What is the best WoW computer that can be bought for under or about 800$? Or even built (hackintosh?)? Any brand is fine. I know that 800 is too low for a real gaming PC, but what is my best option (no, i can't "just wait a while and save up some more")
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Gaming computer on the cheap- so probably not a mac
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i suggest cyberpower. since your playing wow u wont need top specs so go with an amd system
edit: ok heres the perfect system. just be sure to add an operating system unless you have one. http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Mega_Special_II/
adding vista home premium will cost u $759, and make sure to add the windows 7 coupon for free
edit: ok heres the perfect system. just be sure to add an operating system unless you have one. http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Mega_Special_II/
adding vista home premium will cost u $759, and make sure to add the windows 7 coupon for free
you could easily build a nice PC for that much if you can handle buying the parts yourself off www.newegg.com and building it yourself.
Get a 4870 (~$140 with rebates), a nice intel cpu/mobo for about $200, a 500 watt power supply for about $70, a $50 case, $40 or so for 4 gigs of ram, $100 for a terabyte hd, $25 for a dvd burner, and the rest for a monitor/keyboard/mouse..that will handle crysis let alone wow lol for $800.
Get a 4870 (~$140 with rebates), a nice intel cpu/mobo for about $200, a 500 watt power supply for about $70, a $50 case, $40 or so for 4 gigs of ram, $100 for a terabyte hd, $25 for a dvd burner, and the rest for a monitor/keyboard/mouse..that will handle crysis let alone wow lol for $800.
Yeah, if you know anyone or if you can do it yourself, build it yourself.
It's pretty fun and it saves quite a lot of money.
I'd say get Core 2 Duo CPU's or AMD Quad-Cores... or if you're really lucky, you can get a really good deal on Core 2 Quads sometimes...
To play WoW, I guess HD4850 or GeForce 9600~9800 should be enough. Which are dirt cheap now.
Good luck
It's pretty fun and it saves quite a lot of money.
I'd say get Core 2 Duo CPU's or AMD Quad-Cores... or if you're really lucky, you can get a really good deal on Core 2 Quads sometimes...
To play WoW, I guess HD4850 or GeForce 9600~9800 should be enough. Which are dirt cheap now.
Good luck
I played WoW for a good while on my iMac with a 2.0 Core 2 and ATI 2400XT 128MB card. The Geforce 9400M is supposed to be comparable to it. If you bought a mini and put in 4GB of Ram you could probably play WoW on low-medium settings pretty well.
It's not ideal, but it'd work. And you'd be getting a mac. When you have enough to buy a real gaming machine (and I have to suggest building a PC), you can re-purpose the mini into a lot of different stuff, or sell it at a higher value than you would a PC.
Rumor has it Mini's are going to be updated soon. If you can wait a month, I would.
It's not ideal, but it'd work. And you'd be getting a mac. When you have enough to buy a real gaming machine (and I have to suggest building a PC), you can re-purpose the mini into a lot of different stuff, or sell it at a higher value than you would a PC.
Rumor has it Mini's are going to be updated soon. If you can wait a month, I would.
Do you already have a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and Windows license? As having to get all of those parts really effects the type of rig you can build for the money.
Anyways the best I can figure is about $865 shipped for a good gaming rig if you need all of these parts.
CPU - Pentium Dual-Core e5300 (Fast, Cheap, good overclocking ability with stock fan/heatsink)
GPU - Powercolor ATI Radeon 4870 1GB (should be hackintosh compatible, good cooler design, powerful)
MB - Gigabyt GA-EP43-UD3L (good reviews, good for overclocking, plenty of expandibility, confirmed as working with Mac OS X Leopard install on InsanelyMac.com)
RAM - 4GB DDR2 1066mhz (to give you room for a decent overclock without fiddling with the multiplier)
HD - 500GB Seagate Barracuda (Good and quiet hard drives)
DVD - DL DVD Burner
Case - Rosewill (cheap and quiet because of 120mm fan, hopefully)
PSU - XCLIO 500W (Good reviews, 2x6 Pin molex, though I would spend more for a 80+ certified PSU)
Mouse- Logitech MX310 (cheap, great for gaming, I have used this for about 4 years now, OS X drivers for extra buttons)
Keyboard - Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 (cheap comfortable keyboard, OS X drivers online for media keys, have owned 2+ years)
Monitor - Acer 22" (good sized, resolution, DVI, reviews)
Windows - Windows 7 Home Premium x64 (the RC has worked great for me even on old games)
You might be able to knock it down to $800 with DDR2 800 RAM, Pentium DC e5200 and a 19 or 20" LCD (make sure it has DVI). But try to avoid a cheaper Radeon 4850 as not all are Leopard compatible some do not work with any modified kexts. If you go for a cheaper GPU try to get one with at least 1GB memory.
Since you can swing $800 I would say don't cheap out and save the extra $65.
Also do you have a Leopard/Snow Leopard disc already? You would need to buy that too which will mean spending more or dropping the computers quality extensively.
Anyways the best I can figure is about $865 shipped for a good gaming rig if you need all of these parts.
CPU - Pentium Dual-Core e5300 (Fast, Cheap, good overclocking ability with stock fan/heatsink)
GPU - Powercolor ATI Radeon 4870 1GB (should be hackintosh compatible, good cooler design, powerful)
MB - Gigabyt GA-EP43-UD3L (good reviews, good for overclocking, plenty of expandibility, confirmed as working with Mac OS X Leopard install on InsanelyMac.com)
RAM - 4GB DDR2 1066mhz (to give you room for a decent overclock without fiddling with the multiplier)
HD - 500GB Seagate Barracuda (Good and quiet hard drives)
DVD - DL DVD Burner
Case - Rosewill (cheap and quiet because of 120mm fan, hopefully)
PSU - XCLIO 500W (Good reviews, 2x6 Pin molex, though I would spend more for a 80+ certified PSU)
Mouse- Logitech MX310 (cheap, great for gaming, I have used this for about 4 years now, OS X drivers for extra buttons)
Keyboard - Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 (cheap comfortable keyboard, OS X drivers online for media keys, have owned 2+ years)
Monitor - Acer 22" (good sized, resolution, DVI, reviews)
Windows - Windows 7 Home Premium x64 (the RC has worked great for me even on old games)
You might be able to knock it down to $800 with DDR2 800 RAM, Pentium DC e5200 and a 19 or 20" LCD (make sure it has DVI). But try to avoid a cheaper Radeon 4850 as not all are Leopard compatible some do not work with any modified kexts. If you go for a cheaper GPU try to get one with at least 1GB memory.
Since you can swing $800 I would say don't cheap out and save the extra $65.
Also do you have a Leopard/Snow Leopard disc already? You would need to buy that too which will mean spending more or dropping the computers quality extensively.
mate in your sig it clearly claims that you[ve got a collectors edition macbook with 2.4ghz and 2gb ram... that is more then enough to play a game like world of warcraft, save your money and spend it on a rehab clinic for when you get addicted to the game lol
pretty good build. Wait for windows 7 instead of vista if you can and make sure you get the 64 bit version.. Also if you buy the OEM version off newegg with your parts, you save a lot of money.
mate in your sig it clearly claims that you[ve got a collectors edition macbook with 2.4ghz and 2gb ram... that is more then enough to play a game like world of warcraft, save your money and spend it on a rehab clinic for when you get addicted to the game lol
Sorry that i didn't make this clear.
This is not for me. I don't play. This is a gift.
Oh, and yes, we'd all prefer for him to quit. But oh well
There are plenty of System guides out there for gaming PCs if you can build your own PC. This is the most recent one I've read:
http://techreport.com/articles.x/17571
The Econbox configuration is recommended at $580. You can adjust that configuration to fit your taste.
If you can't build your own PC and you want a good shop to purchase a PC from, then CyberPowerPC is highly recommended.
http://techreport.com/articles.x/17571
The Econbox configuration is recommended at $580. You can adjust that configuration to fit your taste.
If you can't build your own PC and you want a good shop to purchase a PC from, then CyberPowerPC is highly recommended.