ASRock

Pascal

Pascal

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Pascal Fairchild
I have experience with ASRock.

If you're looking for a budget sollution that isn't the best out there but simply works, ASRock makes excellent mainboards.
Just don't expect the best performance or things like overclocking support.

Oh and getting drivers from their website can be a tad of a hassle, but if you know your stuff you can get around that.
 
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ASRock is pretty reliable, I've been using the same computer since 2005, has an ASRock board in it, no problems with it as of 2010. If I decide to "put together" another computer, i'd use another ASRock.
 
Thanks for replying Shirai, and Wagewar. I like that those boards have the 890FX chipset.

I’ve got 2k to build 2 computers (I love my wife) around the FFXIV recommended system settings / requirements. I normally use ASUS, but ASUS ticked me off on my last board by listing my AMD 9550 as supported, then after voltage regulator couldn’t cut it, they just removed it from the supported list and refused to replace the board with a board that works properly. So I’ve been slowly cooking my board. While I’m not totally boycotting ASUS, if I can avoid them, I’d like too.

I’m looking at the AMD Phenom II 2.8 or 3.2 GHz X6.

Of the two computers, one needs to be a complete system minus monitor. On mine, I have an ATI HD 4870 that can be brought over, but if I can swing a crossfire setup even better. I have a 1TB SATA I and a 1.5TB SATA II drive that can be used, but trying to keep my eyes out for something faster, a 750W power supply that can be used. I need a new case the one I have is too small and does not give enough ventilation room for my video card, and won’t hold a full ATX board.

I’ve been eye balling this case http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=6632, but on pure looks. If it came down to faster RAM over looks, the RAM wins hands down.

I’m going to keep shopping around and seeing what is available, but I’m open to suggestions if anyone has any.
 
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Shirai said:
You do know ASRock IS Asus right? ;)
Click to expand...

No I didn't. :facepalm:

Well, since they appear to be ASUS’s OEM arm, that explains why the boards are cheaper compared to others with similar configuration and why new egg is only offering limited warranty.
 
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Well, brand pejudice aside.

They're still excellent boards, but if you want to have a good mainboard of which you are sure Asus has nothing to do with;
Check out MSI, they aren't as nicely priced as ASRock, but you'll definitally get a decent product.

And w/o screen and HD, $1000 per computer is a pretty decent budget.
Although I do advise to replace the SATA I drive for at least a SATA II.
The Hard drive is a really important part of your computer's performance and a slow drive will bring your system down.
Being a SSD user, I can attest to this.
 
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Shirai said:
Being a SSD user, I can attest to this.
Click to expand...

With the load times I've seen in the Open Beta, I'm tempted to go with a small SSD drive dedicated to FFXIV. The 32GB drives seem to be reasonable priced.
 
I have a 40GB here, but do keep in mind that with that size you want only windows and your most important apps on C:

I run all my apps (including ff14) from my D: SATA II disk.
 
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I got a 60gb ssd and frankly It feels tight having to install windows, visual studio, etc. on it. I would have been more comfortable with an 80gb when I bought mine last year but they were so expensive that I decided to skip the possibility of an 80gb :\
 
Tribalinius said:
I got a 60gb ssd and frankly It feels tight having to install windows, visual studio, etc. on it. I would have been more comfortable with an 80gb when I bought mine last year but they were so expensive that I decided to skip the possibility of an 80gb :\
Click to expand...

The same with me, if price permitted me I would have taken 80 or even 120 GB.
But even though my apps are still running from an old fashioned moving drive it feels a lot faster than running everything from my C: drive.
As for my files, those haven't been running local for quite some time anyway, for those I have a dedicated and secured file server with a dedicated backup drive.
All that's running from my local C: are Windows, Office, AV, Anti-Spyware, if that gets hacked or crashes... so be it!
The rest runs from my D: one at a time without any windows process disturbing the disk which makes loading apps a lot faster as well.
 
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I'm thinking SSD just for FFXIV, keeping Windows and everything else on a standard drive. Some good news, I looked up my drive to compare its performance with newer drives on the market and its actual a SATA2 drive. I can't really complain about its performance, its not SSD, but with the exception of FFXIV loading a cut sense, I don't ever find my sell yelling at the screen to load already. My 1.5TB (WD Green) drive is slow, but its just used to store DVDs. I'm either going to make it into an external drive, or put it in my file server.

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...M100000f5ee0a0aRCRD#tTabContentSpecifications

Also having 8GB of RAM keeps the disk swapping to a minimum.
 
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This is what I ended up building.
AMD Phenom II X4 970 BE 3.5Ghz
XFX Radeon HD 5870 1GB
8GB (2x4GB) G.Skill DDR3 1333 9-9-9-9
ASUS M4A79XTD EVO 790X AM3
CORSAIR 750TX Power Supply
OCZ Agility 2 60GB SSD
Cooler Master V8 Heatsink
Cooler Master HAF 932 Full Tower
DVD Burner from Old System
1GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 SATA2 from Old System
1.5GB WD Caviar Green SATA2 from Old System

Grand total was $1,010.56. After the mail-in rebates come in, it will be around $860.00. I screwed up the order on the SSD, I meant to order the Vortex 2, NewEgg offered to fix it without the restocking fee, but decided to keep it and not wait for the RMA/refund/reorder process. Having the SSD hasn’t created any noticeable performance increase in terms of boot time / normal usage; we’ll see if it helps FFXIV once I start playing it. I’m going to give it a week or two before I start overclocking (so nice to have a system I can overclock rather than having to underclock). I decided not to go with the X6 since it was breaking my budget and after reading Turbo Core wasn’t doing a very good job dynamically clocking the cores. The HAF case is great; even with the fans running full speed, it’s still very quiet and moving a lot of air.
 
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