Build help: Wow Rig: $400-500

M

Magnin

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 14, 2001
Messages
191
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc

World of Warcraft.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$400-500, plan to order online, probably from Newegg.

3) Where do you live?
WI.

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
Motherboard, Processor, RAM (4GB), Video
Low-end SSD (30GB OCZ?) if budget allows.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

HardDrives (Multiple SATA)
IDE DVD Burner.
PowerSupply (Enermax Whisper 550 Watt)
Tower Case.

6) Will you be overclocking?
Not planning on it.

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
24in Dell DVI.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
As soon as I can get the wife to sign-off on the expense ;-)

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
Nothing fancy: No Raid, Firewire or SLI/Crossfire.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
Yes, Windows XP 32bit. Looking at buying Windows 7 64bit, but not included in this purchase. (dual-boot w/ Ubuntu 64bit)

------------------
PROCESSOR:
Looking for AMD Dual or Quad core.

MOTHERBOARD:
Not sure- prefer Asus, but flexible. Would rather spend a little more and have some processor/memory expandability in the future.
Would like 4 memory slots (2 for now, 2 for potential upgrade in future if needed)
I do NOT need SLI/Multiple Video cards.
I do not need Onboard RAID.
I do not need 802.11 or Bluetooth (Bluetooth would be a plus though)
Need at least 1 PATA, and would like several (min 4) SATA ports. I use USB headset when gaming, so do not need good onboard sound. Need 1 Ethernet port, preferably Gigabit.
ESATA would be nice. Newer interfaces like SATA 6Gbs & USB 3 would be a plus.

MEMORY:
Planning to get 4GB of whatever I need. Not planning to overclock, so not planning to buy super-expensive RAM.

GRAPHICS CARD:
Don't need a screamer, as I do mainly older games. Most of my time is in Linux, so being able to actually have decent Linux drivers is a big win.
DVI-D required, HDMI is a plus.


You guys tend to follow the price trends, so let me know what the best bang-for-the-buck is right now.
 
Here's what I came up with so far:

Mobo: $95: Gigabyte GA-770-UD3 (like the idea of having USB3/SATA6Gb)
Processor/Graphics combo: $240: AMD Phenom X4 925 & EVGA GeForce GTX 250 512mb
Memory: $108: Crucial Ballistix 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)

TOTAL: $442.96

Memory was picked pretty much at random from the 2x2GB DDR3 Memory on Newegg.

Thoughts? This is pretty close to what I was looking at a few months ago before we decided to "wait" on upgrading my PC until I got closer to raiding.
 
This is better:

$227 after MIR FS Combo: GIGABYTE GA-770TA-UD3 AM3 AMD 770 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 + AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W
$103 shipped G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
$160 FS XFX HD-577X-ZNFC Radeon HD 5770

$490 shipped. You should not be taxed.

It has the same motherboard you liked. It has a faster processor - you should have the most powerful processor you can get for WOW. It has a better GPU - more memory, DX11, about %15 more horsepower. This is really the minimum GPU you can get smooth freamerates out of on a 24" monitor.

An entry-level SSD would be nice for WOW, but you really can't afford it.
 
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You might wanna speak with someone near a Fry's
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1506183
28937306

This is one hell of a deal if you get someone to buy it up for you, also that may leave you some spare change to get the SSD you want
 
Why the DDR3 1333 instead of DDR3 1600 for about the same price? The board supports up to DDR3 1866 so why wouldn't I want to get the most speed as I can out of it?

Also: your link doesn't work for the memory.
Closest I could find was this for $105 shipped. It's lower clock, and has worse latency than the Crucial sticks (9-9-9-24 vs 8-8-8-24)

I just put a GTS250 in my Wife's WOW rig, and it seems to be great (@1080p), so I'm really questioning if the higher end graphics card is worth it: my main issues with my current rig is load time & some lag in 25man raid (still playable) and this is a SERIOUS upgrade from my current system (ATI 9600XT, Socket 939 Athon X2, 2 GB ram). DX11 is not that big of deal to me.

$227 For the MB/ X4 955 combo ($10 MIR)
$108 for Crucial Ballistix
$109 for EVGA 512-P3-1140-TR GeForce GTS 250 512MB ($20 MIR)
--------
$444 Total
-$30 MIR.
$414, which should give me enough to swing one of these
 
That Fry's deal is not helpful to the op. He wants current technology and that mobo uses ddr2 ram.
 
Is this the PSU you have?:
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16817103447

If so, I would recommend replacing. It's a 5 year old PSU that was ok quality 5 years ago. So by now, it's more than likely not capable of providing even 400W of power safely and cleanly.

Also I would go with this RAM instead due to the lower voltage:
$106 - G.Skill Ripjaw Series F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL 2 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM

As far as latency goes, you honestly not notice an iota of real performance difference between 9-9-9-24 and 6-6-6-12 let alone 8-8-8-24. As far as speed goes, again, not gonna notice an iota of real world performance difference between DDR3 1333 and DDR3 2200 let alone DDR3 1600. With that said, since the price difference is only a few $, go for the DDR3 1600 RAM.
 
Yeah, five years old, ok quality 5 years ago, probably less than that now. Yeah I would recommend a new PSU just in case:
$80 - Antec NEO ECO 620C 620W PSU

Buy that PSU ASAP so that you can take advantage of the promo code: "EMCYPNP42". That drops the PSU down to $65. There's also a $10 MIR as well which will drop the PSU down to $55 shipped assuming that you can use the promo code right away and get the MIR.
 
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