I have been playing WoW on laptops for two thirds of the games' existence. I'm quite ready to get back into the wonderful world of towers. I'm also tired of laptops being able to play the game well, but not great. Id like to get past high settings without causing my laptop's video card to crash from it getting to 80 degrees Celsius. I have never built a computer before but I've coded computer programs and help develop websites, it can't be hard at all. Here's what I have to work with, or lack thereof.My other thread was caught by the spam service and restored twice to still being broken so I made this. Please delete the other one, ...or something. Don't shoot me.
Resources and Materials:
- Budget: $1000 - $2000. [Maybe not HIGH Budget] Id really like to try to stay under $1800. This does include OS! See last bullet.
- Location: I live on the east coast of Florida. Id like to refrain from leaving my house for nearby stores and such, people are scary.
- Resolution: 1920 x 1080.
- Desires: I want to play WoW from between High and Ultra with legroom. Some of the upper end graphics of WoW are kind of annoying because the textures don't match all of the great lighting. Makes everything look soapy and fake(er). Hovering around High in my mind. I don't really know the price requirement of completely blowing WoW out of the water, but this I need heavy suggestion on. Sprinkle in some Fraps, Photoshop, Rendering, and a slice of FPS shooter.
- Reusable Parts: Nearly nothing. I have an old Alienware back from when Vista was coming out of its shell. I don't know if the power supply is still good (can that damage things?), but I may be able to rip out the DVD player just to install Windows 8 and be done with it. I don't use DVD's otherwise. Paying the $12 bucks for one isn't out of the question though. Or more for a fancy one.
- Accessories: I don't want a Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse, Sound System, Mic, or Headphones. I do need an operating system. Windows 8 x64 is what I will be getting. I was persuaded in a thread hovering in this forum group. Should I get some other kind of thermal paste to apply? Extra fans? Any links to cool but functionless edits to the build?
My Weakling Attempts: List on PCPartPicker
CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($299.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($119.99 @ Amazon) [Manual Input], Amazon Link
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($179.98 @ Outlet PC)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($39.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($93.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Intel 520 Series Cherryville 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($119.95 @ B&H)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 680 2GB Video Card ($548.49 @ Newegg)
Case: Inwin GRone (Gray) ATX Full Tower Case ($104.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 750W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($15.98 @ Outlet PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($79.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $1583.33; $1703.32 with CPU Cooler, give or take shipping
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-11-25 22:43 EST-0500)
Before pulling that apart here's what id like:
- CPU and Video Card. No AMD please, but I want fast! No real attachment to anything. Overclocking maybe, id surely like the option.
- CPU Cooler: Everything I go to throws water cooling in your face, but I don't really care. It sure seems cool, but I want something that gets the job done in relation to quietness. Some noise is fine, you won't catch me without super-massive headphones on anyway.
- Motherboard: I honestly have no clue why you would pick a $70 motherboard over a $400 dollar one besides the seemingly minuscule features. I picked this one because of it's reviews and how fancy it was. If it will last a while I'll probably keep it but if it's just a nice motherboard that I don't really need I'll be glad to look at the others. I'm a sucker for all of that bios stuff and overclocking nub friendlyness.
- Memory: I never really saw the need for more than 8 gigs, id prefer holding that off as a later upgrade unless it bottlenecks something.
- Storage Thing 1 & 2: Western Digital seemed solid from what I read. Not sure about the A-Data SSD
- Case: I don't really like ones completely covered in mesh, and I have a weakness for ones with lights. Spacing and everything shouldn't be a problem but any more criticism is encouraged.
- Power Supply: Gold Certified 750W. Yay?
- Optical Drive: This may get scrapped and I'll pull one from another computer, unless they have ones that are cool these days.
Open to all suggestions.