The Finished Next-Gen MMO Machine

Apologies for the lack of updates, but I’ve been a little busy. I’ve previously talked about putting together a new PC to handle the next range of MMO games on the horizon. This hasn’t been some kind of hypothetical question about building something in my mind – I was really planning on building a new rig. After months of planning and some heavy work during the weekend, it’s finally done!

The parts were ordered, checked and prepped ready for installation. I’m told variously that the dining table looked either like some kind of Geek Christmas or a Shrine to Technology. Either way that makes me some kind of Geek Santa or techno-Oracle, so I guess I shouldn’t complain.

The whole assembly was reasonably straightforward. I won’t bore you with the details, but if you’re interested in knowing more then please checkout this excellent build log on the Vortez forums by Suicidal Zebra.

The biggest difference for me (apart from general performance) was in load times. By using a solid state drive I was able to cut the Windows boot time down to less than a minute, and by installing Warcraft to the drive the game is very quick to load. Space is limited on the drive, so I’m going to need to keep an eye on it after major patches and updates, but generally it was a great choice.

I’m floored by the numbers that I get while playing Warcraft. Typical framerates are around the 100fps mark, dropping down to about 70 if the action gets intense. I’m going to be looking to do further testing in the coming weeks. It’s also great for video capture, producing good quality videos at a nice steady framerate. I’m hoping to be able to produce more videos soon as I get back into game-playing mode.

Before I wrap up, I’d like to say thanks to Suicidal Zebra for all the help, support and research in putting this build together. I’d also like to give a big thanks to the folks over at Vortez.net – the case was a competition prize that arrived at just the right time. If you’re interested in the enthusiast side of PC technology or you’re contemplating a build yourself then I’d suggest trying their forums out, as they’ve got a pretty nice community developing there.

Anyway, enough babbling. Time to get some serious gaming done!