Opinions on these two PC's for WOW.

[Boneshaker]

Having lag issues in BG's and raids so Im looking at getting something that WORKS all the time. Im using a laptop and wireless network with High speed DSL. Dont know if my troubles could be associated with the wireless connection? Anyway..Opinions on these two;

http://gaming-pc-review.toptenreviews.com/gateway-review.html

http://gaming-pc-review.toptenreviews.com/alienware-review.html

[Kalos]

Having lag issues in BG's and raids so Im looking at getting something that WORKS all the time. Im using a laptop and wireless network with High speed DSL. Dont know if my troubles could be associated with the wireless connection? Anyway..Opinions on these two;

http://gaming-pc-review.toptenreviews.com/gateway-review.html

http://gaming-pc-review.toptenreviews.com/alienware-review.html
They're charging more than three times what the individual components are worth. If you bought the same in individual parts, it'd only come to around $500-600. And the Gateway is pants for the price, an 8600 GS graphics card in a $1000+ machine, with a two and a half year old Q6600 as the 'powerhouse' CPU?

I'd suggest you tell us the spcs of what you have before dashing to overpriced second rate rigs the OEMs are desperate to flog at silly prices. Such as: What is "High Speed DSL"? One of users called thier connection that before, then discovered they only had a 1 meg connection, very 'high speed' indeed.

The laptop specs should be standard inclusion material in themselves, I don't ask for it in the sticky for nothing.

[Boneshaker]

MY current laptop is a dell d810 with pentium M processor. Im at work now so I cant review the actual properties of the pc to list them here. I have also been looking at some reasonably priced "gaming" pc's listed on Ebay. One promissing looking one has the following specs for less that $500.00;

CPU Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Quad-Core 2.4GHz 8MB (G0)
CPU Cooler ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro Socket 775 CPU Cooler
Overclocking ETC Computer Professional OC Service (2.4GHz up to 3.2GHz)
Memory 1 Kingston DDR2 PC2-6400 2GB/800MHz
Memory 2 Kingston DDR2 PC2-6400 2GB/800MHz
Motherboard GIGABYTE GA-G31M-ES2L (Intel G31,SATAII,DDR2,PCI-E)
Hard Drive Western Digital Caviar SE 160GB 7200RPM 8MB SATA II
Optical Drive LG 22X GH22NS30 DVD+/-RW Dual Layer SATA Rewriter (Black)
Video NVIDIA GeForce 9500GT 1GB PCI-E 2.0 DVI-I HDCP HDTV Out
Audio Onboard 6 Channel High Definition Audio
Network Card Onboard Gigabit Network Card
Case GOLDEN FIELD 2872B Stylish Deluxe Black Mid Tower
Power Supply MIOS 500W ATX Dual Fan Power Supply
Warranty 1 Year Parts & 3 Years Labor Warranty


As far as my internet connection goes I know I have high speed DSL thru verizon and its the 2nd tier not the basic package. Thats all I can tell you about that. In your opinion are the above specs. good and all other things being equal will WOW perform well on this pc?

[Khab]

WoW should perform very well on that PC. The video card is a budget gaming card but it should have no issues with WoW as long as the resolution isn't too high. You may need to reduce some video effects to handle more difficult things like 25 man raids.

[Boneshaker]

Thank you for the response. You have raised another question though. How do I reduce video effects in the game? Was unaware that this could be done. Also the above pc is available with vista home premium 64 bit opperating system. I had heard there were some issues running WOW on Vista. Should I request windows XP instead?

Still new at this in lots of ways. :ponder:

[Kalos]

Thank you for the response. You have raised another question though. How do I reduce video effects in the game? Was unaware that this could be done. Also the above pc is available with vista home premium 64 bit opperating system. I had heard there were some issues running WOW on Vista. Should I request windows XP instead?

Still new at this in lots of ways. :ponder:
You reduce the video effects via the menu option located on the main menu ingame, that thing that pops up when you press the escape key, it has many more options on it than just 'Exit game'.

There aren't really any more problems with WoW and Vista than any other OS, just you get the worst performance with Vista. Windows Seven (due out later this year/early next year) and XP kick Vista to the corner in terms of performance. It'll hurt the already less than optimum graphics card. I'd suggest going with Vista, but having the graphics card inside replaced by a tech savvy friend with an 9800 GT or the like, which will more than counterbalance the drag factor and give you an extra kick for about another $100, allowing you to pretty much max WoW out.

[Boneshaker]

Thanks. I was aware that the interface options and a few others were available from that screen in wow. I just was not aware of this particular option. But thanks for pointing that out to me.

I believe the vendor would be willing to install whatever graphic card I want for a price of course. I will ask if I can get the 9800GT card in place of the one advertised.

[elsegundo]

Re: your PC found on Ebay.

everything on that pc is barely minimal.
Q6600 is the lower end of the quad core series.
9500GT sucks. really it does. get a 9600 at the least. a 9800 is better.
800Mhz ram is basic.
7200 RPM HHD is standard.

dont expect this rig to be great. it will be sufficient and will run wow decently. however, you will encounter lag spikes and you will not be able to play at decent (read: medium to high) video qualities well. however, with quad core Q6600, you should have no problems. with 4 gigs of 800mhz ram, you'll have no problems. what i do have issues with is the video card. it sucks. the other issue i have? that they would label this rig a "gaming" rig.

lastly, think of making your PC future-proof, at least for the next several years. i know WoW wont be the only game you will be playing in the future and many of those games have higher requirements than WoW. now, if you plan on keeping this machine for about two years, then upgrading to the i7/DDR3 format, sure, by then the prices would have dropped significantly. however, if you're going to keep this system for, say 4-5 years, you might wanna think about getting the next generation stuff (this generation). but this is all up to you.

[Boneshaker]

Ok, thanks for the feedback. How about the following. Same company about 2 times the cost of the other one ($1,200.00)

CPU Intel Core i7-920 Quad Core 2.66GHz,8MB,4.8GT/s,Tri-Channel
CPU Cooler Intel Core i7 Original Socket 1366 Stock CPU Cooler
Memory 1 Kingston DDR3 PC3-10666 3GB (1GBX3) 1333MHz Kit
Motherboard MSI X58 Platinum (Intel X58,CrossfireX,Tri-Channel DDR3)
Hard Drive 1 Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 SATA II NCQ 500GB 32MB
Optical Drive LG 22X GH22NS30 DVD+/-RW Dual Layer SATA Rewriter (Black)
Video ATI Radeon HD 4550 512MB DDR3 PCI-E 2.0 CrossfireX
Audio Onboard 8 Channel High Definition Audio
Network Card Onboard Dual PCIe Gigabit LAN controller
Case COOLERMASTER Elite 330 Mid Tower
Power Supply PR Tough Power 550W ATX Dual Fan Power Supply
Warranty 1 Year Parts & 3 Years Labor Warranty

[elsegundo]

nope. sorry. the videocard sucks. what company is this?

dont mean to be harsh or anything, just trying to help you buy something you wont regret.

oh and most companies sell i7 machines for a starting price of $1,200 USD, so... you're getting the botton of the line machine for that price.

[Boneshaker]

LOL thanks for the info. just cant seem to find one thats right. :undecided:

This company is on EBAY. Any chance you could recomend a company / web site thats good and fair with their pricing?

[Clavina]

I believe newegg.com is a decent place to buy in the US. EG
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883229060
This is far far superior to the last one you linked and is $170 cheaper.

The cheapest way to get a decent PC is to buy the parts separately and build it yourself or get one of your techie friends/relatives to do it for you. Although buying a "cheaper" PC and then a separate video card upgrade is a good compromise. The main advantage of buying a complete system from a retailer is the warranty you get with it. So you need to weigh up the initial cost against the possible cost/hassle of future repairs. Personally though I have found over the 15+ years of working with PC's the ones I build are vastly more reliable than retail bought systems.

[Boneshaker]

Calv: Thanks for the link. I see this PC runs Vista. I thought that was a WOW no no??
Do you run Vista?

[Kalos]

Calv: Thanks for the link. I see this PC runs Vista. I thought that was a WOW no no??
Do you run Vista?
As I've said before, Vista isn't perticularly bad for WoW as such, certainly not an "absolutely positively never ever let near your system badder than bad sucks-for-WoW peice of scrap of an OS" or such dramatics. It'll do fine on Vista, most of the problems with the OS were either due to weak hardware (which is much more of a no-no than the OS choice) or the early day bugs. Two years of Vista has ironed out a great deal of bugs, I'll say it is reliable enough for a gamer. My personal preference is XP, but I cannot legitimately give a technical reason not to go with Vista anymore, as long as the hardware is up to the task, which it is in the suggested PC.

I don't use Vista on any of my main machines, I've used it on a few other machines, adapting to the differences was niggling, and the first few months of 2007 saw me reinstalling the Pentium 4 rig with Vista on because of driver bugs perminantly wrecking the install, but that hasn't happened in 12 months now. In my personal experience, to put it simply, it isn't a no no.

[elsegundo]

bone, not sure if you wanted something that's "future-proof". the computer Clavina linked will last you a very long time. however, i dont know how much of a tech junkie you are and how much it will bug you two years down the line. also, i've been looking at magazines lately and keep coming across ads for ibuypower.com. check that out. their website is actually quite dynamic and very easy to use. i havent bought a computer from them, but you can also use their site as a tool to configure a system and compare prices.

actually from newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227123
costs you less. i7 with ddr3, less ram and smaller power supply. but i think this will do you good for the next several years. only think you might wanna upgrade in the future, if you so choose, would be more ram and a better videocard.

[Boneshaker]

Thank you all for your input. I value it greatly!

[Boneshaker]

Well I ordered the one from El's last post so we shall see. The website was not very user friendly. Hope that is not a bad sign?? Also there is no phone number to call to ask questions to. Didnt like that much. They did reply to my email questions about XP instead of Vista and they told me no. It comes with Vista and XP is not optional.

Will let you all know how it functions, need to go pick out a nice flat screen monitor for it now. $$$ cha ching.....

[elsegundo]

i've never bought anything from ibuypower themselves, but i have bought many things from newegg. they are great and their return/RMA policy is awesome too. what i never liked about it is that they never combine orders. what you pay for shipping per item is what you pay for shipping per item. in any case, i looked at the manufacturers website and they sell pretty much the same computer for a little bit more (only difference was the power supply). i think if you got it direct from the manufacturer, you could have gotten XP. if you bought it from newegg, they're just resellers, so they cannot change the product too much (since the OS would have already been pre-installed). hope you like the HALO3 picture on the side.

dont worry too much about vista vs. xp. its not that big of a difference now. just wait til windows7 come out. that, i've heard from beta testers and read from magazines, is a beauty.

[Wintrow]

Lol, this XP -> Vista -> Win7 debacle reminds me of that Futurama episode:

"Slurm Queen: Yes! Which is why we'll market it as New Slurm. Then, when everyone hates it, we'll bring back Slurm Classic, and make billions!"

[Superspam]

"Slurm Queen: Yes! Which is why we'll market it as New Slurm. Then, when everyone hates it, we'll bring back Slurm Classic, and make billions!"

Prof. Farnsworth: What are those horrible creatures?!?!
Glurmo: They're the Grunka Lunkas. They work in the factory.
Prof Farnsworth: Tell them I hate them!!

Futurama >> sum(all animated shows ever)

[Sturm]

Thank you for the response. You have raised another question though. How do I reduce video effects in the game? Was unaware that this could be done. Also the above pc is available with vista home premium 64 bit opperating system. I had heard there were some issues running WOW on Vista. Should I request windows XP instead?

Still new at this in lots of ways. :ponder:

First of all - Windows Vista runs wow perfectly. It's all about having the newest drivers mate.

To tweak the video effects ingame, press escape (game menu) - choose Video and start moving those sliders to the left. :)

I personally am running an old laptop with all on low, except the viewing distance at far.

But mate - for a wow pc u really just want the Duo 2 Core E8400 - it's by far the best price/performance cpu for wow. Then get a good cooler (Scythe Mugen/Thermalright 120 Extreme) and clock it to aroun 3.6-3.8ghz. :)