Building a machine for WoW

[Zoroaster]

I'm hoping to ask for some advice toward building a new machine for Cataclysm. I've spent quite some time gathering information about the specific sensitivities of the game, but i'm still unsure how far to go when selecting certain components. I'm prepared to drop £1000-£1500 on the upgrades, but don't really want to spend money on gfx/cpu power that I wont ever use.

I've already got a 24"BenQ screen, SteelSeries7g keyb and Razr Deathadder. I'll be replacing the rest of my system. I also want an SSD for OS + WoW (+SC2).

My initial thought was to go for something like the Titan Onyx (i7 930 @ 4ghx) with the GTX 480.

But I've been advised that the GTX480 will probably give me no better performance than a GTX460 while under stress (raiding). It has also been suggested to me that I may not see a performance reduction if I chose an i5 750 @ 4ghz ... or even an i3 540 @ 4.2ghz. Some review websites have benchmarks in WoW, but mostly just using a flightpath, and are unlikely to be representative of AOEing 50 whelps on ONY25 with full spell effects (very CPU intensive).

There is obviously a massive price difference between an i7 + gtx 480, and in i3 + gtx 460.

What should I do troops?

I'm very computer literate, and capable of putting the system together myself if needed. Although the OCUK prebuilt systems seem great value for money, so I'm keen to look at getting one of those.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated ... thanks for your time.

 

[Zoroaster]

£1500 for a PC that plays WoW...

I said I'm prepared to spend up to that. That's why I'm asking for advice. The game is much more demanding that people give it credit for.

I raid a lot, and spend a lot of time playing the game. I'd like to enjoy it at full settings and still be running at 40+ fps in ICC25 HC. At the moment I run with everything on minimum settings @ about 20fps in icc25. Keep in mind Cata will bring texture updates and extra DX11 support.

I'm in a pretty good raiding team and also hope to be frapsing at max settings with excellent frame rate.

 

[Zoroaster]

An i3 and a GTX 460 will make a brilliant gaming system.

If Wow and SC2 are going to be your primary games then a i7 and a 480 are not really needed but you will be future proof for other top graphical games.

If i was in your shoes and i was buying/building a PC for Wow and SC2 then i would defiantly get a i3 and a GTX 460 1GB

The 460 is a brilliant card and when overclocked to 800mhz + you are knocking on the door of the 5850 and GTX 470

I play Wow on a i3 with my laptop and it runs it fine

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-237-OK

Thanks for your reply.

I notice in your sig that you have an i7+480, as well as your i3 laptop. What sort of performance difference do you notice between the two?

Would I be able to run an i3 overclocked with gtx460, and have max settings in ICC25, at top frame rates?

 

[Zoroaster]

Often you will find those joking about how wow will work on a pocket calculator have not actually played wow since about 3 years ago.

With the expansions the requirements to actually run full detail have steadily climbed. Cpu power however is the most important factor right now, and any gfx card above a 8800gt will be fine.

I see lots of people say things like this, but then I see benchmark charts like the one below

http://i38.tinypic.com/vpdifa.png

GTX480 seems to give almost three times the frame rate as an 8800gtx. This is on a set flight path, for testing consistency. I dont know how these numbers translate into a raid scenario though.

There seems to be so much conflicting information out there. I really appreciate all the posts in this thread so far ... lots of great advice.

 

[Zoroaster]

Thanks everyone for all the great advice. I ordered my machine this afternoon.

The performance gained from the extra L3 made forced me to drop the idea of an i3 for WoW (even though I'm sure it would have been perfectly acceptable). In benchmarks the i7 didn't seem to outperform the i5 at matching ghz, and as I will almost solely play WoW on this machine, I have gone for the Titan Exodus ( i5 760 2.80GHz @ 4.00GHz). A helpful lad over the phone allowed me to order it with the MSI GTX460 1GB for a small extra fee. The MSI card seems a great choice given noise levels, and it has the ability to push the clock up to 800+mhz. I leave open the door to an SLI upgrade, should Cata show increased performance with it.

I also went for a c300 128mb SSD, which should *hopefully* get a good reaction from the SATAIII mboard support.

Hope I haven't made any mistakes

Thanks again.

Z

 

[Zoroaster]

seriously? :/ a pc for WoW? just how addicted are u? do you buy a fricking dish for pizza? :/

Me and 10 million others play it regularly, I'm sorry if that is not OK with you.

WoW is the only taxing application I use, so I think I'm right in designing my computer to play it well. I really appreciate the friendly advice I was given here too.

Any knife can cut meat if you press hard enough, but if all you eat is steak, go buy a steak knife.