CyberpowerPC Gamer Ultra Gaming PC... good for EQ?

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Mintalie, Aug 18, 2014.

  1. Mintalie Augur

    I've received input from guildees and now am asking the SOE EQ Forums braintrust as well. Looking at this computer:

    http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2546170&sku=C447-12001

    Likes: 500 watt power supply, 1 TB hard drive, AMD videocard. Dislike: 8 GB max RAM supported.

    This computer will be used primarily to play EQ, two instances simultaneously, hopefully with most bells and whistles going, as well as Vent, GINA and Gamparse. Other than EQ, it will be a storage device for photos and such (which is why I like the 1 TB hard drive).

    My question is--for my intended uses, do I need to worry about upgrading to more than 8 GB of RAM in the future? Will the AMD videocard be current for several years? Remember, this is relative only to EQ. I don't play any other games.

    Thanks for any feedback!
  2. Wayylon Augur

    Some people tell me it's a waste but I roll with 24 gigs of ram, so I would want more.

    But for that price that's a good pc should be more than enough.
  3. Brohg Augur

    A far smaller Solid State Drive (SSD), 256 or even 128GB, will serve you a hundred times better than that massive traditional hard drive, for EverQuest. On the RAM, it's not that you'll ever want more for EQ, but the motherboard being limited to 8GB is worrying from a "just where did they get this relic?" perspective.
    Gyurika Godofwar likes this.
  4. Kamea Augur

    8GB is more than enough for any realistic gaming situation, whether multi boxing EQ or playing graphics heavy modern games.

    Generally speaking, video card / GPU is the biggest gaming bottleneck these days. The CPU in that setup is fine, the RAM is fine, the card sucks. EQ is more intensive on CPU than GPUs, but GPU is so weak it'd probably be a bottleneck in modern EQ zones.

    Here's the most important chart for buying a gaming PC:
    http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html
    Gyurika Godofwar likes this.
  5. Mintalie Augur

    How might a totally techno-challenged individual such as myself find SSD computers on Newegg or Tiger Direct?
  6. Sheex Goodnight, Springton. There will be no encores.

    SSD all the way. If you need storage external drives are cheap.
    Gyurika Godofwar likes this.
  7. Dre. Altoholic

    Steer clear.

    Very underpowered graphics card and the customer reviews tell tales of bluescreen issues. Motherboard that only supports 8GB is questionable as well... though I admit I didn't see the model # in the specifications. The graphics card would probably be okay for 2 EQ instances in older zones but newer/future zones/models may have higher demands despite the dated engine. What's curious to me is that such a card put in a system labelled as a "performance" "ultra" "gaming" machine is dishonest at worst and misleading at best. You really want to research these things yourself when you buy gaming rigs.

    My experiences with Cyberpower's CS have been bad. Parts that don't match the build sheet, dismissive tech support, difficult replacement process, etc.

    You'll be fine without an SSD. EQ loads and zones just fine with 5400rpm laptop drives.
  8. Acidon New Member

    Gyurika Godofwar likes this.
  9. Krag Lorekeeper

    I have played EQ on many different pcs over many years. It doesn't seem to run much better no matter what the specs are. It still takes forever to log in anymore than one character etc.. SSD drives make the biggest difference in everything you do just about. I put them in everything. If you don't box more than two accounts, don't worry too much about the specs. It really seems to play them same today as it did on my Pentium 2. No idea how that is possible. You figure a 15 yr old game would be flying on even a calculator processor.
    Iila likes this.
  10. Kamea Augur


    Had processor trends from the 90s continued and we were using 15 ghz 1 core processors today, EQ would run extremely well.

    EQ's engine doesn't take advantage of multicore CPUs well. With multithreading enabled, an EQ instance utilizes quad core CPUs about 35-40% as effectively as modern engines.... since EQ can only offload about 1/3 of its total processing on secondary cores.

    SSDs only improve load times, not FPS. Outside of windows booting and EQ loading, the gain from SSDs isn't as big on a relative basis. Don't get me wrong, they're nice, but I don't know if a SSD is good money spent on a sub $500 PC, which seems to be what OP wants.
    Gyurika Godofwar likes this.
  11. Zantor Augur

    Well IMO one of the most important things for good gaming is a dedicated Vid card which that has, 8 gigs of ram is more then enough to play EQ on. Of course it won't be as good as a comp that costs several times as much, but more then good to play EQ on.
  12. Tornat Augur

    I have a cyberpower pc spent 1,400$ on mine and had to replace half the parts within 2 years. I Do not recommend them. its really no different going into best buy and buying something on the racks.
    Gyurika Godofwar likes this.
  13. Makavien Augur



    I would be instantly worry about an 8 gb max ram mb.

    I personally would never go with amd either but that's a personal choice.

    I spent around 2 k to build my own pc (had more plans for it then I actually put to work so far)

    Id say the parts cost like 1500.00

    500 of that was keyboard /headset/mouse

    600 was dual monitors

    each slot on mine holds I think 8 gb of ram

    I would also never buy a prebuilt pc myself.

    The Asus maximus Vii hero is right around 200 depending on what you already have.

    Most set items will have at least 1 almost out of date item and from the sound of 8 gb max memory the old part on that one is the MB.

    Also eq is best ran with 2 gb per instance of ram. Eq has always had memory leak problems.

    And the graphics is only an onboard chipset .

    Biggest things in eq

    Load times - hard drive speed

    Fps/turn lag - Ram + Graphics

    The game itself - the cpu

    Just for reference my load time is faster then i can click the server select on up to 4 accounts.

    The zone time is so fast I am usually getting to the 3rd or 4th box by the time the first one has zoned if not already waiting for me for 30 secs or so.

    No lag what so ever but I play a melee on raids so I have spell effects off (its too blinding)

    I normally 3 - 4 box plus have a movie or show open on the other monitor + eq forums + eqresource + other stuff at times (raid loot . magelo . gina . ventrilo. etc)

    And even when doing all that stuff my power source fan has still not ever kicked on (its a special corsair that the fan only runs when the pc gets warm enough)
    Gyurika Godofwar likes this.
  14. Daegun Augur

    I'm lazy and did not build my own. Last laptop I bought for about 1500 on Amazon was the Asus G70s series with 16gb ram, a 256 SSD and a 750 secondary traditional hard drive. Not nearly as strong as a well built desktop but at the time these wasn't a game on the market it couldn't play flawlessly. Eq with multiple instances is/was smooth. I've loaded as many as 8 full screen eq instances in the past and they ran smoothly. I can't play many beyond 2 efficiently though so I'm not sure how well you could legitimately run that many at once ... Just wanted to see if I could.

    Portable
    Powerful
    Relatively affordable

    SSD was probably the most notable single change I've made over the last few years.

    At home you can just connect it to a standalone keyboard and fancy monitor. I've had 2 Asus over the last few years and I'd recommend them. For a comparably powered Alienware it would have cost close to 4k at the time.
  15. Slasher Augur

    I would go with ibuypower.

    The FX 4300 is junk. If you can spend alittle more and get something that will last. I bought an Ibuypower PC with an I7 930 and 12 gbs of ram (upgraded it to 24 later) and it runs every game ive thrown at it great.
    incantius likes this.
  16. Daegun Augur

    About a decade ago I did buy a cyberpowerpc. The parts were the right ones and it performed as well as it was expected to. I read a lot of bad reviews while waiting on delivery and was apprehensive. Maybe I got lucky but worked ok for me. I wouldn't do it again though. If you have a bit of know how you can build yourself one for a reasonable price an guarantee it's quality.
  17. Tharzak Elder

    I'll second this. We have a similar system if not identical. It has ran flawlessly since I purchased it and as you mentioned it had no problems running anything I tried. It might be out of the OPs price range though.
  18. Reviled Elder

    I picked up a CyberPower last year and it's been great. I've built gaming PCs for myself before, but the upcharge by CP was small enough that I just let them do it (I'd never messed with liquid cooling or SSDs).

    As said above, the SSD is WELL worth the extra investment. My loading times are great. I only bought 8gigs RAM to start, but I can 4 box easily, and 3 box in a raid lag free. (Video; GTX660 OC, CPU: I5 5770 OCed to 4.3Ghz).

    If you do go with Cyberpower, research their upgraded power supplies and pick a good quality one. I read a lot of complaints about the stock one they'll use otherwise. Also, get on their forums. There are a lot of people on there who will take your budget and spit out a great system setup that'll give you the best bang for your buck.
    Reht and Gyurika Godofwar like this.
  19. Ratbo Peep Augur

    Just for the record I can run two (and only two) instances of EQ on a:
    P4 3.2ghz CPU, 4 gig mem, Nvidia 7600 AGP with 512 on it. (XP-Pro 32bit.)
    I tab between them - not split screen.
    Machine is set to run pretty lean - only 21 processes before EQ starts.
    If I start with a clean boot and load one toon all the way in first - then the second, I have no issues.
    -Rat
  20. Mintalie Augur

    AWESOME feedback you guys, thanks so much! So I'm very interested in SSD now. Thank you, Elidroth, I was thinking 400W power supply was sufficient--I will certainly upgrade that and also only go with a 2GB video card. I'm going to poke around on ibuypower customizations. Looks like I can probably get something that will last forever for about $800ish. Yes, I did prefer to spend $500 but it really sounds like not the best option for my circumstances. I had a machine custom built 7 years ago and have upgrade to max RAM (DDR2 sadly) and video card (some random Nvidia that cost $100 a year ago). I believe I should spend the extra money now and save myself from upgrades in future.

    As for the video cards/operating systems, why not AMD? Why not Nvidia? Keep in mind the $800-ish budget. :)