Intel Budget World of Warcraft Gaming PC - 600$ including 100$ OS

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Rashpraetor

Rashpraetor

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So I had an idea to build some gaming PCs for my children. They play their regular flash games, but they also like to play WOW as a family once or twice a week. There is other benefits as they also sometimes do their school work on the computers and I am sure that will increase as they get older. My thoughts were to get the G3258 and put in some work to OC the processor as I have heard you can crank it up to 4.8 Ghz. Only I am wondering if thats even worth it, when I could get
Intel Core i5-4460 3.2 ghz for and have the quad core for about $190 and not need anything but the stock cooler.
Is the Quad core going to make a big difference in gaming or would I be okay with a faster processing dual core? I have read that WOW uses multiple-threading and that quad core can make a difference. Thoughts?

Also review the other choices and tell me if there anything else you would change?


PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/4zBRqs
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/4zBRqs/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($59.99 @ Micro Center)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($33.03 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI Z97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($99.94 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($70.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Constellation ES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB FTW ACX Video Card ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA 430W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($34.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Asus DVD-E818AAT/BLK/B/GEN DVD/CD Drive ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - 64-bit (OEM) (64-bit) ($90.26 @ OutletPC)
Total: $586.17
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available


 
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logainofhades


The 270x is a good deal faster than a GTX 750ti. Mdocod can spout whatever technical jargon he wants, a GTX 750ti is not going to beat a 270x in gaming. That one was picked because of its high clock speed. Power color has been around a long time, and THG has reviewed their cards before. That said, there has been a some changes, since I made that post, pricing wise. Early black friday specials an such, have some...
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delaro

delaro

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WoW is a old game and can run on a Toaster, either will work fine. The only part of the entire game that takes CPU effort is 25 man raiding which is punishing even on Top end CPU's with all settings Maxed. You can thank the outdated Engine for this.
 
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logainofhades

logainofhades

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Actually Blizzard is making WoW more GPU dependent for WoD. I wouldn't get the pentium though. I would, at the very least, switch to an i3 with an H97 board.

 
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Gracodana

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This a little over:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/6vLNBm

but it is a good compromise, I would say the i5 is a little overkill for this system and the pentium is a little under this system so the i3 seems like a good choice to me. It also allowed me to step up the gpu to the 760 which is actually at a resonable price for once. The psu is a little better here then in yours yet somhow cheaper o_O .

I would recommend going to g2a and having a look for a windows key there it's usually much less and I have seen keys selling at around $10 - $15.
 
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logainofhades

logainofhades

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I have been playing, off and on, since late vanilla. :p This would be my build suggestion.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4150 3.5GHz Dual-Core Processor ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($74.78 @ Newegg)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($68.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda ES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($50.00 @ Amazon)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon R9 270X 2GB DEVIL Video Card ($169.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($59.98 @ OutletPC)
Optical Drive: Asus DVD-E818AAT/BLK/B/GEN DVD/CD Drive ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - 64-bit (OEM) (64-bit) ($90.26 @ OutletPC)
Total: $690.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-22 15:43 EDT-0400
 
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Rashpraetor

Rashpraetor

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Thoughts on the Quad core question I asked? doesn't matter for WOW or doesn't matter cause I am not going top of the line GPU?


"I would recommend going to g2a and having a look for a windows key there it's usually much less and I have seen keys selling at around $10 - $15. "
Took a look at the G2A stuff and that looks pretty shady. Have you used them multiple times without issue?
 
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delaro

delaro

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25 man raiding is just as bad now as it was 3 years ago when I quit. You can't change that without a Engine overhaul which is not plausible for a game this old. As far as the rest of the game a Q6600 and a Hd5870 handles everything max. My kids still play WoW so I watch over the complaints.

 
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logainofhades

logainofhades

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Gracodana

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not me personally but a good few friends of mine have and I got borderlands 2 as a gift from it.
 
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Rashpraetor

Rashpraetor

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Hades, why did you suggest that video card? several benchmarks I watched show the 750 TI outperforming or doing as well as the 260x. Also you picked what looks like an off brand card vs EVGA or Asus. Why?
How do you feel about going with 4gb of ram to cut cost? I really want to get this PC is the 600$ mark with the OS.
 
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For WoW, you're better off with nvidia because the driver and enhanced DX11 API are better threaded. This is a huge benefit in game engines that are poorly threaded. However, the only way to take advantage of this optimization to the driver/API for nvidia GPUs, is to use a CPU with 4+ threads. i3's and i5's are the best bet here as they offer both fantastic per-thread execution capabilities, but also enough parallelism to scale up performance of the API/Driver on an nvidia GPU.

If you insist on sticking to a Pentium, the AMD GPU will actually run better there, as the API/Driver stack is less threaded, thus, runs better than nvidia on CPUs with minimal interthread parallelism.

i3+GTX750Ti is sort of the "standard" WoW config for good value and performance.
 
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logainofhades

logainofhades

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The 270x is a good deal faster than a GTX 750ti. Mdocod can spout whatever technical jargon he wants, a GTX 750ti is not going to beat a 270x in gaming. That one was picked because of its high clock speed. Power color has been around a long time, and THG has reviewed their cards before. That said, there has been a some changes, since I made that post, pricing wise. Early black friday specials an such, have some prices really low. I changed the card brand, since you seemed concerned with it.

Cost is a bit more, but here is an i5 build, in the event you can afford a bit more.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($174.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M Anniversary Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($69.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Team Zeus Blue 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($67.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda ES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($45.49 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 270X 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card ($159.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H21 ATX Mid Tower Case ($31.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($13.99 @ Amazon)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - 64-bit (OEM) (64-bit) ($90.26 @ OutletPC)
Total: $704.66
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-13 09:29 EST-0500


And an i3 build similar to my previous one.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-4160 3.6GHz Dual-Core Processor ($124.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Anniversary ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($74.78 @ Newegg)
Memory: Team Zeus Blue 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($67.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda ES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($45.49 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 270X 2GB TWIN FROZR Video Card ($159.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Thermaltake Versa H21 ATX Mid Tower Case ($31.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 600B 600W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-14 DVD/CD Writer ($13.99 @ Amazon)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - 64-bit (OEM) (64-bit) ($90.26 @ OutletPC)
Total: $639.46
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-13 09:31 EST-0500
 
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mdocod

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Technical jargon says the compute overhead of the AMD solution is a bad choice for this build. Just because this is over the head of Logain doesn't mean it has to negatively effect this build. Logain makes build recommendations from within a bubble that assumes all games run like gpu bound bench-marking sequences. In the real world, the FPS minimums in WoW are not in the hands of the GPU itself, they are restricted by the compute and API/driver bottleneck. Doesn't matter if you have an R9 290X in there, the FPS minimums on the GTX750Ti will still be better. A CPU/API/driver bottleneck can not be solved with a bigger GPU.
 
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logainofhades

logainofhades

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Exactly the point I have been trying to make. WoD's engine has been tweaked to make the game more GPU dependent, and Blizzard intends on tweaking it more in that direction, to take advantage of high end cards. This isn't vanilla anymore, when you could run it on an Athlon 64 3000+ and an Nvidia FX 5200. :lol:
 
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delaro

delaro

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More Dependent but exactly how much more? You can't fix 10 years of ignored code optimization in just a year. BTW even in Vanilla WoW a Athlon 64 3000+ struggled on 40 man raids.

Back before WotLK launched one of the now former Devs said they would have to skip a full expansion cycle to fully optimize the code for WoW to make use of current GPU advancements. This makes me wonder just how much of a increase are we expecting, considering the non stop push for content.
 
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logainofhades

logainofhades

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I have never been much for raiding, so wouldn't be able to tell you there. Also, they made fairly big changes with Cata, when they added DX11 support. This is just a continuation of an ever evolving game. Each expansion requires more than the last. WoD might be the first time I do not upgrade my main rig for an expansion, though. BC, I ran an X2 3600+ with a 7600gt. For Wrath, I ran a Xeon 3210 @ 3.6ghz and an HD 4870. Cata, I had an i5 2400 and HD 5850's in CF. MoP, I moved to a 3570k, due to hardware failures in my file server, then upgraded to my HD 7970. A part of me wants a GTX 970, but I cannot justify the cost. Maybe GTX 960's for my other rigs, next year, that are still running my old HD 5850's.
 
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mdocod

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Producing charts requires repeatable conditions.

the conditions of congestion that cause the bottleneck to shift to the CPU/API/Driver are not repeatable, therefor no, you can not find a chart to prove the point I am making. You can either choose to believe that I know what I'm talking about, or you can stay ignorant and look at your charts. I don't care either way.

In a CPU bound condition, if the CPU/driver/API is limiting the performance to X FPS, it doesn't matter how much GPU you throw at that problem, the cap has been set at X, more GPU can never unravel a bottleneck that is occurring elsewhere. Only in the land of mystics and hardware witch doctors can GPUs solve CPU/driver/API bottlenecks.

--------

Making a game take advantage of more GPU power (more visual quality) does NOT automatically mean that it is going to be LESS compute intensive.

Visual quality and performance are not the same thing. I guarantee that in WoW, a GTX750Ti can maintain higher minimum FPS than any AMD card. This has NOTHING to do with render performance. This has to do with the driver/API bottleneck being less significant on the nvidia solution. The only way to prevent this outcome would be to bury the CPU/Driver/API bottleneck under visual quality settings that shift the bottleneck back to the GPU permanently (bury the GPU under visual quality settings so high that it runs at 15FPS all the time). Sure you could get the 290X to produce far higher peak FPS than a GTX750Ti in WoW, but peak and average FPS are not the issue here. The minimums are the only part that are ever a problem.
 
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