The People's Champ. $500 Gamer

[joetheone]

Hey guys, my sister's laptop just died, and she wants me to build her a desktop so she can do normal office stuff: music, pictures, e-mail, blah blah blah. The thing is she's a WOW addict and wants a computer that will be able to max out WOW. She's planning on buying a 22' monitor, so lets assume she'll be gaming at 1680*1050 on windows XP 32-bit. The budget is max $500 but it'd be nice if we could get it under that, and i WILL be overclocking this thing for her, so take that into account.

Here's what i was thinking of:

MOBO: ASUS P5K - P35 chipset, cheap, good stuff.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131278
$85

CPU: E7200 - easy to overclock
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115052
$120

GPU: 8800GT - cheapest one i could find
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133232
$115

RAM: 2Gb DDR2-800, from a good brand that I trust
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134635
$30

HDD: 160GB HDD from WD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136075
$42

Case/PSU: - built many comps with this case/psu combo already, great stuff for the price.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129032
$80

So what do you guys think? Is an 8800GT overkill for WOW at 1680*1050? Could i get away with giving her a nice 4670 or 9600GSO or something? Can anyone post charts for different video cards with WOW?

Thanks guys, total comes to about $470 without shipping and tax.

 

[mford66215]

GT will run just fine far as I know. I'm running a GTS 512 and getting 129+ frames with vsync off at 1680*1050 all settings at max. Turn vsync back on and it locks to 60fps no matter what the envrionment is doing.

I'd put 4G of ram in it though. Sure, XP won't see all of it - but then again it won't have to. Example - I'm running 4G here, see's <3.5G with video and other items.....and haven't paged to the disk once since I added the extra ram.

 

[johnyeah]

You might actually want to look into parts with free shipping and the same cost (you can save up quite a bit there). There's cheaper 9800GT's out there than 8800GT with free shipping if you're looking at newegg.

You'll also need a dvd-drive or a burner.

The 8800GT is perfect for WoW if your sister is planning to play at that resolution (I used to raid 25 mans with the 8800GT until my guild killed Kil'Jaeden and it served me well, not entirely an overkill).

 

[johnyeah]

2 GB is more than enough for XP.

 

[megamanx00]

Not a bad build. Personally though at that budget I would go with AMD and get a bigger Hard Drive. 160GB can feel small awfully quick without an external hard drive, or at least burning stuff off to a DVD.

GIGABYTE GA-MA770-S3 $69.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128327

Athlon 6000+ Windsor 89W (yep that's right) $92
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103233

WD 500GB 64.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136149

Which is still $20.02 under your build, ignoring shipping anyway. You could double your RAM and still stay under $500. You didn't mention an optical drive though. Do you have one lying around you intend to use? If not then I would go with

Lite-On burner, retail $25.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106264

And I guess if you are going to be overclocking anyway you could go with the 5400 BE instead of the 6000 and just overclock it.

5400 BE $77
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103289

 

[mbbs20]

well for the uses u have mentioned like web surfing light home use and wow at 1600 resolution...u can even save a lot more and still have a very speedy system ...my recommendations for your case...

get the sonata 3 with 500 watts for the same 80 bucks...instead of 380 u get a beefier psu (and its a good quality earthwatts)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129024


and instead of the 7200 get the e2180 (get the e2160 for cheaper if u can find it) and overclock easily to around 2.8 -3.0 ghz ..for 70 bucks
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116052

or u can get the e5200 for 80 odd dollars and the extra cache might be very helpfull..plus the wolfdale core should overclock higher..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116072


2gigs is more then enough...and your mobo selection is good too for your use..

u can even save some by going with a 8800gs (overclock it and get 8800gt speeds easily) or a stock 9600gt or even a 3850 ..your call...all can handle wow at 1600 easy....I bought a tight budget system same as above about 4 months ago from microcenter locally so i saved on shipping and the prices were eveen cheaper luckily compared to online...i got a 9600gt, e2160, 2gigs, a better case i.e. cm 690rc and a cm500 watt psu, put it on a 680i lt mobo..and have overclocked to 3.1ghz .been running grid with highest possible settings with hightest possible AA and getting smooth frame rates....so good luck with your build

 

[groo]

I agree with everyone else. thats too much CPU for the rest of the system and its intended purposes. I'd get a 320 gig drive minimum, My 750 doesn't have all that much free space on it.

do you already have XP sitting around? if not get Vista64. either way, I'd get 4 gigs of ram. when a system is geting a little long in the tooth, more ram is a HUGE improvement, and ram is so cheap, just get more now and keep on enjoying it down the road.

when building a fresh system. ALWAYS look for combo deals. not too long ago they were selling an Antec Sonota case w/ EA500 plus a free 5400+BE CPU for $80 after MIR. I also recently saw and got a color lazer network printer (its nice to print from the laptop a couple rooms away and never wory about ink drying out) for $325 that came witha free 22" LCD. I don't know what the scream deals are now, but I'm sure there is something.

 

[dirtmountain]

This 9800GT for $100 after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127379
or this 9600GT at $70 after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500019

The new expansion of WOW is more graphic intensive then the old expansion, shadows and other additions are putting more pressure on the graphic card, raids and large scale PvP also put more pressure on it. Go with at least the 9600GT. I liked your original build.

 

[joetheone]

Thanks for all the advice guys. I'm definitely going to be switching to the sonata III and i think i'll switch to a E5200 and overclock that instead of the 7200.

I really do think 2Gigs of RAM is enough for my sister's needs, especially considering i'll be putting XP 32-bit on this comp (i have a copy at home), and her budget is very tight.

And i definitely had a brain fart about the DVD drive....I'll add that to the list.

Lastly, is more than 160Gb really necessary for someone who will only have ONE game installed on their system? I only have about 100Gb used on my personal gaming comp....

 

[crystal_tech]

I got a box with a msi 780g board paired with 2gb of ddr2 800 ram, an amd athlon x2 1.9ghz (its one of the odd numbered one be-2300 rated at 45watts), and a hd 3650 sapphire card. running wow at max pulling 70-80 frames at 1440x800. Did well in a casual MC run with 40 70s only dropped to about 50 fps. the lowest i've seen is 20 fps during scanning the ah.

 

[groo]

Its not games that hog my HDD is pics, audio, and vids. she doesn't by any chance have an HD TV does she?
If she has a 1080p set, just use that instead of a monitor and it can be a HTPC too, then HDD is even important and screen money could be put toward a bluray player.