WoW Computer

[Tac34]

I'm looking to buy a new computer, all i'm going to use it for is playing WoW. Im also on a tight budget. Can anyone link be to a built computer, or a build that would run WoW?

I was looking at this build:

Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 641 (3.20GHz, 2M, 800MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Basic, with media, 32 Edition, English
512MB DDR2 Non-ECC SDRAM, 533MHz, (1DIMM)
80GB SATA 3.0Gb/s and 8MB DataBurst Cache™
16X DVD-ROM,for Vista Home Basic and Business
ATI Radeon X1300 128MB, DVI w/VGA adapter and TV-out

Its from Dell, but i have heard some bad things about them, like being over-priced or something. Price from them- $537.

 

[Ioanni]

Its a decent entry level pc but you could get a way better pc then that for a few hundred dollars more. check out my specs in my signature.

 

[cementshoes]

Dell computers for under 800 usually aren't bad deals, however 80GB is extremely small for a HD and I'd be looking for a GIG of ram atleast. Other than that, that should be fine for WoW.

 

[Capricorn]

As a (recently former) WoW player, I wouldn't wish a machine with only 512 MB of RAM on anyone. It was so-so with WoW in 2005, but as more patches came out, it was worse and worse. The single best upgrade I ever made for improving WoW play was to go to 1 GB of RAM. Trust me; use no less. I'd recommend 2GB if you can afford it.

The second best upgrade was upgrading the video card. I originally had a 9800 Pro with 128 MB and it was fine. It seemed, however, that new patches made a better graphics card necessary. I'm not sure the graphics themselves got that much better, but more items were present to be rendered at the same graphics settings as before. At least that's my guess.

Eventually, the 9800 pro was really dragging - especially in the 40-man raids. I upgraded to a 6600 GT with 128 MB of RAM. That helped a lot, but again, as patch Tuesday after patch Tuesday went by, it seemed to be slowing down. I know something was changing in the graphics area, because after several WoW patches, I needed to upgrade my graphics drivers to resolve crash issues. I was able to play in 1280x1024 mode with the 6600GT (with most of the graphics turned down). (WoW is still pretty decent looking at that level.)

As the majority of ATI X1300s have significantly lower benchmarks than the Nvidia 6600 GTs, I'd recommend an ATI in the X1600-X1650 class or better or an Nvidia 7600 GS or similar. Tom's Hardware Interactive VGA Charts can help you explore the differences.

I played WoW on an Athlon 64 3200+, so your core processor should be fine. 80 GB is small for a hard drive, but if you only play WoW, that should be plenty.