i5 chip good enough for wow/eve?

colinuk

colinuk

colinuk

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After my recent, shall we say, unsatisfactory experiance with a i7 chip set pre build, i am looking for a local shop to sell me one incase it goes wrong, or, doesnt work when it comes out the box.

But, do i need an i7 chip for games like Wow, EVE, maybe MW2 ect.

Or would the i5 do the job? Most machines ive seen are 6 gig, with 220 or 230 graphic cards, with windows 7 installed. just the chip changes.

Not getting my fingers burnt twice with shipping fees for a pc that is faulty, but would like some advice on what to look for when buying prebuilts.

Thanks for any info.

ColiN
 
i7 gives no real improvement for gaming. i5 would be perfectly suited. Games tend to be more about GPUs these days anyway.
 
i5 it shall be then i guess. what about graphics, tried the 5870 and it was very good, but are the nvidia as good? would the 220 or the 230 be enough for games too?

TYIA

Colin
 
The graphics cards you mentioned in the pre-built systems are not really gaming cards, which is a bit of an oversight if your spending a fair bit on a PC to play games.

As above i5, or even i3 or s775 is fine - just make sure the graphics horsepower is there.

I would say i5 is the way to go.
 
colinuk said:
i5 it shall be then i guess. what about graphics, tried the 5870 and it was very good, but are the nvidia as good? would the 220 or the 230 be enough for games too?

TYIA

Colin
Click to expand...

Prices and availability for GPUs is pretty ad at the moment, Nvidias new range is yet to be released and ATI suppliers are taking maximum mickey with prices.

If by 220 and 230 (GTX nividia cards) then no, thet are not what I would class as a card you should be looking at for a gaming PC.
Nvidias current line up is about to become out of date do to imminent release of a new line, but Nvidias current gaming line up is basicly:

GTX260
GTX280
GTX285
GTX295

NOT really worth buying at the mo as your paying premium prices for a product that will be replaced very shortly.
 
To answer your original question, the i5 is plenty good enough to run EVE and WoW, my old AMD dual core and 9800GT are running both fine - EVE everything maxed and runs flawlessly, WoW has a couple of settings down but still runs pretty well.

You'd need a better GPU than the 220 or 230 however, any ATI 4xxx series would be fine or the GTX260. If you're looking for the machine to last you quite a while then it would be advisable to buy into a HD58xx ATI card or wait for the long-awaited Fermi to be released and see prices (hopefully) drop.
 
ok, will carry on using this laptop, works ok, just not great on the graphics end.

Lost a lot of money shipping back a faulty PC, so making sure this time it works out better for me.

260 card or above...hmmm, dont think they had that unless i went i7. will check again tomorrow see what else the have in stock.

Thanks for the advice.

Colin
 
colinuk said:
ok, will carry on using this laptop, works ok, just not great on the graphics end.

Lost a lot of money shipping back a faulty PC, so making sure this time it works out better for me.

260 card or above...hmmm, dont think they had that unless i went i7. will check again tomorrow see what else the have in stock.

Thanks for the advice.

Colin
Click to expand...

If it's a smallish company and not some national chain retailer then it's always worth inquiring if they can up the graphics card for you or leave it out and discount it by the value of the card ;) That way you are getting the best of both worlds :)
 
i use a gt 220 for eve and wow, i can run eve maxed out but i change it to optimal preformance when i go into battles, pretty much the same with wow, i can run it max and just turn it down in the evenings when it gets busy.
 
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