Tuesday 13 July 2010

PC Upgrade Advice


Yes, the benchmark has been around for a while, but let's get some discussion going! (Link is to forum discussion about specs and scores.)

[If you don't have the benchmark yet, download it here!]

I'll assume most people who check this blog often are people who will be playing on PC at release time. If you are anything like me, you probably want to upgrade your PC to be up to snuff! I did a little ballpark-figure upgrade for my PC on Newegg recently, and it came out to be over $1000 USD. I had intended on getting a new CPU, a new Video Card, and a small but fast Solid-State Drive to install the game onto.

My advice for anyone hell-bent on upgrading their PC for launch day is simply this: Don't do it!

Wait until September. Prices will fall, if only slightly. Octuple-core CPUs are coming (sometime). Video card technology is constantly changing.

Unless you need the equipment right away for other purposes, it's prudent to wait until after you have played the game on your current setup before committing money to improving it. That way, you can decide how much of an upgrade you require, roughly; or if you even need one at all -- perhaps the cost won't be justified when you see that it actually runs nicely on your current rig.

As the adage goes, "haste makes waste." Ordering your upgrade blindly, or based loosely upon your benchmark scores, will almost certainly result in overspending and buyer's remorse.

Make yourself wait those extra two or three weeks after launch, maybe even a month or more, to decide whether the game is running smoothly at the setting level you desire. Updates will likely be rampant after launch; not everything is perfect after beta! There could be performance boosting updates due to rewriting wasteful code.

You can argue that if you did overspend, that you have at least gotten a leg-up on future games that will be more demanding. That very well may be true, but to me it's just a rationalization.

Don't spend your money before you know what it's being spent for!

Did you already drop some cash on an upgrade? Let me know what you spent it on, and how much your benchmark changed!
Satisfied with your current benchmark score? Post your rig and score in the thread!
Waiting for release to upgrade, like I am? Tell me what you have your eyes on for your upgrades!

6 comments:

  1. I'm getting ready to spend about $600 on a completely new rig for 14 as soon as my paycheck comes in this friday. However for me, I have a laptop that overheats on WoW and I can't even get it to complete the benchmark without overheating, so for me it's totally worth the investment. I won't be getting maxed out settings with my new comp, but I know i'll be able to play it.

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  2. I'm waiting until September to upgrade my comp for a couple reasons:
    - Hoping prices will drop.
    - My birthday is the 26th.
    - It's basically a full upgrade.
    - I don't have the funds to buy everything at once.

    If I see something going on a sale between now and then I'll probably grab it. The parts I picked out on newegg total to ~$850 USD out of my budget of $1000. Now's the time to shop around and wait. Patience can be a virtue. ~.^

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  3. Like I posted before I bought a completely new pc for FFXIV, my last pc was just too old and a few upgrades wouldn't have been enough, my new pc should be ready tomorrow. This is my new pc build looking at the bill.

    Coolermaster HAF 932 Black
    Intel core i7 875k 2.93G/8M/S1156
    Sata3 600G W.D 10k rpm 32M V-Raptor
    S1156 Asus P7P55D-E P55
    Windows 7 Home premium
    700w ATX CM Silent Pro series M
    Kingston KVR 1333MHZ DDR3 4G kit
    Asus PCIE Geforce GTX480 1536M

    I'll post what kind of benchmark this will do as soon as I try it ;)

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  4. Sounds nice, Sky! And I am mostly in the same boat as Rebecca. My birthday is even on the 6th of September :). As for Mike and Lisa, I hope the new computer works out!

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  5. http://myffxivjourney.freeforums.org/pc-specs-benchmark-scores-t32.html

    Thread for posting related scores and setups.

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  6. Any chance you can upload some screenshots of the beta-players website with some of the news that you lucky testers have?

    Thanks for the cool vids on you blog too!

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