fishboi

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WoW: Recommended Specifications

Intel Pentium® IV 1.5 GHz or AMD XP 1500+ MHz
1024 MB RAM
64 MB 3D graphics card with Hardware Transform and Lighting, such as NVIDIA® GeForce™ FX 5700 class card or above
Broadband Internet connection
Two-button scroll-wheel mouse

What I have:

P4 2.8 Ghz (478 Socket)
512MB RAM
On board Intel 82865G Graphics Controller
http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/intel865g/sb/CS-009168.htm?iid=graphics+865main&

Any thoughts?
 

AdamBomb42

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If that card was in stock then yes it would work great. The Intel onboard chip is crap, you'll be best off with a card. I recommend a 7600gs.
 

MrCommunistGen

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From the look of the tech specs page you provided, your computer has neither AGP nor PCI-E. This really rules out any modern graphics card since you are restricted to (legacy) PCI. Even worse, the PCI slots are listed as "low profile" which means that you can't install a "normal" full sized PCI card. If you can find a low profile PCI card for relatively little money then you could go for it to at least be able to play WoW (it doesn't take THAT much to run it), but you might want want to look into building a cheap gaming rig in case you want to play any more demanding games.

-mcg
 

MrCommunistGen

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You might want to try something like this.
Its a low profile GeForce FX5200. Not a very good card even in its day, but you could probably play WoW with settings turned down. I wouldn't recommend spending any more money to try to get a faster PCI card. Even $56 for this card is a lot more than its worth from a performance standpoint.

-mcg
 

AdamBomb42

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The General is right, it doesn't have agp. That sucks! I disagree with his suggestion though, nvidia's 5 series is crap. I suggest this, I think this will be the best that you can get for this system.
 

fishboi

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MrCommunistGen - thanks. I really appreciate it. It seems like you know whats going on. Unfortunately I cannot open this machine and start picking at it. Its a work one, and I can offer to buy it. I'd like to buy it for the GF so I can get her into WoW. I dont want to buy it if it wont work for WoW.

I was trying to figure out the vcard situation. That card I suggested would be in conjunction with a new mobo, but the low profile card is something new to me, so that wont work either.

So you say this is just a plain PCI slot, and I need a low profile card to pop in there. Was the best option I have (top of the line card for that situation). I tried to confirm this by looking up the mobo, but I cannot find it anyway (some Chinese webpages).

 

fishboi

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AdamBomb42 - excellent choice. That price point is too high though. If that is the best card, then I can start to work my way down from there. I wast looking at the $50-$90 range. At least I have a solid price point to work from. Thanks.
 

fishboi

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AdamBomb42 - that card does look neat though. Any idea how it will perform in WoW specifically? What other games can I play with it.
 

AdamBomb42

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AdamBomb42 - if I get that card, will my PSU handle it??
The PSU should handle it just fine, the 1300 chipset does not require much power. It should also handle WoW fine since WoW is not the most demanding game out there. If the 1300 is too much check out the 6200, it's a bit lacking in power but it will outperform the 5200.
 

fishboi

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List of possible card choices for WoW:
-GeForce 5200
-GeForce 6200
-Radeon x1300

Please add to this list so I can pull up some WoW specific benchiez and post them here.
 

MrCommunistGen

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I would definitely recommend the 6200 that AdamBomb42 found. I didn't do that much looking around so the only reasonably priced card that I found was the 5200 :? I would probably not suggest the X1300 just because of how much it costs.
The PCI bus WILL bottleneck the card, but even with bottlenecks its better to have a faster card.
Just out of curiosity, how much would you have to pay to buy that computer from your workplace? If you include the price of something like an X1300 it might be cheaper to just build a cheap gaming rig. I haven't pieced one of those together in a while, but you could probably put one together for around $400 that would kick the tar out of your office rig.

-mcg
 

AdamBomb42

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List of possible card choices for WoW:
-GeForce 5200
-GeForce 6200
-Radeon x1300

Please add to this list so I can pull up some WoW specific benchiez and post them here.

I really suggest you to strike the 5200 from your list, you will not be happy with it. The General a good point about the price of the 1300 though. I sure hope that your paying pennies for the computer, because it's not wirth much.
 

fishboi

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I can get the PC for $50, not a big deal. I found this cool site, and as it stands now, this PC will NOT run WoW BC:

I guess it comes down to that card (the 6200) getting me over that hurdle. I really wonder which was is the best way to go.

How the heck can one build a new gaming PC for $400 (screen, keyboard, the whole works etc). That sounds like a stretch.

 

MrCommunistGen

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OK... so the $400 was just for the box and not the KB, Monitor, etc. Unfortunately it wouldn't include an OS either. But if you can get your hands on a copy of Windows 2000 you could use that since it doesn't need to be activated like XP does and it should run MOST things that XP does. Then all you'd need is a KB, mouse, and monitor... most of which you can find for relatively cheap if you don't mind used.

Anyhow, here's what I came up with for building a relatively cheap NEW rig:
Asus M2V-MX $71.99
AMD Sempron 3400+ $49.55
2x512MB Corsair VS PC4200 $63.87
WD 160GB 7200RPM HD $60.88
Asus X1300 Pro $86.39
Cheap optical drive ~$20-30
Passable Case/PSU combo $70
Total: $432.68
All prices are from Pricegrabber.com, include tax and shipping, and assume a California shipping destination.

You could skimp a bit more by cutting the RAM down to a single 512MB stick which was $35.

My guess is that this is too much for what you're considdering, but it would be a much better (and certainly much more upgradeable) computer than the one you are looking into.

-mcg
 

purplerat

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why not just install the game and try it? If you haven't already purchased it download the trial or buy the $1.99 14-day trial (youll want that disk anyways as I'm not sure if there's a DVD version of the game yet).
 

fishboi

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Does the x1300 card you recommended have "Hardware Transform and Lighting". I couldnt find find anything like that on the web. I could disable the onboard graphics, and use the x1300, assuming it have HT&L.
 

Wonderwill

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You might want to try something like this.
Its a low profile GeForce FX5200. Not a very good card even in its day, but you could probably play WoW with settings turned down. I wouldn't recommend spending any more money to try to get a faster PCI card. Even $56 for this card is a lot more than its worth from a performance standpoint.

-mcg

I think the 850 XT he showed would do better than that. Any $50-60 with good newegg reviews will probably be fine for running WOW.
 

alcattle

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the 5200 will run WoW, I am doing it now. It run ok, until you go into a town, then chop city. I think I am almost as low as one can go to play Wow.
Duron 1.6
512mb
5200
80gb HD
2 cd/dvds
17" LCD