Bes
join:2006-01-24
Canada
1 edit | Ideal WoW PC - $400 Budget I want to build a separate PC that will run anything World of Warcraft throws at it. Basically I just want to build something that will run WoW at its highest settings and will still run 100% smoothly no matter what happens, and that includes epic world battles and intense battleground wars. But, I really don't feel like spending any more than $400.
I own some stuff already. I have a case, a decent enough hard drive with WoW and WoW:BC already installed and fully updated, CD ROM drive, etc. What I'm actually looking to buy are these items here: motherboard, processor, video card, RAM (at least two gigs), and a power supply powerful enough to properly run it all.
I have a few things in mind that I'm thinking of purchasing:
Processor:
»www.directcanada.com/products/?s···00BD3219
Motherboard:
»www.directcanada.com/products/?s···30BD1399
Video Card:
»www.directcanada.com/products/?s···80BD5144
That's pretty much all I've looked at so far. It's just a start.
I was hoping you guys could help me figure all of this out. I've come to these forums looking for help once or twice before and you guys were awesome. Do you think you could help me build an ideal WoW PC for under $400? | |
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Raptor
Not a Dumptruck
join:2001-10-21
London, ON
 ·Rogers Hi-Speed
 ·Bell Sympatico
| Re: Ideal WoW PC - $400 Budget $30 for 2 gigs of decent RAM, my how the times of changed.
Might consider picking up another set. WoW is certainly known to be more CPU/RAM heavy. Just a thought at that price.
Having not posted a motherboard, make sure you get something that is user friendly in terms of O/C'ing. You'll want to crank that Intel chip up, even on stock heatsink. I run my e4300 (1.8ghz) at 3.2ghz. So that means stay away from Intel boards.
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....where's my fiber? | |
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 | Bes
join:2006-01-24
Canada
| Re: Ideal WoW PC - $400 Budget Raptor:
This is the motherboard I was looking at just now. It seems really nice for the Intel Pentium Dual Core E2160. What do you think?
»www.directcanada.com/products/?s···30BD1399
Drew:
I was thinking of running it at 1280x1024 32bit. I think that's the highest the game allows, right? | |
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drew
Reformation
Premium
join:2002-07-10
Port Orchard, WA
clubs: | Re: Ideal WoW PC - $400 Budget nope.
I run it at 1680x1050 at home. It is hot.
That system should run at 1280x1024 just fine, you might want to not turn multisampling up too high though. | |
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| | | Bes
join:2006-01-24
Canada
| Re: Ideal WoW PC - $400 Budget Hm, I don't think I've ever fooled around with multisampling options. But it would be nice if I could run the game at any high resolution flawlessly. I probably wouldn't bother using anything higher than 1280x1024 since I'm fine with that right now, but I'd like the option to do so if I ever felt like it in the future. I guess I shouldn't get greedy like that with a $400 budget, though. | |
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drew
Reformation
Premium
join:2002-07-10
Port Orchard, WA
clubs: | Re: Ideal WoW PC - $400 Budget I actually have gotten less-than-impressive results with my new rig (5400+ 2GB RAM 8600GTS) at my resolution. Turned the multisampling down to 2x and I get a solid 40fps when looking over a LOT of terrain. and usually at least 20fps in shat. | |
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| | | | | Bes
join:2006-01-24
Canada | Re: Ideal WoW PC - $400 Budget Heh. Honestly, if my new setup can run at 1280x1024 flawlessly while running through Shattrath, then I think I should be OK. | |
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drew
Reformation
Premium
join:2002-07-10
Port Orchard, WA
clubs: | Re: Ideal WoW PC - $400 Budget Can't say flawlessly. a lot of that is dependent on the amount of people in shat. | |
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| | | | | | | Bes
join:2006-01-24
Canada
1 edit | Re: Ideal WoW PC - $400 Budget Drew:
True enough. Them and all those guards and recruits in the middle circle area. It's a real killer for anyone with a less-than-decent PC, and it really sucks for them, too, because the flight master is right around there.
Chaud:
So far, I think I'm set on purchasing these two things here:
Processor:
»www.directcanada.com/products/?s···00BD3219
Motherboard:
»www.directcanada.com/products/?s···30BD1399
I'm stuck figuring out what video card to get. I can't seem to find anything really decent for under $200.
Any recommendations? Keep in mind, though, that I still haven't looked at any power supplies, and I'm not really set on RAM, yet.
Oh, and one more thing. Apparently Direct Canada has free shipping for any orders over $300 and are less than 100 lbs. So, I'm also trying to keep within that range. | |
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drew
Reformation
Premium
join:2002-07-10
Port Orchard, WA
clubs: | what resolution are you going to be running it at? | |
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chaud
Serious Business
join:2004-07-09
Anderson, SC | Are you planning an overclock for that CPU?
If so make sure to get some decent cooling.
You also may want to get a slightly more higher end card | |
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SKYHN
Lu.. Lu.. Lulululu
Premium
join:2001-09-16
99999 | I would bump the CPU up a lil bit.
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Do you douche with coconut juice? | |
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| Bes
join:2006-01-24
Canada | Re: Ideal WoW PC - $400 Budget I guess instead of the E2160, I could get the E2180.
Would you happen to have a CPU in mind? Honestly, I'm jumping into this blindly. I've never actually built a PC myself before. I have almost zero experience in buying parts. | |
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drew
Reformation
Premium
join:2002-07-10
Port Orchard, WA
clubs: | Re: Ideal WoW PC - $400 Budget I prefer AMD, but that's another debate altogether. | |
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| | | Bes
join:2006-01-24
Canada
3 edits | Re: Ideal WoW PC - $400 Budget A very good friend of mine has had a lot of trouble with AMD, and actually suggested that I go Intel. So I probably will do just that, unless someone has any reason why AMD would be better?
I know it's asking a lot out of you guys to look around for cheap parts for me, but I would really appreciate it if you guys would throw out suggestions for any processor, motherboard, video cards, RAM, and power supplies if you know of any really good ones for very cheap. It's only for WoW, after all, so I don't think I'll need anything top-of-the-line.
The only things I have in mind are the processor and motherboard I mentioned in one of my previous posts above. Now all I need is a decent enough video card, two gigs of RAM, and a power supply. Any help is appreciated!
What do you guys think of this video card here:
»www.directcanada.com/products/?s···80BD5144
More details:
»www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/···sNSUvw.w | |
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| | | | Sithra
join:2008-02-07 | Re: Ideal WoW PC - $400 Budget For what it's worth, I use an E6750 OC'd to 3.2ghz, 2gb of RAM at 4-4-4-12 and an old G80 8800GTS and I get 302fps when I look at the sky and a minimum 80fps during raids.
Running at 1440x900 with everything on max. | |
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| | | | | Bes
join:2006-01-24
Canada
| Re: Ideal WoW PC - $400 Budget That sounds pretty sweet. Although, an E6750 and 8800GTS is a bit steep for my budget, at the moment.
Apparently I can OC the E2160 pretty high. People say it runs nicely at 3.0ghz. The only problem is, I don't have any experience OC'ing. I'm willing to learn how, though, and that's exactly what I plan to do with my E2160 when I get it. | |
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Dissembled
join:2008-01-23
Indianapolis, IN
| If you're interested in saving $20 on your video card:
»www.pricewatch.com/video_cards/g···8600.htm
I have a 3700+, 2GB RAM, and a two year old 7800GT. I run WoW "flawlessly". The only time I ever slow down is during lag and not because of my hardware.
FYI, I play at 1680x1050 with all sliders at full and a good majority of eye candy stuff enabled. | |
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| Bes
join:2006-01-24
Canada
| Re: Ideal WoW PC - $400 Budget Thanks for the link, I'll look more into that before I actually purchase anything.
Yeah, no one can do anything about lag generated by Blizzard or your own ISP. I'm not too worried about that, though.
Shatter:
Wow, that's a pretty expensive processor. Sounds like a very nice rig, though.
SixOfNine:
Your rig also sounds nice, but also pretty expensive.
Someone else also mentioned that WoW is more CPU and RAM dependent, and if you guys are right, I wonder, am I heading in the wrong direction with the Intel Dual Core E2160? Even if I OC'd it to a decent level--somewhere around 2.5-3.0ghz--would it be any good for WoW? I'm also planning on buying 2x1GB RAM sticks.
Oh, speaking of RAM, I was wondering, if I bought a GFX card that is DDR3, would I need to buy DDR3 RAM? Or how does that even work, exactly? I'm confused about all this DDR stuff. What are the differences? | |
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| | Bes
join:2006-01-24
Canada
| Re: Ideal WoW PC - $400 Budget Anywho, here's what I'm thinking:
What do you guys think? With tax, that total becomes $383.51, and shipping is free.
I'm not 100% sure on compatibility, though. Does anyone spot anything that would not fit? | |
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drew
Reformation
Premium
join:2002-07-10
Port Orchard, WA
clubs: | Re: Ideal WoW PC - $400 Budget I'm convinced you could get a better processor, mobo and video card for that, but I don't know if the CA -> US rate is messing with me. | |
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chaud
Serious Business
join:2004-07-09
Anderson, SC
 ·Charter VOIP
·Packet8
| Re: Ideal WoW PC - $400 Budget 360 Canadian dollars = 352.90656 U.S. dollars
Still, they pay a LOT more for some components just looking at newegg and then at that site.
I have no idea about Intel CPUs, I know C2D are nice, but more expensive. They are supposedly better for overclocking than same gen AMD CPUs, by mine works fine, and I paid ~$110 for a decent mobo + amd x2 3600 brisbane, and from 1.8 stock it is running fine at 2.6. If I were more confident about temps, considering Brisbane temp sensors don't work, I would go higher. It booted at 2.9 but wasn't stable because I didn't want to up the voltage. | |
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| | Sithra
join:2008-02-07
| said by Bes  :Oh, speaking of RAM, I was wondering, if I bought a GFX card that is DDR3, would I need to buy DDR3 RAM? No | |
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| | | Bes
join:2006-01-24
Canada | Re: Ideal WoW PC - $400 Budget Sithra:
OK, good to know.
Vathral:
So you've had some really good experiences with Intel and Nvidia combos?
You're using a GeForce 8800GT right now? What's your processor? | |
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Vathral
Premium
join:2002-08-26
New York, NY
clubs:
·Earthlink Cable Mo..
| Re: Ideal WoW PC - $400 Budget said by Bes :Sithra: OK, good to know. Vathral: So you've had some really good experiences with Intel and Nvidia combos? You're using a GeForce 8800GT right now? What's your processor? Intel e6600
Used to have AMD back in the P4 days and it was awesome. Now I feel Intel has the crown for a decent premium.
I'm at the point where I wont be upgrading anymore and buy a whole new setup altogher.
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Anime / F@H | |
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| | | | | Tehuno
join:2005-01-18
Bartlesville, OK
| Re: Ideal WoW PC - $400 Budget Bes: I just built my new system using a e2180, and must say i love it. It easily overclocked to 3.0( 9x333), and i run 2GB of 1066 ram with it, and get 85 fps full time(ati hd3870 video card)
For the price you just cant beat that processor.
In all honesty is dosent matter if you get the e2160 or 2180, the only diffence is the multiplier it comes from the factory with, the e2180 comes at 200x10, the e2160 comes at 9x200. Since the multiplier on these chips is unlocked, there is literally no difference in the chips. you can overclock the e2160 to 9x333 for 3.0 Ghz and be good to go.
For a budget system, intel > amd, go with the 2160 and you will be happy for the price. | |
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SixOfNine
Brake In A Ladylike Manner.
Premium
join:2001-08-30
Sterling, VA | Those of you getting a kazillion fps at max settings: how about during the trash waves in Mount Hyjal? I've had to turn a couple of things down to squeeze out more fps during that encounter.
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Verizon FIOS | |
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drew
Reformation
Premium
join:2002-07-10
Port Orchard, WA
clubs: | Re: Ideal WoW PC - $400 Budget never stepped foot in: SSC, MH, or BT.
So, dunno. | |
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| | Bes
join:2006-01-24
Canada
| Re: Ideal WoW PC - $400 Budget I'm a bit discouraged to hear that some of you with top-of-the-line stuff, or things a lot better than what I have planned to buy, are having trouble in some parts of the game. I'm beginning to believe that what I was thinking of buying won't be good enough.
I'm gonna go back to square one, and think about this some more. Maybe you guys can help me decide:
Intel or AMD?
Nvidia or Radeon?
I don't want to turn this into a brand war, or anything like that, but some people say AMD is better for gaming, and some say Intel is better for gaming. My quest to find a really good system for under $400 has turned into a big headache.
I just want a really fast machine that will run WoW almost flawlessly with a very decent overall FPS, and look wonderful. All for under $400. It's not going to be easy, I know, but I really believe I can do it...with some help. | |
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SixOfNine
Brake In A Ladylike Manner.
Premium
join:2001-08-30
Sterling, VA
 ·Verizon FIOS
| said by Vathral :said by SixOfNine :Those of you getting a kazillion fps at max settings: how about during the trash waves in Mount Hyjal? I've had to turn a couple of things down to squeeze out more fps during that encounter. Max settings, 1680x1050, 8800GT card and I get 45fps in the middle of the waves in Hyjal. I love BT though, get atleast 65fps during trash. RoS rapes my fps to ~20 for some odd reason. Not even all the spell effects from P2 of illidan does that. Think I'll try to squeeze some more life out of this socket 939 and upgrade the CPU.
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Verizon FIOS | |
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| | | Murrain
Premium
join:2002-12-11
Riverside, RI
| Re: Ideal WoW PC - $400 Budget quote:
Think I'll try to squeeze some more life out of this socket 939 and upgrade the CPU.
I did this as well, I upgraded from an AMD Athlon 64 3800+ to an Opteron 175 Dual Core and went from a 7800gt to an EVGA 8800gt Superclocked.
For my tight budget this was best way to bump my old rig up a little...bought both at Newegg (can't say enough good things about this site...I always ship ground and I always get shipments next day).
Anyways...here is linky for Opteron 175:
»www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a···19103584
You can get a 170 for $99 and you can pick up a 180 OEM (not retail) for $129 at NewEgg as well (When I bought my 175 the 180 was not in stock).
I have an Asus A8N-SLI mobo with bios version ~13. I Was told that as long as this mobo has bios version 13 and higher there is no need to upgrade bios to recognize the dual-core CPU. I installed the Opteron and it was recognized without a problem.
Hope this helps  | |
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Shatter
join:2006-07-24
Waterford, MI | I have a core 2 duo with E6850 processor, 2 gigs 800mhz ram and 8800GTS with all settings maxed. On Hyjal trash I get maybe 40-50FPS without any overlclock even when I stand in the middle, on average im around 120-150fps without vert sync locked. | |
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SixOfNine
Brake In A Ladylike Manner.
Premium
join:2001-08-30
Sterling, VA
·Verizon FIOS
| Re: Ideal WoW PC - $400 Budget Hmmm, here's the core of my rig:
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 2.0 GHz Socket 939 (bought Feb 2006)
- 2GB OCZ Platinum SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200 -- bought Feb 2006)
- EVGA 640-P2-N821-AR GeForce 8800GTS 640MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card (bought April 2007)
As I said, I had some fps issues in Hyjal. Some of it might have been related to post-patch add-ons (casts a suspicious eye at Omen) and some of it might have been add-on spam, which I cut down on, mostly by raising the minimum amounts that SCT reports.
I've read that WoW places more of a workload on the CPU and RAM than it does on the video card, so maybe I'll find a newer, more powerful socket 939 CPU, but any suggestions are certainly welcome.
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Verizon FIOS | |
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Greydoom
join:2008-04-01
Kitchener, ON
| Trying to get a more powerful 939 chip will cost you more than getting a new chip and board nowadays, i have a 2.4 Ghz in our kids comp and i thought it had failed the other day... I checked for CPU prices and i did find that locally it would be cheaper to buy an Athalon 64X2 chip (2.5 Ghz) and Mobo (under $200 for the combo) for the price of just a 939 chip (which i would have had to special order...)
My 0.02 but we have some awesome computer stores in Ontario... | |
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SixOfNine
Brake In A Ladylike Manner.
Premium
join:2001-08-30
Sterling, VA
·Verizon FIOS
| Re: Ideal WoW PC - $400 Budget said by Greydoom :Trying to get a more powerful 939 chip will cost you more than getting a new chip and board nowadays, i have a 2.4 Ghz in our kids comp and i thought it had failed the other day... I checked for CPU prices and i did find that locally it would be cheaper to buy an Athalon 64X2 chip (2.5 Ghz) and Mobo (under $200 for the combo) for the price of just a 939 chip (which i would have had to special order...) Good point -- thanks. I actually got a free xfx mobo with that video card.
I have an awesome computer store here in Virginia: newegg.com. 
In any case I paid more for my 2.0 GHz AMD two+ years ago than I would have to for any of these.
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Verizon FIOS | |
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| | Greydoom
join:2008-04-01
Kitchener, ON
| Re: Ideal WoW PC - $400 Budget Yeah pretty sad... i built my LANbox system from scratch about 6 months ago and cost me about $1000... then my wife wanted the same thing, so i got the money together about 3 months ago and built almost the exact same thing (a little better since some of my parts were already obsolete  ) and ran me about $550... i wasn't impressed, but knew that was how it was going to work. LOL! | |
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Greydoom
join:2008-04-01
Kitchener, ON
| Ok i've always been an AMD fan, but with the recent developments that Intel have been going through, i have to admit that they are making a better CPU these days. If you are into overclocking, and want to save some cash, the AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000 black edition is probably the way to go. (i have this in my comp at home now, what a dream CPU) It's runninga about $110 now, and it's stock at 2.6 Ghz, but i have it OC'd up to 3.2 Ghz, and it is still running at about 29 degree's C, with no voltage increase (and is as solid as a rock, no crashes no hangs). Mind you i have a Blue Orb cooler on it (only decent cooler that would fit in my LANbox.) I am running 2 sticks of 667Mhz 1 gig ram in dual channel mode. Humm what else, Vid card is an older 8600 GTS OC, and i never have any FPS issues.. the slowest i have got is about 40 FPS in the center area of shat with all the people milling around the gate to the sunwell area. I have 1 TB of hard drive space between 2 drives, not that that will affect performance all that much. | |
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Leathal
Premium
join:2002-02-09
Toronto, ON | This machine will be out of date when the expansion comes out as it's minimum requirements require more CPU, video performance, and RAM then you are looking to get for $400.
Leathal | |
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| Bes
join:2006-01-24
Canada
| Re: Ideal WoW PC - $400 Budget 
Tehuno:
I was hoping I wouldn't need to OC my RAM and video card, as I would probably need to invest in a more expensive power supply if I did. Heck, I'll give WoW a try with the new PC before I even OC the processor, and see how things go. But eventually I'll most likely end up OC'ing it.
I did some browsing around for this RAM here: »www.directcanada.com/products/?s···20BD3804, and I hear nothing but very good things about it. It's strong, fast, reliable, comes with cool-looking heat spreaders, good for overclockers, inexpensive, etc.
The power supply is still the one I'm having the most trouble with. I'm not very good with those WATT calculators, as most of it confuses me. So, I don't know if 350-400W PSU's will suffice, or if I should go with sometime higher like 450-600W, and the higher ones prove to be the most expensive. I could use some serious help finding a good, inexpensive PSU.
Just to sum up, I think I'm pretty much set on getting the Intel Pentium Dual Core E2160 processor, the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L motherboard, and the XFX GeForce 8600GT 540MHZ 256MB 1.4GHZ video card, as it seems to be the most decent card for my budget. | |
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| | Tehuno
join:2005-01-18
Bartlesville, OK
| Re: Ideal WoW PC - $400 Budget i also used the ga-p35-ds3l, and im very happy with it.
here is what i used for my power supply:
»www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a···17371007
it was only 59.99 when i bought it, so its gone up=/. I would definately recommend a 500W supply. You may not need every bit of its power now, but if you ever add cooling so you can overclock, 2nd hard drive, etc, youll need the 500W.
If you cant find a comparable one at your canadian dealer, try and find any antec 500w thats within your budget. | |
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chaud
Serious Business
join:2004-07-09
Anderson, SC | I bumped my ram up slightly with my OC, but never have touched my video card.
500W+ on power supply sounds reasonable to me. | |
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TOPDAWG
Premium
join:2005-04-27
Midland, ON
·TekSavvy Solutions..
| If you want to spend less and get a nice PC you can always go refurbished. I got my wife a Gateway one from tiger direct. I just upgraded the PSU added memory it came with a 1 gig I added 2 more and added a graphics card.
It came with vista premium to if you care about that type of thing. Specs are close to this one I got her.
»www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/···tId=2650
Not a bad deal if you just want to fire the PC up without doing much work. Also being as vista is forking over $100 I want ahead and got the gateway. I could build her a PC but I need to learn vista cause I'm in school as a net tech so I got to learn vista like it or not. So by the time you count the parts and getting vista it was cheaper to get a refurbished PC then build a new PC. | |
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