EZ Server

So should I spend 500$ on some new gear (Motherboard, processor, ram) OR should i drop 1k on a new system and just call it good?


keep in mind my case is still my original alienware from like 1999 or some shit...maybe 2000 lol...all internals where updated a few years ago but its that time again..


best bang for my $$...

suggestions?

Depends what the rest of your system is like and what you want it to do.

I'm guessing all of your hardware could probably stand to be replaced at this point. For example, you should probably upgrade your video card, but you would need a new motherboard. You should probably upgrade your RAM, but new RAM won't be compatible with your 1999 RAM, etc...

But you could link the specs just for giggles and we could see

https://choosemypc.net/ (https://choosemypc.net/) is a great site to recommend hardware to build a PC in sliding scale price ranges... with or without pricing in an OS, in case you have access to one and don't want to include that in your price.

If you know what you're doing AT ALL, definitely don't buy a pre-made computer, especially not an alienware, or comparable "brand name" gaming computer. You're going to pay an extra 50% premium over building it yourself.

Here's my (lightning fast) PC build... adds up to $1074 (not counting the extra optical drives, the wifi card, or the other HDDs)

* 4GBx2 (8GB) RAM (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006WAGGUK/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3FUN98CC3421F&coliid=I3FLU7XNRYKXWP&psc=1) $37
* Samsung 850 EVO 500gb Solid State Drive (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OBRE5UE/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3FUN98CC3421F&coliid=I2LHG24Y7WA0YQ&psc=1) $150
* Intel Core i5 4690k (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KPRWB9G/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3FUN98CC3421F&coliid=IZFKT7IZ8KC7H&psc=1) $224
* Corsair 200r case (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009GXZ8MM/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3FUN98CC3421F&coliid=I2ZPX68NCM8JSL&psc=1) $58
* GTX970 4GB Video Card (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NN0GEXQ/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3FUN98CC3421F&coliid=I520Y0YB4RMNY&psc=1) $325
* Corsair CX600 600W Power Supply (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0092ML0OC/ref=wl_it_dp_v_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3FUN98CC3421F&coliid=I15EZ2WPWWMIKW&psc=1) $65
* CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO CPU Fan (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005O65JXI/ref=wl_it_dp_v_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3FUN98CC3421F&coliid=I2KYYUWQXVWHLV&psc=1) $30
* Corsair Vengeance 8GB RAM Strip (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005T63BJM/ref=wl_it_dp_v_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3FUN98CC3421F&coliid=I9BJH6IFWX59T) $35
* MSI ATX DDR3 2600 "Gaming" Motherboard (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K23BYCI/ref=wl_it_dp_v_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3FUN98CC3421F&coliid=I3K8TZ1UJ0D9CQ) $149

BUT you don't have to do all that for a fast build. And if you're just wanting to play EZServer, this is way overkill obviously. That's the beauty of https://choosemypc.net/ (https://choosemypc.net/) - it does a pretty damn good job of recommending the best hardware for a $600 build... or a $400 build... or a $1000 build... or a $1200 build (IMO)

(http://i.imgur.com/mPAJq8Y.jpg?1)
^  my rig, I dremmeled the solid case and put in a plexiglass side.

WINDOWS+R, type in "dxdiag", run the 64x option at the bottom, save all information and email me this text file at Hateborne@gmail.com and I'll post a suggestion list. :)


-Hate

Lotta great ways to go right now when it comes to hardware. But all in all its ALWAYS best to build your own if you can. Premade systems almost universally cost more than they should, and unless you watch the build like a hawk they often use substandard hardware.

I was for years an AMD fanboy, and I still like a lot of what they do....but as things stand the best bang for the buck IMO is Intel's Skylakes (1151 sockets). They are far more power efficient than ever, can easily overclock (my I7 6700 is standard 4.0 GHz but runs OC'd at 4.9 with just a decent fan and heatsink and its WAY stable....and seldom gets over 44C).

Oh, did I mention 4K vid support?

The mobos built for this CPU come in DDR3 if you wanna use older ram, but you can also get em with DDR4 support, which is finally seeing some massive stability and perf jumps over DDR3 (no one's sure yet what the real speed limit is on this new ram, but they are selling em now in 4266Mhz flavors). Also the 1151 socket boards support PCI-E 3.0, another performance jump over the AM3 boards used by AMD CPU's.

Of course they come with a little higher price tag, too. A top end AMD FX CPU can be had for a little over $200 right now, whereas the higher end Skylakes will go for nearly twice that. But there are decent and solid I5's that will go for around $200 on the Skylake end.

So.....some examples from newegg:

Skylake I7 6700 4.0 Ghz (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117559) on newegg right now for $350

or, a lower cost option:

I5 6600 3.5 Ghz (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117561) on newegg right now for $250


ASUS Z170 A mobo (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132566) on newegg right now for $140

G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2133 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231965&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=IGNEFL042616A&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL042616A-_-EMC-042616-Index-_-DesktopMemory-_-20231965-S0J) on newegg right now for $90

So your core components before GPU will run you $480 to $580 with this option.

From there its just a matter of finding a case you like....a decent PSU and drives, and then pick your GPU (hard to go wrong with Nvidia right now.....4 gig 960s for under $200, 970's for just over $300, or go big and grab a 980 starting at just under $500).

Ok....that being said.....Q4 this year AMD is releasing their new Zen processors, which are supposed to be 8 core powerhouses with superfine 14nm architecture and support for DDr4, PCI-E3.0 and more. No final numbers on these yet as far as costs etc, but they will be a new socket type, which means your board better be ASUS (they usually jump out the gate fastest with stable, solid boards for new builds), and probably means prices will be competitive with Intel.

Sorry if this left you more confused than you were.

Chunka is fancier than I am - i7 and 32GB RAM

What's faster than lightning? Whatever it is, that's what Chunka's computer is :)

Although realistically, you can't tell much of a difference between the i5 and the i7 on non-editing software, and you certainly can't tell the difference between 16 and 32GB RAM - for normal use. (12 would probably be more than enough in 98% of all computer use, including gaming) - although I've heard that running lots of EZ Boxes and other applications can creep past 16.

From what I can tell, the graphics card is the only component where you will notice performance increases going with the top-top end cards. A GTX980 @$450 will outperform a GTX970 @ $315... even though both are super fast, especially with games in our current year (and probably for a few years to come)

The important things IMO are to make sure you're running your Operating System and games (e.g. EZServer) on a Solid State Drive - for $75 for a 250gb and $150 for a 500gb SSD, you don't even need another HDD, and you're going to notice more performance increase than upgrading any other single component (assuming your components aren't on the low end).

This is recently what I got:

Intel Core i5-6600K 6M Skylake Quad-Core - $245

Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - CPU Cooler with 120 mm PWM Fan - $30

EVGA 02G-P4-3753-KR G-SYNC Support GeForce GTX 750
Ti Superclocked 2GB 128-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 Video Card  - $140

ASUS Z170-P D3 LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s   - $90
USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

used my old DDR3 RAM (16g), old powersupply (750w) and I got a new DYI case for like $30

I did have a SSD (120g) but I did get a new 2tb HD which was around $60 on sale somewhere.

I run the game from the SSD and everything else off the regular HD. I bought all this off Newegg except the HD.

All of this was basically on Chunka's advice and I can run 18 toons np, even 23, whatever. Yeah it gets a little laggy with 18 toons and 100 mobs, but yeah know, that's kinda to be expected.

The only thing that might make me NOT buy a Skylake were I in your shoes is whats coming from AMD...and thats not clear. But what they are claiming perf wise is fairly incredible...and 3 other things to consider:

Consoles are making deals right now to put AMD Zen CPU and APU into their new systems
According to a friend "in the know" the rumors are true, and Apple is rapidly becoming an AMD processor company. Nextgen iMacs will be Zen CPUs
.....well, just Google "AMD China"!

All this has lead to a 50%+ stock jump for AMD recently, and no sign of it slowing. Something big is coming.

yea and i see that INTEL just laid off 12k workers world wide...based on slow pc growth

I do have a solid state drive that has only my EZ stuff on it and that was a nice uptick in performace.... I will do the other stuff when I get home...

My computer is in such a sad state that its effecting my enjoyment of the game and my play times sucks because it takes so damn long to log in (5-10 mins) depending on crashes ext... that I am already pissed before I log into t10 and die 5 times from random shit:)


Thank you all for the suggestions and I will try to get my specs on here as suggested...

I think I spent 3k on this comp from Alienware back in the day... it was bad ass...

I used to be really into building my own rigs but that was like 10 years ago or more and I have no idea what all the new shiny stuff is.:) thanks for the help

... and your OS? or just EZServer?


You can still get good name brand (Alienware) computers, you're just going to spend way more money, and they often make odd decisions on what hardware to put in the pc:

* Alienware X51 Slim Desktop] (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA7AB2TS7303&cm_re=alienware-_-1VK-0001-06NC0-_-Product) $1500 - but uses a HDD (no SSD), and a GTX 760 (sub-par video card for the price... and video card is arguably the single most important component)

* Alienware Area-51 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883156772&nm_mc=HookLogic&cm_sp=HookLogic-_-Desktop+PC-_-DELL-_-83156772) $3000 - it does have the DUAL (SLI) GTX980 (great video card), but STILL only has a 128gb SSD, and 16gb RAM... but hey, it's a triangle

With the cost of that cheaper alienware, you could get top-end hardware in every single category (e.g. i7 processor with GTX980 and 500GB SSD) - and your $1500 built PC would be better than the $3000 alienware - although I guess you couldn't buy that second GTX980 for the dual cards. For $1800 you could have a computer that was better in every way than the $3000 alienware.

Yea I need to snag another SSD for the operating system and relegate my old 2tb HHD to just bulk storage.


all good stuff thanks for the thoughts peeps!

Even if your SSD is only 120gb... that's still enough for an OS and a few games. I just reformat and put the OS and EZ on your existing SSD rather than getting a new one. Juts my thoughts.

That's the one thing that kept me from putting a new SSD drive on my build...how do you clone the current HD and put it on the SSD? I just used my old hard drive.  Couldnt find any info on doing it on You Tube and asked about cloning the drive but was told that it could make bad things happen on your PC.  :-\

they used to provide software you could use to clone harddrives but again all my info is a decade out of date.


I did copy my entire EQ/MQ file to my SSD from my laptop with no issues once I fixed the shortcuts to reflect the new drive location.

So I  can plug my SSD into any computer and its EZ time!:)

I have not had luck doing this with operating systems at all.. so I would not recommend that.

but why would you with the key you can just reinstall right?


I guess I dont understand... games and data is no problem to copy over...

I wouldn't clone it. Just do a fresh reinstall (format) of Windows after backing everything up to an external, or a usb drive, or whatever.

You'll need to press *the* key (it varies) on bootup (delete, or one of the F#s, like F8 or F10 to get into the bios setup) - this is basically just the Motherboard's "settings"

Once you're at the bios setup, you'll want to change boot order so that it boots from CD first.

Once you've done that just restart your PC with the Windows install disk in, press "a key" when it says to press a key to boot from CD, and follow the directions :)

BAM you got yourself a fresh, clean, adware and virus free installation of Windows.

I like to format every few months anyway... keeps my box running light, and free of the crap that you pick up, even with careful use and an antivirus program.

I thought I was the only one that formatted every quarter or so. Everyone else I know gets on their computer and brings up pics from 1998 and documents from 2002. I have hundreds of DVDs with all that mess on them. The biggest thing I back up to an external drive is my downloads folder(s). I hate redownloading hundreds of things.

First thing I do when I format is relocate the "My Downloads" and "My Documents" (and the others that don't matter as much) to my HDD. That way all PROGRAMS and the OS are installed in the SSD, but all the storage stuff is automatically redirected to the HDD

I saw this post as I still keep up on EZ forums tho I haven't played since around 2011. some old timers might remember me as Falgor SK of Oathsworn.. /wave deamonmage I see you on forums from time to time ;p. wish I could find a way to contact luzard haven't seen him play or anything in years good times.. anyway . I  just ordered a new pc and I thought id share with you guys the amount of $ I dump in on my EQ addiction , here is my current setup with my new rig almost here

  I ordered a new desktop the other day and thought id share some of my setup and how much $ I drain into my eq addiction.
 Note: I only play EQ . no other games on pc so that's all that goes on my pc's.

A few years ago I dropped $2,000 on my laptop . i7-3630QM. GeForce gtx 675mx 4gig ddr5.16g ddr3 ram.128g ssd+750g hhd.
This year id decided to upgrade my desktop, my desktop is getting pretty old now don't remember when I bought it.$800.. AMD FX-4100.8gig ram.Geforce gt 520 1gig.

 Here are some the main specs on the new pc I ordered and should be here tomorrow or sometime very soon :
CPU: Intel(R) Core™ Processor i7-5930K Six-Core 3.50GHz 15MB Intel
 Smart Cache LGA2011-V3

HDD: 256GB Samsung 850 PRO Series SATA-III 6.0Gb/s SSD - 550MB/s Read
 & 520MB/s Write (256GB x 2 (512GB Capacity) RAID 0 Extreme
 Performance

MEMORY: 64GB (16GBx4) DDR4/2800MHz Dual Channel Memory (* ADATA XPG Z1)

MOTHERBOARD: MSI X99A GAMING 7 ATX w/ USB 3.1, Killer GbLAN, 4x Gen3
 PCIe x16, 2 PCIe x1,1x M.2, 8x SATA 6Gb/s, 2x SATA Express

VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB GDDR5 PCIe 3.0 x16 Video Card

 it also has a buncha extras for cooling and noise reductions and whatnot. $2,600.. I spend way to much on computers for just playing eq :O I dropped my ATV funds on this pc so my summer is gonna consist of more eq and less outdoors =/



Sorry for the wall of text I copy/pasted the post I made on the forums of the server I currently play on -Haitten Onyew -EQTitan...formerly Falgor of EZ Server

I just got very close to the same rig and i love it.  Should look up the new PCIe ssd's.  (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167300)
They are pricey but are crazy fast.