Gaming PC for World of Warcraft- Please Help Me Pick

[Axon]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2075159

Thought I'd link that. It's worth a look. Regor + 5770, full build including OS for $435. Not bad.

Lightly used parts are always an awesome deal.

 

[HumblePie]

This is what I have now and it seems slow at times. My FPS with WoW is low at minimum video settings (10-20)

eMachines T5274
2.0GHz Intel Dual Core Pentium E2180
2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM
64MB (shared) Intel GMA 950 integrated chip
320GB 7,200rpm
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (32-bit)

No offense, but if all you are looking to play is WoW, then your current system is fine. It just needs an actual video card and a power supply upgrade. Get something good now for both of those so that when you save up enough cash for a good machine, it's just something you won't have to buy at that point. A good PSU can literally last through several upgrades.

The problem is seeing if your current computer has a PCIe slot. According to newegg for that machine and the pics I see, it has a PCIe 16x slot. This is good for you. If I was in your shoes I would do the following.

$150 Sapphire 5770 Vaporx 1GB card from Zipzoomfly. Linking does not seem to work with zipzoomfly so just search for 5770 and you'll find it.

$90 Corsair TX750W power supply

For $240, you can be playing WoW and some modern games with your current resolution and system. Both of these parts will still be good for a few more years to come. The power supply is a beast and will serve you well for many years and upgrades to come. The video card is great as well and if you ever upgrade your system, you can opt for a second one for SLI or you can sell it off for not that much less than what you would pay for it today.

 

[mfenn]

No offense, but if all you are looking to play is WoW, then your current system is fine. It just needs an actual video card and a power supply upgrade. Get something good now for both of those so that when you save up enough cash for a good machine, it's just something you won't have to buy at that point. A good PSU can literally last through several upgrades.

The problem is seeing if your current computer has a PCIe slot. According to newegg for that machine and the pics I see, it has a PCIe 16x slot. This is good for you. If I was in your shoes I would do the following.

$150 Sapphire 5770 Vaporx 1GB card from Zipzoomfly. Linking does not seem to work with zipzoomfly so just search for 5770 and you'll find it.

$90 Corsair TX750W power supply

For $240, you can be playing WoW and some modern games with your current resolution and system. Both of these parts will still be good for a few more years to come. The power supply is a beast and will serve you well for many years and upgrades to come. The video card is great as well and if you ever upgrade your system, you can opt for a second one for SLI or you can sell it off for not that much less than what you would pay for it today.

Have you ever gone into Dal? A 2.0GHz C2D with gimped cache will absolutely die.

 

[HumblePie]

Have you ever gone into Dal? A 2.0GHz C2D with gimped cache will absolutely die.

Yah, with an opteron 165 and an ATI 4850 even. Just turn off shadows and bloom. Most of WoW lag is network related anyhow. The FPS lag is mostly from shadows and bloom.

The PSU and video card upgrade will do what he wants for now and he can certainly upgrade to a better CPU, board, and memory later.

 

[mfenn]

Yah, with an opteron 165 and an ATI 4850 even. Just turn off shadows and bloom. Most of WoW lag is network related anyhow. The FPS lag is mostly from shadows and bloom.

The PSU and video card upgrade will do what he wants for now and he can certainly upgrade to a better CPU, board, and memory later.

Yeah, a GMA 950 is pretty damn weak, but actually, Dal (and other areas where there are a lot of players) are generally CPU limited. My Q6600 @ stock (2.4) would have 2 threads maxed out in Dal getting ~20 fps.

I agree that some parts of WoW are GPU limited, but there are plenty that are CPU limited, especially with such a weak CPU.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Wait wait wait. Did anyone mention that WOW is more dependent on the CPU vs the GPU for performance scaling?

The more cores the better for WOW.

 

[mfenn]

Wait wait wait. Did anyone mention that WOW is more dependent on the CPU vs the GPU for performance scaling?

The more cores the better for WOW.

As of when I stopped playing (3.2) the game only used 2 threads. Has that changed recently?

 

[MagickMan]

Yes. While it isn't very efficient, it can use 4 cores and it does provide a performance boost.