Econo Gaming rig Build

[Renigade]

I got my girlfriend into World of Warcraft. right now she is playing on my laptop..

Need suggestions for Motherboard and CPU

Looking to spend no more then $150 for Mobo CPU and memory. would like to keep it around $100. USED ok but leary of buying on EBAY.

Do I go AMD or Intel? at $100-150 what would get her the best performance?

[bobby898]

Well for 100-150 you definitely need to go amd, there is no way you will get a half decent intel for that price. Luckily world of warcraft isnt a damnding game so fortunately you will be able to run it on onboard graphics, which means you wont have to exceed your budget on a dedicated graphics card.

The ram is easy, all you need is 2gb ddr2 800mhz, nothing exciting but it is cheap and 2gb is the absolute minimum these days. this should come to about $60.

Next you need a cpu. A AMD Athlon II X2 215 is a good, cheap, speedy chip. At 2.7ghz this will easily fulfil your warcraft needs. However like the ram, dual cores are minimums now as even running the latest operating systems now stresses a single core too much. This cpu will come to about $60.

With a small budget there really isnt enough money to buy a decent motherboard, as the ram and cpu is what will give you the most performance, therefore something cheap such as a m2n68-am se2 which comes to $50 is nothing special but it will at least do the job.

This has stretched your budget by $20, however it is a tight budget and you will definitely get good performance out of it. Hope this helps.

BTW do girls play warcraft?

[MawnteyCarlo]

I've got a dell mobo and a p4 @ 3ghz 2mb cache and 4gigs of ram... it ran warcraft... with xp. Then i got a 3870 and could max the settings and play comfortably. So with a dual core on windows 7 with a built in chip... you should be alright.... although you don't think 2gb ram is cutting it close?

[bobby898]

although you don't think 2gb ram is cutting it close?

Nah 2gb will be fine for playing warcraft, it probably will rarely exceed 1.2gb even when running windows 7 but you have to remember even if this rig will be built primarily for playing warcraft, it will probably will have some everyday use on it too. And a single core cpu will run no problem, but there is a huge jump between a single core and a dual core, simply one is used to run the os and the next is used to run the apps you want it too, if that makes it easier to visualise.

[Renigade]

All I need is mobo CPU. & mem. I have a 4870 2 gb vapor x card.

[MercuryDoun]

Meh?

 

MoBo - $50 Shipped

 

Memory, 2gb DDR3-1333, one dimm - $37 shipped

 

CPU, 2.9Ghz Dual-core - $58 shipped

 

Total = $145 shipped, no taxes

 

2.9 Ghz dual-core, 2GB of DDR3-1333 easily upgradeable to 4GB when you get a spare $37 to run in dual channel, and a mobo that so long as it isnt DoA will work, clearly not the best, but will serve its purpose. Add to it your 4870... yeah, pretty sure this will play WoW on ultra settings.

 

If you REALLY REALLY wanna be cheap there is a $33 2.7Ghz single core for the AM3 socket here, there is a slight chance you can unlock the disabled core and get a dual-core for cheap. But these chips dont have a very high chance to unlock and the above mother board is pretty crappy, i would go ahead and say your chances of unlocking are slim to none, but there is a chance.

[NearlyEpic]

Meh?

 

MoBo - $50 Shipped

 

Memory, 2gb DDR3-1333, one dimm - $37 shipped

 

CPU, 2.9Ghz Dual-core - $58 shipped

 

Total = $145 shipped, no taxes

 

I can vouch for that motherboard, I have it and it actually overclocks great. Only problem I ever had with it is that i couldn't get it to go past 3.5GHz

 

Also go with the 240 and save 8 bucks.

[El_Capitan]

FYI, I'm selling a used and RMA returned GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard for $45 if you're interested. I'll be testing it for stability when I get home today.

Edited September 28, 2010 by El_Capitan