Is this good enough for WoW?

[united]

Hello, I'm looking to upgrade my PC this Christmas to be able to play WoW on at least high settings smoothly.

My current specs:

8GB ddr3 RAM

GT 620

AMD Phenom II X4 810 Processor

Windows 7 Home Premium

750 GB Hard Drive Space

Is this an okay setup? I have the feeling ill at least have to upgrade my graphics card. What do you guys think?

[Nellah]

While your CPU is definitely on the slow side, the video card has to go. 96 CUDA cores puts it in the same territory as my laptop's GT 630M, which is a dog at anything above Fair details at 1600x900, and I would never even CONSIDER raiding on that thing, even LFR.

[Artorius]

Your Graphics card and the CPU are both bad for WoW.

Cheap upgrade would be:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: MSI H81M-P33 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($28.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 950 2GB FTW ACX 2.0 Video Card ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($23.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $242.96
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-28 18:29 EST-0500

[united]

Thanks Nellah and Artorius!

[chazus]

Agreed. Definitely upgrade the GPU. HOWEVER.... how much money are you looking to spend? There are some amazing deals like RIGHT NOW that.. if you consider upgrading within the next year, like today is the day to do it on the CPU/Board

[united]

Agreed. Definitely upgrade the GPU. HOWEVER.... how much money are you looking to spend? There are some amazing deals like RIGHT NOW that.. if you consider upgrading within the next year, like today is the day to do it on the CPU/Board

I'm willing to spend up to 500 USD, can maybe stretch to 600 if needed

[Nellah]

Considering you already have DDR3 RAM, you could look into a Haswell i5 4670K, motherboard, and video card combo. If your power supply isn't utter garbage you can probably squeeze an R9 280 into that price range as well.

The difference in comparison to your current hardware will be breathtaking.

[stellvia]

I'm willing to spend up to 500 USD, can maybe stretch to 600 if needed

Don't go with something as marginal as Artorius is considering then. The Pentium line these days is below even the Core i3.
Newegg has a price cut on the Core i5 4690K to only $210 atm, which is really nice for a CPU that turbos to 3.9ghz.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819117372 (CPU)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157512 (Mobo)
Re-use the RAM.

As for GPU, you could go with either a GTX960 or if you want to bump it up just a bit more, there is actually a Sapphire R9 290 card atm for $200 on Newegg. Sapphire isn't the greatest GPU brand, but it's certainly not garbage-tier. The GTX 960 looks to bench a tiny bit under a GTX 770 which is the card I have, and it's still no slouch FWIW. I play Fallout4 on mostly Ultra settings, for example.
This GTX960 is going for $150 after $30 MIR right now.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127844 (GTX 960)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814202043 (Radeon R9 290)

So with the GTX 960 that would total $430, or $480 with the R9 290.

[Deleted]

If you make the move for new i'd just to skylake. If you don't care about overclock you could get an 6600 with a h170 mobo and new psu. There is a Z170 for "cheap" after rebates atm so you could get that:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6600 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170-HD3P ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($79.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($52.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 4GB Video Card ($179.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($52.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $585.84
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-11-29 09:15 EST-0500

[Artorius]

Yeah, my recommendation was made with spending the least money in mind, if you can go up to 600USD you can very well go with a i5 and 960 =)

[stellvia]

If you make the move for new i'd just to skylake. If you don't care about overclock you could get an 6600 with a h170 mobo and new psu. There is a Z170 for "cheap" after rebates atm so you could get that:

Skylake is certainly newer, but performance-wise it doesn't really deliver any better than Haswell in gaming and general computing. So one consideration is that you would be inviting extra costs for the DDR4 ram just for the sake of it being "new". Unfortunately it's most likely he'll need a new PSU if his current system has less than a 500W PSU, otherwise trying to stretch for the 4790K w/GTX960 and keep the ram would be the best option atm IMHO.

[Deleted]

snip

If he can move to ddr4 then there is no reason why not too. As for the rest of your comment it makes absolutely no sense. From one point you tell him to save, thus keep ddr3 and go haswell and then propose an i7 4790k which will be even more expensive. For under 600bucks he can get the parts i linked already, skylake-new ram and new psu.

[Artorius]

Skylake is certainly newer, but performance-wise it doesn't really deliver any better than Haswell in gaming and general computing. So one consideration is that you would be inviting extra costs for the DDR4 ram just for the sake of it being "new". Unfortunately it's most likely he'll need a new PSU if his current system has less than a 500W PSU, otherwise trying to stretch for the 4790K w/GTX960 and keep the ram would be the best option atm IMHO.

Skylake gives him an upgrade path, and gives him a mobo and ddr4 memory which he can re-use at his next system if he wishes to upgrade soon enough. Buying a dead socket doesn't make much sense, it would make sense if the price difference was big. But it isn't, and HT won't help him with WoW unless he's also streaming.

[Kagthul]

So one consideration is that you would be inviting extra costs for the DDR4 ram just for the sake of it being "new".

Have you even bothered doing one iota of research?

DDR4 is as cheap as DDR3 right now. Has been for months.

[chazus]

Buying a dead socket doesn't make much sense

I've never bought into the 'dead upgrade path' talk. When someone is buying a decent setup (2500k, 3570k, 4690k, etc) they keep the system long enough that it outlives the socket life. People most likely will not buy a 1151 socket if they buy a 4690K now. By the time they upgrade (4-5 years from now) the new socket will be out. The only people who will want an 'upgrade path' are the people who blow 800+ every couple years on a new setup.

[Artorius]

I've never bought into the 'dead upgrade path' talk. When someone is buying a decent setup (2500k, 3570k, 4690k, etc) they keep the system long enough that it outlives the socket life. People most likely will not buy a 1151 socket if they buy a 4690K now. By the time they upgrade (4-5 years from now) the new socket will be out. The only people who will want an 'upgrade path' are the people who blow 800+ every couple years on a new setup.

Should still be able to re-use the RAM 4~5 years from now at least, which already justifies the difference in my opinion since hardware in the US is absurdly cheap. That's why I said "if he wishes to upgrade soon enough" with the mobo upgrade path argument, this isn't something usual. I'm using an Ivy Bridge CPU and I don't really see any need to upgrade it, Sandy Bridge owners don't either.

In either case the CPUs will outlive the current socket, the 4790K is awesome and I don't think it'll have any trouble with the coming years. But RAM will most likely still be DDR4 4 years from now, which is why I don't see how buying a DDR3 platform makes much sense considering that the price difference isn't big.

[chazus]

But RAM will most likely still be DDR4 4 years from now, which is why I don't see how buying a DDR3 platform makes much sense considering that the price difference isn't big.

A 6600K + Board + DDR4 is a straight up $70 difference minimum. So thats paying that much more for very little benefit of a socket you probably won't reuse.

[godgunner]

im with chazus on the socket dead opinion.
if your already on a budget get the cheaper dead socket and build the system to last.
Chances are your not going to be upgrading anytime soon other then ssd/hardrives.
save the money now and when you do finally need to rebuild new again you can
put that money into the latest stuff. (think the ddr4 now compared to what it will be in 4-5 years)
Only thing worth taking from old builds are power supplies of great quality.

[stellvia]

Thank you chazus and godgunner I was holding my tongue so as not to derail, but at least some people get it.

[Deleted]

The difference is 50bucks for the ram. He pays it now and he won't do again for probably the next 10years. I doupt we will see ddr5 before that. Its the same thing in the long run. If he/she can get new gen setup why not. Haswell is already a couple years old why start with a +years on it, provided it can be afforded now.