[Luneknight]

First post! nice to meet you all, I look forward to a long lucaritive relationship with everyone on these boards but down to business.

While I'm sure this has come up many times I would like some help on deciding on what to upgrade on my pc for ffxiv. I had my hopes on being able to start playing last night, unfortunately it seems despite crossing my toes, my system has a slighty tough time graphically with it. I would appreciate any suggestions for equipment. Here's the problem, while I'm somewhat tech savvy on the outside, when it comes to the inside I'm completely dumbfounded ( I've actually been reading a'lot on overclocking recently ) So with this being said what format should I upload my specs in?

Sorry for the ignorance here but again a bit of help would be appreciated and with that, I'll hopefully be seeing you all online soon!

Ciao!

[mightyg]

I'd say generally the two most important things you need to run the game would be a faster processor and a more robust graphics card. If you're having significant issues running the game, overclocking isn't going to solve your problem. Naturally the problem with getting a new processor or graphics card is that you may also have to upgrade your motherboard, ram, and power supply to be compatible. Building a computer isn't really super hard, though it will cost you some money and time. If you have a friend that can help you upgrade, that's usually the best way to go, or find a computer shop that will put it together for you.

I'm not amazingly tech savvy either, but if you're looking for advice from knowledgeable people, post your system information so they can take a look and see what might be the best way to improve your computers performance on a budget.

This post has been edited by mightyg: 08 July 2011 - 09:59 PM

[Luneknight]

mightyg, on 08 July 2011 - 09:58 PM, said:

I'd say generally the two most important things you need to run the game would be a faster processor and a more robust graphics card. If you're having significant issues running the game, overclocking isn't going to solve your problem. Naturally the problem with getting a new processor or graphics card is that you may also have to upgrade your motherboard, ram, and power supply to be compatible. Building a computer isn't really super hard, though it will cost you some money and time. If you have a friend that can help you upgrade, that's usually the best way to go, or find a computer shop that will put it together for you.

I'm not amazingly tech savvy either, but if you're looking for advice from knowledgeable people, post your system information so they can take a look and see what might be the best way to improve your computers performance on a budget.

Thank you so much for that! I'll be posting specs tomorrow as work is draining my hp! heh

[Luneknight]

AMD Athlon II 640 Quad-Core Processor (3.00GHz)
PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM memory
Memory 4gb
ATI RadeonTM HD 4200 integrated graphics; Up to 1919MB Total Available Graphics Memory
4000MHz System Bus
250W psu ( I'm worried this might be a problem.? )

I've been planning on upgrading the system since I bought it anyways but again if any recommendations could be made specifically for ffxiv that would be much appreciated. Is there any other info I should post that would help?

[Derock]

Luneknight, on 10 July 2011 - 06:27 PM, said:

AMD Athlon II 640 Quad-Core Processor (3.00GHz)
PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM memory
Memory 4gb
ATI RadeonTM HD 4200 integrated graphics; Up to 1919MB Total Available Graphics Memory
4000MHz System Bus
250W psu ( I'm worried this might be a problem.? )

I've been planning on upgrading the system since I bought it anyways but again if any recommendations could be made specifically for ffxiv that would be much appreciated. Is there any other info I should post that would help?

That graphics card absolutely needs to be replaced. That model would have a difficult time running FFXI, let alone FFXIV. It's an integrated graphics card as well, so you won't actually have a graphics card in the normal sense because it's built directly into the mother board, but it should still contain a PCI-e expansion slot for a new card. With that, you'll probably have to wind up replacing the PSU because the new GFX card is going to be drawing a lot more power. Anything over 500w should cover you for just about anything you'll need in a regular computer for the foreseeable future. I personally like a modular PSU (you can add and remove cables to it as you want) to keep a cleaner case, but that just depends on your budget and preference.

If you're near a Micro Center store, I would absolutely check out their prices to see what kind of a deal you can get. Otherwise www.tigerdirect.com or www.newegg.com will be your best bet. I've personally used all 3 quite frequently over the years, and they've all been good to me should any issues arise. Do not go to Best Buy or any other big box store and be weary of mom and pop shops for parts.

[Luneknight]

ah! very good, thank you for the information. In that case I'll be planning on upgrading both very soon, aside from that is there any monumental way to cock up your system whilst replacing those? I'm assuming it's just plug and play for both the psu and video card, it's however a nerve wrecking thing if there's a possibility I can ruin my comp. as I seem to be fairly accident prone heh

Anyways, again thank you so much for the help and I'll be researching on newegg!

*edit*

So here's the prebuilt http://www.pcmag.com...,2378942,00.asp

And this is what I've found that I think will suffice

http://www.newegg.co...0-010-_-Product

and

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814500194

Your thoughts?

This post has been edited by Luneknight: 12 July 2011 - 08:52 AM

[Derock]

Those should both be fine. One thing to note: your case is a prebuilt and therefor some of the pieces might be proprietary to your system. It's generally not the case with a tower, but very rarely certain parts won't fit. Worst case scenario is that you have to buy a new case and transfer the parts into it.

As far as an easy way to get your system faster? More RAM. For what you'll be most likely using it for though, 4gb should be plenty. If you start running virtual OS's though you might want to consider upgrading.

[Luneknight]

wonderful, I'm assuming if I do need to purchase another case will it lead to me taking it out piece by piece or will it come out as a whole on the board then just swap? BTW thanks for the help would have been lost about this process heh.

[Derock]

Luneknight, on 12 July 2011 - 01:49 PM, said:

wonderful, I'm assuming if I do need to purchase another case will it lead to me taking it out piece by piece or will it come out as a whole on the board then just swap? BTW thanks for the help would have been lost about this process heh.

You'll have to take everything out piece by piece. It's not bad though. Everything generally only fits into a slot that it's supposed to plug into.