Computer help!

Zar

Zar

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Zari
Firstly, I'm not stupid when it comes to computers... just out of touch. I haven't read anything or researched anything since I upgraded last, which was quite a while back.

So my birthday is right before MoP, and I plan to buy some stuff for myself then. I don't really have a budget at the moment, I'll get to that later, but any tips would be appreciated currently. I'd like something not too expensive, I can put it together myself no problem.

CURRENT SYSTEM:
Intel Core i5 661 3.33ghz Dual Core
2 x 2gb 1600mhz DDR3 RAM
Radeon 5770 1024mb DDR5 x 2 in Crossfire
650W PSU - Probably needs upgrade, quite old now (4 years)
TERRIBLE 350GB HARD DRIVE - Probably going to get an SSD, don't need the space, just the speed.
[Still running XP, so it's really only 3gb of Ram]
Antec 1200 (perfect condition, no need for replacement)

I want something that runs WoW really well, like fucking fantastically well, for some reason my system doesn't cut it in LFR, even at lowest settings.

Thanks in advance :)
 
def def get a ssd I cant express how much I love playing video games when I have them on my ssd drive. If you are not running 64bit windows make sure you are as with 32 you are capped at around 2.5-3 gig ram even if you got 4 or more in your system. I am more of a nvidea person myself but if you got the money maybe a better video card like a 7000 radeon card or gtx 560 or above. Any preference on motherboard? and you running one screen or more?
 
Just the single screen. Yeah, running 32bit windows XP atm, might have to upgrade to Windows 7 64bit or something and get the full use out of my RAM (I have extra sticks lying around, just can't use them because of the OS).
 
hey man,

first off how the in flipping hell are u still using xp.... wow jsut wow.. neways its not the end of the world lol


i5 is fine.. no need 2 change yet.

RAM... you need MOAR.... min 8g these days... will make shit alot faster..

gfx cards.... again are fine its only wow and im sure u dont have issues specially in crossfire... makes them a bit more usefull.

power supply.... you might need a new 1.. .once they get that old unless its a 80+ gold rating its prob on its way out or starting to degrade.

HDD's these days are screwed... ssd's are def the way to go specially for ur boot/main game drive, you should be able 2 find a cheep 120g one around, will b heaps for wow n 1-2 other games. then u can get w/e size for storage as i need... though norm hdds are kinda a rip off atm though.

case is fine but u depends of wat u wanna do...

Now... depending on how much u wanna spend depends on what you want out of ur pc... theres quite a bit of new tech out atm... new gen gfx cards.. pcie 4 to go with that aswell, and new motherboard chipsets... so in short you only need to get more ram an ssd and by christ get win 7 lol and u will b fine.. but if u wanna upgrade u can get a new mid-range gpu that will b on par with ur current ones.. get some more ram its kinda cheap now, and a new power supply, now if u go this route u may need a new case depending on how long the gfx card u get is..

other then that just do a bit of shopping around... check out the web n see wat u can find. but jsut need to decide wat u want to do n how much u wanna spend
 
Get Win7 64bit, and 8GB of ram! 4GB is poo now.

Also consider getting a single AMD 6870 or 7xxx series. While the crossfire would get you better performance vs a single 68xx series, WoW has never been heavy on GPU, not to mention the 5770 is kind of outdated now, so the 68xx or 7xxx series would give you better tessellation. Plus if in the future you get more spending money you could always get an extra and cross those xD for even more performance than 2x 5770 crossfire.

Based on your current spec though, it should be able to run WoW on Ultra and still give you a stable 30fps, assuming you lower Shadow Quality and Water Effects.
 
Get dual screen (so so good for raiding and raid admin)

And an ssd

I only got 120g ssd and regret it, I only have windows and wow on it and it's only got about 20gig free.
 
The video card and system setup I have is excellent (it's in another thread here) I run wow on ultra, always 60fps even in our 25s, and can have a shitload of stuff running at the same time as well.
 
Most of the recommendations have already been said before. I've listed them here in order of what I think is most important in terms of your specs.

  1. An SSD ~250GB, with your OS and your most played games installed on it. Buy a WD Black for all your other data like music (make sure it's at least SATA2). From character screen to zone in at Stormwind takes around 10 seconds with full addons on an SSD*.
  2. A dual-screen setup, run WoW in Windowed Mode (Maximized). Web browser, VOIP and media player goes in the other screen.
  3. A 64 bit OS to utilise at least 8 GB RAM. The more RAM you have, the more Windows can store background threads into RAM, increasing overall performance. I have 16GB, and it puts around 3 GB worth of data in RAM alone (Win 7 64-bit). Great thing about having heaps of RAM is that if WoW disconnects, you have enough data stored in it to log back in very quickly before anyone dies.
  4. Power supply. It's worth getting an 80+ certified power supply. 600-700W is fine for your system, more for big upgrades. With higher efficiency (as certified bronze, silver or gold), they can run cooler, reducing heat and noise as a result of slower fans. Might cut down your power bills too. Please don't get a cheapo $50 PSU.
  5. Video card. I'm not entirely familiar with your cards, but Crossfire seems a bit overkill for WoW. A single video card at around $350 can handle most games these days. Again, having a single card reduces heat and power consumption and noise.

* If WoW is on the SSD, you can change the directory of the screenshots to save SSD space. Google "mklink".
 
You need a big monitor for more high definition adult videos.
Deny is a thinker and has dual screens.
 
Zar said:
Firstly, I'm not stupid when it comes to computers... just out of touch. I haven't read anything or researched anything since I upgraded last, which was quite a while back.

So my birthday is right before MoP, and I plan to buy some stuff for myself then. I don't really have a budget at the moment, I'll get to that later, but any tips would be appreciated currently. I'd like something not too expensive, I can put it together myself no problem.

CURRENT SYSTEM:
Intel Core i5 661 3.33ghz Dual Core
2 x 2gb 1600mhz DDR3 RAM
Radeon 5770 1024mb DDR5 x 2 in Crossfire
650W PSU - Probably needs upgrade, quite old now (4 years)
TERRIBLE 350GB HARD DRIVE - Probably going to get an SSD, don't need the space, just the speed.
[Still running XP, so it's really only 3gb of Ram]
Antec 1200 (perfect condition, no need for replacement)

I want something that runs WoW really well, like fucking fantastically well, for some reason my system doesn't cut it in LFR, even at lowest settings.

Thanks in advance :)
Click to expand...

before you spend a cent we need to find out what you want from this upgrade. "some reason my system doesn't cut it in LFR, even at lowest settings." guess more FPS

all of the above are great idea's

SSD improve load times - Not going to matter a fuck to your 25 LFR FPS

Windows 7 - Again to WoW its like me adding 1-2 mm to my penis my wife will not even notice the differance (makes me feel like more of a man but :D )

Windows 7 64 bit brings 8 gig of RAM to table again 1-2 mm thing with WoW you will not notice a differance also brings DX11 (think the lastest is 11) this you will notice colours / graphic that blizzard writes for 64 bit Dx 11 only what is coded for Dx 11 and I highly doubt it would add FPS to 25 man LFR

THE ONLY THING THAT WILL ADD FPS TO A 25 MAN LFR (caps for added effect)
1. and 75% of it your CPU aka I5
2.Other 25% GPU graphics card / cards

In saying this a I5 tuned right with the right card should eat WoW on high in a 25man raid you need to find out with your is not.

Benchmark it with 3d mark 11 find out what is holding you back.

I've spent 1000's of $$ upgrading PC's over 10 years some times buying more ram,win 7 64 bit,SSD,...more Ram,bigger Power supply,more grahpics cards then I care to mention all to see littile to no gain on WoW.

My advice other then benchmarking it is find other ppl with I5 would be 10000's of old threads see what there proformance in WoW was like guessing there is 27-29 ppl out of 31 in the raid roster running a I5/I7
With no FPS problem.I5/I7 was and no doubt still is the best CPU to play WoW on hands down.
 
Josh said:
THE ONLY THING THAT WILL ADD FPS TO A 25 MAN LFR (caps for added effect)
1. and 75% of it your CPU aka I5
2.Other 25% GPU graphics card / cards
Click to expand...

I would actually say 80% graphics card, 20% CPU. I say this because on my laptop, I downclock my CPU to a measly 1.6 GHz to keep my testicles cool, and there is negligible performance drop in my LFR raids. My laptop runs an Intel i7 Q2720 (standard 2.2 GHz clock, 3.3 Turbo) with 8 GB RAM and an nVidia GT 540M graphics card. I've left my settings on Medium, AA turned off.

I think a new graphics card that supports DX11 will improve performance.
 
Lol, these computer threads always turn into a debate.

Should of started with this:

Dear Zzar, what exactly do you want out of your new system? is it just purely for WoW? what is your definition of "Fucking fantastically well?"

because right now your current system that you listed in your OP will still struggle a bit to run WoW on ULTRA settings (Shadow, Particle, Spell effects, all the good shit on ULTRA) in a 25man raid at 30FPS.

Assuming that your definition of "fucking fantastically well" is 60FPS with Ultra settings, than your current system won't meet your expectations.

Secondly, I still stand by my recommendation, consider a single more modern GPU! there's really no reason to get Crossfire/SLi, especially if it's just for WoW - The only reason you should ever get dual GPU is if no single GPU on the current market offers you the performance you need or you have a lot of money and want to get really high benchmark rankings lol (not saying that the 5770 is expensive or anything xD)

But regardless, you really need to get a 64bit OS and at least 8GB of RAM.
 
did some digging yesterday due to necro looking at new graphics cards and found that the 7850 ( priced around $250 ) is about 3 times more powerful then the 8800gt and 5700 series cards.. aswell as using less power and running cooler. so now is the right time to get a new card specially now as mid range cards offer such great results... also 16g of ram is under $100 and 8 even less so its cheaper then water.

but as evil was saying is so tru.. work out wat u want to do on ur pc then how deep ur wallet is then work back form there to work out wat to get
 
The graphics card is the big thing; 5770s are pretty horrible man; I run a 5670 in my tower and the 5770 isn't too much of an improvement. Was doing research myself on this; short term, go get yourself a 7850 for about $250 short term if your PSU can handle it, and get a 64-bit OS with some extra RAM. Giving the program more room to quickly access its memory rather then having to use the back-up allocation on the HDD will make it more efficient.
 
MMOs (SPECIALLY WoW) are all CPU INTENSIVE:CerealGuyAngry:

anything above a 560Ti will be overkill for WoW (1920x1080)

your dual 5770s will still work wonders with WoW but your CPU is struggling like a gnome being licked by notus in the ear.

get an i5-3570K, overclock to 4.oblivion, then.. :FuckYeah:

and yes SSDs are win


I run a non overclocked i7-2600 , GTX 570, 12gb ram and patriot wildfire SSD and i dip below 30fps in our 25mans max everything @ 1920x1080.
 
Soulrave is right (gnomes always are)

WoW is one of the greatest games ever made maybe the greatest (idk) AT running on any PC any net speed any CPU / GPU combo

Like I said if I had the money back i've wasted on semi upgrades hoping for FPS gain.I could afford to take the rest of the year off.

You will start to notice in SW a FPS lose and get worse in 25 man.To get all geeky what will happen your GPU will send billions more commands then your CPU can handle and bottle neck at your CPU
If it was the other way around CPU bottle necking a video card frame rate would not be spiky as you say.would in fact be spiky all the time and tiny down grade of the grahpics would free it up-You turn your PC to min and still lag in 25's its your CPU

On my desktop went from GT 9500 (5years ago) GTS 250 (used 3 years) GTX 460 (still using) I wasted 275 $ buying a GTX 460 it added no FPS and benchmarked 300 points higher

I Overclock my duelcore 3.2ghz to 3.8Ghz I gain huge FPS and benchmark 2000 points higher (finally letting my GTX 460 open its legs up)

If I Overclock and unlock my duelcore to 4.0Ghz and 4 cores I now run on Ultax besides shadows and never dip under 18FPS - 15 FPS is about when human eye can notice a differance (Never leave my settings here haha run a custom setting i like)

Cause in my effect to gain FPS i might have ended up a PC nerd I also run programs like MSI afterburner to watch numbers :O And my Overclocked unlocked AMD 955 only Users at any time in any raid any setting less then 50% of my grahpics card

Any second gen Intel chip (made just months after yours) will Chew any raid setting WoW has to a point -WoW these days can be ran on a $10 000 PC and run better on it then a $1000 I7 few years ago was not the case WoW had a limit and passing it was just reatrded unless you had money to waste.these days multi core CPU will improve load times but not FPS a larger GHz will open said bottleneck and gain FPS blah blah blah...until you hit second gen Intel
then higher Ghz not really needed.

Edit..

Good time for a car exp.

Your running a 4 cyclinder trying to pump more petrol then a V8 down the fuel line also your wheels doors and muffler maybe falling off but your stereo is fucking loud aka Video cards.

To be honest no cheap fix will help

A 2nd gen Intel chip for $100+ would add 10-20 FPS in a 25 man.But no 64bit no 8Gb no Dx11 no SSD all things that would help eye candy FPS on higher res and load times
 
funny cause I am at the opposite end where I cant get a video card for my laptop to keep up with my cpu.
 
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