Looking to upgrade my PC. some questions

[Cosset]

I am looking to upgrade my PC. I am going to use my current case. CD/DVD Burner and probably my HDD for now. Its a WD32 320GB sata dive.

I was going to go for an AMD 6 core processor and a new board and memory. Is this overkill for wow? Should I get a 4 core? What about for a motherboard? I prefer boards with no onboard video. What kind of memory should I get?

I am planning on using the PC for WoW and I would like to do some fraps for some boss kills.

I am also thinking of getting a new video card. I was thinking a GTX 560 Ti. Would a GTX 550 Ti do the trick?

Its been a while so I am not as familiar with all this as I used to be. Did some searches but it was mostly confusing to me. I figured I would ask on here since Wow is the main thing I use it for. I am obviously on a budget with this.

Thanks,

-Cosset

[Deleted]

Please mention your budget.

[Djinni]

Firstly what exactly IS your budget?
Do you do much else other than play WoW? (you probably don't even really need any more than a cheap £50 graphics card if you only play WoW)

Where do you live? (This will let us give you specs that are actually available to you and in your own currency.)

[L05_PL]

wait 3 months and get bulldozer, also nothing use 6cores anyway (nothing as games, also not many applications)... GTX560 is way better then 550

[Confessor Kahlan]

Most people here will recommend an i5 2500k for your processor, its plenty of power for any gaming you can do. 6 or more core processors won't get fully utilized in gaming, only in alot of heavy video rendering etc. So stick with a quad core.
As far as a motherboard there are a lot of options, and Itll come down to what features you want, how many pcie slots you need, what connections you need. The main thing here is just to make sure it matches the CPU you choose, for example the i5 uses an lga 1155 socket.
And lastly yes a 560 ti is plenty for most games at near max settings, still giving good framerates. Another thing you may want to keep in mind while choosing the motherboard is if you may want to add a second 560ti some time In the future. In which case make sure It supports SLI.

[Arslay]

AMD cpu's are less powerful and especially worse for wow than Intel's, and you don't need more than 4 cores.

I have a 560 Ti (Oc'ed to 950mhz -1ghz depending on my mood) and it is FANTASTIC. Everything at max graphics for wow.
Also, i have a i7 2600k.

As CPU's go the i5 2500k is the one to go for gaming. Also, if price is a problem the i3 2100 works great. And ofc the i7 2600k for video editing and intensely threaded things AND gaming. The biggest advantage of the 2500k/2600k is their ability to overclock. With an after market cooler you can get insane performance boosts for little money.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-072-_-Product CPU

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-565-_-Product GPU

For a MOBO you need a LGA 1155 socket (for your 2500k)

Heres a search of what will work, choose depending on what features you want (USB 3.0, how many SATA 3gbps or 6gbps, etc...) and the other ratings.

[Cosset]

I am hoping to keep this right around $600. I have a $100 best buy gift card im using to get a 600 watt power supply. So for less than 600 I need to get Motherboard, CPU, Memory and Video card. I really am kind of against the whole overclocking thing. Will this work just fine without going that route? Will I be able to fraps wow stuff with it? I am going to put 8GB of memory in it. I can get some DDR3 1600 memory for a pretty good price.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131706
This was he motherboard I was thinking about.

[Deleted]

What is your current case? Do you also need an OS? Is your DVD drive SATA too?
If it's IDE, we're going to have some issues finding a upto date compatible motherboard.

[Cosset]

My case is fine. Currently got an Athlon X2 in it. I have a win 7 license on my 3 pack left. DVD and HDD are both SATA.

[Deleted]

In that case, given what you've outlined, here is one build you could invest in. Yes I know you're against overclocking, but it is more straight forward on the new Intel Chips and something you could look into a year or two down the line when you feel your chip needs a performance boost. Out of the box performance should be very strong if everything is in good working order.

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115072 - i5 2500k - currently the best mainstream gaming cpu on the market
GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130604 - EVGA 560ti - mid-high end GPU
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820220559 - Patriot 1600 mhz (need to enable the XMP profile in the bios)
MB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813157252 - Asrock Z68 Pro3-M. Miro ATX, excellent budget motherboard.

Without shipping, 599.96$

[Cosset]

So I was looking through reviews and benchmarks on the i5 2500k this morning. Needless to say I am convinced. The difference is amazing. I think the i5 2500k is the way to go. The GTX 560 Ti seems to be where its at for graphics.