WoW Machine Under $500?

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Shegokigo

Shegokigo

With Mists of Panderia coming out next year, I'm wondering if it'd be possible to run wow on a $500 (just talking tower here, not accessories/monitor) machine? What kind of MB/CPU/RAM/VIDEO would it take to run it at a smooth 60fps?

(Thinking of buying a WoW playing system for my brother's wife, her laptop can't handle it)
 
strawman

strawman

Cheap dells and similar are not inexpensive - they are cheap.

For $500 you'll want to build it yourself. WoW doesn't need a lot of CPU, nor even a high end graphics card. It has a lot of data, though, so I'd consider a small (64GB) SSD, then 4-8GB memory, and a cheap CPU/mobo combo. Round it off with an inexpensive graphics card and it should be just fine. Scope out the deals and take a week or two ordering the parts and you might be able to get more bang for your buck. You should be able to get a bundled version of windows 7 with the hard drive or cpu/mobo combo for $80-$100.
 
strawman

strawman

Better to learn on a cheap machine than an expensive one. Besides, you probably have pieces laying around (hard drives, dvd drives, cases, power supplies, etc) WHICH WOULD MAKE IT EVEN CHEAPER

and a wild capslock appears...
 
ScytheRexx

ScytheRexx

I am playing WoW at full settings on a $600 machine I bought, and that was nearly a year ago now. I am sure you can find a good system for much cheaper. HP usually has some good ones, but you would have also update the power supply and graphics card usually.
 
Shegokigo

Shegokigo

See that's what I thought, was yours pre-built or self-built? I'd rather just buy it and give it to her instead of building from the ground up....
 
ScytheRexx

ScytheRexx

Well it was mostly pre-built. I also bought a 500w power supply and just installed it myself, then used an older graphics card that still was good enough to handle WoW at max. I didn't change anything else. So it wouldn't be entirely pre-built, but it would be easier then doing it from nothing.

The sucky thing is if you want to go entirely pre-built, all the companies are cutting costs by removing decent power supplies, HP and Dell have a ridiculously low 250w as the base, which is even less then the system I got years ago. That is not enough to handle any decent cards, even most of the cheaper ones, while still using stuff like my USB ports. The only ones that are not skimping out is the "gaming machines" and obviously they love to overprice those bitches since they know gamers are usually willing to pay out the ass over some old lady who just wants an e-mail machine.
 
sixpackshaker

sixpackshaker

3 years ago I bought a basic $500 machine from Newegg, iBuyPower. After getting a 1080p Monitor I had to upgrade to a new card. I think it was around $150. They have similar deals out there. This is actually the first off the shelf machine that I've purchased in several years.
 
ScytheRexx

ScytheRexx

I don't know, I have never heard anything good from Cyberpower or IBUYPower, but I have never owned one myself, so I may be overly critical for nothing. I just hear bad stories from friends.
 
strawman

strawman

My experience has been that if I buy a cheap computer pre-made, it's nothing but trouble. I spend way too much time fixing it - the drivers are junk, the hardware is junk, and it's simply not worth it. If you want to buy something pre-made, it has to at least be mid-range computer or better. If I need cheap, I build it myself - even if it costs more than the equivalent pre-built system, I know I won't be babysitting it constantly.
 
Shegokigo

Shegokigo

Well either way I'd buy the insurance for them. I guess my biggest concern for these pre-built system is thus:

Which processor would be the best out of these? How's that i5 2500k, Phenom II X4 955 or the AMD FX-Series FX-4100? How reliable/fast are they?
Which one of those videos cards is going to suck the least? The Radeon 6670, 6870 or the GTX 560?

I guess I'm wondering if it's worth getting:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883229253 with the Phenom II X4 965(3.4GHz) and the GTX 560

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227359 with the Phenom II X4 955(3.2GHz) and the AMD 6870

cause I think that's the best I'm going to do at newegg with their prebuilt systems under $900.

(Why am I so intent on Newegg? Because I just qualified for their credit and if I don't have to pay for most of this in one chunk, I'm not. Plus my brother told me, after I told him about the credit, that he'd reimburse me between 400-500 over the 500 I was going to spend to really get her a "singing" computer)
 
C

Chibibar

Dell GX series are not bad base machine. These are office level equipment (which IMO better than precision which is home base PC) Micro Center are selling the GX600 series for like 100-200$. You can switch out the HDD and video card (on board kinda sucks but workable since sometimes I do play WoW at work during night shift) All comes with Window XP/7 base (thus the range from 100-200 ;) )
 
Shakey

Shakey

I was bored and threw together a quick build just barely under 900. If you feel like dealing with mail in rebates it will be even cheaper. Feel free to rip it apart or suggest changes.

Item #: N82E16827135204

$19.99​

Item #: N82E16811129042 -$10.00 Instant
$15.00 Mail-in Rebate
$69.95​
$59.95​

Item #: N82E16822148697
$64.99​

Item #: N82E16814127592 $20.00 Mail-in Rebate Card
$189.99​

Item #: N82E16817153116 -$15.00 Instant
$25.00 Mail-in Rebate
$99.99​
$84.99​

Item #: N82E16820231311
$46.99​

Item #: N82E16813130583 -$25.00 Instant
$20.00 Mail-in Rebate Card
$134.99​
$109.99​

Item #: N82E16819115072
$219.99​

Item #: N82E16832116986
$99.99​
Subtotal:​
$896.87​
 
D

Disconnected

Shegokigo said:
Tried building decent ones at Dell, but I hear that the part failure rate is ridiculously high....
Click to expand...
a little late as you're on the build it yourself route (which is abetter route) I have to say,
I have a dell, 5 years old. Replaced graphics card (purchased and installed myself) when I got it. Nothing has failed on it yet.
Identical computer with different graphics card bought at the same time, also still going strong.

I am apparently the only person that has had luck with Dells. I also have a 7 year old Dell laptop, while not a gaming machine has not failed me yet either.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
Man, they must have beefed up the graphics in WoW since I stopped playing... back in the day, that shit would run on my old, weak laptop with just an onboard intel video adapter.
 
ScytheRexx

ScytheRexx

GasBandit said:
Man, they must have beefed up the graphics in WoW since I stopped playing... back in the day, that shit would run on my old, weak laptop with just an onboard intel video adapter.
Click to expand...
They have been improving much of the graphics system, including the water and lighting. It all looks much better these days.

MoP looks like it may take the requirements even higher, since they are utilizing a new lighting system that they were showing off in the Art panel. If you watch videos of MoP gameplay, you even see shadows now realistically falling on the character models, which never really happened before, plus a much better feeling of depth.

 
Shegokigo

Shegokigo

When my brother brought the idea up to me, I think he wanted to get her playing some co-op games too like Portal 2, and Diablo 3 etc. I think honestly what he wanted me to do was shell out like $500 and he'd put in like 300-400 more to make it the best gaming PC it could be for that price range. Not specifically for WoW alone.

Just for the hell of it, what would you guys build, with an $800 budget off Newegg, if you were building it yourself?
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
Shegokigo said:
When my brother brought the idea up to me, I think he wanted to get her playing some co-op games too like Portal 2, and Diablo 3 etc. I think honestly what he wanted me to do was shell out like $500 and he'd put in like 300-400 more to make it the best gaming PC it could be for that price range. Not specifically for WoW alone.

Just for the hell of it, what would you guys build, with an $800 budget off Newegg, if you were building it yourself?
Click to expand...
Because I am lazy, I usually go with the midline from TechReport - and as it happens, they have handy links to newegg.

http://techreport.com/articles.x/21462/6

Component Item Price​
Motherboard Asus P8Z68-V LE $132.99​
Memory Corsair 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 $48.99​
Asus DRW-24B1ST $20.99​
Enclosure NZXT H2 $89.99​
Power supply Seasonic M12II 520W $92.99​
Total $881.92​
Click to expand...
You can probably shave some off there with just using onboard audio, and personally, I'd shell out the 10 more bucks to get the Nvidia GPU.


If I know PatrThom though, he'll have something way more in depth :p But TechReport has pretty much never steered me wrong.
Added at: 13:04
Man... those tables sure don't copy/paste well. Just dragselect over the text to read it.
 
ScytheRexx

ScytheRexx



For those that may be curious about the new lighting system, just skip ahead to 36:55. I do recommend watching the whole thing though if you are interested in the art side of WoW.

If your budget is closer to $800, Shego, and you want something that can play Portal 2 and Diablo 3, then maybe you can just buy a pre-built and replace a few parts. Would save some time over building it entirely from scratch. Sadly I can't research much here at work, already taking some chances just posting WoW info, but I may try some later.
 
Shakey

Shakey

I don't really see the point in buying a pre-built PC if you're going to swap out half the parts. You're not going to save much money building it yourself, but you'll end up with better, and easier to work with, components.
From your past posts I'm guessing you've replaced at least graphics cards, ram, hard drives, and cpu. You've also installed windows on your own. There really isn't much more to do with putting your own computer together.
I'd probably buy the one I posted above. I'd probably do more research into whether there is a better motherboard and video card though. I'm just lazy today and don't want to think about it anymore.
 
ScytheRexx

ScytheRexx

Not sure if the last post is toward me and my suggestion, but figure I would make mention of my system.

When it comes to my PC, I only replaced the power supply and put in an old graphics card, it was a $600 HP system, and I got the 500w Power Supply from a friend. Everything else from drives to ram are the same at the standard, and I am able to run games like Diablo 3, Mass Effect 2, Portal 2, etc... all at max settings and high FPS. The only part that failed on it recently was the old graphics card, and that was because it was already a repair job from BFG before they went under.
 
Shakey

Shakey

It was more directed to Shego. It was just my opinion on pre-built versus build your own.

Why don't I like pre-built computers for something like Shego wants?
Adding parts to a pre-built system will be easier, but it will end up being the same if not more price wise. With the pre-built systems you will most likely get a crappy motherboard that doesn't support USB3 or SATA 6gb. You'll also get a case that will be a bitch to work in. They were meant to be put together and stay together. Upgrades to it will be a pain. You'll get the joy of uninstalling all the crap that comes pre-installed on it.
 
C

Chibibar

With newegg, you can also get barebone system and just add stuff to it (much better if you are planning to replace stuff) like board, chip, power, and case.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
Well shut my mouth wiiiiide open... those specs I gave were from the September system guide... and now, just this very instant, TechReport has just come out with a new system guide!

http://techreport.com/articles.x/21876/4

And here's the stats for the "middle" box:



Processor Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz $219.99
Motherboard Asus P8Z68-V LE $129.99
Memory Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 $44.99
Graphics Asus GeForce GTX 560 DirectCU II OC $199.99
Storage Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB $69.99
Asus DRW-24B1ST $19.99
Audio Asus Xonar DG $21.99
Enclosure NZXT H2 $99.99
Power supply Seasonic M12II 520W $89.99
Total $896.91
 
Shegokigo

Shegokigo

I'd kill the Audio and get a more powerful power supply but that's looking exactly like what would get this whole thing taken care of.

Anyone want to chime in on that? Because honestly I think the i5-2500k and the GTX 560 were what I felt strongest about getting for the build.
 
Shakey

Shakey

I like that better, except I'd swap in the hard drive I picked and drop the audio card. That also doesn't include windows, so it'll end up breaking the $900 if you have to buy it.
 
C

Chibibar

personally at this day and age I would get at LEAST 2 drive mirrored. that way if one crap out, you still have the other drive to work off.
 
Shegokigo

Shegokigo

I think I've decided to make the deal swing in my favor a bit.

I'm going to order a GTX 580 and swap it out with my 5870OC so she can have that in her new system build.

Two birds, one shotgun.
 
C

Chibibar

Shegokigo said:
I think I've decided to make the deal swing in my favor a bit.

I'm going to order a GTX 580 and swap it out with my 5870OC so she can have that in her new system build.

Two birds, one shotgun.
Click to expand...
Heh, that works for me. It is your money, so she just have to accept what you give her. I'm jealous of your GTX 580. I only got GTX 280 myself. (that should be right or was it 290) hehe
 
Shegokigo

Shegokigo

Wait a minute... is the i5-2500k better than my i7 940 (OC 3.4ghz)???

Crap, am I almost building her a better system than my current rig? Wtf?
 
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