WoW pc build questions...

[jammer13]

Here’s the scenario and what I’m looking for. I’m building a machine to play World of Warcraft on an extremely small budget. I would categorize my playing as leisurely with the occasional LFR or guild raid group. I’m not looking for a machine to do this flawlessly, but I would like a machine where I’m not looking to the ground to heal or playing as a featureless blob to keep my FPS reasonable. I do have a few notions that I hope the forum can validate or prove wrong before I begin my build. Here are a few of the statements I have read along the way.

Anything beyond a dual core unit for WoW is overkill.

More than 4 GB of ram makes little or no difference in gameplay, including the rams speed if 1333 or >.

Facts or Fiction?

Now for my questions…
What qualities should I look for in a motherboard?
How fast and how many cores should the CPU be?
How much ram do I need (64 bit OS) and what speed?
Do hard drive speeds make a difference? If so, what should I look for in a HD?
What specs should I focus on in a video card?

Now keep in mind I have an EXTREMELY limited budget and am looking for the best “bang”. I’ll list what I am using now and what I am contemplating buying. I’m not 100% sure my ideas for the new stuff will make a colossal difference, so please advise. Feel free to recommend and critique.

WHAT I HAVE NOW…

MOTHERBOARD/CPU
ASUS M2N-MX SE Plus (Athlon 64 X2 cpu)


RAM (4 GB total)
CORSAIR XMS2 DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)


VIDEO CARD
XFX Radeon HD 5770


POWER SUPPLY
Chiefmax 650Watt ATX Power Supply


MONITOR
LG 24EN33TWB 23.6" 1920 x 1080 5ms


WHAT I AM CONSIDERING BUYING…

MOTHERBOARD/CPU
AMD FX6300 (6 x 4.1GHz)


RAM (4 GB total)
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM


VIDEO CARD
Not decided yet. I’d like to stay $75 or less but have a significant jump from my HD5770.

POWER SUPPLY
Plan on keeping the one I have if it will suffice.

MONITOR
Keeping it.

Thanks in advance for any advice or recommendations.

[chazus]

You say you have a limited budget, but what is that budget? "Limited" to some people is $700. "Limited" to other people is "Under $150".

Right now, you SHOULD be able to play wow decently on at least Good settings just fine. Your video card could use some improvement... But if you can't handle more than $75 on the video card, it's sounding like you really can't upgrade your system much at all to any useful degree.

In the meantime, moving this to the upgrade/build sub-forum!

[jammer13]

Most of my budget is being used on the items I am looking to purchase (listed above). My total budget is around $300. With what I have listed to potentially buy, I have around $75 left for a video card. But I'm open to suggestions that will produce better results. Do you think the mobo, cpu and ram are worth upgrading? Should my focus be on the video card and keep what I have? Thanks!

[Cantwingrr]

I would reconsider how much ram you are getting, are you really sure 4gb is enough for your system? Check how much of your ram is under load, mine gets near 70-80% or higher doing normal tasks, and I have 4gb. It's the cheapest by far of any of the parts you get, so getting a little extra for some comfort space is NOT going to hurt you.

[chazus]

I misread part of your post. I thought you already had the FX-6300.

You'll need a new motherboard to support the FX-6300, so you may as well make the jump to Intel at this time and get a cheap board and i3-4130. I would honestly recommend increasing your GPU budget by like..... $40. It would make a huge difference between something like a 7750 and a 650ti Boost.

The power supply is 'adequate' but makes me nervous, as it's effectively firecracker material just waiting to go off.

[jammer13]

I would reconsider how much ram you are getting, are you really sure 4gb is enough for your system? Check how much of your ram is under load, mine gets near 70-80% or higher doing normal tasks, and I have 4gb. It's the cheapest by far of any of the parts you get, so getting a little extra for some comfort space is NOT going to hurt you.

I'm not really sure if 4gb is enough to be honest. I can play WoW now decently but would like to upgrade some if the price is in my means and if it's going to be an upgrade that I can truly see. I've heard that more than 4gb in WoW is over kill. I've also heard not wanting to "bottleneck" your system by having to weak of a component (mobo, cpu, vid card). I really have no clue what is being meant by the terminology so I am opening to the pros (you guys ). Should I buy more than 4?

- - - Updated - - -

I misread part of your post. I thought you already had the FX-6300.

You'll need a new motherboard to support the FX-6300, so you may as well make the jump to Intel at this time and get a cheap board and i3-4130. I would honestly recommend increasing your GPU budget by like..... $40. It would make a huge difference between something like a 7750 and a 650ti Boost.

The power supply is 'adequate' but makes me nervous, as it's effectively firecracker material just waiting to go off.

I have not purchased the FX-6300 (nor any of the items on the second list) yet. Those are simply suggestions from my meager research. But I'm getting the vibe that the video card needs replaced. Could my present mobo and cpu with a better vid card made a visible difference? Power supply is a cheap one to say the least but it's still kickin!

[Deleted]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130 3.4GHz Dual-Core Processor ($121.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H81M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($52.99 @ Microcenter)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($55.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB Video Card ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $350.95
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-10-31 23:52 EDT-0400)

it´s 50 over budget but will handle wow very good for that price. and like chazus said, replace that psu as soon as u can.