[Final Build] Gaming Computer for WoW

Assuming $984 since the CPU is normally ~$220

The CPU is at Micro Center on sell for $179.99  

If you wanna save money now, you could skip the HSF for until later. I mean a stock 2500k is going to be plenty for WoW so you wouldn't NEED to OC it.

So do you suggest dropping the GTX 560 Ti Superclocked, for just a regular GTX 560 Ti? It would only save about $20-$30.

drop the ti the 7850 is 249.00 less power more juice. Overclock the CPU to 4.6 and bam enjoy

I will mainly only be using this computer for World of Warcraft really. Maybe RTS game here and there. But the other thread I had up , someone said the GTX 560 Ti runs better than the 7850 for WoW. Thats the only reason I really got that one.

I also do not know how to overclock but plan on learning but only going to maybe 4-4.2 at most.

This is my first build so I dont know to much about it.  

WoW hates AMD cards for some reason, but the performance of a 7850 will be so overpowering for that game as to render it moot, unless you're running at 2560x1440 or greater.

Well you could do that and it would still be amazing for WoW, but what I meant was drop the CPU cooler Heatsink/Fan (HSF) ans stick with the stock cooler.

The only difference between the 560ti and the 7850 is just the power consumption right?

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7870-revi...

Tom's bench of the 7850/7870

They both do better than the 560ti in WoW

Ehhh, I will just stick with the 560 Ti, It's only a slight difference.

Not quite, the 7850 has slightly better performance than the 560Ti. The 7850 performs closer to the 560ti-448 core and the 570.

If you are concerned with money, and you are just concerned with playing WoW, may i suggest getting a 550Ti or 6850. The 560Ti is slight overkill for just WoW. But if you plan on playing other more demanding games like BF3 or Metro 2033 then stick with the 560Ti.  

Hope this helps!

Hm, Thanks thux, the only reason I reason I have the 560 Ti is so I can stream / record. Do you still think that its overkill even for those purposes?

I agree with lycros. Oc'ng the CPU is overkill for almost EVERYTHING gaming wise *especially the 2500k* Save the money on the cooler etc. You'll never utilize it for WoW. You would be hard pressed to even utilize it for more modern games. Oc'ng is more useful for older technology when newer games come out to keep up with newer technology. Now it's more of the oo's and ahh's. Like revving your Ferrari at a red light, not going anywhere but sounds cool.

I assuming that by stream/Record you mean that you will be showing other people your Raids or making guides.

I am by no means a computer genius, but i think that those programs would tax your CPU or internet connection more then your GPU.

But that brings up another point. If you got a 550Ti or a 6850, you might get a few frame rate hiccups when you get some big 25 man raids going.

Now if you were just playing by yourself, I would not think that a stutter every now and again would not be a problem, but if you are trying to show people how to do things, a above average frame rate might be really helpful.

Final Thought: I still think the 560Ti is overkill, but i could not fault you if you decided to still get it  

Edit: Typos

Well I mainly do Arena on WoW. I raid every now and then but I would be streaming 2v2, 3v3, 5v5, etc. But I noticed when I stream on my laptop, I avg 30fps with no stream, with stream it drops to about 10fps. Thats the only reason I was looking at getting something so high. So when I stream I still stay at or above 60fps.  

Yeh go ahead and get it man!

I was just trying to throw you some more options  

I have the 7850 and I am a pretty avid wow player. I think you'd be a bit more future proof going with the 7850 but the 560ti will kick butt for a while also. But yeah WoW maxed out at 1920 x 1080 looks very good indeed. Either way, your system is going to kick butt. Enjoy it!

Oh yeah and I appreciate it man!   I dont plan on playing at ultra settings so I'm not too worried about it. But I will look at the 7850 when I get off work later tonight.

Tiger6k, Could I possibly go lower since I'm not playing ultra settings, My last build setup had a GTX 460. What about the 7700?

Trying to save as much money as I can while still being able to do quite a bit of recording / streaming and staying at / above 60fps.  

Guys...
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7870-revi...
Read the end of that article you linked about the WoW performance with the 7850...

It says the 7850 crashed WoW a lot during testing. They also tested a second card and had the same problems. They also re-tested witht the current drivers... and it still crashed...

Get the Factory overclocked EVGA 560 Ti SC and you will be golden.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

I seen that, Thats why I was kinda hesitant and wanted to get the GTX 560 Ti. But If thats overkill, could I possibly go with a cheaper GTX and be fine? I'm just curious.

You could go with a 7770 or a GTX 560. and have playable framerates...
With those cards with maxed out settings at 1920 x 1080 you would be playing at less than 60 fps.
Remember... each expansion has increased the graphics requirements to play WoW.
MOP is coming out in a few months and so far the Beta looks amazing on my 560 ti with maxed out settings...

Also... the Micro Center Deal gives you $50 off the $139.99 so your mobo will cost you $89.99
You can test it by adding an i5 2500K and the mobo you picked to your cart...
The discount will be there automatically... $179 for the CPU and $89 for the mobo!

Well thats the thing, I dont plan on playing at max settings. Between medium and high is good with me. The resolution I would be playing on is more than likely going to be 1600xwhatever. As I tend to drop the monitor down to a 20" to save some money.

I haven't got in the MOP beta yet but I have heard the graphics are much more demanding in the MOP areas. Thats why I'm thinking I may just have to get the 560 ti.

Thanks for helping me Pacioli. Hopefully ddan49 or JMsellars1 can leave feedback on the build. Or anyone else that is very helpful like the rest of this forum.  

Great community.  

edit- yeah that is an awesome deal! Great motherboard + cpu for so cheap!

20 inch monitors look great at 1600 x 900
You should be able to get an LED 20 inch monitor with for under $100 on sale.
A 22 inch LED at 1920 x 1080 should run $120 on sale.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168... the best deal IMO
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
You can even pick up a 24 inch monitor that runs at 1920 x 1080 for under $150 on sale.

Awesome deal on the samsung. I love samsung but wasnt sure if that was a good monitor. So I believe I have everything with that monitor you linked. Does my build look good?

Almost forgot to ask, Is 1 GB memory enough for the GPU? With streaming and everything , would I need to get more?

Yes, 1GB is enough for a single monitor. Also, I'd really go with an MSI Twin Frozr II OC GTX 560 Ti... seems to be higher clocked than the EVGA Superclocked, with better cooling, and about the same price.

Okay. Hey ddan49 or Pacioli, Could either of you guys just provide a quick build around my budget, maybe a little cheaper but keeps the same performance or close to it?

Also, The reason I didn't go with the MSI Twin Frozr II OC GTX 560 Ti, While it is better cooling and possibly better, I read through the reviews and review after review stated that the fan died then the card eventually died. So I'm not sure if I wanted to get that card or not.

Most newegg and other customer reviews shouldn't be taken into account that much... I mean, when are you going to review... when something works, or when something breaks? You don't see reviews saying "It's still working after three months! The fan hasn't broken down, and the card doesn't have any issues!" spontaneously, do you? Although ASUS has very reliable cards, I don't think MSI has much of an issue. EVGA is very reliable as well.

Anyway, there isn't much of a variation in between the build I would suggest and the build you're using. It's not like an AMD CPU is easily interchanged for an Intel, or an i5-2500k is substituted by an i5-2550k... there's basically one generic, good build.

Okay, I believe I have everything, I also just watched a friend and helped build his system. Hopefully my case is big enough  

Commander MS-I Snow ATX Mid-Tower

Is that a good tower? I like the one I have selected but I'm a sucker for white cases or white anything. Of course its a bit more expensive but its fine. I've never heard of Commander and tried to look it up on newegg but they didn't have that exact one.

It is a thermaltake which are decent. It will hold all the parts and appears to have decent airflow. Sometimes the unknown brands use cheap fans... These fans tend to die and are usually louder. Thermaltake makes decent fans. This case only has one fine and 4 available fan slots. I'd get enough quiet/near silent fans to fill up the case.

Yeah thats what I kinda figured. I love the white. I cant find a NZXT tower at micro center that is white, but they have one on newegg. I will probably just stick to my original one. Also I was told I wouldn't need any more fans as the one + the one that comes with the CPU should be fine. I wasn't looking at buying anymore, atleast not right now anyways.

I know there's a white NZXT Phantom. Try looking through "power" searches on newegg cases for the color of white.

I actually just went ahead and got the Cooler Master HAF 912. It was a little bit more but I liked it when I was looking at the Micro Center. I just went ahead today and bought my Motherboard, CPU , Power Supply (they had it on sale at micro center for $49.99, Same exact one that new egg has for $59.99) and the Case. Next Friday I will hopefully be buying the rest of my parts.

I plan on buying an SSD at some point, Hopefully next Friday as well, but we just installed everything on my friends SSD, but the OS isn't booting from the SSD. Its trying to boot from the CD drive even if nothing is in there. Just for future reference, does anyone know what causes that?

Also, what about this video card EVGA 015-P3-1480-KR GeForce GTX 480 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

My friend is trying to convince me into purchasing that over the 560 ti super clocked. Because of the dedicated memory (1.5gb compared to 1gb) and the card is 700MHz , compared to the 560 ti at 850MHz. I would get more dedicated memory but lower clock speed.

Any suggestions? Should I just stick with the 560 ti?


Quick edit - The benchmark is also higher on the 480. Why is that?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Yeah I love that. But I am trying to keep within my budget  

Ah ok makes sense. There is also the 400r which is almost identical, just doesn't have the side fan. But is cheaper. Not sure what your budget is though. =)

Go into the BIOS (it should tell you to press like F2 or F4 at the beginning) and change the boot order from CD: (which was automatically set when you installed the DVD) to the C:// drive (or hard drive... it should just say someting drive).



Okay, lemme explain. You know the 680, the strongest GPU out there? Well, the 480 is that from two generations ago (actually, probably one. Last generation. Because the 5xx aren't in that category). It officially runs games atm better than the 560 Ti overclocked... but... it's old. I'm not sure how well it'll keep running modern games that require different technoology. I'll break it down into easily digestible chunks:

Pros
- The 480 runs better on most games
- The 480 is less expensive
- The 480 is tested and true
- The 480 has 1.5GB of RAM (so it'll have less trouble with multiple monitors)

Cons
- The 480 has a slower clock speed
- The 480 isn't as overclockable
- The 480 has issues with heat and noise
- The 480 chews up power

So... you decide. It's a nice card, but I have a feeling it's going to run into some issues as the games get more and more modern, because the tech that has changed since it was released has been accommodated for in the 560 Ti. The 560 Ti also has better cooling and noise levels, as well as less power consumption. Also, I'm not sure how the driver support for older cards is.

Hey,

Just to give you some more info about the graphics card if you have not decided on one yet.

My MSI 560 Ti HAWK, came in yesterday and i had a fun night of putting it through its paces   It is a big step up from my EVGA 550Ti FPB!

Just to let you know that the 560Ti lets me play all of my games a close to max setting at 60+ FPS as 1080p resolution.

BF3 with only 2xAA 40-70 FPS on Caspian border
Skyrim High with FXAA 50-70 FPS

thoes are the only two graphically intensive games that i had installed at the time, i am going to install Metro 2033 and The Withcer 2 tonight and see how this new card performs.

Only problem that i have with it is that gets pretty hot (around 70 F) and when the fans spin up it gets kind of loud, but i had talked to my friend that has a EVGA 560Ti and look at some forums and they all said that under heavy gaming that that is not unusual.

Just some more info for ya!

Yeah we went into the bios and everything. We changed all of it to the SSD and it still tries to boot from the CD drive. We were thinking the SSD is bad, but we unplug the CD drive, and the SSD booted right up. It was confusing.

But yeah, I was reading it runs really hot and is a power hog. I will just stick to the 560 ti even though my friend is trying to convince me to get the other. I am fine with 1 GB , that is more than enough to cover my dedicated memory.

Thanks ddan49. I have decided to get the parts I have listed. I only have a monitor to get now after I buy the few parts I have left.

Ram , Harddrive, Video Card, and the CD Drive are all I have left to buy.  


Quick edit - Friend is trying really hard to get me to get the 2 GB of video ram from the video card, He said it will run better. He said just get 2 GB 560 ti non superclocked and it will run better than the 1 GB 560 ti superclocked.

So now I'm stuck between 2 GB 560 ti non superclocked vs 1 GB 560 ti superclocked.

Help?  
I also wont be running more than 1 monitor.

That's dead wrong. Dead, dead, dead wrong. That's like saying having 16GB of RAM (general RAM, not GPU RAM) is better than 8GB when the most you use is 6GB... there won't be an improvement. Unless you're running multiple monitors (which you're not), more RAM won't be as much of an improvement as the Superclocked version.

For your other stuff:
RAM: G.Skill 8GB Vengeance/Ripjaws CAS9 1.5v DDR3-1600 (2x4GB)
HDD: Just about any 7200rpm... Samsung is good, though more expensive. Don't know all that much about it.
CD Drive: ASUS is great! This one has great reviews:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...(RW%20Drives)-_-ASUS-_-27135204&AID=10440897&PID=3938566&SID=

Relatively cheap, as well.

Anyway, I can't help you much more with the CD drive issues. I would try to google your issue, but that doesn't involve me actually contributing any of my knowledge, so I'll leave that up to you (since it would be unfair for me to suggest something I know nothing about). I don't really know what section of tomshardware would help you with that...

Yeah man , I keep trying to tell him but oh well. I'm just gonna stick with the 560 ti superclocked.

Also , I will be going with the Ripjaws more than likely. Not much of a price difference. The CD Drive, Asus for the win! being OEM though, will I have the cables needed? I dont know much about OEM things. I know I can download the drivers from the website. But cable wise , I'm not sure.

We also found out it was his CD drive causing the problems. It was an older one that didn't use SATA , So he bought a new one today and it worked fine.  

For a OEM CD Drive, all that comes is the CD drive unit itself. The only thing that you will need is a SATA cable to connect it to the motherboard. I am pretty sure that i saw one for $5 when i went to Office Max last weekend so they are not to terrible hard to get  

As for drivers, i do not think that they are necessary. I have built 2 computers and neither of them have needed CD drive drivers. But if you are getting one of thoes fancy Blue-Ray players though you will probably need one

I'd really go with the $20 ASUS one for quality. It's not OEM, but it's got great quality, can burn and write CDs/DVDs, and is overall an inexpensive quality component.

Blu-Ray... meh. If you watch blu-ray, but otherwise, nah. I mean, there's HD stuff online ^^

Yeah! I have ordered everything BUT the Graphics Card (still kinda up in the air on this for some reason) and the Monitor. Which I will be ordering all that Friday.