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New computer questions..
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Post by
320867
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Wanderingfox
Stay away from alienware/voodoo desktops. You're paying thousands for a pretty case and the name. a 3k alienware/voodoo system can be built yourself for probably around 2k.
Ideally, you should build the system yourself, but that requires a willingness to learn, and enough basic understanding of computers. That said, building your own desktop is
not
that hard. The worst part of it is checking hardware compatibility and making sure you follow the proper steps when applying thermal compound to your CPU. There's dozens of guides online if you decide to go that route.
As for the 'recommended' system specs, Blizzard states the following:
Recommended: Dual-core processor, such as the Intel Pentium D or AMD Athlon 64 X2
Recommended: 1 GB RAM (2 GB for Vista users)
Recommended: 3D graphics processor with Vertex and Pixel Shader capability with 128 MB VRAM Such as an ATI Radeon X1600 or NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT class card or better
In reality, you'll probably want to go with something like the following minimum specs (to account for OS resource usage and heavy load):
Intel Core Duo (or Quad)
2gb of ram (4gb vista/win7 32bit, 6gb vista/win7 64bit)
512mb or higher graphics card. Something like an nVidia G210 or better.
That said, you can probably get a fairly decent system such as an
HP Pavilion Elite e9210t
for under 1k. A high-end system will probably end up running closer to 2k depending on configuration.
Disclaimer:
I'm not expressly recommending that model, as what you buy greatly depends on what else you wish to do with the computer, but it's a good baseline for a decent gaming rig.
Post by
vtecjunkie81
I agree with fox, you'd probably be much better off building your own provided you have the learning ability and common sense to do it. I pretty much taught myself computers through books and online research and built my first rig within a month. I would also highly recommend following fox's advice and do your research once you have components picked out to ensure there are no compatibility issues.
Here are some hardware recommendations:
-Motherboard: Gigabyte, Asus, and DFI all make solid boards, as do MSI and AsRock (but these are more economy geared boards).
-Processor: Intel if you want max performance, AMD if you want to save a few bucks. I will note here that AMD will play WoW very well, but the specs aren't up to par with Intel these days.
-RAM: I'd say go ahead and make the jump to DDR3 since DDR2 prices are steadily going up and the 2 are almost a crossroads on price. Kingston, Crucial, G.Skill and OCZ are all quality brands. Shoot for 4GB's even if you're going 32-bit on your Operating System.
-Video Card: Not gonna lie here, I am an Nvidia fanboy, so I'm going to recommend the GT 260 or higher (depending on if you play other PC games; the 260 plays WoW flawlessly). ATI cards are more than capable of rendering WoW's graphics, but the 4000 series cards draw a LOT of power, and the 5000 series hasn't been out for long enough for me to recommend it.
-Power Supply: Mushkin, Coolermaster, Thermaltake are names to look for as far as brand goes. For Power Rating, get something along the lines of a 550W or higher. Also, look into modular PSU's as this will dramatically help with cable management.
A system like this would run you around $750 for the computer alone (no monitor, K/B or mouse). If you can give us a budget, I'm sure myself or one of the other computer nerds on this sight may be able to recommend specific components to make sure you don't go wrong with your decisions on your first build :)
Post by
Wanderingfox
Just some addendums to vtecjunkie81's post:
-Processor: If you can swing the cash for it a core i7 920 is a HUGE bargain. It's 2.66ghz stock, but with the right cooler you can easily get it to 4.0ghz, which works out to a 32Ghz functioning speed (4 cores at 4Ghz w/ hyperthreading)
-RAM: Another great ram brand is Corsair. They usually run on the higher-end price-wise, but in terms of construction and performance, I've yet to find a corsair stick that hasn't performed well beyond it's listed specifications.
-PSU: Again, I'm going to add the Corsair name here. I have a 750watt modular PSU from them that is absolutely rock solid. In fact, in stress tests, it can put out over 1,000watts under load.
And as vtecjunkie said, a budget would probably drastically improve the advice anyone here could give you :P
Post by
vtecjunkie81
Ah yes I knew I was forgetting another brand name... Curse this plague called getting older!
Post by
320867
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Wanderingfox
It's certainly decent, and will run wow just fine, but you're probably going to want to beef the stats up at least a little bit, or you're likely going to find the system barely chugging through games in another year or two. That said, at present, it's a very solid system for the price.
Post by
117913
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
vtecjunkie81
I dont think I really want to try building my own, I'd rather pay a little more for a warranty.
This is what Im looking at so far.
NZXT Gamma Gaming Mid Tower Case-Black
Processor
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E8500 (2x 3.16GHz/6MB L2 Cache/1333FSB)
Processor Cooling
Certified CPU Fan and Heatsink
Memory
4 GB DDR2-800 PC6400 Memory Module-Corsair-Value or Major Brand
Video Card
NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT - 1GB-Single Card
Video Card Brand
Major Brand Powered by ATI or NVIDIA
Motherboard
Asus P5KPL-CM -- Intel G31 Chipset w/6-channels, Gb LAN, S-ATA 3Gb/s, USB 2.0, Single PCI-E MB
600 Watt -- Power Supply-SLI Ready
Primary Hard Drive
500 GB HARD DRIVE -- 16M Cache, 7200 RPM, 3.0Gb/s-Single Drive
Optical Drive
22X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive-Black
Sound Card
3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard
Intel Pro 10/100/1000 Network Card
None- Pre-formatted Hard Drive Only
Keyboard
iBUYPOWER USB Keyboard-Black
Mouse
iBUYPOWER Internet Mouse-Black
Monitor
24" Sceptre 16:10 Widescreen HDTV Video & PC LCD Monitor 1920x1200 Black
Speaker System
iBUYPOWER 2.1 Channel Stereo Super Bass Subwoofer Speaker System
External Hard Drives
$860 sound decent?
This is actually very close to my system, except I have an 8800GT and a slightly more powerful Power Supply. The one thing I would recommend doing is Overclocking the CPU just a tad to squeeze a little more performance. 3.4Ghz should be easily attainable with a stock cooler (I run my own system at 3.8 with an aftermarket cooler).
Also, don't forget that if you build your own computer, you still have warranties. The only advantage you have with getting a prebuilt system is that you only have to go to one place to make any warranty claims.
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