Building system for EQ2

Nice system. Mine's almost identical. I'm just running my 2600+ at 3200+ speeds, and I have 1gig of ram.

For EQ2 you need more RAM. Get at least another 512. As long as you leave the graphics settings at default you shouldn't have any problem with lag. I have no issues whatsoever, and I turned a couple things up from default.

The 2ghz recommendation from Sony is relating to a P4 at 2.0ghz. That means an AMD 2000+ or faster is fine. I played in the beta at different clock speeds to see how they affected gameplay, and I couldn't tell a difference between stock (1917) and my current OC'd speed (2242). I even clocked it down to 1150 (made it about a 1400+) to see how it worked and it was still playable - barely.

Get 1 512 stick of DDR400 (PC3200), and stick it in the remaining slot. Doesn't matter which slot, and it'll work fine with your 2x256.

At that point, you should be fine.

The price of DDR333 and DDR400 ram is almost the same, and in some cases DDR400 is a little cheaper. It works fine, and you may be able to use it in the next machine you buy.

Mike.

Edited for spelling.
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by fishmahn on 12/14/04 03:52 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

Wow thanks allot for the speedy reply 40 min or so. Thought I would get an answer sometime tomorow.

Thow then if you play EQ2 I have another question (I cant get onto the EQ2 forums because they only let in subscribers)
What is all the talk about big crash problems with the game? Most people on the forums seem to be awfuly worked up. I have seen a few threads about the "death card 9600XT" do you think I should wait to get the game until these issues have been resolved?

heh, just lucky on timing - getting slow at work here just before the end of the day...

Just like anything SOE does, it's not fully debugged when it's released. I'm not having problems, and to be honest I haven't looked at the forums so I don't know anything about that. There are almost daily updates where the servers go down and they make adjustments, some zones lose stability and get massive lag, and there are occasional zone crashes. Heck, there's zone crashes on EQ1 and it's been out for 5+ years.

I look at it this way - the ones that post on those forums a lot don't have much of a life other than EQ, and the ones that get upset because of something beyond their control need to go into detox or something. I've found it to be plenty stable - even pre-release during the beta stability was ok. The whiners and criers you have to take with a grain of salt. There are about 30 servers functioning, with easily 5k players per server. And 25 people are whining... That means the other 59,975 aren't whining, they're playing the game. (ok, statistics says 10x the whiners are also having problems, but that means then that 59,750 are playing the game   )

When to buy is up to you, but I don't know of a reason why you should wait (except for the extra 512 of ram).

Mike.

Alright the new RAM will be comming in this christmas. I could be nice to somebody and let them give it to me.

Thanks for all the info

I'm an EQ2 fanatic as well. I have the following:
P4 2.0
9600XT 256 (only a 4x AGP slot though)
1 gig 2100 ram

I have to turn my settings down fairly low to make the game playable in the cities. Outside the cities, no problem. Smooth as silk. But when you put a bunch of PC's and NPC's on the screen all at once in the cities, I get chop, even with my reduced settings. Things are better now that people are getting higher level and spending less time in the cities and newbie zones, but it was a nightmare in the beginning.

I do lose my connection from time to time, but that doesn't happen too often and doesn't seem to be hardware related (my wife and I both lose our connections at the same time). It's a minor inconvenience. I haven't had any major crashing at all. In fact, the only people I've heard having major graphic issues are Nvidia users, but those may have been fixed already.

However, my wife has:
P4 3.0C
9800 Pro 128 (but with an XP chip...everything detects it as an XP)
1 gig of 3200 Corsair Value Select

I've got her settings put on medium with the grass turned off, and she never lags. I turn the grass off because of the collection quest stuff that's on the ground. It's hard to see with the grass on.

Hope that helps.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by crey on 12/15/04 11:31 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

Thanks for the info,
I guess I have the stronger system then you but still a bit worried about that lagg. I had quite a bit of lag in SWG in the cities only had P4 1.7, 512 RAMBUS RAM and a GeForce 2 at the time thow. Now with 1024 DDR400 and a 9600XT 128 I guess I will be alright even on EQ2.

Any of you two try to roleplay any when you play? And what you think about the no PvP idea, will it change?

I don't really bother with roleplaying, but there are two servers specifically set up for roleplayers. It's not really enforced, but highly encouraged. I don't know specifics because I haven't played on them.

As for PvP, it's not going to happen. SOE posted in the EQ2 forums that direct PvP isn't a part of their game and won't ever be. In fact, last I heard, their forum monitors were locking/deleting any thread that discussed PvP because they always turned into flame fests.

Seems strange thow cus I think that many people miss PvP in the game. Very strange when you consider that the whole storyline of the game is set around Christopher Lee (dont remember char name) rallying warriors in Freeport to attack Qeynos. I really hope it will be in an expansion pack atleast. Hey only reason I am playing EQ2 is because Warhammer Online is not going online and so I had to chose between WoW SWG and EQ2. WoW looks like crap, I cant stand the cartoony feel (as a roleplayer). SWG does not work out for me. Too many deserted cities, impossible to play solo and it is no fun anymore to not have any magic. EQ2 looks great, has allot of nice features but I think there is one it lacks and that is the PvP. Sad I guess but I will definatly give the game a good try anyhow. Maybe when I am a pentioner the right MMORPG is released and I can buy an uber computer and play with all my old RP buddies. Nice thought I hope I live that long.

Well I dont think this is an EQ2 forum even thow I cant go on the real one yet. So I guess we will have to stop the discussion.
Thanks for the answers guys