WoW PC

[Zirconium]

One of my coworkers wants a new PC to play World of Warcraft. She wants to spend as little as possible to get the job done. Apparently, there is a level that brings her current comptuer (a Mac laptop) to a crawl. Since she does not have a budget in mind, and since I don't know how much power you need to play this new level, I figured I'd ask rather than guess and either suggest underpowered or overexpensive components. Here is what I have been looking at:

1. AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ ~150
2. nForce 570 Ultra-based motherboard ~100
3. 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 RAM ~150
4. nVidia 7600GT ~160

Here are my questions about the components:

1. Does she need a dual core proc? She tells me that WoW can benefit from this, but I seem to recall benchmarks stating that multiple cores/processors does not benefit gaming, by-and-large.
2. What are your thoughts on the motherboard? If I don't go for dual core, I can step down to the nForce 550 boards. Should I step up to SLI? I bought my brother an SLI board last year with the expectation that after a while, he would buy a matching video card and upgrade. He has not done so yet, and I do not expect he will (especially since I hear that you need exactly the same graphics card revision, which he will not be able to find). I think going for an SLI-capable board is a waste of money for the casual gamer on a budget. I would be interested in your views.
3. She claims that 2GB is a "Golden Rule" (her words) for WoW. I am sceptical, but ram is cheap enough that I think she can splurge on the extra gigabyte.
4. Lastly, what do people think of the 7600GTs? HardOCP did a review of the 7600GT running WoW, and they were able to play at 1600x1200 maxed options without dropping below 39fps. She told me that the screen shot was from some non-graphically intensive area of the game (Ironforge?), and was concerned that it would run slowly in bad@$$-mofo-dungeon-3000 or wherever she is fighting. Given that she will be running at 1280x1024, I think the 7600GT will be able to handle it.

Anyway, sorry for the long post. I appreciate any help.

 

[Skeeedunt]

Dual core won't help much for WoW last I checked. It's a good investment if she plans to use it for much else, but realistically she would get just as many FPS out of an A64 3200+ for $75.

Upgrading to a 7900GT @ $250 could be a pretty good idea, but if she's sticking with 1280x1024 a 7600 might be more than enough.

 

[dexvx]

1) WoW is single-threaded. However, since this is a patched based subscription game, dual core can become useful in the near future (just look how many engine revisions EQ went through). I'm partial, but I'd choose Core2 over AM2 simply because WoW in the raiding environment is also rather CPU limited (my Pentium-M 2.4Ghz loads faster than a friend's X2-4600 and another friend's FX-57).

2) SLi is worthlessly expensive and over-troublesome for anyone thats on a budget. (Example... 7300SLI < 7600, 7600SLI < 7900, and 7900SLI < whatever new comes out).

3) 512MB is the absolute minimum for WoW. 1GB is recommended and 2GB is overkill (unless you're running a whole lot of crap in the background.

4) HardOCPs tests kinda sucked. From the looks of it, shes probably a raider, where FPS will crawl. I have an ATI X800 and I can run 1280x1024 max'ed (no AA/AF) in raiding environments. 7600GT should not have va problem, unless she wants AA/AF. Ironically I live on a high population server... and Ironforge lags more than raiding -_-

This is coming from someone who has most everything on farm and currently in Naxx.

 

[MDE]

A dual core CPU will actually kill performance in WoW due to a bug that caps the framerate at 64FPS.

 

[Raloth]

A 7600GT will handle it fine. I'm mostly CPU limited with my oldschool P4 2.0 ghz and 9600XT. (I can run at 1280x1024 with 6xFSAA in areas where I get <30 FPS and the framerate doesn't change. In raids I get upwards of 50 FPS without anyone around. As soon as players load I plummet to 8. Turning off the interface increases that to a whopping 12.) Definitely get a gigabyte of RAM, the difference was amazing when I upgraded. WoW seems to push up against that so 1.5 wouldn't hurt, especially with anything in the background. And don't worry about the 64 FPS cap... If you're frame rate is that high you are likely playing with vertical sync on, in which case you'll probably be at 60 FPS anyway (not that you can really notice the difference between 80 and 64).

 

[Sonikku]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103010

Motherboard and Athlon 64 3400+ for $99. I upgraded to this from a Sempron 2400+, gig of ram and 9600XT and my performance on MAX settings in WoW at 1280x800 is about 45-60fps at any given time. Before I upgraded from the 2400+, my framerate was in the 7-15 fps range. VERY CPU limited. For WoW a single core will give you a larger performance gain then a dual core. Slide in an AGP X800XL for $119 off ati.com and a 1 gig stick of ram and you've got yourself a machine that will take everying WoW can throw at you and then some.

 

[TSCrv]

you dont need dual core, but i say its something good to have. but idk if windows will allow wow to run half on 1 core half on the other to get full 100% utilization, i personally use an A64 3200+ socket 754 and wow runs flawlessly (see other specs)

i wouldnt go sli, its expensive, produces more heat, raises electric bill, lol.... plus it wouldnt be something you do with a budget pc.

1 gb is runnable for wow, i personally used 2gb because of the amount of stuff that game has to loads (Ironforge on a crowded server.. etc)

for the vid card i run a 6600gt agp, this is what limits my play, i can run wow at max but without AA and and i get decent fps, but in MC aoe fights and some other intense areas i would slow to about 20 fps... i would suggest something at least a 7600 or higher... pref 7800

this wasnt as long as my post, here is mine ... its me choosing my mobo/ram/video.... heh

 

[Zirconium]

Thanks everybody for your suggestions. I showed her this thread, and here is what we have tentatively agreed upon:

1. AMD Athlon 64 3000+ AM2 - $76
2. Asus M2N-E nForce 570 Ultra $101
3. eVGA 256-P2-N554-AX Geforce 7600GT $165.63 - $20 = $145.63 AR
4. RAM I am not sure of yet...

 

[Madwand1]

I got a 10% FPS improvement with a dual core over a single core in WoW (X2 3800), and was still CPU/system limited at that point (i.e. not video limited). WoW is CPU-hungry.

 

[JavaMomma]

Getting a dual core processor I think is worth it. Though there actually is currently some problems with dual core cpus in WoW (most people probably dont even notice) I noticed the moment I upgraded, but after a while I now only see the problems when I look closely.
Here is a thread about the mutlcore cpu fix that is upcoming, it may or may not make it out for 1.12 but they claim it will be out for 1.13 if not for 1.12
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-realm-test&t=348125
Also, WoW does take advantage of mutli-cpus, it might be in that thread I posted up above but one of devs claims that WoW uses up 15 threads at a time. Also, keep in mind that firefox is typically running as is Vent so dualcore is nice for that as well.

2GB of RAM, do it! If she is an alt-tabber like most WoW people are or if she uses lots of Mods like Lootlink, Metamaps /w Knowelege base, Gather.. etc. It is so much better and so much faster. I have also seen a single instance of WoW using >1GB of RAM.

This may not apply to her, but if she has two accounts, or if she ever uses a friends account or whatever. It is nice to be able to run two instances of WoW and be logged in with two characters at the same time and do alt-tab trades, summon ports, etc. and that uses a crazy amount of resouces, on my machine it uses 1.8GB+ of RAM and both cores of my processor are close to being pegged at 100% Can a single CPU, 1GB of RAM even do this?

I think your original system looks pretty reasonable and cost effective.
Also, Asus M2N-E nForce 570 Ultra $101 is a good choice. I'd go with with X2 over the 3000+

 

[Ranulf]

I'd pretty much agree with what JavaMomma wrote. As a raider, I'd say the more ram the better. That means more mods run smoothly, more stable fps and lets face it, no matter the system, some parts of raiding are just going to crush a system because of network lag. I'd also go dual core despite the fps limit bug because it will likely help out with vent/TS running in the background, browsers, IM etc.. On video, the 7600 is probably fine if WoW is all she plays. I agree with others that SLI is a waste. My plain 6600 runs things at 1280x1024 fairly well in MC/ZG, the only draw back is my cpu speed (and the slow alt-tab speed given the slow cpu plus my windows install is more than a year old at this point so often slow loading when alt tabbed).

 

[Wreckage]

I run WoW at high settings 1680x1050 with an AMD XP 2800+ 6800nu and 1GB mem.

1GB should be more than enough mem for WoW.

 

[1N0V471V]

Originally posted by: Wreckage
I run WoW at high settings 1680x1050 with an AMD XP 2800+ 6800nu and 1GB mem.

1GB should be more than enough mem for WoW.

Maybe, but the price difference between the two is negligible, but noticeable.

These days, I wouldn't build a "gaming" computer with anything less than 2GB.

 

[JavaMomma]

Originally posted by: Wreckage
I run WoW at high settings 1680x1050 with an AMD XP 2800+ 6800nu and 1GB mem.

1GB should be more than enough mem for WoW.

Don't get me wrong WoW runs decent with 1GB of RAM. It is just that it runs better with 2GB esp. with Alt-Tabbing and running lots of Mods. I have 128MB for Mods, if you have a 40K+ Items in your lootlink DB, 5K in your Metamap DB, a huge Gather DB you'll need more then 64MB forsure just for Mods.

I had 1GB of RAM and after upgrading to 2GB I immediatly noticed the difference when alt-tabbing, it went from hard drive crunching on every alt-tab to near instant. If you use a memory hog browser like firefox eating 200-300MB of RAM running in the background you'll want 2GB.

 

[Crassus]

Originally posted by: Zirconium
Thanks everybody for your suggestions. I showed her this thread, and here is what we have tentatively agreed upon:

1. AMD Athlon 64 3000+ AM2 - $76
2. Asus M2N-E nForce 570 Ultra $101
3. eVGA 256-P2-N554-AX Geforce 7600GT $165.63 - $20 = $145.63 AR
4. RAM I am not sure of yet...

1. 3000+ is too slow. I had to o/c mine to about 2.5 GHz before all stuttering went away. Just a little while ago I went with a 4200+ and can't say I'm sorry.
2. 7600GT will probably be fine, but I would consider a 7900GT if it fits the budget
3. I don't think more than 1 GB is needed if you run 1 instance of WoW and little more than that. That will of course not apply to the folks with 2 accounts etc.
4. Consider a really fast HDD (i.e. Raptor) if she doesn't already have one. I have one and I can barely read the tips on the loading screen

 

[natep]

My friend plays WoW with the max graphic settings @ 1280x1024 on a 6600GT, 1 gig of ram, and a 3000+ OC'd to 2.5ghz. He doesn't get any stuttering. The 7600gt should be more than enough.