EVE General Discussion

As far as CPU performance goes here's a little benchmark I ran to take a look at CPU scaling in CQ.

EVE Online Incrana CPU scaling

The Q6600 can work, but the stock CPU speeds will be holding back a newer graphics card. On the plus side, overclocking the Q6600 narrows that gap considerably and will let you take better advantage of a new graphics card. Also keep in mind that the chip in the graph is an i7 which is more powerful clock for clock than the Core2Duo (Q6600).

There's no need up upgrade from Vista if budget is a concern. They worked out most of the kinks that were experienced during the first couple years of launch.





NEVER skimp on a PSU! It doesn't have to be expensive, or pump out a crazy amount of wattage (550w is more than enough for a typical system with 1 video card). A poorly built PSU isn't able to provide consistent power to components, and can actually damage multiple components in your system.

Riiiiiiiiiight, look at your resource usage with vista, now look at mine, with windows 7, now back at yours. Your resource usage could look like mine, if only you weren't an idiot and upgraded to windows 7.

I benchmarked both on the same hardware and the performance from 7 was not any better, and professionals have come to the same conclusion. I have 7 installed. Both vista and 7 have about 97-100 running processes out of the box, and both take up much less than 1G of ram when running. You will have to run XP or linux to gain performance.

Cipher .. I am one of those "professionals" you speak of (www.techpro.com) I do this for a living and have since the middle 80's before most of you were born. (which is scary for me)

We would never use Vista over Win7. Its XP Pro or Win7 Pro and just now 64bit due only to business app's hunger for >2gb of memory. Windows 7 (Professional and Ultimate) are more compatible with most business applications out there and cause less issues all around. But this is not why this thread was opened by the OP and I'm sure this debate could turn into a mega thread. (tl:dr, vista = millenium edition nuff said) XP/Win7 if you stay MS are the only real options.

64bit OS is the only way you'll ever use any amount of memory over ~3.25gb.

Everyone was had good advice to the OP and there is nothing more I can add save my vote for a current, bleeding edge video card and beyond that, Windows 7 professional 64bit and more system memory.

Note re 64bit OS. In "business" environments this is still causing issues with printers and the traditional method of managing >5 printers in a domain with mixed 32/64 bit servers and workstations.

Search the forum for threads by Akita..I'm pretty sure she's got a "build a cheap gaming PC" thread or two on here somewhere.

What is your current Video card and does your MB have more then one 16x PCI-express port?

Your best upgrade based on posted info for your existing system is a Radeon HD 6870 class or better card since your current CPU is fine for EVE. The 6870 allows me to run max setting at a solid 60 fps thought I've not tested this in a large fleet. After you upgrade the gfx card I'd check and see if the MB you have is DDR2 or DDR3 if it's DDR3 I'd look into upgrading to 64bit and 8gb but if it's DDR2 don't bother it would likely be cheaper to buy an entirely new DDR3 motherboard and 8GB of ram then adding more DDR2.

If the 6870 is to expensive I wouldn't go for anything lower then a 6790 though it's likely only a $30 difference before any rebates but this is only if you are in the US. I can't personally recommend any Nvidia cards since I haven't used one in ages outside of a 9600GT in my linux box but a goggle search or checking Anandtech or other review sites will give you a idea of what the equivalent offering form Nvidia is.