A Decent Computer for a Good Price

if you're tight on cash, you can get by with the onboard video until you can buy a good card.

world of warcraft's system requirements are pretty low. this is taken from their website :

... 32mb geforce 2??? lol... the ATI radeaon xpress can handle it until you can buy a decent card

Heya,

I'm not going to provide any links but rather I will give you some personal experience feedback. WoW is a great game first and foremost. Now onto the computer you should have to run it. I am giving you my computer specs. it runs the game with ZERO lag while averages around 45 FPS, and it is not the best machine out there. Socket 478, Prescott 3.0 w/ HTT, Radeon 9800PRO 128mb, 2 gigs RAM in 1 gig pairs (1 Gig would work also 2*512), and the kicker is a good and fast Harddrive. The above off the top of my head would cost.

200 for the cpu
60 for the MB
60 for the PSU
70 for the videocard
60 for the case
150 for the ram
100 for the WD 32GB raptor (use this as your primary HD where you put your OS and game)
50 for a 19 inch CRT monitor

You could prolly come out cheper but that's pretty much the specs for the parts to run that game w/ no lag.

Well, idk where I could get all those parts for that cheap so I'm kind of outta luck. I think that if the computer I mentioned earlier will work I might buy it and just wait untill I can afford a better video card. If you could manage to find those parts or provide some more details on your parts/specs then that would be cool but you don't have to. How bad of lag do you think I would experience? How much of an improvement would it be over my Dell Dimension 2400? (Can't enter Ironforge because of lag issues and Battlegrounds are out of question... Lag almost anywhere I go)

Go to internetfrog.com to test your speed. REPORT BACK TO HQ

Umm KingCody I think he mentioned he wanted to play with minimum lag. I don't think that would be possible if he had to use onboard video. BTW Tenko, if ur using the PC only for WoW, then why not get an MX4000. Its just $32 and I guess(from the specifications that KingCody posted) it will be able to run WoW pretty well. Here's a link
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121181

So that cheap vid card will work? That's not a bad price either... Oh and for internetfrog.com my download and upload speeds are around 130Kbps... I need 2Mbps? Omg... We need better internet... Unless I checked the wrong thing. O i just did another test and its 105Kbps... Owch

whatever you buy, don't get an emachine.

That's good enough. By 2 Mbps I didn't mean the speed of the downloads but rather the connection's speed. I've googled around about the MX4000 and don't seem to find ppl who say it can handle WoW. I think I might have finally found the card for u.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130008
This card is pretty cheap too(especially with the rebate, it becomes cheaper than the MX4000!) and if u read the reviews, they state that it runs WoW at 1024x768 without too many problems.

I had in that machine 512mb of ram, and a 5400 250gig Hard Drive. I then updated to 2 Gigs of ram and a 10k 74gig Hard Drive. The difference was night adn day. With the ram added I would still lag a little when I zoned into Orgrimmar and always lag in AV. but when i added the Harddrive it took all my lag time away. My zone in time is like < 10 seconds and I'm notw able to lead the board in Av/Wsg/Ab.

don't know much about dell dimensions but it doesn't sound like a great machine to run WoW on.

While... Now that I got a good machine built all I gotta do is save! This is gonna be sweet!
Thanks a ton everyone!
If you need to tell me anything else or have other suggestions I'll be here to listen.
Tenko

Hello everyone I'm back after some saving =)
Well now i've got some new questions... Since I finally have the money i'm trying to finalize what im getting...
AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3800+ Computer with 15" LCD Flat-Panel Monitor and Photo Printer
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Software
1024 MB DDR Memory
250 GB Hard Drive
Double-layer Multiformat DVD-RW Drive
NVidia GeForce 6100 Graphics
9-in-1 Media Reader
Total - $630
Ok on to the additions...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102392 <--- will that work for a video card? its cheap and a 256MB... and would it be compatible with that pc?
IF I have to get a sound card (would i have to???) then would this work --->http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102003
Next... A wireless router --->http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833124010
A wireless card --->http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833328103
Grand Total - $780 (so far)
And that should be it right? Would i need a cooling system or better power source cuz im really tight on money? Also, would all those parts be compatible? And why are E-Machines bad because thats what the above pc is..? If they are really bad there is one other pc i have as an option but its a little more expensive..
Thanks a ton (once again)
Tenko =D

"why not emachines??" because this forum alone has had many many threads on dead emachines. it is very common for the motherboards and power supplies in them to die.

I wouldn't recommend any prebuilt system reguardless of brand because they are either garbage quality or too expensive.

brands like emachines are priced low, but you get what you pay for. they are horrible quality. brands like Dell are better quality and are will last, but they are not very upgradable (at least the older ones weren't) and the non-basic models are expensive.

your best bet is still to build your own. for $630 you can build a much better quality PC than that emachine will ever be.

I don't think the 9250 is any good for playing WoW. The 128MB 6200 I posted outclasses it in every way, except for the fact that it has a 64-bit interface while the 9250 is 128-bit. But the 6200 has a higher core clock which will give u overall better performance than the 9250. A review for the 9250 says that the card gives heavy lag in MMORPGs like WoW.
If u want a 256MB version of the 6200, try this one. With the rebate, its price is almost the same as that of the 9250.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130278
The sound card is good for the price and perfect for u.
Get a computer shop to build the PC for u coz EMachines are rarely upgradeable and go bust pretty easily. I doubt the cost will differ greatly from ur estimate.

Well the bad thing is... I don't really have any computer shops around here and the websites i've looked at are either really expensive or i wouldnt trust them with my money. I could get the HP that was at Best Buy also but if that isnt good then can u guys reccomend where to get a computer with about the same specs for near that price? (I only have $850-900 for the whole computer, a month subscription for World of Warcraft, a Wireless router and card,a cooling system, and a power supply)... so ya it kind of limits my possibilities sadly.
Well I don't want a busted computer but i dont want an extremely expensive one so whatever you guys could reccomend would help a lot.

Check out this article from THG.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/10/14/the_/index.html

Since this is from back in October, obviously some of the prices and part availability have changed. But it can give you a general idea and direction to go in. All of the parts should be sufficient to play WoW. You could probably substitute in the Nvidea 6200 mentioned in an earlier post to save some bucks.

Well I looked through it but first, i know hardly anything about computers so i wouldnt know all the custom parts to get... and second, i would have no clue how to put that beast together.... Sorry if that makes things harder but im desperate for a good computer thats good enough for World of Warcraft but still very cheap... Please can someone help me? Is newegg a good place to get a computer from? Because if someone could put together a computer from there for a good price then im sure it will be reliable and not too expensive... >< This is a lot harder then i thought... everytime i think i have it figured out theres some other catch to make it harder... Well any help would be awesome -.-

Ok, Start with this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16883102664

Toss in this video card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102641

This power supply:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817153006

And this LCD:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824116010

Add in the other network components you mentioned above and see what you total looks like. Should be in your range. I would add up, but I've got to run!

Later

For screens is there any major differences between monitors besides size, weight, color etc.? Like if i gotta cheaper CRT monitor instead to save money there wouldnt be any glitches or performance problems would there? Like could I just use this monitor instead to save money? --->http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824172050

Also, for video cards which would be better?
This --->http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102641
or
This --->http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130278

if you don't mind the space it takes up, then just get a CRT. (just FYI, the best LCDs still can't match the best CRTs)

also, with those 2 video cards, one is AGP and the other is PCI-e. only one of them will work with your system.

I hate to say this but unless you build it yourself, you won't be able to get a gaming PC for your budget. buying an emachines is kind of a crapshoot, some last, others don't. although i will admit that you can't beat the price. if you're willing to risk it then you could buy an emachine with high specs and replace the mobo and PSU down the road if/when they die, however you will always be limited to a microATX motherboard.

I know the thought of building your own system seems intimidating if you've never done it before, but it's actually pretty simple. think of it as "assembling" instead of "building", because you aren't actually building anything, each component is already built, you just have to connect them together and the only tool you actually need is a phillips head screwdriver. there are many of us here (including myself) who have built systems before and can guide and help you with each step if you want.

I whole heartedly agree with KingCody. It can be intimidating when you think about assembling a computer from scratch. But, when you are done, you have a huge amount of satisfaction. And it isn't very difficult. It does take some time if it is your first time. My first complete system build took a few hours to do, but it was the most fun one to put together because it was so new.