Budget build for WoW

[Nightcast]

My buddy is looking for a build to play WoW and web surf, school work, etc.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
WoW and school work, youtube, etc.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$500
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
Michigan, Microcenter about 10 minutes away
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc.
Cpu, Mobo, Ram, GPU, Case, PSU, HDD, and wireless card.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
sata DVD drive
6) Will you be overclocking?
No
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
1440x900 19"
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Soon as we can get a part list.
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
I don't really think he would need anything special.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Win 7 64bit

Thank you much.

 

[Dangman]

No chance of an extra $50 for the PC?

I ask because that extra $50 would mean a dramatic difference in the gaming performance off the PC. We're talking an extra 35% to 40% performance here.

 

[Raize]

1440x900 19" ? I am not sure that $50 extra is necessary at that resolution.

Something like this would be more than enough.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/thPWyc

 

[Makeroflostsouls]

1440x900 19" ? I am not sure that $50 extra is necessary at that resolution.

Something like this would be more than enough.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/thPWyc

This is a good build for WOW.. My wife runs the same thing with the CPU@4.5ghz and she plays at 1920x1200 and it runs perfect. So at 1440x900 you will have no issues at all. Just make sure you OC that cpu.. Also if you don't mind used your could pickup a 290 amd for around 180-200 bucks.

 

[GotNoRice]

Agreed that is a good build. A fast overclockable dual-core is great because WoW hits the CPU hard, but also has trouble making effective use of more than 2 cores.

Only thing I would suggest is to really try to fit an SSD into the budget. WoW benefits tremendously from an SSD, not just by making traditional loading screens load faster but by also reducing hitching and stuttering due to the smoothness at which textures load on-the-fly as you move across the landscape. The extent to which WoW benefits from a faster hard drive is such that before the era of SSDs, WoW was actually one of the few games that ran faster on 15k rpm server drives than on 10k rpm raptor drives.

 

[Nightcast]

He could do another $50. He doesn't need to play it on high settings or anything and I wasn't sure if a SSD would make that big of a difference. Thanks so far guys.

 

[Dangman]

A few issues that I see with Raize's build:
- That motherboard may not support the G3258 out of the box. It would require a UEFI update which means that he would need another Intel CPU.
- That case is stupidly overpriced since the Source 210 Elite was often $50 shipped.
- He doesn't need the DVD burner
- The OP said no overclocking. So the HSF is a bit unnecessary.
- Already maxed out at 8GB of RAM.

Now I said $50 extra because I was trying to cram in a Core i3 4370 CPU, a better motherboard, and trying to avoid getting the R7 260X:
$180 - Intel Core i3 4370 CPU + AsRock H97M Pro4 mATX Motherboard Microcenter Combo
$70 - Kingston HyperX FURY HX316C10FR/8 8GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$150 - PowerColor TurboDuo AXR9 270 2GBD5-TDHE/OC Radeon R9 270 2GB Video Card
$55 - Western Digital Blue WD10EZEX 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$40 - Corsair 430CX V2 430W PSU
----
Total: $495 shipped plus tax on the CPU and mobo.

That extra $50 would have covered the case easily.

 

[Dangman]

Ahh $50 is possible! Taking Raize's recommendations into account, I recommend the following:
$50 - Intel Pentium G3258 CPU
$82 - ASRock H97M Pro4 Intel H97 mATX Motherboard
$70 - Kingston HyperX FURY HX316C10FR/8 8GB DDR3 1600 RAM
$180 - Sapphire DUAL-X 100373L Radeon R9 280 3GB PCI-E Video Card
$55 - Western Digital Blue WD10EZEX 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s Hard Drive
$62 - XFX TS Series XFX TS 550W PSU
$45 - Coolermaster N200 NSE-200-KKN1 mATX Case
------
Total: $544 shipped

Notes:
- The CPU and case are both from Microcenter. I'm not sure if Michigan charges sales tax on online purchases so I erred on the side of caution and stuck with online for the most part.

- For the R9 280 card, I don't like the idea of using super budget PSU for it. Hence why I spent extra on the XFX 550W.

- Note that the above is a mATX setup.

 

[tenpole]

A few issues that I see with Raize's build:
- That motherboard may not support the G3258 out of the box. It would require a UEFI update which means that he would need another Intel CPU.

I have heard different. You do need an update to start the o/c.