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6 posts
I was thinking about upgrading (in my case buying an entire new computer) so that I can play EverQuest 2. I want great performance and quality, and was just wondering what Sound and Graphic cards I should use. Thanks for the info.
what is your budget?
Sound card, despite the fancy words creative advertises and such generally do not differ much. I have found my Nividia Soundcard built onto my MB is really just as good of sound quality as my friends sound blaster audigy. About the only time a Sound card really matters is if your heavy into Midi music (very few games or apps use midi anymore) or maybe if your wanting some super expensive surround sound deal.
Video card obviously makes a huge difference. I have been told the memory DOES make a difference with EQ2. I personally use a Geforce FX 5600 with 256 megs of ram. I shopped around quite abit before I bought it. I checked the memory speeds, chip speeds and all the memory bandwith etc and found it seemed to be the best performance for my dollar. Obviously if money isn't a option you coudl go with a $200 or higher Geforce 6600, but for $100 I was able to get my card shipped. There is a guy on E-bay who sells them all the time.
If your going to get a PC to play games Id recommend building your own. Most of your factory PC's use cheap parts and are generally never as good as a custom built job.
Video card obviously makes a huge difference. I have been told the memory DOES make a difference with EQ2. I personally use a Geforce FX 5600 with 256 megs of ram. I shopped around quite abit before I bought it. I checked the memory speeds, chip speeds and all the memory bandwith etc and found it seemed to be the best performance for my dollar. Obviously if money isn't a option you coudl go with a $200 or higher Geforce 6600, but for $100 I was able to get my card shipped. There is a guy on E-bay who sells them all the time.
If your going to get a PC to play games Id recommend building your own. Most of your factory PC's use cheap parts and are generally never as good as a custom built job.
Hi
This is the computer I built to play Everquest 2 last week. It was a serious upgrade from my old Pentium 2. I bought all the parts on Newegg and everything runs great.
AMD Athlon64 +3500
Epox Nforce3 Motherboard
1GB Corsair Value Select Dual Channel RAM
Sapphire 128MB ATI Radeon Pro Video Card
Audigy 2 sound card (the cheapest one)
DVD/CDRW Drive
CoolerMaster 480W Powersupply
Floppy
Computer total was about $1100
Added a 19" Viewsonic Monitor +$200
Windows XP Home Edition +$200
California Sales Tax (7.5%) +$100
Shipping +$70
So if you have a good monitor, a copy of Windows, and you don't live in California, you can get a really good computer for about $1200.00 that will play the game beautifully.
Keep in mind, with lag, it's not always your computer. In addition to latency caused by being in different areas of the game, make sure you have a good ISP. I personally refuse to use anything less than Cable for my online gaming, but DSL was good when I had it (though not as fast).
I keep my settings a little lower than they have to be (no significantly noticeable difference) and I have yet to experience a single bit of lag in the week that I've been playing. Default is High Performace with some settings tweaked, like the draw distance (I want to see the mobs coming). I haven't even tried it on Balanced, simply because I live by the philosophy, if it ain't broke, don't fix it and the game looks just fine the way it is now.
Good luck with the build and remember to take your time. The hardest part was making sure everything was plugged in correctly and figuring out which pins were ground. Read all the manuals!
Xczaria - Teirdal - Crusader - Neriak Server
(Always looking for a good group, especially one interested in doing the Betrayal Quest)
AMD Athlon64 +3500
Epox Nforce3 Motherboard
1GB Corsair Value Select Dual Channel RAM
Sapphire 128MB ATI Radeon Pro Video Card
Audigy 2 sound card (the cheapest one)
DVD/CDRW Drive
CoolerMaster 480W Powersupply
Floppy
Computer total was about $1100
Added a 19" Viewsonic Monitor +$200
Windows XP Home Edition +$200
California Sales Tax (7.5%) +$100
Shipping +$70
So if you have a good monitor, a copy of Windows, and you don't live in California, you can get a really good computer for about $1200.00 that will play the game beautifully.
Keep in mind, with lag, it's not always your computer. In addition to latency caused by being in different areas of the game, make sure you have a good ISP. I personally refuse to use anything less than Cable for my online gaming, but DSL was good when I had it (though not as fast).
I keep my settings a little lower than they have to be (no significantly noticeable difference) and I have yet to experience a single bit of lag in the week that I've been playing. Default is High Performace with some settings tweaked, like the draw distance (I want to see the mobs coming). I haven't even tried it on Balanced, simply because I live by the philosophy, if it ain't broke, don't fix it and the game looks just fine the way it is now.
Good luck with the build and remember to take your time. The hardest part was making sure everything was plugged in correctly and figuring out which pins were ground. Read all the manuals!
Xczaria - Teirdal - Crusader - Neriak Server
(Always looking for a good group, especially one interested in doing the Betrayal Quest)
Don't upgrade your PC just because you want to have a smooth graphics with EQ2. It's not gonan happen. Go to the official EQ2 site and look through Tech Support or something and you'll see they have major problem with the graphic cards like Nvidia 6800GT.
My PC is not top of the line, but I considering it very decent.
And when playing EQ2, still... I spent more time tweaking the friggin game more than playing it. Upgrade the PC is good... but don't expct you'll see a big improvement when playing EQ2
my PC Spec:
P4 2.8Ghz Hyper Thread 800FSB
2 GB PC3200
MSI NX6800GT-TD256 GeForce 6800GT 256MB DDR3
200GB SATA Seagate HD
Integrated Sound Card (I use Headset)
My PC is not top of the line, but I considering it very decent.
And when playing EQ2, still... I spent more time tweaking the friggin game more than playing it. Upgrade the PC is good... but don't expct you'll see a big improvement when playing EQ2
my PC Spec:
P4 2.8Ghz Hyper Thread 800FSB
2 GB PC3200
MSI NX6800GT-TD256 GeForce 6800GT 256MB DDR3
200GB SATA Seagate HD
Integrated Sound Card (I use Headset)
6 posts
I am not just upgrading to play the game. Right now my specs as follows
Intel Pentium 4 2.00 Ghz
248 MB ram
intel extremem graphics
no idea on sound card
Intel Pentium 4 2.00 Ghz
248 MB ram
intel extremem graphics
no idea on sound card
My recommendation would be to toss the 256 RAM, by two sticks of 512 RAM and install a video card. My personal preference is ATI, which is only reinforced by the problems that NVIDIA cards are currently haveing with Everquest II. An ATI Radeon 9800 PRO is only about $200, a very good price for the amount of performance you will get out of it. You can also get a dual pack (2 x 512MB) PC3200 Corsair or Kingston RAM for about $150. Of course, you need to make sure that your motherboard supports PC3200 RAM.
If you are upgrading, you might as well buy a budget version Sound Blaster Audigy 2 sound card for about $50, it's not necessary though if your motherboard produces decent sound and your budget is tight.
So for a $400 investment, you can turn a machine that chugs into a machine that slugs. This machine should last you for quite awhile before the next upgrade and if you start putting a few dollars aside every month from now until then, it will be less of a financial crisis and you will be able to afford more bang for your buck.
All of my recommendations are my personal biased opinions and should not be substituted for proffesional advice. It's hard to give the best recommendation without a proper analysis of the situation, both your personal budget and current, specific hardware (especially motherboard) in your system.
Xczaria
Teir'Dal Crusader
Neriak Server
If you are upgrading, you might as well buy a budget version Sound Blaster Audigy 2 sound card for about $50, it's not necessary though if your motherboard produces decent sound and your budget is tight.
So for a $400 investment, you can turn a machine that chugs into a machine that slugs. This machine should last you for quite awhile before the next upgrade and if you start putting a few dollars aside every month from now until then, it will be less of a financial crisis and you will be able to afford more bang for your buck.
All of my recommendations are my personal biased opinions and should not be substituted for proffesional advice. It's hard to give the best recommendation without a proper analysis of the situation, both your personal budget and current, specific hardware (especially motherboard) in your system.
Xczaria
Teir'Dal Crusader
Neriak Server
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