Time for a new PC

[Sonoma]

It's time for me to replace my old self-built tower. It sits on a wheeled base on the floor, blowing cold air on my feet at the moment, with the fans changing pitch with every portal. So, I'm looking for something compact, quiet, and fast.

Question: Is the Mac a better choice for this game?

*edit* And, what is the best for a new monitor?

*edit* If I get a PC, can I trash the Windows 10 that comes with it and keep 8.1?

[Eryhn]

It's time for me to replace my old self-built tower. It sits on a wheeled base on the floor, blowing cold air on my feet at the moment, with the fans changing pitch with every portal. So, I'm looking for something compact, quiet, and fast.

Question: Is the Mac a better choice for this game?

*edit* And, what is the best for a new monitor?

*edit* If I get a PC, can I trash the Windows 10 that comes with it and keep 8.1?

monitor is too wide a field to go into detail. personally I'm a fan of IPS panels which offer better viewing quality, brighter colors and contrast, better viewing angle from sides at both higher cost and slower reaction times (reaction time is only relevant for games much much more fast paced than ddo) but that's a subjective choice. I have had good experiences with various lower mid price range (150-250) DELL and HP screens both myself and family and friends.

the ability to pivot, tilt, swivel my screen as I like is worth +20-50 bucks to me, again, subjective choice ...

the screen I currently play ddo on is a Dell P2217H, a very slim 21,5" full HD IPS. I happened to get a cheap deal on it on short notice when my HP 24" broke down after 8 years of heavy use. while at some point it will be replaced with a 24" or 27" for the time being in terms of viewing quality im very happy with it.



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If you are capable of building your own tower I dont see why not do it again?

a) you can control the cost more in detail
b) you can assure that key components are of decent quality and trustwhorthy brands
c) you can customize both specs & power as well as size, form and noise to your personal preference


on the matter of wanting it slim, nowadays you have a rly rly wiiiide choice of cases. the smallest you could aim for is a mini ITX sized mainboard and corresponding case. these often come with some drawbacks in terms of ram slots and available PCI slots. they are also by and large a tad more expensive as all the stuff needs to be more crammed together. building such a rig will take more time and care, most likely require a PSU with modular cables and careful choice of case, fans, a gfx card that fits the case and some thought spent on decent airflow

if that is too much fuss for you, with a mini ATX (mATX)board you'd still be a lot smaller than oldschool tower, and could end up either with a small mini tower sitting upright on your desk left or right of your keyboard and mouse, OR, a so called HTPC case sitting horizontally under your screen.

as for fan noise, thats an issue with old fans. if building yourself and chosing a case with dust filters integrated, and spending 5-10 bucks per fan rather than 2-4, maybe adding another 20 or so bucks for a fan controller - you can get it RLY quiet.


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I can see no sensible reason whatsoever for using an older, sooner outdated windows over an up to date one.

from the occasional trouble thread here on forums it is my understanding that windows is best supported for ddo.

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edit: youtube can be a good place to start research. both for what components to chose as to for what case has which perks and drawbacks.

for random starter with some entertainment value (subjective), here's linus building something very small - I've not actually watched that but assuming over the hour of it inevitably some of the issues of building in a very small space are touched upon ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzcrTmhOP2s


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edit:
some matx cases: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-FV7a-t-nM

some htpc cases: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peth6xd8ZWo

there's endless amount of vids like this, i just chose 2 randomly, the choice of whats good and why and whats bad and why is oc subjective, also, at times people doing these presentation vids get money for showcasing a brand's products. so this would take finding something that looks good to you on first glance then doing some further research.

here's my case, a mATX. fractal builds nice cases but they are a bit higher priced by and large. this particular one is a budget version at around 50 bucks. In my case it sits on a shelf next to the table about half and half above and below the level of my desk. it's not one of the super good looking cases by that brand but well, it's functional for decent price ...also I wanted to have an external 5.25 bay which u dont find so often nowadays in small cases so that limits options a bit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTY1G3mf4Kw

[Sonoma]

Excellent information. Thanks. I might try upgrading my fans and video card. It may be only the video fan is making all the noise.