Specs for a new PC

[Aexon]

<p >Just curious what you guys think of this for a setup to play EQ2?  I want to be able to play on max settings or as close as possible to them.</p><p ></p><p >Please let  me know,</p><p ></p><p >CPU:</p><p >Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 / 3 GHz processor</p><p ></p><p >MOBO:</p><p >ASUS Striker Extreme Republic of Gamers Series - motherboard - ATX - nForce 680i SLI</p><p ></p><p >HDD:</p><p >2x WD Raptor WD740ADFD - hard drive - 74 GB - SATA-150</p><p >      - 1 for OS and 1 for Game</p><p ></p><p >Video:</p><p >PNY XLR8 8800 GTX - graphics adapter - GF 8800 GTX - 768 MB</p><p ></p><p >Memory:</p><p >Kingston HyperX memory - 2 GB ( 2 x 1 GB ) - DIMM 240-pin - DDR II</p><p ></p>

[antwar]

<p>decent choices, however if you are going to spend that much money on a new system, i would recommend spending a little more and get 3 raptor drives, 1 for OS and 2 in a raid striping array for game performance. you will notice a big difference. also, consider finding SATA 300 (SATA II) drives instead of SATA 150 drives. double the bandwidth of the drives you have listed.</p><p>other than those 2 slight modifications, i think you have an excelent system, more than capable of running EQ2 at extreme quality settings (minus shadows of course - you might be able to turn them on also, i dont know).</p><p>good luck with your new system.</p>

[Aexon]

Thanks for the suggestions,  some reason I thought those were SATA II drives.  I have always been told that RAID 0 performance increase is minimal for gaming.<div></div><div>Just a question but has anyone ever tried using SAS drives?  At work this summer I upgraded all our new blades to SAS drives for OS and Fiber drives off a 4Gbps SAN for Data.  The SAS drives seem to be real screamers for direct attached storage.</div><div></div><div>Cheers,</div><div></div><div>Aex</div>

[BungFoo]

yes raid 0 isn't great for games. Load times for large files are shorter but are longer for small files. Most games consist of a ton of smaller files.<a href="http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2101&p=10" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Anandtech raid 0 benchmark</a>SAS is serially attached SCSI? If you've got the change go for it but SATA 2 drives are pretty [Removed for Content] fast these days and I bet the cost/performance advantage is with SATA 2.