Running WoW on Ultra

[Aeriedk]

Hi all I'm interested in building a new gaming PC. The main purpose of this PC will be to play wow on Ultra 60+ FPS no problems.

What would you all say is the minimum budget required to get this done?

Thanks,
Just doing the preliminary research stage before I really start buying parts etc.

[chazus]

I would aim for the $900-1100 mark.

The new Haswell Refresh Unlocked CPU's just got released, and a 4690K can reportedly get up to 4.8ghz without too much hassle. It won't be out for a few weeks, though.


In the meantime, moving this to the build/upgrade subforum.

[Aeriedk]

Thanks for the reply and the topic move

I appreciate it.

[jdfrost]

WoW is hard on the CPU side, spend the most budget there. A nice SSD harddisk. I have a r9 msi GPU i hit 70fps no problem till my cpu caps out(my next upgrade)

so - $300 for a nice CPU\MB
$200 for GPU
$150 for SSD

probably $800 all said and done, but computer parts are getting cheap everyday. I built mine for $600, the for the same lvl today would be 400

[Biggles Worth]

Hi all I'm interested in building a new gaming PC. The main purpose of this PC will be to play wow on Ultra 60+ FPS no problems.

What would you all say is the minimum budget required to get this done?

Thanks,
Just doing the preliminary research stage before I really start buying parts etc.

What are your specs now?

[Callous1970]

I have an oldish 2 gig CPU laptop that runs WoW on ultra at 60+ FPS just fine. The graphics card is an NVidia GTX560M. Its a pretty simple machine, but gets the job done just fine.

[Aeriedk]

What are your specs now?

I currently run with a 4 year old Alienware M15x laptop. Has a Intel i7 CPU and an AMD 5850 graphics card so it runs wow fine on High with some settings tweaked lower. However I use it more as a desktop anymore and I'm traveling more for work so thus the reason to drop the cash on a desktop so I can pack this thing up and travel with it more often.

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A nice SSD harddisk.

I have always stayed away from the SSD because of the cost and I always believed the biggest benefit was in boot time. Does an SSD really help in regards of gaming and how so?

[Deleted]

This would be the minimum I'd go with, add $90 for Windows 8.1 64bit if needed.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($239.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($28.78 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($76.98 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($56.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 270X 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card ($199.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair SPEC-02 ATX Mid Tower Case ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer ($14.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $812.67
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-06-03 20:52 EDT-0400)

An SSD isn't an absolute must have but highly recommended so add that to the cost if you can afford it:

Crucial MX100 256GB $110

Spending a little extra on the GPU might be worth it too but an absolute must:

XFX Radeon R9 280X 3GB Black Edition $280 after $20 rebate

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I have always stayed away from the SSD because of the cost and I always believed the biggest benefit was in boot time. Does an SSD really help in regards of gaming and how so?

Overall smoother/snappier feeling system (Windows, games, programs), faster reloading after UI crashes or changes, coming back after a DC, smoother loading of textures. Well worth it in my opinion, I'd never run a system without it again ever, unless it was a super budget system or I was compromising too much performance elsewhere. ~$0.42 per GB is good now.

[Aeriedk]

This would be the minimum I'd go with, add $90 for Windows 8.1 64bit if needed.

I would need to buy an OS to go with it. Is Windows 8 preferred at this point? Or is 7 still what you should go with if you can get it?

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Overall smoother/snappier feeling system (Windows, games, programs), faster reloading after UI crashes or changes, coming back after a DC, smoother loading of textures. Well worth it in my opinion, I'd never run a system without it again ever, unless it was a super budget system or I was compromising too much performance elsewhere. ~$0.42 per GB is good now.

I understand. I guess the negative for me ATM would be cost because I think I would need around a 500g drive for everything I use.

[Deleted]

No you use the SSD along with the 1TB WD drive I have in the build. SSD for OS, programs and whatever games you can fit on it (especially WoW) and then the HDD for storing pictures, movies and such.

The above solution is ~$167 total for 1TB HDD and 256GB.

[Daez]

I would need to buy an OS to go with it. Is Windows 8 preferred at this point? Or is 7 still what you should go with if you can get it?

I understand. I guess the negative for me ATM would be cost because I think I would need around a 500g drive for everything I use.

People still whine a out 8, but I would say it is a better operating system in general. Get Classic Shell (third party freeware) if you still want the class start menu from Windows. However, you can probably do without Classic Shell and still have a decent OS.

Most people buy a cheap ($50 to $60) large Sata Drive and a SSD that is large enough to store their games. Also, you always can use Flash Drives for extra storage if you need on. I have heard of people that have used a Flash Drive to keep their game files on when accessing them because Flash Drives are basically portable SDD drives.

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No you use the SSD along with the 1TB WD drive I have in the build. SSD for OS, programs and whatever games you can fit on it (especially WoW) and then the HDD for storing pictures, movies and such.

The above solution is ~$167 total for 1TB HDD and 256GB.

I wonder why people really need a hard drive that big. I have a few games installed and still only take up like 100ish GB on my gaming laptop. If I want to save anything important but not private than I use Google Drive. If I want to store anything private and important it goes on a Flash Drive.

[chazus]

I wonder why people really need a hard drive that big.

I have a 256gb drive and I occasionally have to uninstall something I haven't played in a while (but havent finished) in order to make room for other games.

If you ONLY play wow, and flat out refuse to play other games, 120gb is fine. But most people play many games, and 120gb is a stretch for more than like.... 2-4.

[Deleted]

And the 1TB WD HDD is just the best price/performance/capacity, none of the smaller ones really makes sense. I personally only run SSDs and then some external USB HDD.

[Aeriedk]

Thanks all for the advice given in this thread. It has given me a lot of food for thought. I'll likely be back to ask for more advice once I have a better budget in mind, but I think I can start poking around at parts a little more now.

Thanks again, greatly appreciated.