PC spec - how would it perform?Follow

Sorry to post this here, but I'm a bit of a "I have no idea" when it comes to PC technicalities, and I don't know anyone better IRL.

I'm hopefully going to be ordering a new PC at some point, almost entirely because my current laptop is not great for WoW (is it sad that I'm spending so much money just to play one game better?). Obviously I don't want to spend £500+ and then find out that what I've bought isn't an improvement.

This is a spec that I'm currently considering:

Processor (CPU)
INTEL® PENTIUM® D 820 (2 X 2.8GHz) 800MHz FSB/2 x1MB L2 Cache

Memory (RAM)
1024 MB CORSAIR DDR2 667MHz (2x512MB)

Motherboard
ASUS® P5LD2 SE/C: DUAL DDR2, S-ATA, x16 VGA, 3 PCI/3 PCI-E

Operating System
MICROSOFT WINDOWS® MCE 2005 (inc. Genuine CD & license)

USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS (4 REAR + 2 FRONT) AS STANDARD

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
80GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7200rpm)

1st CD/DVD Drive
18x +/- DVD WRITER (8x +/- Dual Lyr) (5x DVD-RAM) (40x CD-RW)

Graphics Card
256MB GEFORCE 7600GS PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT

Sound Card
INTEGRATED 6 CHANNEL (5.1) AUDIO

Modem
56KBPS INTERNAL V92 MODEM

Power Supply & cooling
STANDARD 350W PSU with CASE FAN

Is anyone more knowledgeable able to tell me how this would perform? Essentially I'm looking to be able to appreciate the amazingness of WoW graphics and be lag free in cities, raids, big BGs, etc.

Bearing in mind that this pretty much hits the top of my budget, is there anything I really should improve on, anything I could easily downgrade to free up money to improve on something else, etc etc?

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

It's pretty good for a laptop, but not anything exciting either. The thing that I really don't like is the CPU is a Pentium D. Those are the worst CPUs when it comes to laptops. If you are going to get a new laptop, at least try and find one that has an Intel Core Duo or a Intel Core 2 Duo in it. Both are also dual core processors, but they are much more efficient in design. Your battery life and internal temp will be much better using one of those.

I think it's a great purchase and my desktop has similar specs and performs in WoW great with little to no lag except when the server is being troublesome. But why a laptop? If you don't need a computer to travel much, I would consider a desktop that would give you much better performance for your money. Especially with games, I wouldn't find a laptop keyboard near as comfortable as a desktop keyboard.

The computer isn't bad, although the parts are a bit outdated. Also I would recommend getting 2gb of RAM. It makes all the difference in the world.

Oops. My mistake. I thought you said you were buying a laptop.

Yeah I agree that the specs are meh in regards to what you could get for the same amount of money. Intel Core 2's are the one to get and I know I seen some of those for about $200. I also agree that you should get at least 2 gigs of RAM at least DDR2 800. Power supply is also weak for a desktop. You should at least get a 500W power supply and make sure it has at least 26 Amps to the 12V rail. I like most everything else, but if you want to play something other than WoW, I would look into getting a much better video card. Not that the 7600 is bad, but there are better. If you are only going to play WoW on it, then you'll be able to play fine with even the specs you had listed on Max settings. But if you are going to put that much into a new rig, I would at least think about other functions outside of WoW I would want to use it for. When I built mine last year, I built it in mind of playing HL2 and FEAR along side of WoW along with doing some digital editing.

Edited, Dec 13th 2006 10:00am by OnimenoJason

With regard to the RAM... the BC requirements state 512Mb minimum and 1Gb preferred... so you'll be ok.. not great, but it should perform fine and the graphics card should handle the game well. I would look into a better processor if I were you but if that's the limit of what you can afford, then to answer your question, yes... this set up should run the game just fine.

Edited, Dec 13th 2006 2:48pm by SDWarrior

Edited, Dec 13th 2006 4:18pm by SDWarrior

LoL your funny, my old game box is almost the exact specs he listed above. had the 2.4 vs the 2.8cpu with 1G ram, and that vid card and i would get some major lag around the AH and banks, specifically in Org.

most other places i had no system side lag, i would from time to time have issues near water though until i fixed some settings in the display and i was NOT able to run with full graphics setting.

I'm using about the same setup

AMD 3500+ 2.2ghz
1gig ram
Nvidia 7600 GT OC

Run the game on max settings, 1280x1024 (I think this was the setting I used) resolution and in Stormwind/Ironforge my FPS would never drop below 40.

you are so funny. there are very few people who post in this forum that know more about computers then i do.


LoL you are the crock, oh and guess what the CPU you listed is FAR FAR FAR better then the CPU the OP has or my old game rig has.