$500 computer to run low settings @ 30 fps in 10 man raids.

[Coar]

Microcenter's pretty overpriced for anything besides their 3570K + Z77 motherboard promotion.

Sounds good

[Eroginous]

MoP Minimum Requirements
•Dual core CPU Intel Pentium D or higher.
•2GB RAM.
•The X1800 Pro GPU.
•The GeForce 6800.
•The minimum 25GB hard drive space.
•The minimum resolution is 1024x768.

MoP Recommended Specifications
•4GB RAM.
•64bit Windows 7.
•Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2.
•Nvidia 8800GT.
•AMD 4830 512MB.

As you can see, these are pretty low system specs for any game, and a system could be purchased at recommended specs for less than $500.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883227442

with

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130827

(You'll eventually want to get at least a 400w PSU so you're not under powering your video card).

I'm sure there are other deals out there too.

[Milkshake86]

6fps is great compared to what my laptop 5 years ago ran. Would be at 1fps for some raids in BC. Anyway, what is your current computer like besides processor speed? What is your ram and video card looking like? Those are the biggest 2 factors in running wow. If you have a computer you can upgrade (has a slot you can throw a video card and ram into), then I would suggest upgrading those 2 things. You could probably get high enough quality to run wow on ultra for 500$ instead of getting a new meh computer.

Of course, this is moot if you have a computer that cant take upgrades..

LOL what? CPU is the absolute most necessary upgrade for WoW.


This part list has some CPU/Mobo combo not calculated but its just around $550~ all together.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-4300 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Biostar TA990FXE ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($129.98 @ NCIX US)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix sport 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial V4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($79.00 @ B&H)
Storage: Crucial V4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($79.00 @ B&H)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB Video Card ($111.97 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.49 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: Cooler Master GX 450W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Lite-On IHAS324-98 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $651.40
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-13 13:00 EST-0500)

---------- Post added 2012-12-13 at 06:52 PM ----------

MoP Minimum Requirements
•Dual core CPU Intel Pentium D or higher.
•2GB RAM.
•The X1800 Pro GPU.
•The GeForce 6800.
•The minimum 25GB hard drive space.
•The minimum resolution is 1024x768.

MoP Recommended Specifications
•4GB RAM.
•64bit Windows 7.
•Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2.
•Nvidia 8800GT.
•AMD 4830 512MB.

As you can see, these are pretty low system specs for any game, and a system could be purchased at recommended specs for less than $500.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883227442

with

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130827

(You'll eventually want to get at least a 400w PSU so you're not under powering your video card).

I'm sure there are other deals out there too.

Recommended specs wouldnt even run a 10m at common resolutions decently, I know cuz I just upgraded a friends pc who was running around @ 2fps w/ above mentioned athlon from wotlk to mop.

[Coar]

How important are SSDs when it comes to WoW performance? With this $100 being saved from buying from microcenter I am interested in purchasing one. I'm more than likely only going to put my OS, WoW, and D3 on it. It doesn't need to be > 64 gigs, (I believe).

Also how do you install it? Do towers have a sleeve for it or something? Does it require extra power?

[stalkerzzzz]

An SSD will only improve loading times. You install it the same way as a HDD. The case should have holes for it or you might get an 3.5" adaptor with the SSD. They don't use a lot of power, I think it's lower than a HDD.

[Khalmar]

Microcenter's pretty overpriced for anything besides their 3570K + Z77 motherboard promotion.

Hardly and even when there's something more expensive, it's about 3-5% difference in price. Like I said, they will most likely price match their competitors and you can show them easily because they have an internet kiosk if you want to compare prices.

The downside to them is their real price is somewhat hidden unless you look on their website. The sticker price isn't what you're really paying, it's going to be much lower than listed. My 2500k's sticker price was $250 but I actually only paid $160.

And Coar, they will have everything you will need to build what you're looking for. I advise checking Newegg, Amazon, or TigerDirect before buying. They will most likely match their prices as long as you're not pompous about it. Sure, you will be paying taxes on it but on the flip side, you can just go there if one of your parts is DOA instead of RMA'ing it back and waiting a another couple of days before you get the new one.

[Eroginous]

Recommended specs wouldnt even run a 10m at common resolutions decently, I know cuz I just upgraded a friends pc who was running around @ 2fps w/ above mentioned athlon from wotlk to mop.

It entirely depends on how good your windows install is, whether your drivers are up to date, and wether or not your computer is in good operating condition. Sometimes parts start failing and cause poor performance. Sometimes drivers go bad and cause poor performance. Sometimes your windows install gets bloated or corrupted, and causes poor performance.

If they listed those specs as recommended for Wow, then you can expect those specs to be able to run Wow well. The GPU is what determines how pretty your Wow gfx will be, while the CPU is what determines how well your Wow runs in a group atmosphere. I would venture to guess that the listed recommended specs are supposed to be for new content like dungeons and raids.

I personally run Wow on Medium settings in Pandaland and get 30-60 FPS there. My machine is built from parts which were new 5-6 years ago. I bought them unused at a discount though, just a couple years ago.

Also, your parts list is a good one on a budget, but it's still a bit high compared to the $500 the OP wants to spend.

[Coar]

Got the mobo today, unsure of how I place the ram in this.

There are four slots they go up to down as following
a1
a2
b1
b2

I have 2x4gb ram, do I place them in a1,a2 respectively or a1,b1?

[Dizey]

Check your MB manual to confirm, but it's likely A1+B1 are your first dual channel pair, and A2+B2 is the second DC Pair. Often it doesn't matter which pair you use, as long as you use a pair, but there are a few boards that require you to use either the 1st or 2nd pair when you're only installing 2 modules. Wow that was a mouthful lol. Again, refer to the section in your manual for memory installation to be safe.

[Coar]

something that just came up, the graphics card on newegg says it requires a 500w power supply but I ordered the 430w, is 500w set in place?

[MasterNewbie]

From my understanding, the "required" wattage is a recommended wattage based on what they assume the vast majority of consumers will have in their system plus some extra watts for wiggle room (and for low quality PSUs which don't always deliver their listed wattage). Assuming your 430W PSU is any decent (I won't make that judgement call for you, sorry), it probably would be ok. Personally, I wouldn't try it.

Since I'm here,

The fact that they didnt introduce a dual core ability should speak a bit to the un-importance of processor power.

They introduced dual core optimization in WoW during Burning Crusade.

[BicycleMafioso]

something that just came up, the graphics card on newegg says it requires a 500w power supply but I ordered the 430w, is 500w set in place?

You took the CX430 yes? It's a 384w PSU, but it should be enough.
It's got a 32 AMP 12v-line. There's no way a ... HD7850(?) ever could pull more than that.

PSU recommendations are for people with ultra-low quality PSUs. What actually matters for the HD7850 is if the PSU can give it 24 amps on the 12v-line. This, it can. You are safe.

[MastaMcKay]

My brother just picked up a pc that is able to perform well for under that amount from best buy, you could probably get one that could do it on high after new years especially if you build it yourself.

are components cheaper and good deals after new years?

[Biernot]

something that just came up, the graphics card on newegg says it requires a 500w power supply but I ordered the 430w, is 500w set in place?

As my computer is very similar to what you are getting, i can say: yes the psu is more than enough.

On a more elaborate note, this is pretty much, how you calculate the power needs:

1. Overall power consumption:
CPU: Refer to the specs given by the manufacturer. For your cpu, that would be 77W average load. Notice that this is specified as "average", so to be on the safe side, we go with a little bit more to cover spikes and maybe a little bit of OC... say ~100W
GPU: There is little information on what a given card actually uses, since the manufacturers don't give any figures. So for specific values you need to refer to the reviews out there. But you can easily see the worst case scenario (the maximum the card "could" draw) just by looking at the power connectors: 75W from the PCIe slot, 75W from any 6p connector and 150W from any 8p connector. So for your card that should be: 75W + 75W = 150W
Again, this is the absolute worst case, which your card will most likely never reach. The average load while gaming is more around the 100-110W range.
MB + RAM: As a ballpark figure you can estimate about 50W
HDD/DVD: roughly 10W per drive. During spin-up, hard drives can use a bit more (up to about 20-25W ), but during that time you don't have load on cpu/gpu, so don't worry about that.
Peripherals: You can neglect these, but to be on the safe side, let's assume 5W per connected USB device.

So as a total maximum power consumption, we get: ~330W
(Under normal gaming conditions, this will be more like ~250W)

2. 12V rail load
As most of the power consumption happens on the 12V rail, we need to make sure, that the psu can deliver this. As a rough estimate, the following parts pull their power via 12V: CPU, GPU, Drives
For you (again, worst case), this would be 100W + 150W + 2x10W = 270W or 22.5A on the 12V rail.
So if your psu can handle ~24A via 12V, you are fine.

[Serzy]

Go to Tomshardware .com they have a gaming rig for your exact budget that they just built reviewed and compared to higher tier computers.

[Coar]

Just finished ordering all the parts, I'll take pictures as I'm assembling it to get you guys a look at it.

[Coar]

oh my god 300 fps

[Majesticii]

oh my god 300 fps

Which one would expect at lower settings. Time to set them a bit higher