New Budget PC for Warcraft

Hive

Hive

Hive

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Hi all.

I am currently playing on a dated laptop, giving 5-40 fps in game on minimum settings and am sick of it. I haven't built a PC in many years but am sure I'd be alright with it.

How possible is it to get an OK system with good upgrade potential for £600 that will perform well specifically for this damn game?

Thanks in advance.

PS - mouse, keyboard, monitor and I *think* Windows are outside of this budget.
 
 
I would stick to nVidia as WoW's engine seems to prefer them over AMD. Looking at the spec above you could save a few quid on the case and drop to 8gb RAM in order to afford a 6GB 1060.
 
 
Blimey that was fast. Much appreciated! OK a couple of questions:

1 - Can that mobo handle i5? I've been told to avoid duel core as much as possible.
2 - How necessary is 16gb ram? Is 8gb no longer considered alright? Is it not sufficient for WoW? Can always upgrade to 16 at a later date if needed?
3 - I read about the 480 recently and it seemed to review well. Would I not be better off getting that for only cost a tenner more.

EDIT - this was a reply to post 2 but once i posted it there were already other replies too!
 
Hive said:
Blimey that was fast. Much appreciated! OK a couple of questions:

1 - Can that mobo handle i5? I've been told to avoid duel core as much as possible.
2 - How necessary is 16gb ram? Is 8gb no longer considered alright? Is it not sufficient for WoW? Can always upgrade to 16 at a later date if needed?
3 - I read about the 480 recently and it seemed to review well. Would I not be better off getting that for only cost a tenner more.

EDIT - this was a reply to post 2 but once i posted it there were already other replies too!
Click to expand...

1 - Yes, a H110 board can handle any of the Skylake i5 CPUs (6400, 6500, 6600, 6600k). If you can stretch your budget to an i5 it's worth it in the long run. 6600k is wasted on H110 though as you can't overclock it (also doesn't come with a cooler, so adds cost).

2 - 8GB is fine for WoW. Your problem with a H110 board is you only have 2 ram slots and you need to fill them both for dual channel. So, this reduces your upgrade options. If you plan to get 8GB now and add another 8GB later, you might be better off investing in a H170 or Z170 board with 4 ram slots. However, that's quite a leap in cost.

3 - There's no easy answer to this, the 1060 and RX 480 are pretty close and you'll get better performance from each depending on the game you're playing. In my experience, WoW favours Nvidia cards, so for WoW the 1060 would be the better choice. I'm currently running WoW at 1440p on a GTX 660 and it's very smooth (admittedly I have a 6700k which is helping, but the point is you don't need to go over the top with a GPU for WoW, your CPU is important too, same with most MMOs).

Summary: for WoW go with an i5, 8GB, GTX 1060 (or other Nvidia card, even older ones second hand are fine for WoW).
 
Managed to get an I5 and a 480 in budget - it has 8gb of ram specced - but it is a single stick so when funds allow you can add another if necessary. I would usually recommend the same case bundled with the super flower unit but they are out of stock at the moment.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £601.94
(includes shipping: £0.00)
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WoW doesn't need anything more than an i3, its an old engine which doesn't utilise more than 2 cores well at all. It is much more reliant on high clock speeds, in fact I think the i3-6100 would perform better than the i5-6500 due to the higher frequency.

An i5 will be more 'futureproof' for other games but you definitely don't need it for WoW.

Again, speaking for personal experience stick with NVidia as WoW's engine works better with them.
 
Jonny L said:
Managed to get an I5 and a 480 in budget - it has 8gb of ram specced - but it is a single stick so when funds allow you can add another if necessary. I would usually recommend the same case bundled with the super flower unit but they are out of stock at the moment.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £601.94
(includes shipping: £0.00)
​


​
Click to expand...

To clarify, if I was to go this route, I would still need to buy a CPU cooler/heatsink and thermal paste right? I don't want to make an order to find it isn't actually complete.
 
Hive said:
Nice one cheers. I don't plan on overclocking so I assume they're going to be of sufficient quality!
Click to expand...

The quality is 'reasonable' if you're not overclocking. It'll do the job but, as you'd expect, it won't be the coolest or the quietest. Fan noise seems to be the biggest complaint with the stock coolers. It's not terrible and depends on how quiet the rest of your system is anyway. It's something you can always upgrade at a later stage. Even a low end custom cooler in the £20-£30 range should give better performance and be quieter than stock. But if your budget is tight, that money is better invested elsewhere.
 
Yeah its tight but it is certainly something I could sort out at a later date if it annoyed me. Can at least try the 'free' one first.
 
Hive said:
Yeah its tight but it is certainly something I could sort out at a later date if it annoyed me. Can at least try the 'free' one first.
Click to expand...

Raising the minimum RPM as high as is pleasantly bearable can give good results. Stops it from ramping up and down so much, and eliminates the change in pitch noise with every spike. You can't polish a **** but you can place a bucket over it to stop the smell, in other words. :D
 
Based on some of the recommendations above, I have put together the following list. I have added a WiFi adapter (PC kind of useless without that!) and gone over my budget a tad but please advise whether all of these bits are actually compatible or competitively priced compared to a similar item.

My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £681.80
(includes shipping: £0.00)
​


​
 
I've had a few friends question whether a 500w PSU is sufficient for the above spec. I didn't think any higher was needed as the 1060 is supposed to be very power efficient. Can anyone confirm please? Thanks in advance.
 
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