Engineering and fabrication
What are good components for building a computer to play World Of Warcraft?
My boyfriend and I play World Of Warcraft and his lap top is trashed. What are some good (cheap) computer components that would give him a good enough Desk top to play WoW with out any issues at all.
Public Comments
- Core 2 Duo E6600
nVidia GeForce 9600
MSI P6NGM Motherboard
Kingston Value RAM, 2x 1GB
Should be good enough
- tbh any computer with 1gb of ram and a 512 graphics card.
i use the ATI radeon sapphire x1650 Pro graphics card and can play wow with no lagg atall it cost me £80 at christmas so now it should be a bit cheaper aswell :)
- get a simple dual core cpu (around 2.0ghz, you dont need 3.0ghz quad or anything like that, DO NOT get intel, their processors cost a fortune, AMD offer you more bang for your buck)
2gb-4gb of ddr2 ram, each stick should be around £15-£20
a gddr2 or gddr3 pci-e card (as its cheaper than agp and better performance, i was also getting 30fps on a gddr card so gddr2 or higher will give you smoother performance)
a 300gb sata 3.0gb/s hard drive
and may i recomend this motherboard, it is only around £25-£30 and has some good spec, this is on newegg which is american so have a scout around some uk sites if your in britain
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138074R
- Video card: nVIDIA GeForce 9600GT. Cheap and fast.
Processor: Core 2 Duo E8400 (3.0 GHz). Fast and uses 45nm tech. New processor. Cheap.
Motherboard: Something with an nVIDIA 680i or higher chipset. Try to find one with a PCI-express 2.0 slot.
Hard Drive: At least 100GB at 7200 rpm.
Memory: 2 GB DDR2-800 or DDr2-1066.
Power Supply: 400-500W
OS: Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1.
This shouldn't be over $1000.
- Well, a "good enough" system is rather subjective. What you find "good enough" may be far different from what another individual would find "good enough". So, please keep that in mind while reading these answers because you are going to receive a wide range of "good enough" configurations.
To me, "good enough" would be a Pentium D or last generation AMD processor. Pentium D was the ultimate in processors just a little over a year ago and is a very good processor. While each three to four month period sees a new processor being promoted, and while they are "better" with more power and speed, that doesn't mean somebody actually "needs" that extra power and speed for most computer uses. While I do agree that playing games often is the one area home users can use each successive generation of processors, a "good enough" system would work fine with a Pentium D.
I am rather sure Pentium D is still sold. If not, look for the lower end processor available today. It will be plenty powerful and give your husband a "good enough" system.
Next, depending upon the OS version you will run on this system, and I actually recommend XP Media Center or Pro, as it is currently less expensive, and is a "good enough" (by far) OS to run your games. Both DVD and Internet based games. Anyway, depending upon your choice of OS:
For XP at least one (1) gigabyte of RAM, and for Vista at least two (2) gigabytes of RAM. Vista is a more secure platform and has some rather superior graphic capabilities, depending upon your graphics card, but it also demands more random Access Memory too.
Where you do not want to stint is the graphics card. However, obtaining the most cutting edge graphics card, which I believe would be a 10.1 currently, you would also require much more than a "good enough" system to run it on.
With that in mind, a graphics card with a minimum of 256mb of onboard RAM from ATI or G-Force would suffice. Preference towards the ATI card, but NVidia is actually catching up to the performance of ATI and surpasses it in some areas. So, whichever is less expensive but still provides some good graphic rendering and performence.
You and your husband can always upgrade all three of these components down the road as you can afford them. Building your own is a good way to keep down costs and keep the crud software trials and security ware you never ask for off the system because they not only take up disk space, they actually can cause issues down the road by removing them.
Also, in regards to motherboards you shouldn't stint now. Your motherboard is the most difficult item to "upgrade" as you have to basically rebuild from scratch. Take everything apart and then reassemble on the new motherboard. See if you can find a package of a motherboard/processor combination deal. Fry's Electronics has such deals each week. This store puts out sales pages nearly every day of the week, and if you don't get the daily paper you can go into the store as they post these sales items on the wall near the front door area.
You also should get a motherboard which supports the 64 bit OS. This way if you wish to upgrade to x64 is is simple. 64 bit OSs and the hardware to support them are the future of computers. Just as we went from 16 bit to 32 bit, we are now on our way from the 32 bit to the 64 as the normal configuration of systems.
One last thought about Fry's. Buy the warranty on your motherboard because Fry's is really good about allowing builders to bring it in about 16 months after purchase with a claim of "breakdown" and return it for a new motherboard. However, usually the motherboard you have is now obsolete, and so you get a brand new updated model for free. I learned this from a Fry's Associate who explained the value of the warranty and he told my husband and I that most in the know seldom buy another motherboard after the initial purchase. Stores like Fry's Electronics can support this because far more individuals buy pre-assembled units rather than build their own. In addition, those who do build their own tend to spend a higher amount in the store than those who do not.
To recap:
Pentium D or equivalent processor
Depending upon your OS, 1-2 gigabytes of RAM
Motherboard which supports 32/64 bit, with cooling
(Don't stint on motherboard)
Graphics card with at least 256mb of Onboard RAM.
Good fan systems, with at least 500 watts.
Hard disk of at least 100 gigabytes.
Creative sound card with 64mb of X-RAM
(or equivalent)
This should do just fine until you and your husband can afford to upgrade hardware.
Also, be very careful to buy hardware which are compatible. Ask a Fry's associate for help in picking out what you need. These folks know their hardware and many of them build their own units. Talk to a couple of them, and shop around for good deals.
In addition, try to avoid Online stores such as New Egg. Unless you know for a *fact* that the item you are purchasing is exactly what you want and need. I say this because returning to an Online store is time consumming, and you are usually charged up to a 15% "restocking fee" even if the item was never opened. If it is returned due to malfunction it takes even longer to perform all the steps to get it back to the store and receive your replacement part or your money back, less the 15% restocking fee. Stores you can walk into do not charge restocking fees and are much easier to return items and in a quicker time frame.
Good luck with building your system and much fun with your games. Please have a nice day.
