New build for Warcraft

sweetie moo

Hi all. Looking for a build to play World of Warcraft on at least Good graphic settings

1. What is your budget? €600, can go up to €650 if needed

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Internet and Warcraft

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? Yes (I don't know any students to get it cheap)

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? No

5. Do you need a monitor? Yes

5a. If yes, what size do you need. 20'/22'

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future?

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? Keyboard, mouse and speakers (not included in budget)

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Yes

8. How can you pay? Bank transfer, Laser/Visa card

9. When are you purchasing? Hoping to order on Monday

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? Mayo but will try and build myself.

Monotype

This one is about the €650 mark ex windows.

Item|Price
ASUS DRW-24B5ST bare|€18.57
8GB-Kit G-Skill RipJaws PC3-12800U CL9|€41.86
BitFenix Merc Beta|€32.03
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Box, Sockel AM3|€87.46
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W|€43.39
Crucial M4 128GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5")|€99.74
XFX DD RADEON 7770 1000M 1GB D5 mDP HDMI DVI|€109.77
ASUS VS229H|€133.34
ASRock 970 Pro3, AM3+, ATX|€66.14
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€651.29

You can usually get windows for free or very cheap if you're a student doing a computing course at a university. Otherwise, it's €55 from here if you're any primary/secondary level student etc:
http://www.software4students.ie/products/microsoft-windows-7-professional-upgrade
Otherwise, you can use windows server for free from dreamspark - see my signature.

I budgeted it without the windows included... If you want to save the extra €50 for the windows, that's not too much of a problem. World of warcraft is old now and the demands are very low so we can cut out some extras.

ShadowHearth

Wow is old, but it is always improved with some eye candy.

I see it's an AMD setup mono, so did AMD became a good option in low end area after price cut? I haven't checked out current prices yet.

Monotype

Cheapest i3 is the Core i3-2100 @ €108. The 965 is a good deal for €87. Only thing cheaper is the pentiums - not bad 'per core' performance but no hyperthreading while AMD has 4 cores and it can be overclocked. Starts at 3.4GHz and although there's not that much room as they start to need a lot of voltage beyond ~3.8GHz, it should be better than any pentium for single threads at that stage (+ over twice as powerful in programs using 4 cores).
Phenom 965 and 8120 are both quite good value at the moment relative to Intel. The Llanos are good value as well but I'd be reluctant to recommend a socket that's being replaced soon.

ShadowHearth

At 80eu is defo better then i3 then.

Looks like things can become very interesting in mid range.

Would 7770 still be better then 6850?

Monotype

The 7770 was around equivalent to a 6850, maybe very slightly worse, iirc, although more efficient. The 6850s are nearly gone though.

Eboggles

ShadowHearth wrote: »

At 80eu is defo better then i3 then.

Looks like things can become very interesting in mid range.

Would 7770 still be better then 6850?

It's neck and neck after Catalyst 12.8, that driver really boosted 7k series performance.

sweetie moo

Thankyou Monotype

Monotype wrote: »

I budgeted it without the windows included... If you want to save the extra €50 for the windows, that's not too much of a problem. World of warcraft is old now and the demands are very low so we can cut out some extras.

It would be nice to save the €50, what would you cut out?

Looking on Hardwareversand I was thinking of just changing the SSD to
Seagate Barracuda 7200 250GB SATA 6GB's (€53.77), then I can buy a SSD later on when i have the money.

Is it a good hard drive and will it fit with the rest of the build?

Monotype

I wouldn't buy a 250GB hard drive for that price when the 500GB ones are just €60!

http://www1.hardwareversand.de/7200+RPM/39670/WD+Caviar+Blue+500GB+SATA+3+6Gb+s.article

Item|Price
ASUS DRW-24B5ST bare|€18.57
8GB-Kit G-Skill RipJaws PC3-12800U CL9|€41.86
BitFenix Merc Beta|€32.03
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W|€43.39
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Box, Sockel AM3|€87.46
XFX DD RADEON 7770 1000M 1GB D5 mDP HDMI DVI|€109.77
ASRock 970 Pro3, AM3+, ATX|€66.14
ASUS VS229H|€133.34
WD Caviar Blue 500GB SATA 3 6Gb/s|€60.68
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€612.23

I just swapped the hard drive there. You could get a cheaper screen, but I think that's a fairly good looking one. It's IPS so it should give you nice colours over the cheaper ones. Eboggles spotted a 7770 that was €20 cheaper than the others. It's not in stock yet and it could be a slight misprice or a small stock and price could change when it comes in stock, so if you do order soon, you could get that.
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/1024+MB/65947/PowerColor+Radeon+HD+7770+GHz+Edition+V2%2C+1GB+DDR5.article

Secondly, don't forget to get a few euro off with the coupons for hardwareversand.

sweetie moo

Ah yeah 500gb is better!

Might go for the BenQ G2255 instead, spend the savings on a decent keyboard and mouse.

Will order it tomorrow
Thanks again!