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EVE New Citizens Q&A

 
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Computer hardware for EVE
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Xaania
Tremulant Federation
#1 - 2016-04-22 19:03:39 UTC
Greetings, after 9 years my windows vista machine died, and I need advice on computer hardware replacement(s).

So I ran 2 accounts on medium settings on my pc before it expired, I would ideally like to be able to run up to 6 clients at a time, I dont really care about the graphics so let's say at lowest settings.

So since I really have no idea on the capabilities of modern pcs, is this possible with one machine, or would it be a better idea to buy a bunch of used pcs off of craigslist?

My local computer store does custom builds, but I have not any idea of what hardware I need, so I welcome any templates.

Thanks for your time,

Xaania
ShahFluffers
Ice Fire Warriors
#2 - 2016-04-22 21:27:33 UTC
woot.com > familiarize yourself with specs that are more or less medium to low range

newegg.com > start looking at high end gear. See if it cheaper to modify a pre-fab computer with a nice GPU... or just build the whole damn thing from scratch.

How did you Veterans start?
ergherhdfgh
Imperial Academy
Amarr Empire
#3 - 2016-04-22 23:17:33 UTC
Then newer CPUs are very capable. The next generation of video cards is due out next month and they are supposed to be significantly more powerful. I would not short myself on RAM if you want to run multiple clients. Also not sure what you plan on doing with 6 clients. ( my guess is mining ) but you might want to consider using a SSD.

I don't use more than 3 clients at once ever and even then I don't have more than 2 undocked at once. However I just build a new PC and I got the cheapest socket 2011 CPU that I could get and it's way more than I can use. Maybe when I get a new GFX card in a month or two I'll be able to stretch this thing's legs but for now I can barely get this thing to jog.

I will say however that when I switch to an SSD several years back I did notice a huge difference

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Lucy Lizah
Science and Trade Institute
Caldari State
#4 - 2016-04-23 16:40:58 UTC
Hello, IT-Specialist here, i would recommend you waiting for the next generation of GPUs in the next few months, the older ones will be much cheaper then, or maybe buy an lower new one then.

For the CPU, i would go for the i5 6600 or 6600k if you have some money left.
The motherboard could be any Socket 1151 Board, i personally prefer MSI or ASUS.

For the RAM, you can do nothing wrong with Corsair or HyperX DDR4. 8GB or 16GB depending on the money you have.

The CPU Cooler can be an Scythe Shuriken Rev.2 B, which is quiet, but a bit of an hassle to build in.
Otherwise, go for BeQuiet, Scythe or Noctua.

Storage should be an SSD, the Samsung 850 EVO (or PRO if you have more money) is the one i use. Size depending on how much space you need and how much money you have.

And very important: The powersupply, do not save on it. A bad power supply can destroy your other hardware.
In your Case 400-500W should be okay. You can also use BeQuiet or Corsair here.


I personally have an i5 6600k, an middle class MSI Board with the Scythe Shuriken and 16 GB of RAM (Cost: ~500€)
450W Power Supply and an AMD HD 7970 (got it cheap from an friend, don't buy that one, unless you get it really cheap)
The HD 7970 uses 250W and from the performance it can be compared to an GTX 960, which should be enough for you.

And last for the case: Look for good looking ones, watch out for the Motherboard form-factor (normally "ATX") and the length of your graphics card. Prices can go from 80-250€ depending on what you want.

If you want, you can put some stuff together on https://pcpartpicker.com/ and then send me the link to your build, so i can look if everything is fine with it.

You can buy everything except the GPU now (the built in from the i5 6600(k) can handle EVE on low settings) and then buy the GPU after the next generation is released in the next few months.


(I hope you understand this message correctly, since english is not my native language and i haven't really much experience with writing english texts, so my grammar could be a bit broken ^.^)


Lucy
ergherhdfgh
Imperial Academy
Amarr Empire
#5 - 2016-04-24 00:02:30 UTC
Lucy Lizah wrote:



(I hope you understand this message correctly, since english is not my native language and i haven't really much experience with writing english texts, so my grammar could be a bit broken ^.^)


Lucy

I would not have known that english was a second language for you if you had not said so.

Want to talk? Join Cara's channel in game: House Forelli
Buzz Orti
State War Academy
Caldari State
#6 - 2016-04-27 02:46:50 UTC
Xaania wrote:
Greetings, after 9 years my windows vista machine died, and I need advice on computer hardware replacement(s)....
Xaania

Did it jump off the 5th floor balcony and died?

Builds ship in empty Quafe bottle.
Selene Hope
KarmaFleet
Goonswarm Federation
#7 - 2016-04-27 03:37:53 UTC  |  Edited by: Selene Hope
Most computers don't just "die", chances are good you just need to replace the hard drive/ssd. Those are very inexpensive.

But if you're dead set on upgrading to a new pc:
CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Western Digital WD Black 4TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card
$1000 or less for all that,
That will run 10 clients with ease. Those will last you a few good years. However waiting a few months would be a better option, and buying when new hardware is released, price drops or buying newer hardware.
(Obviously you still need motherboard/power supply/fans/case?) Those won't really impact your performance much those.
Pandora Carrollon
Provi Rapid Response
#8 - 2016-04-27 14:33:17 UTC
EVE runs well on a $500 eMachines from WalMart so a single account isn't going to stress it out.

You mentioned 6 accounts, that's a little different.

What I would recommend you do is to look at the 'deals' or 'sale' portions of the bigger computer makers websites. You'll usually find a gaming system around $600-$800 (US) that will work just fine. It will either have a high end Core i5 or a lower end Core i7 processor with around 8GB of RAM which you can upgrade later if you need to. The machine will do fine to start but eventually you'll want to put an SSD and 8GB more of RAM in it if you want to run 6 accounts. Since you really can't focus on all 6 at once, only two-three will be practically 'active' at any one point so it's fine.

Processor performance has not changed much in the last 5 years. Moore's law died quite a while ago. Most of the improvement we see today is in the Hard Drive move to SSD's, GPU's becoming as or more powerful than CPU's, and RAM management/speed.

So you can wait for some increase in performance but that will ALWAYS be the case with computers, you'll be waiting forever. I'd just go with what is a good 'deal' now and upgrade as your needs dictate later. Plus you'll have a warranty to support you for a while.

8 Golden Rules of EVE • EVE is entirely PvP
Demolishar
United Aggression
#9 - 2016-04-27 20:00:15 UTC  |  Edited by: Demolishar
Get a used machine from craigslist.

Processor: Can be any quad core Intel since the Core 2 series. My old Q6600 still has more than enough power.

RAM: Needs to be at least 8GB. Doesn't matter what DDR# or Mhz it is.
You can get away with 4GB if you have a solid state drive to put your pagefile on and low overhead memory usage from other programs and the OS. That's what I'm doing currently.

GPU: I am currently running a HD5770 and it is not really enough for six clients - I get 30 FPS. Would suggest NVidia GTX460 minimum.

OS: You need a 64-bit OS to take advantage of the extra RAM - unless you only have 4GB RAM and are using the pagefile trick mentioned above.

The rest of the components don't really matter. The advice above is based on my own experience running EVE with an 8 year old computer and running 5-6 clients.

You should be able to spend less than 200 if you look hard enough.


PS, try to fix your Vista machine. What's wrong with it?
Buzz Orti
State War Academy
Caldari State
#10 - 2016-04-28 00:04:12 UTC  |  Edited by: Buzz Orti
Xaania wrote:
Greetings, after 9 years my windows vista machine died, and I need advice on computer hardware replacement(s).

So I ran 2 accounts on medium settings on my pc before it expired, I would ideally like to be able to run up to 6 clients at a time, I dont really care about the graphics so let's say at lowest settings.

So since I really have no idea on the capabilities of modern pcs, is this possible with one machine, or would it be a better idea to buy a bunch of used pcs off of craigslist?

My local computer store does custom builds, but I have not any idea of what hardware I need, so I welcome any templates.

Thanks for your time,

Xaania

1. The problem is the "Windows Vista" operating system which is expired and no longer has ongoing customer support from Microsoft.
I will not go into details as to why it would be more complicated to run hardware under that expired operating system, however, the hardware still works.

You can install a newer operating system on your hardware such as Windows 7 , 8, 10 or Linux.
Older versions of Linux may work as well, even though you may have to verify the hardware.

2.
Why should you upgrade your computer hardware or get a new computer altogether, which may be even less than what you have?
I mean, sure , you can run Vista on probably a very high end system, within limitation as any other Windows systems.

3.
Alternately, you can of course upgrade your system or get a new computer or a 2nd computer to run more programs at the same time.
The guidelines are listed under EVE Online "Systems Requirements"

There are video graphic hardware requirements.
There are also operating systems requirements, and Vista is not supported for EVE Online either.
There are also computer hardware requirements all of which are listed under EVE Online "Systems Requirements"...

Those EVE Online "Systems Requirements" listing include 2 portions,
for those 3 Computer hardware Operating Systems (which is the interface between the computer hardware, and computer software , including the EVE Online program itself) Apple system and Mac OS, Linux and Windows systems.

Those 2 portions are:
- 1. Minimum Systems Requirements which are the hardware and software configuration under which the system will work at minimal efficiency.
Anything less will cause some parts of the EVE Online system to function differently than intended &/or with lesser efficiency than minimum, if it does work at all.
- 2. Recommended Systems Requirements which are the hardware and software configuration that are recommended by EVE Online and CCP to run the EVE Online program efficiently and as intended.
Anything above that, although it may be mentioned in the Recommended Systems Requirements , may or may not be better.

Builds ship in empty Quafe bottle.
James Fonsworth
Watto's Junkyard
#11 - 2016-04-28 14:31:03 UTC  |  Edited by: James Fonsworth
My PC:

intel i7 3770 (about 4/5 years old)
8 gig DDR3 ram
evga gtx960


It;s nothing special. upper-mid-range at best. I could do with more ram.

The 960 supports up to 4 monitors at once, I use 3 monitors. I have 2 accounts, I can have both accounts open running med/high graphics, internet open, mumble and ts3 open, playing music, whatever and it doesn't miss a beat.

EVE can run on a cardboard box, literally. This is something CCP has prided themselves on ever since it came out. On low settings you could probably get EVE to run on a windows XP machine
Magmain
Perkone
Caldari State
#12 - 2016-04-28 17:42:19 UTC
Like others have said, eve will run on anything for the most part. 6 clients on low would probably run on a P4 machine. Personally I use a lenovo laptop and run anywhere from 3 (min) to 6 (max) clients at once. I have the settings set to max because I can and they all run at 60 fps. Some times eve drops to like 6 fps across all clients but that's typically when the dog yanks the power cord out of the wall.

Any modern desktop will run all 6 you need with ease. A i5 6600 will be more than enough, 8-16gb ram is plenty, a gtx 960 would handle it fine. Just make sure you use an SSD, that's what I've noticed helps EVE the most.

Shameless Plug: Oils By Eryn
Viserys Anstian
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#13 - 2016-05-02 16:26:09 UTC
As others have said, EVE is not particularly demanding, so if you are building a new computer, find out what your most demanding program will be.

THen factor in what is most important. Case Form, location, noise, etc. That will guide most of your choices.

For me, I built my current machine 2 years ago to handle have GPU computational programs (3D modeling, Finite Element Analysis, etc), so its way over built for Eve.

One recommendation I will make. You are going to be getting a GPU either way. Instead of an i5 or i7, get a XEON. The materials used and build quality is better. The downside is that you have to have a GPU (no onboard video processing) and you can't overclock it. The processor itself is about $50 cheaper than a comparable i7. Take that money and put it to a better GPU. I've seen very very few programs or games where overclocking the processor at today's levels yield anything but a shorter life. But that's just me. There are plenty of other bottle necks in the system that if you address in the build, overclocking is not really needed. Also, do your research on Power Supplies. Sure, efficiency is important, but do some digging on how clean the power supply is for variations on the DC side. this will kill more systems than anything else, and all PSU's are not created the same on this front.
Buzz Orti
State War Academy
Caldari State
#14 - 2016-05-03 01:39:50 UTC  |  Edited by: Buzz Orti
Everyone writes 8 GB and I'm pretty sure that this is the minimum requirement.
I run it with 4 GB and get problems.
However, most of the problems I get are from the low speed wifi internet.
It would run better with 6 GB RAM than 4 GB RAM but I never tried it yet.
Also, I ran it on 2 GB and it was at least twice as bad if not 10 times worst than with 4 GB RAM (speed wise, and process stalling wise, due to overload of the RAM data space, obviously).
Even with a virtual memory space allocated on the hard disk, the system still responds more slowly.

Edit:
I also forgot to mention, I run a wifi modem data stick which requires a Micro-SD to be inserted,
as well as a SIM card
( subscriber identification module (SIM) is an integrated circuit ... A SIM card contains its unique serial number (ICCID), international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) number, security authentication and ciphering ...).

I used to run it on an 8 GB Class 4 Micro-SD and upgraded it to 16 GB Class 10 Micro-SD and it generated some speed improvement.
I now got a 64 GB Class 10 Micro-SD with a 30 m/s data transfer rate and this doubled my internet speed.
However, the low end throttle speed is the same.
The system may work better at the same low speed though.

Builds ship in empty Quafe bottle.