Need suggestions for a rig to play EVE

[ch3co]

Hey all. I know I hail from the dirty TF2 division, but hear me out.

So, I have long been interested in playing EVE, mostly because I have been sick of playing all the WoW-alikes out there. But I have always been hindered by several issues:
1. I am in high school, and thus have never had the time to dedicate to it.
2. I have never had enough money to subscribe to the game continuously .
3. My internet connection has never been that good.
4. My computer is a good two years behind the curve. In case anyone cares, here is my spec. It comes from the DXDiag utility that comes with Windows. It ain't 3DMark06, but it works.

Now, two of those will hopefully be resolved soon. I will be a senior in HS come this September. So I will be going off to college soon. And hopefully, if I get to go to NC State, I think I will have a much better (gigabit) connection. And during college I will hopefully be working, so I will have some spare money to subscribe. This leaves my computer, a shitty Dell Studio 1550 laptop. Now, I've already told my parents I want a new PC as a graduation gift, as opposed to a car, and am willing to pay for half. If they decide against this, I will also be saving up to buy it myself if I need to. So I am assuming I'll have up to $1300 to work with (maybe $1100 if I have to pay for it myself).

So, I have three questions:
1. Can I get away with a brand name PC (i.e. Asus or Alienware) or is it better for me to get one custom built?
2. If I can use a brand name rig, what do you suggest, keeping in mind my budget?
3. If I should get a custom rig, what do you suggest in terms of specs? I'm not specifically looking for something that runs 60fps on everything maxed out, but at the same time I don't want something that I have to turn everything down to get 60fps.

For #3, exact specs are nice, since it makes my life easier when it comes to ordering. But I would actually prefer general suggestions, because that way I can maybe learn a bit about the tech myself, so I don't have to do this next time I go to buy a PC.

I know that's a lot of specifics I'm asking for, so if you don't wanna answer, its fine. But I want to start planning this out now, and I thought "Who better to ask about a rig to play EVE than EVE players."

[Captain Nighthawk]

You really don't need a high end machine to play EVE, that only comes in the equation when your running multiple game clients.

[RESPAWN]

Originally Posted by Captain Nighthawk

You really don't need a high end machine to play EVE, that only comes in the equation when your running multiple game clients.

*You're

Nighthawk is basically right, though. The best suggestion that I can give is to get a decent midrange GPU. The EVE client isn't very processor/RAM intensive. It only uses about a gig of RAM when running and doesn't use a ton of CPU.

I've run it on several computers since I started playing and I only really had poor experiences running it on machines with lesser GPU's, such as my Mac Mini at work with the Intel HD 3000 on-chip graphics or my Dell at work with a low end onboard GPU.

So yeah, just anything with a semi-decent midrange GPU should give you a good experience when playing EVE.

[Socretez]

Like they said I wouldn't get a beautiful computer just for EVE. It's not entirely graphically intensive. If you would like help building a desktop, I can help you there. You can use a dual core processor on an older model motherboard, hmm probably shy of the 2011 socket motherboards. For graphics cards you can use a nvidia GTX 560 and run everything on max graphics and hit at least 60 fps unless you're using a HUGE monitor. That right there would be anywhere from 500 to 750 depending on how ritzy you go. You definitely don't have to go above a dual core processor, unless you want to do A/V editing as well. You'll probably only need a stick of 4gb RAM which you can cheap out on and get for less than a hundred dollars for a slower speed (4 to be generous). And as for the other components, it really depends further on how big your GPU gets or how much torrenting you do.

If you do decide to build your own, which is cheaper, I suggest these fellows to buy from:

ASUS Mobo's
Intel Chips
EVGA/ASUS GPU's
Corsair RAM and everything else.

Corsair makes amazing cases and cooling units. I currently have the 800D case they have, the largest they make, and the H80 Water Cooling system (along with 16gb of 2000mhz Corsair Dominator RAM).

[RESPAWN]

Originally Posted by Socretez

(4 to be generous)

I don't even consider 4 to be generous these days. 4GB is the bare minimum that I spec for our office machines and those are mostly running Office and web browsers. I'd say at least 4GB for a gaming machine. Win 7 will run on 2GB, but it's not the best experience and not what I'd recommend for somebody who wants to play games. LOL.

Otherwise, Soc named the brands of hardware that I usually tend to buy.

[Socretez]

Yeah, you're right. I suppose 8gb would be the generous nowadays. I'm running excessive with 16gb. I was just thinking, "For only EVE, 4 would be over the top" But you're right, people do a lot more at the same time. Music, Surfing, Playing 3 games at the same time... well at least I do.

[ch3co]

OK, thanks everyone for all the suggestions. Can I just say that I am blown away by how helpful you all were. I fully expected to wait 3 to 4 days before someone responded, and by the morning after I posted the thread, I had already gotten 4 responses. I think now that I know what EVE runs on, I'll be taking this build to the Tech Talk section for more specifics. Again, thanks so much for all the help!

[blackhawksniper]

Originally Posted by RESPAWN

*You're

Nighthawk is basically right, though. The best suggestion that I can give is to get a decent midrange GPU. The EVE client isn't very processor/RAM intensive. It only uses about a gig of RAM when running and doesn't use a ton of CPU.

I've run it on several computers since I started playing and I only really had poor experiences running it on machines with lesser GPU's, such as my Mac Mini at work with the Intel HD 3000 on-chip graphics or my Dell at work with a low end onboard GPU.

So yeah, just anything with a semi-decent midrange GPU should give you a good experience when playing EVE.

When multi boxing the first thing I run out of is ram. I only have 3.5k avail ram (32 bit booo) and when I triple box, my video card (like 4 years old, some old ATI) can handle like 5+ clients on low settings. My RAM however can only handle about 3 before it gets laggy to the point of being dangerous in game

[Rogue Sniper]

Win XP/ Vista/ 7
Dual Core 2.4Ghz + (AMD Phenom II, Intel Core I3, etc)
4GB of Ram (win Vista/7)
256Mb video card (Last 4-6 Years can work just fine, even integrated if not Intel)

These are the basics to look for but I mean its not a demanding game at all. I run some clients in VMs to see how those did and I can run them on medium without a hitch (I run Win 7 32bit VM to run old games, DONT JUDGE ME!)

[RESPAWN]

Originally Posted by blackhawksniper

When multi boxing the first thing I run out of is ram. I only have 3.5k avail ram (32 bit booo) and when I triple box, my video card (like 4 years old, some old ATI) can handle like 5+ clients on low settings. My RAM however can only handle about 3 before it gets laggy to the point of being dangerous in game

That sounds about right. I'm looking at task manager right now and each of my EVE clients is using 1GB. So, yeah, 3.5 GB would probably run out pretty quickly with 3 clients.

When I triple box, my video card tends to become the limiting factor with the clients occasionally dipping below 60 FPS. But then, I play with all clients on high with anti-aliasing disabled and HDR disabled. Back before Incarna triple boxing was buttery smooth at 60 FPS with nary a dip in frame rate. I probably have a slightly better video card. LOL.

Good luck on finding a good build, ch3co!