Tehuno
join:2005-01-18
Bartlesville, OK
| reply to Vathral
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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Leathal
Premium
join:2002-02-09
Toronto, ON | reply to Bes
This machine will be out of date when the expansion comes out as it's minimum requirements require more CPU, video performance, and RAM then you are looking to get for $400.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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drew
Reformation
Premium
join:2002-07-10
Port Orchard, WA
clubs: | And where do you happen to be getting that information from? |
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Raptor
Not a Dumptruck
join:2001-10-21
London, ON
 ·Rogers Hi-Speed
 ·Bell Sympatico
| reply to Leathal
That doesn't seem like it would be a very good thing to do to your customer base - force upgrade a number of your users. Granted, the current game already has fairly low specs for todays day and age, but still.
--
....where's my fiber? |
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chaud
Serious Business
join:2004-07-09
Anderson, SC
 ·Charter VOIP
·Packet8
| reply to Leathal
said by Leathal  :This machine will be out of date when the expansion comes out as it's minimum requirements require more CPU, video performance, and RAM then you are looking to get for $400.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 »forums.worldofwarcraft.com/threa···sid=1#22 |
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Bes
join:2006-01-24
Canada
1 edit | Tehuno:
Thanks. I was still feeling very iffy about getting the E2160, but I think you've convinced me that it will be worth the money.
Leathal and Chaud:
"The Expansion is not going to require users to upgrade to Vista. We have some things in the works on the end of graphics, but it's not anything that is going to require this specific upgrade."
- Posted by someone from the Blizzard Team on page 12, post number 235.
As for the "We have some things in works on the end of graphics" part, I don't think they'd pump the graphics too high that everyone would require anything much more than what they have in their System Requirements page. Blizzard has always made sure to make their games available to almost everyone, and that includes budget-PC-building people like me. 
I'm also not seeing where Leathal learned the expansion would require more CPU, video performance, and RAM... |
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chaud
Serious Business
join:2004-07-09
Anderson, SC | Yeah, I was referring to that post as I doubt the sys requirements will go up much. |
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Bes
join:2006-01-24
Canada
| Ah, sorry, I thought you were supporting Leathal's claim.
Anyway, I was able to find some cheaper RAM, and brought down the overall cost of things by a few dollars. Not much, but the lower I can go under $400 the better.
This RAM here:
»www.directcanada.com/products/?s···80BD5443
So, I seem to be having a lot more trouble finding a decent, inexpensive PSU. I did some more research on PSU's, and I found out the lower the price, the crappier the PSU will be. I thought it was too good to be true that I found a couple 500-550W PSU's for under $45...
Here's what I have in mind:
»www.directcanada.com/products/?s···10AC8136
I read some good things about Enermax, so I thought this PSU would be just fine, and 420W should be alright to power everything up properly, right? The manual fan control sounds kinda cool, too. |
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Tehuno
join:2005-01-18
Bartlesville, OK
| #1, dont use 667 Mhz ram, use 800 Mhz at least. 1066 Mhz if you are overclocking, if not the 800 will work fine.
check this out, $28 after rebate:
»www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a···20145590
If you are gonna spend ~$50 on a PSU, look for a comparably priced antec. They are the best for the price IMO. |
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Bes
join:2006-01-24
Canada
| reply to Bes
said by Murrain : 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···19103584You 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  Ah, sorry, I must have missed your post.
Were those suggestions for me? I heard some bad things about Opterons, something about them being as bad as Celerons? It's a little too expensive, anyhow. At least now that I'm having trouble with finding an inexpensive PSU and video card. |
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Bes
join:2006-01-24
Canada
| reply to Tehuno
Tehuno:
You mean if I'm planning on overclocking the RAM, or overclocking anything in general? I'm planning to overclock the processor, that's for sure, and perhaps whatever video card I decide to get.
Also, are the prices on Newegg in USD? They might be a little pricey in CAD. |
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chaud
Serious Business
join:2004-07-09
Anderson, SC | Newegg is USD, yes. Don't use that RAM you linked at all. It it too slow. |
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Bes
join:2006-01-24
Canada
| reply to Tehuno
That pair of RAM gets a bit pricey in Canadian dollars.
What do you think of either of these:
»www.directcanada.com/products/?s···ture=OCZ
»www.directcanada.com/products/?s···=PATRIOT
I hear OCZ is a good brand, as well as Patriot. Although, and I'm not 100% sure, I don't think the Patriots come with heat spreaders. Is that a big deal? |
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chaud
Serious Business
join:2004-07-09
Anderson, SC | OCZ was good when my power supply was dying, I had a few months left on warranty and send the 450w back to receive a beast 850W one back as an apology for taking some time. I can vouch for their support at least.
Those sticks are decent. |
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Bes
join:2006-01-24
Canada
1 edit | Well, that's good to hear. I was originally thinking of buying the OCZ RAM, but if those Patriots will do the same job, I could go for those because they're a little bit cheaper. But then again, I'm back to wondering if heat spreaders are a big deal or not.
This isn't really relevant to this specific post of mine, but instead of creating a new post, I'll just add it here:
Kinda funny. I decided to take some of your guys' advice and check out Newegg.com. I gathered up all the items into my cart, did the calculations, and to my surprise, the total cost in CAD was a lot cheaper than DirectCanada.com. Now, the bad news is, they don't deliver to Ontario Canada. I was very disappointed. |
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maickool
join:2008-04-05 | reply to Bes
yoyo
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maickool
join:2008-04-05 | reply to Bes
Re: Ideal WoW PC - $400 Budget
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Tehuno
join:2005-01-18
Bartlesville, OK
| reply to Bes
said by Bes :Tehuno: You mean if I'm planning on overclocking the RAM, or overclocking anything in general? I'm planning to overclock the processor, that's for sure, and perhaps whatever video card I decide to get. Also, are the prices on Newegg in USD? They might be a little pricey in CAD. if youre overclocking in general go with faster ram. Dont overclock your ram or video card if you dont need to, just by oc'ing the processor youll see a huge difference in performance, especially if youre upgrading from an outdated system like i did.
Both the ocz and patriot are good choices from what ive read, most pc parts are a crapshoot imo as to whether they are any good or not, all depends if you get crap from the factory.
hopefully you can get around the shipping thing, thats just dumb imo, its not like canada isnt like right there lol. |
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Bes
join:2006-01-24
Canada
| reply to maickool
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
| 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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