cheapest computer to play WoW

ZaronY

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Nov 5, 2006
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I wasn't sure if this'd go in the hardware or games section, but it seems more hardware so I'll ask here, I'm trying to make the cheapest computer possible that could run world of warcraft reasonably well, here's what I have so far:

Athlon 64 3000+ and Biostar NF325-A7 mobo combo- $90
WINTEC AMPO 512 mb ddr2 400 mhz sdram- $45
linkworld case with 430W power supply/3 fans- $25
Mad Dog DVD burner/reader- $27
Keyboard and mouse combo- $7
Western Digital 40 gb hard drive- $40

Total= $234

I am by no means an expert so I would appreciate any critiques, either that this is too cheap to play WoW, or that you could go cheaper. My goal is to get the cheapest possible for playing WoW smoothly and feel free to completely rewrite this build.
 

Runescaper

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Gold farmer eh? :p

You're gonna massproduce 'em and set up a chinese sweatshop? xD

Anyways, onboard graphics isn't a good idea, and what do you need the dvd drive for? - cd will do fine.
 

ZaronY

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actually you're right on with the gold farmer but bots don't sweat, and yeah I was thinking about removing the dvd drive, I always add that in by reflex I think. Wouldn't onboard video be enoguh for WoW though? it's not a high end application or anything and the recommended is only 64 mb video ram
 

boduke

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actually you're right on with the gold farmer but bots don't sweat, and yeah I was thinking about removing the dvd drive, I always add that in by reflex I think. Wouldn't onboard video be enoguh for WoW though? it's not a high end application or anything and the recommended is only 64 mb video ram

You'll probably get a bout 20fps on the lowest settings with that and forget raiding. I have a C2D and a 7600GT and in 40 man raids I get about 30-35FPS as long as there's no intense fighting and it drops to about 25 or so if we're in it pretty heavy. I wouldn't recommend it...

And I'd seriously consider at least 1GB or ram. WoW eats up a lot...
 

choirbass

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the GPU memory amount may be enough, but more than likely, it will just be using shared system memory, which will result in poor performance while gaming (shared system memory is nowhere near as fast as dedicated gpu memory)... windows xp needs at least 512 by itself to run smoothly... it can run on less though, no doubt... either way, you will only have 448MB left over for the system, other applications, and the game itself, which may result in lots of pagefile accessing while in game...

i could be wrong about the integrated GPU, but from what ive seen, thats usually the case

the best idea is to probably to invest in a seperate discrete gpu... doesnt have to be expensive, but a seperate gpu nonetheless is probably a good idea to have.
 

ZaronY

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I won't be raiding or doing anything intensive in WoW with this computer, I will likely be botting solo in scarlet monastery.
 

choirbass

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theres nothing wrong with the build itself... you can try it, if it has no performance issues, all the better :)... ...if you do have performance issues however, the 2 most likely cuplrits are lack of available system memory (indicated by pagefile accessing), and not a capable enough gpu (which will just give low fps, without the pagefile being accessed)... or even both.
 
I don't believe that motherboard you listed has integrated video onboard.

If I was in your shoes I'd splash out an extra $17 for the following changes:
AM2 Sempron 64 2800+ $50
WINTEC AMPO 512MB DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) 1 stick $48
BIOSTAR NF61VM2 AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 Micro ATX $54

Besides having onboard video these changes at least give you the chance of easy future peformance upgrades from the AM2 family.
 

ZaronY

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all right, thanks, would you say I could see a higher performance then if I got an even cheaper mobo and processor, and subbed in a 20-30 dollar graphics card? it's all abotu cost efficiency here and if possible I'd like to optimize without additional price.
 

choirbass

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since this is mainly just a gaming machine, a gpu by itself will have the most profound impact on performance, followed my system memory amount, and then cpu speed/memory speed... the motherboard itself usually doesnt affect performance really.

so yes... go for a tolerable minimum as far as cpu/motherboard investment... and spend more on the gpu, seconded by memory amount... the gpu first and foremost at any rate when it comes to gaming.

since this is on a tight budget, you might be able to cut corners elsewhere too, not just on the cpu/motherboard... the hard drive comes to mind... $40 is too much to spend on a 40GB drive... like, you can get an 80GB for $42 at newegg, lol... but, $40 does seem like too much for that HDD either way

what you could also do, is instead of getting PC3200... try for either PC2700 or PC2100, those probably cost less