last a while... but im just gonna throw out some opinions (seems like you want top of the line, so maybe some stuff to consider).

if you want speed out of your hdd and dont need all 120gb, you can consider a 10,000 rpm drive. the downside is that you can only get one up to around 40gb (i believe, might be higher). you could also consider getting a RAID0 setup, which is 2 of the same hdd working together to double the amount and read faster by dividing the work up between two hard drives. you could get 2 120gb hdds set up RAID0, and it would be like 240gb, and would read a lot faster than a single hdd.

nvidia's geforce fx 5900 ultra 256mb is a better card than ati's radeon 9800 pro 256mb. some will say otherwise, so it may be just your preference, but in another thread around here (something about 9800 pro being "too overkill?") i posted some links showing benchmarks in which the 5900 ultra outscored the 9800 pro in nearly every test. again, though, if you're an ATI guy, by all means, it's your choice.

make sure your RAM is at least 400mhz. much faster than the 333mhz version (obviously) for better performance. this will also require a motherboard that is capable of 400mhz ddr ram. i would suggest (might be a bit pricy though...) soyo's dragon platinum 2 mobo... the model number is SY-P4I875P. it's a great board (and looks good too!). if the price is a little steep, look for something along those lines.. at least with a good 8x AGP slot, 400mhz ddr ram capabilities, and obviously capable of running your pentium4 cpu.

as for the cpu, it'll be much more beneficial for you to get the p4 @ 2.6ghz with a 800Mhz FSB (not 533mhz) with HyperThread technology. it'll perform much better than a "regular" p4 @ 2.6ghz.

sorry if that sounded a little "amateur-ish," i just have to assume... oh, and with the configuration you listed, you should easily pass 5000. these are mostly just my thoughts... again, you'll be well beyond fine with what you listed, dont feel like it's bad and you need to run out and spend a lot more money heh :sweat:

[Mithrankittycat]

All-in-wonder on a radeon card gives it a dongle for s-video and composite TV input and a coxial TV tuner. TV output is available on non all-in-wonder cards.

The c in 2.6c means 800 MHz "intel FSB".

A raid 0 setup isn't necessary for FFXI. SATA150 isn't even really necessary. This is just because the money is better off spent buying a faster CPU.

The memory should be two 512MB sticks of PC3200 DDR400 memory run in dual channel mode. A slight factor is the CAS latency. Corsair has a nice presentation on DDR memory ratings at: http://www.corsairmicro.com/memory_basics/index.html


I have a crappier system (Pentium 2.4B, pc1066 rdram, radeon 7500, 4431 benchmark) that runs the game at a decent 15-25 FPS at 1024x768 resolution and uncompressed textures. You'll really just have to tinker with the ATI control panel's anti-aliasing and anisotropic settings to get a good balance between prettier graphics and FPS when-you-have-the-game

[kowboy]

I have the All in Wonder 9800 because actually use the RCA inputs to rip stuff for my movie projects. I also hook up my cable to it so I can watch TV.

If you are shooting for the 5000 barrier...go with the Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB model. It seems like you are not holding back on anything, get the best.

[Mithrankittycat]

Get the 9800 pro 128mb and put that extra $100 in the CPU. NYAU.

[HAGAKURE]

thanx guys I am taking all of your post into consideration into building my computer ...


i'll let you guys know the final outcome of my project

[Rico]

I hope it becomes real strong ^^ (which it is man.. ur freakin rich man XD ) Im getting my computer tommorow (or monday :mad: ) So Im happy too I want to see the outcome of your computer ^^

[HAGAKURE]

lmao I wish I was rich but thats not the case ... I wont be able to get FFXI on the release date cause I wont beable to be finish paying for all this stuff ontill late November so unless FFXi gets pushed back I wont be one of the first to get the NA version which really bummed me out but since FFXI has a whole bunch of upgrades coming out I wont be missing much plus at lease i'll get the game before the PS2'ers .... o yes and didnt you use to be Mr.Gamer

[CForrester]

Good choices. Defiantely stick with Intel and ATi. Ditch the All-In-Wonder, though. It's only useful if you do video editing or want to watch TV on your computer monitor.

[Rico]

Originally posted by HAGAKURE
o yes and didnt you use to be Mr.Gamer

Yep Yep I changed my name to Rico alot of people don't know my named was changed im suirpesed you know.

[HAGAKURE]

Thanx Chris for the heads up to tell you the truth I didnt understand the difference between All-in-Wonder and Pro


Rico empty out your PM box would ya !!!

[kowboy]

Mithrenkitty is right, save the $100. The 9800 256mb model hasn't reached all of its potential retailers yet. They are being manufactured by middle-man companies such as Sapphire. If you're going to buy a video card for 400 bux, get a retail version from the manufacturer, not from some 3rd party company.

The 2.6CGhz goes for about 210 dollars right now, the next step up, 2.8 is about 270. Then you have the 3.0 which is 395. As you can see, the 2.8 jumps up 60 dollars from 2.6 while 3.0 goes up 125 dollars from 2.8. So your best bet is to spend the extra 60 for 2.8.

[Mithrankittycat]

I woke up from my weird kitty dreams and went "omg wtf!".
Disable hyperthreading, since you're going to play games. Direct3d performance goes down a little bit from it =>_>=

[beer]

hell you could even get an older version of windows that's less demanding if you really wanted to, even tho that's prolly totally unnecessicary.