Ability to run WoW?

[mDZ]

Evenin' everyone!

Yeah, I'm a bit behind the wagon in regards to purchasing WoW, but I saw it at Future Shop for just $13.99 today and I couldn't say no. Starcraft is still great, Diablo II is dying, and Warcraft III is really all about DoTA for me. Being a Blizzard Junky like many, I need to continue supporting and playing their games. Currently, my only other options are WoW or The Lost Vikings..

I chose the obvious.

We've recently purchased a computer for roughly $1300 with a 20.5 inch 2000:1 LCD screen, and the other stats are as following:

http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/5665/ararararaakr8.png

To be quite frank with you all; I want my WoW to run smooth. A small amount of lag here and there is fine, but I want it to be minuscule. I want to be lag-free so I do not die during PvP, during raids, or during battle. I get extremely aggravated during lag-spikes which discourages me from playing. Since I will be paying monthy, I do not want to get discouraged.

I am not going to able to pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars for a new video card and/or RAM-Stick, but rather I will buy the most efficient piece of hardware for the most reasonable price if I do not find an obvious decision..

However, this is where I need help. I'm not that great when discussing graphics cards and the like, so I basically need to know what needs to be done so I can enjoy my WoW experience to its fullest potential.

What upgrades need to be made? What is lacking in my computer?

Thanks,
MDZ.

[Kalos]

There's no information on your graphics card there. We need to know it. The Core 2 Duo series however, is the most advanced and highest performing series on the market bar none; and you have a full gig of ram. It's a pretty good computer, better than many users, including myself. One last thing needs to be known, the current graphics solution.

Do you have a PCI-E slot available? Google and download CPU-Z, that shall be able to tell you. As for the graphics card, that can be located in your computer's Display properties, in Control Panel; double click the Display icon, move to the Settings tab, press the Advanced button, go to the Adapater tab, and this should have the information about your current graphics provision.

When we know A. What is it right now and B. If you have a PCI-E slot: We can say if you do need a new graphics card, and recommend one if need be. Even if you do, you shouldn't need to spend any more than $120 maximum on a fairly powerful 7600 GT, that shall be able to cope ably with WoW on full settings without any hiccups.

[mDZ]

There's no information on your graphics card there. We need to know it. The Core 2 Duo series however, is the most advanced and highest performing series on the market bar none; and you have a full gig of ram. It's a pretty good computer, better than many users, including myself. One last thing needs to be known, the current graphics solution.

Do you have a PCI-E slot available? Google and download CPU-Z, that shall be able to tell you. As for the graphics card, that can be located in your computer's Display properties, in Control Panel; double click the Display icon, move to the Settings tab, press the Advanced button, go to the Adapater tab, and this should have the information about your current graphics provision.

When we know A. What is it right now and B. If you have a PCI-E slot: We can say if you do need a new graphics card, and recommend one if need be. Even if you do, you shouldn't need to spend any more than $120 maximum on a fairly powerful 7600 GT, that shall be able to cope ably with WoW on full settings without any hiccups.

$120 is great! That's about what I'm looking for as my Mother agreed to spend around $350 on upgrades for our computer; one is going into a new Sound System which I expect to be around $90, and if I can, possibly even more RAM. However, a Graphics Card for that price would be great!

Currently I'm not at my home computer, but I will call up my sister and edit the information into the post shortly. Mind if I PM you to update you when that happens? I notice you help people a lot in this forum :P

[Kalos]

Well, from your PM. There's no graphical expansion ports, you're currently utilising onboard graphics, which aren't famed for quality or good with coping with demand.

Unless you're prepared to take on a complex operation of choosing a new motherboard with suitable expansion slots, which would require a wiping of the hard drive to be installed, and reinstalling Windows XP from the ground up, PCI graphics cards aren't going to help.

It's a real shame manufacturers use top grade parts, medium qualities of ram, then go for the absolute cheapest mobo they can find with everything stripped down to the bare minimum. I mean, what use is a Core 2 Duo with intergrated graphics to a user?

I could point you in the way of some PCI graphics cards, which should do the trick for WoW, but if you have $300 to play with, the motherboard can be switched and a much higher quality card with more modern designs put into the computer. It'll be more of a journey though, and you'd have to be more careful, especially if you haven't worked inside a computer before. If you don't know how to handle it, you could damage parts or find yourself unable to overcome an issue.

If the mobo replacement comes about, make sure to first find a good guide or two on component assembly and reinstallation of the critical software on the net, and print it off. Don't rely on memory for it, else you may forget a highly important step.

Not so long ago, I almost fried a motherboard, before I checked something simple. The pin arrangement on the case, one wasn't over a fastening on the motherboard but directly touching the silicon peice. If I had tried to power it up then, I probably would have either blown the fuses or destroyed the motherboard, or both. The simplest things are perhaps the most deadly.