Cataclysm still uses the same WoW engine now. i5 vs Core 2 Duo... I agree i5 is impressive, but seriously Blizzard's philosophy is to make games playable by the common lowest denominator... I was running wow perfectly on a P4 all the way till mid this year before I upgraded. I don't think there'll be a big difference for WoW, seeing as the graphics card will be the limiting factor in such a budget. i5 motherboards alone are still going for ~1k now, and processors alone are like what, 800+?

If you are planning to upgrade your best bet is to hold on until it comes installed with Win7 which is one more month. Reinstalling OS is not the hard part but reinstalling all the other programs will take a while. And than it all adds up.

Good thing you don't need to reinstall WoW as it just recreate the registry in Windows when you boot up the .exe while most programs will be unable to work.

Well if i5 and the mobo are not affordable, it defeats intel's purpose of a budget solution, which the i5 is meant for anyways. The dell offer above is a "throw stock" price, since they are going with next-gen in coming months. Whether that's good or bad depends if you want to future-proof or just fuk it get something cheap.

Despite having the same basic requirement since 2005, WoW keeps raising the stakes every expansion. From the naxx40 to SSC25 to MHJ trash lag to Teron Gorefiend (@#$%) to pasar malam Dalaran (P4 confirm hailat). So, I humbly think la, future-proof abit is not bad idea.

WoW is CPU driven, not so much graphics card (as long as not integrated haha), check any blue post

Actually I did go through LYP's pricelist and do a direct comparison with Dell's XPS 9000 Customization. I found out that Dell's PC is ~RM400 more expensive. The catch here though is to go steady on the RAM, video card, HDD etc because this is where Dell's leeching you

But as far as Dell Inspiron desktop is concern, their deal is unbeatable vs self built if you are willing to settle for a previous best processor.

It's just like core 2 duo back when it's new. It's not intel's 'budget solution'. Rather, it's it's 'mainstream solution'. Intel's budget solution is always Celeron/Pentium Dual-Core. Like Core 2 Duo, for the first year or so of it's introduction, it'll probably cater to the higher-end gamers in it's price range.

Future proof abit is definitely not a bad idea, I totally agree. i5, though, for WoW, seems overkill. I'm saying this because right now there are decent systems with Core 2 Duo capable of pushing over 100fps even in Dalaran, and Blizz will indeed upgrade WoW's graphical capabilities for Cataclysm but won't make it so it's unplayable for the masses (casuals, if you like )

Regarding CPU vs GPU, don't underestimate the power of the GPU for WoW. A decent one can help alot. My FPS in Dalaran went up from like 17 to 50+ with change from 7800GT to 9800GT - no change in processor. I even increased the graphical settings. Apparently it's also more CPU driven only if you are using Windowed Mode, and more GPU driven in Full Screen mode. I use Windowed Mode though, and my graphics card upgrade brought a huge huge difference.

Dell gets OEM prices from manufacturers. Their price is indeed decent most of the time. Problem is, you're limited in customizations. Dell motherboards are probably not as good as, say, a decent Gigabyte or Asus board too. They do not need to sell to customers directly, so they just use cookie-cutter stuff that 'just works fine'. You can't choose which brand of hard disk you'll get. You can't choose which manufacturer's graphics card you want. etc. etc.

This post has been edited by Hikaru: Sep 22 2009, 11:52 PM

by cpu driven, its only provided you do not thrive for the best graphic settings. my proc is oc'ed and being a quad core extreme, it does pump out a lot of juice. where else my 8800ultra is getting left behind as WoW is having more and more graphic options. biggest examples: dynamic shadows, and good ole AA's.

or, how one can get slideshows fps with my sister's inspiron, vs solid 40-60+ fps on my studio XPS. they both use similiar C2D systems. of course, one being a t series and the other being a P, which main difference is their power saving options. other than that their clockspeeds dont differ that greatly, and thier both dual cores.

tldr/bottom line: yes, compared to other games, WoW does ultilize a LOT more cpu power, but that doesnt mean it doesnt need just as heavy, if not more graphic processing power as it its still a 3D engine game.

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Added on September 23, 2009, 1:22 amthe main part of their "upmark" is still the warranty service and of course the "service" their are delivering into assembling the pc for you.

take those out they are probably identical machines anyways. and of course, for someone like myself, i can "warranty" my own PC just fine ^^;

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Added on September 23, 2009, 1:33 ami wouldnt say i5 is an overkill, rather, WoW just doesnt natively support multi core. hell, take my quads for example, or ANYONE that runs on quads, run WoW, and goto your task manager, right click your wow.exe process, and click on affinity. there. LOL

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Added on September 23, 2009, 1:38 am

dell dont always run their own motherboard btw. they also OEM from either intel or even companies like Asus. Not sure bout Dell higher end/gaming series, though i do know for a fact that HP Blackbird runs on Asus boards, and Dell optiplex runs on Intel boards.

This post has been edited by Quazacolt: Sep 23 2009, 01:38 AM

No, what I was saying is the more generous you are in the configurations the more non value for money the "upmark" is. Lets take the additional HDD as an example. 1TB sells for RM 1,285 from Dell where else LYP sells for RM 285 only. If the RM 1k warranty includes transferring of unreadable data to the replacement HDD than it will be nice but most of the time it is just on the spot replacements.

for lyp, on the spot 1 to 1 replacements are typically only covered within a week or a year's purchase, and beyond that you have to wait for days/weeks for a replacement. worse if you have to pay for rma services (some shops have those crap)

also do note:

1) you're taking just the hdd part where the warranty/service isnt even included. do note, not everyone knows how to take a damn hdd out much less opening the pc and go omgwtf on it

2) lyp 285 price = wd greens or similiar seagate low powered hdd, which are typically used for storage/archiving purposes. the standard ones are slightly more expensive.

Uh, not trying to argue here but I don't see your point.

I'm not sure about Dell's service but I think they only provide 1 year support and you have to send your whole machine in and wait for __ days? Do they have any 1 to 1 exchange service? The wait time for Dell's RMA, from what I heard, wasn't exactly that good either.

I'm not sure, but since warranty is covered by Dell, doesn't that mean that hard disk warranties (and even some other parts like motherboards) which are typically 3 / 5 years, is only covered as 1 year by Dell? If yes, then I say that's a very big disadvantage of getting from OEMs like Dell.

Regarding (2), I think you might've gotten the wrong concept. Those that are 'cheap' at LY are actually the standard hard disks as used by Dell as well or any other OEMs. Low powered is actually a 'premium' not a 'cheapskate' feature. Green is what sells stuff now - environment friendly and all that. The SV35 surveillance quality drives or 10k rpm 'performance' are the more premium drives. Dell certainly ain't selling you the premium ones.

Despite what my post sounds like, I've nothing against Dell, just trying to understand the facts here.

1) NBD on site service. aka, next business day (1 day, typically), and they come to your place to fix/replace your stuff. you've probably heard wrong, or bad luck from the person you're hearing from be it no available parts/replacements and/or other reasons on delays

2) if you're non IT savvy, you probably:
- dont know how long your HDD is typically warrantied for
- dont know if the hdd is even broken
- dont know how to take it out in the first place for warranty service
if you're an IT savvy person, you're probably building your own pc instead of looking for companies like Dell.

3) Dell HDDs are usually standard 7200 rpm WD blue or normal Seagate cudas.
refer here: http://images.lowyat.net/pricelist/cycom.pdf
1TB WD GREEN RM283 (rm2 off 285? lol) <--
greens are lower powered hdd that runs at 5400 rpm and are meant for purely data storage such as archiving huge videos/image files etc.

and no, in the world of performance hungry PC users, especially in the overclocking sections, low powered IS cheapskate and poor. you're gonna tell me a 5400 rpm disk will beat a 7200 rpm disk any time soon? i guess not. and whos saying anything about dell selling premium drives? heck, if you want premium drives? get the WD blacks, Raptors, or Seagate ES, new cuda XT.

hell, http://www.quazacolt.com/aboutcontact-me/ my 2 year+ desktop that runs PURELY on premium parts.

TLDR: If you know your IT stuff, forget Dell. Else, they are amongst the best you can get for leaving everything up to them sorta deal. and yes, they will milk you, but thats how the industry work.

Ok, i think most people regardless will be able to agree that a decent PC for WoW can be built for less than 2k (without monitor and other peripherals such as keyboard, mouse, speakers, etc.).

HERE IS A CHALLENGE:

how about a decent WoW PC for less than 1k? "decent" = won't DC in dalaran, can raid, wont have an issue ramping up to Cataclysm.

Possible? or mission impossible?

Can list the parts here with prices?

Actually, WD Green starts at 5400 rpm and ramps up to 7200 rpm when needed.

To really play WoW, 2k can get you a very decent PC that will last you for years. 2.5k if including monitor.

http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/...veID=576#jump11

http://products.wdc.com/library/specsheet/...2879-701229.pdf

http://techreport.com/articles.x/13379

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/246840-3...ive-performance

hope this answers you enough. no, it does NOT go to 7200. and again, WD green or caviar GP is meant for low powered/quiet/effecient storage. nothing to do with performance

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Added on October 5, 2009, 10:59 am1k, im gonna say, f***ing hard. especially if you dont want to settle with low details for WoW (ugly, i know.) and worse is that you're prolly going to have to deal with overclocking the cpu/gpu/ram etc. and considering you're initially planning for Dells, i dont think you want to deal with the hassle of overclocking.

i wouldnt sign it off as mission impossible just yet, but it highly depends on how much details you want your WoW to be. and thats considering future cataclysm xpac where they will most likely tweak up the graphics engine again.

This post has been edited by Quazacolt: Oct 5 2009, 10:59 AM

People always like to do this: "Hay guyz, please help me build PC I have X cash lolol. It's a CHALLENGE CMON!!!11"

Just buy CPU, mobo and RAM. All other parts re-use from your old PC.

CPU: Phenom II X3 710 (around RM360)
RAM: 2GB (around RM120)
Mobo: Take any cheap Athlon mobo (around RM 300)
Graphics: ATI Radeon 4650 (around RM 200)

RM1000 will not ramp you to Cataclysm, feel free to prove me wrong you tightwad.

fuyoh pretty cheapskate recommendation

but hey, it'll work. can run WoW on what level of details, lag or not, thats a whole different story. but i guess ati 4 series aint too bad. it aint a 48xx, but still workable nonetheless

That upgrade will only last him 1 year... Can barely handle WoW with graphics upped, and will probably roll over and die on other games =(

Alamak, can you at least look at the online site benchmarks before making an off-hand comment like that

Seriously though, check the online sites, that spec will do great in WoW and many 3D games for this Christmas season. I did wish Tentris would say RM1300, so I could actually squeeze in 4GB, Phenom 720 and Radeon 4670. The CPU and GPU are terrific value for their price points

*edit*

This post has been edited by Aggroboy: Oct 5 2009, 08:45 PM

you know rantic, i know with the new baby your allocation for entertainment expenses might be lower but you're a manager with a 6figure salary im sure you can afford a decent rig.

Exactly. It will play THIS Christmas' games, not the next.

Hmm I doubt it.

Next year's games will still be cross-platform with PS3 and X360, which only match up to 2007 PC specs. Even Crysis 2.

*edit*

This post has been edited by Aggroboy: Oct 6 2009, 04:56 PM