[shizdan]

My brother wants to start playing World Of Warcraft with my cousin so my dad let him upgrade our Compaq SR2017CL. The Specs are...
-

-Athlon 64 (O) 3800+ 2.4 GHz
-Upgraded to 2 Gigs of Corsair Value Ram
-Upgraded PSU to Dynex 400WPS

Quote:

14 A for +12V1, 15 A for +12V2, 28 A for +5 V, 30 A for +3.3 V and 0.3 A for -12 14 A for +12V1, 15 A for +12V2, 28 A for +5 V, 30 A for +3.3 V and 0.3 A for -12 V

Quote:

The +12V2 rail is connected only to the ATX12V cable, so everything else is connected to the +12V1 rail.

Now I'd like to keep this at $100 upgrade and make the parts used for better performance. What should I upgrade?

 

[compuman145]

the 2Gb of ram will work, 4Gb would be nicer.

I would probably go with a GPU, I used to max WoW out on my 8800GT. So something around that level will be fine

Comps

 

[Fletcherea]

Yup, start looking around for some decent budget graphics cards =) Saw a 4850 on the egg for about a hundred bucks, older card, but was the guy that brought ati back to the ball game.

 

[stupidcha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by compuman145 the 2Gb of ram will work, 4Gb would be nicer. I would probably go with a GPU, I used to max WoW out on my 8800GT. So something around that level will be fine Comps

4gb on 32bit isn't really worth it

i would prefer a better power supply for the computer but it's a eh...

all you would need is a video card and you would be set

as compuman said, 8800gt is perfect for your set up if not you can maybe settle for cheaper one

 

[boie]

spend a lil more on a psu

YouTube- Dynex 400 W PSU Review / Huntkey Green Star 400 W Review

 

[compuman145]

4Gb on a 32bit OS is worth it especially when playing WoW, I had 4Gb in my old IC2D and it used up 2.5Gb of memory for WoW.

A new PSU would be nice, but you won't have anything left for performance upgrades. Anything less than the 9800GT or GTS250 I think it's called, and you'll not be able to max it out.

 

[MeatloafOverdose]

You can find BFG gts250 pretty cheap now since the sale at tigerdirect, everyone is trying to sell theres undercutting each other lol.

 

[shizdan]

Well I'm mainly looking for used parts to keep the price/performance ratio high. + rep!

 

[shizdan]

is the single core 3800+ enough for wow?

 

[compuman145]

WoW isn't multicore, so yes.

 

[eternal7trance]

Quote:

Originally Posted by shizdan is the single core 3800+ enough for wow?

My 2.1ghz single core pentium m laptop could run wow. It's mostly ram heavy and graphics heavy. As long as you turn down the shadows, pretty much anything around 4850 or gts 250 can run it.

Edit:Actually the big question is, what resolution does he want to run it at?

 

[shizdan]

1280x1024

 

[eternal7trance]

That's about what my laptop does. You should be good but the ram might be cutting it close depending on how much the computer already uses.

My laptop uses http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mob...00.2172.0.html and it runs wow ok. Something like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161319 that doesn't need external power would be nice.

Edit: Or even the 5550 series. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...essing%20Units

 

[stupidcha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by eternal7trance My 2.1ghz single core pentium m laptop could run wow. It's mostly ram heavy and graphics heavy. As long as you turn down the shadows, pretty much anything around 4850 or gts 250 can run it. Edit:Actually the big question is, what resolution does he want to run it at?

4850 is a bit overkill plus he needs to upgrade his psu if he wants to run a 4850

with the current psu I recommend a low power consumption video card
as i said before a 7800 would fit perfectly

 

[eternal7trance]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stupidcha 4850 is a bit overkill plus he needs to upgrade his psu if he wants to run a 4850 with the current psu I recommend a low power consumption video card as i said before a 7800 would fit perfectly

Yea I was thinking it was a little high, check out the post after it I made.

 

[Nick7269]

Your general plan sounds like it will help your brother be able to play the game as long as you turn the settings down. Even with the settings turned down he going to have some lag and/ or low FPS.

My system has to work hard at playing WOW, especially when I was running my old 8800.

On another note, some of the advice people give on this forum about WOW is not correct. Apparently some people tend to under estimate what WOW requires these days.

 

[compuman145]

I had an old e5300 OC'ed to 3.6 with an 8800GT running at 1280x1024 and I could max it out and have no lag issues.

 

[jackbrennan2008]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nick7269 On another note, some of the advice people give on this forum about WOW is not correct. Apparently some people tend to under estimate what WOW requires these days.

I 100% agree with you!

Wow has steadily gotten more GPU/CPU intensive over the past few years. Blizzard have begun introducing new lighting and special effects as well as graphical improvement to the Warcraft graphics engine which now make 'WOW' more taxing on system components.

My system gets about 50 FPS on average with everything in the options menu turned up to maximum. I haven't played for about a half a year, but i highly doubt it's become less taxing.

As always I suggest buying the best components that fit into your budget!

 

[Killhouse]

What the people above have said is mostly true. Yes, a good graphics card will help a lot. But there is one error sticking out like a sore thumb:

WoW is a VERY CPU intensive game, it also has multicore support (for 2 cores). Try not to skimp on the CPU otherwise you will feel the impact. I would really recommend getting a dual or triple core with a nice clock speed.

 

[pancing]

Ahem, depending if you want to raid and what you raid my system gets anywhere from
100fps in 10m raids to 40 fps in 25 man raids on med-high.
My old 5000+ 64x2 with the same card and 2gb of ram with 32b vista and 2 gigs of ram ran it from 15-50fps depending on which raid.
Wow is a Dual-Core game, it pretty much feeds on all parts of your hardware mostly on ram and cpu and not so much GPU.

Like i said If you pvp you might as well stay with what you got and save up for a better system. If you raid 10/25 Then you might as well invest in a x2 cpu and a 9600GT