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PC upgrade for WoW

D

Dndubq

n00b
Joined
Nov 17, 2010
Messages
6
I am looking to upgrade my wife's PC for WoW and Diablo 3. Currently she has a Dell with a C2D q6600. She is not as picky as I am when it comes to having the best performance and highest settings. So my main question is would simply buying a decent but cheap 775 mobo and a decent case be fine so that I could OC the CPU and maybe add a SSD or just plan on building an AMD build?

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming, WoW & Diablo 3
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$500
3) Where do you live?
Seattle, there is a Fry's in the area.
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
mobo, case, HSF
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
Antec EW 500W psu
Asus Radeon 5770
dvd-rom
6gb ddr2 (from current Dell)
4gb ddr3 Corsair XMS (spare)
Samsung SpinGate F1 640gb
C2D q6600 cpu
6) Will you be overclocking?
yes
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
22" lcd @ 1680x1050
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
within week
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? etc.
possible Crossfire if I ever upgrade from my 5770, possibility of adding SSD
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
I have Win7 64bit
 
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What is wrong with the current build? It looks fine for her use.

Is all that you are doing is upgrading the case and mobo? Is the current mobo working?
 
it is working in it's current setup but with the recent patch to WoW it is not running as smooth as before. and from what I have found on the internet Dell does not allow you to OC the CPU which is why I am looking into moving the CPU to a new mobo so I can OC it.
 
Is the main objective in upgrading the motherboard to OC?
Is it already overclocked?

That actually makes sense because it's a stock Dell motherboard / HSF.

You should consider purchasing a 24" LCD 1920x1200, because that would benefit you the most. That, or add 2 more 22" LCDs and another 5770 and do crossfire for WoW. That'd be a significant upgrade in the gaming experience.

I've read that WoW benefits from a good SSD, but needs > 50GB. One method to get away with a 60GB SSD is to install the OS and WoW on a regular 7200 drive first, then move all the WoW files over to the SSD and change the registry settings. I read that some folks in the Cataclysm beta were having problems installing WoW directly onto a 60GB drive even though there would have been enough total space; this is due to WoW needing extra space for expanding files during the install.
 
it is a Dell Inspiron 530 with C2 Q6600 @ 2.4, 6gb ddr2 ram and running Vista 64b, Samsung SpinGate F1 640gb.
 
The Dell doesn't allow for OC, so the goal of the new mobo would be to OC the CPU. Plus the current mobo would not support Crossfire if I wanted to do so later down the road.

WoW requires 25gb of space so along with Win7 64b which requires 20gb a 60gb or 64gb SSD would be enough with roughly 10-15gb free depending on the formatting of the SSD. Since she doesn't do anything else that would need the speed of the SSD all the other programs would be fine on the 640gb hdd that I would reuse.
 
The thing is that a new and overclockable socket 775 mobo is roughly $88 shipped. And that one doesn't even support Crossfire. The cheapest socket 775 mobo that supports Crossfire and overclocking would cost around $140. At that point, it's better to go AMD:
$184 - AMD Phenom II X4 925 CPU + Asus M4A79XTD EVO AMD 790X AMD Motherboard Combo

Crossfire support and the AMD Phenom II 925 is faster clock for clock than the Q6600. Just add this HSF:
$30 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus HSF for LGA 1366 and LGA 1156

As for case, that's gonna be up to your wife. Some recommendations:
$55 - NZXT M59 ATX Case
$70 - Cooler Master RC-590-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$80 - Cooler Master CM690 II Basic ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K56 ATX Case
$90 - Cooler Master CM690 II Advance ATX Case
$90 - Cooler Master HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II ATX Case
$105 - Fractal Design Define R3 Black ATX Case (Fill in the ++++ with "N C I X" without the spaces)
$105 - Fractal Design Define R3 Titanium ATX Case (Fill in the ++++ with "N C I X" without the spaces)
$105 - Fractal Design Define R3 Silver ATX Case (Fill in the ++++ with "N C I X" without the spaces)
$100 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B ATX Case
$110 - Lian Li PC-7FN ATX Case
$120 - Velocity Micro GX2-W Silver Classic Aluminum Case with Side Window
$140 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT White Full Tower ATX Case
$140 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT Black Full Tower ATX Case
$140 - Cooler Master HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$135 - Antec P183 ATX Case
$160 - Corsair Graphite Series 600T ATX Case
$160 - Silverstone RV02B-W ATX case
 
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I read somewhere that if you bought the CPU from Dell it won't overclock even if you bought a different motherboard. Why don't you test it first before buying?
 
Yeah it does make more sense to upgrade the CPU as well since it would only cost about $40 to get a better CPU with the ability to Crossfire, etc...

It's a shame that the Dell's are not built with much leeway for extending their lifespan but they are in the business of making money.

Thanks for the help with figuring out the best route to go,
 
J Macker said:
One method to get away with a 60GB SSD is to install the OS and WoW on a regular 7200 drive first, then move all the WoW files over to the SSD and change the registry settings.
Click to expand...

WoW doesnt write anything to the registry so there are no registry settings to change for WoW. I copied my WoW install to a 32GB flash drive and can play it from any computer with internet access
 
J Macker said:
I've read that WoW benefits from a good SSD, but needs > 50GB. One method to get away with a 60GB SSD is to install the OS and WoW on a regular 7200 drive first, then move all the WoW files over to the SSD and change the registry settings. I read that some folks in the Cataclysm beta were having problems installing WoW directly onto a 60GB drive even though there would have been enough total space; this is due to WoW needing extra space for expanding files during the install.
Click to expand...

WoW has no registry settings, you just move the "World of Warcraft" folder.

EDIT- already covered.
 
Yea, it's pretty cool actually- I have literally copied the WoW folder from my Win box to my MacBook Pro and it worked without a hitch.
 
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