Announcement

**Omniblast** · 10-29-2005, 12:00 PM

Re: What you guys think of this system for FFXI?

No matter what system you get, you'll only get 30 FPS ^_^.;;
Oh and it matters more on the CPU than anything else. Aparantly there are no graphic cards on the PS2 so they never designed ffxi to have multiple processors. (or so I've heard)

**Serantos** · 10-29-2005, 02:01 PM

Re: What you guys think of this system for FFXI?

Get a bigger HDD. 36 gig will go fast... I have 310 gig on mine and I'm trying to look for places where I can spare some space...

**Okakura** · 10-29-2005, 02:23 PM

Re: What you guys think of this system for FFXI?

If u only wanna play FFXI in ur pc, a hard disc of 20 GB 5400 rpm its ok, n i think u should buy a 256 video card (Nvidia works better in ffxi than Ati)

**Jei** · 10-29-2005, 03:13 PM

Re: What you guys think of this system for FFXI?

you got some nice hardware there. 3G CPU, 1G Ram.
Is that a PCI graphic card you're getting? PCI-E is the new PCI? How fast is that?

**Guillotine** · 10-29-2005, 03:58 PM

Re: What you guys think of this system for FFXI?

Yeah PCI-express is the replacement for AGP 8x now.

edit: as for drive size I know it's small, but I already have another computer for storage, I'm looking for loading time speed. that's why i'm going with that drive. The 10k rpm drives are pricier.

oh, and as for the nvidia vs ati, i've noticed that FFXI really doesn't like ati cards. the rendering is all wrong and I hate it. So I'm going nvidia.

Eventually I think I'll need a 7800 in there but they're a bit too expensive right now. I'm going to spend a lot on the motherboard so when the prices come down a bit i'll have the option of picking some better stuff up. That mobo can handle all the way up to the brand new intel extreme dual core with HT, and if I had the $1300 CDN to handle the price tag I'd own one.

**Kailea** · 10-30-2005, 05:50 AM

Re: What you guys think of this system for FFXI?

if you are looking for HDD load speed, make sure you get a HDD that uses Serial-ATA instead if IDE, its faster, and like others have said, get that CPU speed up there, that is what mainly matters for FFXI, but for other PC games make sure your Ghrapics card is good as well.

**Kafeen** · 10-30-2005, 07:28 AM

Re: What you guys think of this system for FFXI?

FFXI doesn't really need a high spec machine to run on. It about 3 year now, the limitations it places on itself are going to hold it back alot more than a modern PC. Its not heavy on HDD access so a 10k RPM hard drive isn't going to help FFXI the way it will a new FPS.

Don't just build your PC based on what FFXI needs, it'll run on pretty much whatever you get.

**Guillotine** · 10-30-2005, 09:42 AM

Re: What you guys think of this system for FFXI?

Originally posted by Kafeen

FFXI doesn't really need a high spec machine to run on. It about 3 year now, the limitations it places on itself are going to hold it back alot more than a modern PC. Its not heavy on HDD access so a 10k RPM hard drive isn't going to help FFXI the way it will a new FPS.

Don't just build your PC based on what FFXI needs, it'll run on pretty much whatever you get.

Well, hard drive doesn't affect FPS in any game, I know that. What it's for is load times, and I'd be willing to bet that'd cut some major time off the loading screens in FFXI.

As for the "it'll run on pretty much whatever you got." That's true, but it won't run well on just anything.

My current system gets a ton of chop in city, and even some outside. If I can make that go away I'll be happy. (except maybe in jeuno, i'm aware that it'll lag pretty much any computer a bit)

**Minimee** · 10-30-2005, 10:55 AM

Re: What you guys think of this system for FFXI?

heres my suggestion:
get an amd 64 athlon 3200 venice recent price drop from $190 to $152@ newegg.com. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103535
want something a bit pricier? athlon 64 X2 3800 (dual core) $329.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103562

motherboard:ASROCK dual sata2 $69 has both agp and pci express for video card if you already have a decent video card. this mb is comparable to the new nforce4 motherboards and can mild overclock. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157081
if wanting something more any of the nforce4 motherboards would suit your purpose asus, epox or dfi.

with these motherboards you can use the sata 2 (sata 3.0gb's) these are less pricey than the raptor so get 2 and raid them. speed should be comparable if not faster and 4 or 5 times the hard drive space. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822152020

rest you can figure out. amd should give you more bang for your buck for playing games. 2 gigs of ram would be better.

**DakAttack** · 10-30-2005, 11:54 AM

Re: What you guys think of this system for FFXI?

Guillotine, when you play do a few checks and see where you get the most lag. What kind of weather effects lag you the most? Do you get a lot of lag in Lower Jeuno? With character models turned down?

For comparison purposes I have 1GIG of RAM, and a GeForce MX 440 AGPx8, 36 Gigs of HD space, with a 60 Gig slave, and some odd P4 processor. I lag in Lower Jeuno with the character models count turned down, and I only lag in wind and earth weather. The dirt and grass blowing is a killer.

I say more RAM would help me with weather, but my card is pretty out dated. Eveyrbody lags in Lower Jueno. >_<

**Guillotine** · 10-30-2005, 01:17 PM

Re: What you guys think of this system for FFXI?

Seems like I get lag from all effects, and inside any city (i'm assuming this is just because of all the characters around). I've turned up and down the displayed character model setting and it really doesn't seem to make much of a difference (haven't tested it in jeuno yet).

It's also helpful to note that I'm not talking crippling lag here, it's just that it seems like outside i get around 20-25 fps with no effects (spell effects, that blood effect when you get hit etc.), with effects it drops down to about 15-20 i would guess. and in city it gets really choppy and it's probably down in the low 10's and even below that in spots. I've tried all kinds of settings and they really don't make a dramatic difference. I've never had FFXI running spectacularly before, sadly my frame rate was signifigantly better in WoW too. Though that may just be a fact of the game engine.

edit: yeah i *could* be persuaded to come back to amd. I'm completely turned off of ATI vid cards though so nvidia is the only option for me in that department. ati cards play FFXI like crap... you should see the weird lines you get in game it's horrible. I also dislike VIA chipset boards, they're really annoying. but If i could find an nforce4 board that i really liked maybe i'll go for it...

Oh, and I don't really order from newegg because i'm in canada (i could but the duty would break me). I think I'm going to go with NCIX they're a company up here.

edit 2: ok I've reconsidered my options and I think you're right minimee. It's going to be a gaming computer, so it would be foolish to go intel. AMD by all accounts is the only real option for pure gaming power.

Asus has always been my favorite manufacturer, so what do you think the best option would be there? I think I basically just need to pick what kind of chipset i want. Do you think SLI would be worth it or is it pretty useless? I think i'd just want to buy a whole new video card than try and get 2 slower ones to do the job...

**Shiro_Hayate** · 10-30-2005, 05:46 PM

Re: What you guys think of this system for FFXI?

If you live in Toronto or around here go to Pacific Mall and pick up some stuff. I don't know about ATI cards but my Radeon 9600 runs FFXI fine. PCI and AGP cards dont' really have much difference right now from the bench marks I've seen. Wait a bit till PCI gets more popular...but it seems that PCI cards are cheaper, only problem is for most people upgrading to an PCI card requires ripping out the mobo and getting a new one. This guy of course doesn't have that problem

**Yashin** · 10-30-2005, 06:55 PM

Re: What you guys think of this system for FFXI?

Everything is good but the HDD and CPU, get an AMD their better for gaming, cheaper, and run cooler

For the hard drive just get a bigger HDD

**Balodoth** · 10-30-2005, 08:47 PM

Re: What you guys think of this system for FFXI?

I'd just like to point out that your mobo is rated for 1066 Mhz, with the DDR ram matched at half with 533, but your CPU is set to 800 Mhz. That means your bus and ram will be slowed down to 800 and 400 respectively.

See if you can find a CPU that reads for 1066 or 533 frontside bus. Otherwise, match the mobo and the ram to the CPU to save a few bucks to spend elsewhere.

Besides that, you'll find that you won't have any problem playing the game. Things I would use state of the art technology to improve would be level load times and lag. For load times I'd get a faster HD, perhaps even a few normal HD's set up on a RAID card with a nice buffer. For lag, do your research on the LAN options the mobo offers. I don't see graphics and such hurting that too much by now.

Announcement

What you guys think of this system for FFXI?

What you guys think of this system for FFXI?

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment