I'm always amazed how very old computers can run EQ acceptably.
On a lark I tested the following system, available refurbished with a 1-year warranty for $148 and that includes monitor:
All-in-One
Get this, I also had the EQ client on a USB 2.0 stick and it was running off that since I didn't want to go to the trouble of transferring all 15gig of the client to this computer.
It ran decently. There was a little lag, but I was running the client off a slow USB connection AND with all settings turned up since I copied the client off one of my i7 16-gig systems. I'm sure if I turned down a lot of options, models, clipping planes, etc. the lag would go away.
I'd be curious if anyone knows of a cheaper system, considering being refurbished, warranted and INCLUDING a monitor, that could be had for less than $148. Free shipping, too! The compactness is nice too, being an all-in-one, and with square rather than today's standard widescreen monitor, it would not take a lot of desktop to set up a 3-box configuration. Even 6-box might fit on a standard 6-foot desk or office table, if laid out intelligently.
The video chipset in this system is Intel Q45/Q43 Express Chipset with WDDM 1.1. I don't know anything about this but it's onboard so I guess onboard video in the more recent standard low-priced business machine is capable of enough 3-D rendering to run EQ. This model is far from really recent, however. I've used them in the past for business installations "on the cheap" and these Dell Optiplex units have been on the market for years. This surprised me because years ago I always had to add a 3-d video card to any business desktop that only had onboard video.
This makes me wanna cry when I think of how much I've spent on various gaming computers to be able to six-box over the years!
Edited, Mar 12th 2018 11:39am by Sippin