Laptop died..looking at new computers and need help comparing.

[thingmabobby]

So I wanted to get a new laptop, but I've noticed that you seem to get more bang for your buck by getting a desktop PC instead. The only problem is that I haven't paid much attention to computer specs in a very long time and am not sure what's good or not by looking at the specs. I don't play very graphics-intensive games and I want WoW to be smooth under fair or good settings (low in raids if need be) on a $300-500 budget. After a bit of searching I've found these which IMO seem to be a good deal:

(Sorry for the no links, but the forums wouldn't let me post a link)

CyberpowerPC AMD FX-Series 8GB DDR3 500GB HDD Capacity Desktop PC Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Gamer Ultra 2098 (GU2098) - $370.99
newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883229285R

and

ASUS AMD FX-Series 10GB DDR3 1TB HDD Capacity Desktop PC Windows 8 CM1855-CA003S (REFURBISHED) - $499
newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883220362

The 2nd one looks more powerful, but a 300W power supply doesn't seem like enough. On the other hand, the 1st one has a 500W power supply, but would it have good enough cooling? The 1st one has a lower video card and a quad-core instead of an 8-core (does it matter for WoW?) like the 2nd one and the 2nd one obviously has more RAM, but the difference between 8gb and 10gb doesn't seem like much concern.

I'm leaning towards the 1st one because it's cheaper and seems like the specs will be good enough for me, but what am I not seeing? I could use some input from people who know more than I do. Also if you know of any other better deals I'm all ears!

[Revolutions]

I wouldn't buy anything prebuilt i.e. ibuypower or cyberpowerpc. These builds are generally bad.

[Sthos]

Would you be willing to build your own? That would be the best option, if not both links look ok... - I would go with the first one since it's not refurbished, and put a different GPU in it.

[thingmabobby]

I suppose I could build one on my own yes, but it's been about 10 years since I've built one. I wouldn't even know where to start for specs. I know it's normally cheaper to build your own anyways. I just went right online looking for a new computer after finding out my laptop was dead and wanted something fast. I suppose a few days off of the computer wouldn't necessarily be such a bad thing though.

- - - Updated - - -

So I used pcpartpicker to create a list, but I was pretty much just choosing parts by price and if they had high ranks. I honestly have no idea what I'm picking for the most part aside from that I want a decent video card, 8GB of system RAM, and a decent processor.

pcpartpicker.com/p/1FuYz

[Sthos]

I just threw this together quick, its over budget and needs a case yet - but a general idea for Intel build.
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($118.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: ASRock Z75 Pro3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($84.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($77.95 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.01 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 650 1GB Video Card ($94.99 @ Microcenter)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($79.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($87.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $628.89
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-09-19 15:07 EDT-0400)

Thrown together quick as well AMD build tried to match the cyberpower link, needs case yet:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-4130 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($93.49 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: ASRock 970 PRO3 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($77.55 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($77.95 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($54.01 @ Amazon)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 650 1GB Video Card ($118.97 @ Outlet PC)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($79.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($87.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $619.93
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-09-19 15:12 EDT-0400)

Hopefully someone else can comment... I did this on my tablet so I am not confident on what is in these builds (might have miss clicked - stupid touch screens :P ).

[Puddlejumper]

In my experience desktops are just plain better for running games. You don't need nearly the specs you'd need for a laptop, since space is so much less of an issue. A laptop chassis with good cooling and durability is already running you a ton of money even before you start to worry about processors and RAM, but desktops have way less to worry about in those categories.

WoW is not a game that relies much on graphics. Even if you want to run the game at ultra while raiding a capitol city, the requirements are not going to be that high. A laptop will struggle because it will overheat, but desktops have crazy good cooling by comparison. I'm no expert when it comes to computer specs, but that's just my experience. Getting a gaming laptop is a huge pain because honestly there aren't really any good ones, but practically any modern desktop is probably fine as long as you have a decent graphics card and keep drivers up to date.

[ocis]

The first one is open box and the second is refurbished, and to be honest you'd have to play at a pretty low resolution to be able to play games at fair or good settings with those video cards. If you want a base to go by chaud does a setup of the month where there's multiple price points to choose from, or you can check out marest's builds (stickied at the top of this sub forum). Those will give you an idea of performance per price point, and you can shop around from there when it comes to parts like the cpu/ram/video card as these parts commonly go on sale. Find the parts that you want and just post afterwards to get people's opinions on your choices to fine tune before you buy.

[thingmabobby]

There's 2 on Marest's list that fall within my budget. What's the big difference between:

Extreme Budget Gaming 370
MoBo: MSI B75MA-P33 – $49.99
CPU: Intel Celeron G1610 – $49.99
RAM: G.Skill 1333MHz 2x2GB – $35.99
GPU: Sapphire Radeon 7770 GHz – $104.99
HDD: WD Caviar Blue 500GB – $59.99
PSU: Antec VP-450W – $39.99 Review
Case: Antec VSK-4000 – $34.99
--------------------------------------------------
Estimated Total Price – $376

and

Extreme Budget Gaming 460
MoBo: ASRock FM2A55M-DGS – $49.99
CPU: AMD A8-5600K – $99.99
RAM: G.Skill 1600MHz 2x2GB – $37.99
GPU: PNY GTX 650 Ti – $129.99
HDD: WD Caviar Blue 500GB – $59.99
PSU: Antec VP-450W – $39.99 Review
Case: NZXT Source 210 – $39.99
--------------------------------------------------
Estimated Total Price – $458

Would those offer me a smooth gameplay or is my budget simply too low? Also is 4gb of ram too low? I was running 6gb on my laptop, but it had shared memory with the integrated video. Also I've seen people claim that Intel was the best for WoW. Is there any truth to that?

[Deleted]

Try this build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-4330 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($147.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H81M-DGS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($56.97 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($30.83 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($58.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition 1GB Video Card ($109.99 @ Microcenter)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($29.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Essential 400W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($44.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($16.97 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $496.71
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-09-19 16:17 EDT-0400)

Just under $500, includes a Core i3 and 7770GHz.

[ocis]

There's 2 on Marest's list that fall within my budget. What's the big difference between:

Extreme Budget Gaming 370
MoBo: MSI B75MA-P33 – $49.99
CPU: Intel Celeron G1610 – $49.99
RAM: G.Skill 1333MHz 2x2GB – $35.99
GPU: Sapphire Radeon 7770 GHz – $104.99
HDD: WD Caviar Blue 500GB – $59.99
PSU: Antec VP-450W – $39.99 Review
Case: Antec VSK-4000 – $34.99
--------------------------------------------------
Estimated Total Price – $376

and

Extreme Budget Gaming 460
MoBo: ASRock FM2A55M-DGS – $49.99
CPU: AMD A8-5600K – $99.99
RAM: G.Skill 1600MHz 2x2GB – $37.99
GPU: PNY GTX 650 Ti – $129.99
HDD: WD Caviar Blue 500GB – $59.99
PSU: Antec VP-450W – $39.99 Review
Case: NZXT Source 210 – $39.99
--------------------------------------------------
Estimated Total Price – $458

Would those offer me a smooth gameplay or is my budget simply too low? Also is 4gb of ram too low? I was running 6gb on my laptop, but it had shared memory with the integrated video. Also I've seen people claim that Intel was the best for WoW. Is there any truth to that?

The differences between the two builds are the CPU and video card. The GTX 650 Ti is slightly better than the HD 7770, but on the flip side the A8-5600K is the more powerful cpu. I would go with the 5600k or an intel i3 cpu since WoW relies heavily on your processor. I'd pick up the GTX 650 Ti as well since it's only marginally more than the 7770. To be honest though, you can get an HD 7870 for around 150 after a mail in rebate (yes the rebates suck, i know) which actually offers a significant performance boost over either card and would allow you to play WoW at high/ultra settings at 1080p. In total this would boost the pricing of the total system over $500 but if you can't afford that right away, then hold out until you can if possible. 4 gigs of ram is possible if you only had WoW running while you played, but if you ran other games at the same time or a lot of pages on firefox (good ol memory hog) things might get a bit tight. Getting 8 gigs would put you in a more comfortable position but would tackle on another 40 bucks or so.

As for intel vs amd it really depends on what cpu's you are comparing to each other and for what purpose. Gaming wise it's pretty much back and forth and depends on what price point you're picking, although when you get above $200 for the cpu intel tends to win out with its i5's and i7's. Things change up a bit too if you run applications that take full advantage of multi-cores, since amd offers 6 and 8 core cpu's for far less than intel does.

[thingmabobby]

So I went ahead and edited the previous list with more ram and the better video card. My only question would be should I get a stronger power supply? Here's what it looks like:

(Again, sorry for not being able to link directly)

pcpartpicker.com/p/1FB8e

Granted, this is over budget, but I suppose I can throw it all on a credit card and pay it down.

[Deleted]

As for intel vs amd it really depends on what cpu's you are comparing to each other and for what purpose. Gaming wise it's pretty much back and forth and depends on what price point you're picking, although when you get above $200 for the cpu intel tends to win out with its i5's and i7's. Things change up a bit too if you run applications that take full advantage of multi-cores, since amd offers 6 and 8 core cpu's for far less than intel does.

The Haswell dual-cores outperform AMDs for the stated task, which is playing WoW, due to the immense single-core performance. That's why I suggested the build I did.

Thing: That build isn't bad by any stretch, but what I'd suggest is sticking with my build for now, and incrementing later, or pushing for a Z87 with the explicit goal of getting a 4670k in the near-future.

[ocis]

I was just answering OP's question about the difference between the cpu's in the two builds he had picked, which was a dual core celeron vs a quad core amd, and again, it's not as simple as picking any intel chip and any amd chip and saying well it's intel, it must be better than amd. Also, OP might be gaming, but is he going to be running vent/mumble as well, or listening to music, surfing the internet, etc? Because if that is the case then having a CPU capable of running a higher thread count might be important as well. Yes, the i3 in the build you linked is better for gaming than the 5600k, and is better than any AMD cpu, so long as the game in question isn't a multi-thread optimized game, but I was also trying to answer the more general question that OP had about intel vs amd.

[thingmabobby]

Normally when I'm playing wow I'll have chrome open, sometimes spotify to listen to music, and sometimes ventrilo or Skype. If I went with the i3 would there be a noticeable performance drop compared to the amd?

[Deleted]

Normally when I'm playing wow I'll have chrome open, sometimes spotify to listen to music, and sometimes ventrilo or Skype. If I went with the i3 would there be a noticeable performance drop compared to the amd?

I don't think so, but it's possible.