New Eve Online Box

This is a general geeky post about my new PC and how amazing Eve looks with everything turned up to 11. If you want a proper Eve post, Seleene's CSM Spring Summitt part 1 and part 2 are worth a read

So finally after two years of playing Eve on a laptop I have a new desktop to play it on!

I'm hoping to be out here in the desert for a long while, and the laptop has stopped dual boxing as we're into the summer now. It's over 45 degrees Celsius outside and even with the aircon on, the laptop overheats and shuts down when running two Eve Clients.

In the past getting a new Eve box, I mean new PC, has never been an issue. Back in the UK I'd either build my own (I miss my TJ-07 case with self-built watercooling rig) or bought one from somewhere like PC Specialist when I couldn't be bothered to build my own.

Sat back in the UK all lonely :(

However, in the desert it's a lot more difficult to get the parts. So a few hours of driving and I'm in the big city, at a mall that specialises in PC shops only. It is geek heaven. Some are really smart outfits with motherboards set out on display racks and windows full of top-end cases. Others look like junk stores with all sorts of components, new and old, scattered around. The goods for sale vary massively. From the old 8xxxx series GeForce cards up to the new 690, they can be found if you look hard enough. However, you can count on it that if you're after a very specific thing, they'll have everything in except that one model!

In the end I got:-

i5 - 3.1ghz
Gigabyte Z77-D3H
8gb Kingston Hyper X RAM
Gigabyte GTX 670 2gb
Seagate 1tb HDD
CoolerMaster nVIDEA case
CoolerMaster 850w PSU
Corsair H80 cooler

Not the CPU I would have gone for, but it was best choice that was available. But I think the GFX is a fair beast so should have no issues running several Eve Clients at the same time.

They even assemble it for you for the princely sum of £8! So I paid and then took the wife, who was looking rather bored by then, shopping at a normal mall for a few hours until it was ready to collect.

I got home and I was like a kid with a new toy. Sorry, I WAS a kid with a new toy.

AV and Firewall on first, then comms (TS3), EveMon, EFT, Chrome plus bookmarks to the alliance forums, Fraps. You can tell what this PC is going to be used for can't you!

I'm on limited bandwidth at home so rather than download the Eve Client, I copied over the folders from my laptop. Of course Eve wouldn't start. Launcher popped up, then the Inferno splash screen and then nothing. Bugger! Wait a second, I've been here before!

So I installed Civilisation V, restarted the computer, works. I assume as a fresh PC, DirectX isn't installed or configured or something. Installing Civ V did the trick anyway in a Bodgit and Scarper style.

I also got a new monitor. Going to have my old 21.5" as the second screen, but now have a nice 23" for my main.

So here we have it. My new PC for violencing internet spaceships with extreme prejudice!

And the results.....

Even with one client running on the laptop I didn't have everything turned up to max. Now I do and it's looking truly amazing. I keep hitting ctrl+F9 to hide the HUD and watch the action. That is going to get me killed soon, but OMG! Eve looks amazing now. /drool