I'm looking to build a new PC for my wife. The budget would be $900 give or take. She mainly plays WoW, so anything that could run that decently would work. All help is appreciated.
What needs to fit that budget? A case and everything that goes inside of it? Or do you also need new peripherals (monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc.)?
Also, do you need it right now, or are you open to waiting a few weeks? There have been some very recent video card launches that are hard to find in stock at MSRP at the moment, but they'll be there soon, and that's what you'd want to get.
I can have a look at prices tomorrow, but unless we can fit a GTX 1070 without otherwise ruining the build, it might mean you only get something like 2/3 of the GPU that you'd have gotten by waiting a bit.
Would an extra $200 on the budget alleviate that situation? She uses her computer for other hobbies as well so that's the reason for the urgency. Thanks for the help so far Quizzical.
Basically, the situation is this. If you want to buy a new video card now, you want one of the new generation (Radeon RX 400 series or GeForce 1000 series), as they're far superior to the previous generation in the performance you can get at just about any price point. The problem is that the cards are so new that they're still in short supply, and the GeForce GTX 1070 (currently $430 on New Egg, as compared to an MSRP of $380) is the only one you can reliably find at anything remotely near MSRP.
If you try to fit a $430 card into a $900 budget, you really have to cut back elsewhere in the build and get other parts inferior to what you'd hope for in a $900 build. If you're willing to potentially go as high as $1100 to definitely have room for a GTX 1070 without otherwise wrecking the build, you fix the problem. And we might still be able to stay close to $900, depending on what shows up in stock. New Egg has a GTX 1060 for $280 at the moment, but who knows how long that will last.
Anyway, it's getting late now, so I'm going to log off for the night. I'll check back tomorrow. You probably want at least a Core i5-6600 and a good SSD on a $900 budget, and no cheap junk parts elsewhere in the build.
I think we need to know her other hobbies. WoW isn't a demanding game. You can probably get by with an IGP. More so in January when the next generation APUs are released. Easily a sub $500 build if its just to play WoW and things less demanding than it. However, if the hobbies are more demanding it may be better to get different hardware more geared towards that. Also would be good to know the monitors resolution as that will play a role in what hardware will be necessary. A 1080p monitor requires much less resources than a 2160p monitor.
I'm looking to build a new PC for my wife. The budget would be $900 give or take. She mainly plays WoW, so anything that could run that decently would work. All help is appreciated.
Like Cleffy pointed out, $900 is way more than WoW demands.
The only problem with building a computer right now is supply shortage of new video cards, but they are worth the wait - better value for money.
So the question is, can you wait(hard to say how long, a month maybe?) or you need something now?
Do not listen to people who cannot suggest you a build to play WoW for $900 because it is limiting budget...that is insanity.
That is $556 for somewhat a core computer build. Does not mean it is set in stone - you may drop HDD if 480GB SSD provides enough storage capacity, you may pick different case but it is still kind of a base lane for $900 budget computer.
From there, it depends whether you also need OS license($100) and when you need the computer to be delivered - GPU($200) supply issues mentioned.
That's an older generation video card, but prices have dropped, so it's not too bad. It's not as good as the Radeon RX 470 that should show up soon and probably be cheaper, too, but it's not bad. It's easy to upgrade a video card later without touching the rest of the system. The video card is more than double the recommended card for WoW: Legion, so it should run WoW well.
There's a 480 GB SSD, but no hard drive there. That assumes that 480 GB will be enough for you. If you're not using anywhere near that on your current computer, it will be fine. If you run out of space, it's easy to add more storage later, or you could just get a hard drive up front.
There's also no optical drive. You can probably swipe one from a previous computer to install Windows. Alternatively, it's cheap to just buy a new one, especially if you use CDs or DVDs for other things:
It's probably easier nowadays to just put Windows Install media on a thumb drive than bother with an optical drive. The ISO downloader from Microsoft includes a tool to make bootable Flash media. You can even buy a thumb drive pre-installed if you need the license.
Also, if I were doing a build now, I would just put a current-gen video card on backorder if I couldn't find it in stock, and order the rest.
You can get the computer up and running on IGP, which will run WoW on about Medium settings (my son plays this way), the drop in the video card when it shows up a week or so later.
Also, if I were doing a build now, I would just put a current-gen video card on backorder if I couldn't find it in stock, and order the rest.
You can get the computer up and running on IGP, which will run WoW on about Medium settings (my son plays this way), the drop in the video card when it shows up a week or so later.
That's not what I'd personally do, but neither would I criticize someone else for doing so. And in the original poster's situation, it makes considerable sense.
I'm usually against partial builds because you either create a temporary frankenrig mixing old and new parts, which can create various problems, or else you don't find out if the new parts work until it's too late to return them. But your approach avoids both of those problems.
That's a little higher price than I was hoping for, but it's still a good value at that price compared to what else is in stock. Wait a few weeks and maybe you can get the same thing for $20 or $30 less, but if you just want to finish the computer, you likely don't want to wait.
Comments
Also, do you need it right now, or are you open to waiting a few weeks? There have been some very recent video card launches that are hard to find in stock at MSRP at the moment, but they'll be there soon, and that's what you'd want to get.
If you try to fit a $430 card into a $900 budget, you really have to cut back elsewhere in the build and get other parts inferior to what you'd hope for in a $900 build. If you're willing to potentially go as high as $1100 to definitely have room for a GTX 1070 without otherwise wrecking the build, you fix the problem. And we might still be able to stay close to $900, depending on what shows up in stock. New Egg has a GTX 1060 for $280 at the moment, but who knows how long that will last.
Anyway, it's getting late now, so I'm going to log off for the night. I'll check back tomorrow. You probably want at least a Core i5-6600 and a good SSD on a $900 budget, and no cheap junk parts elsewhere in the build.
The only problem with building a computer right now is supply shortage of new video cards, but they are worth the wait - better value for money.
So the question is, can you wait(hard to say how long, a month maybe?) or you need something now?
Do not listen to people who cannot suggest you a build to play WoW for $900 because it is limiting budget...that is insanity.
Here is a build made of currently available parts:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117564
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157706
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817207037
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820232250
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820228143
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236339
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163254
That is $556 for somewhat a core computer build. Does not mean it is set in stone - you may drop HDD if 480GB SSD provides enough storage capacity, you may pick different case but it is still kind of a base lane for $900 budget computer.
From there, it depends whether you also need OS license($100) and when you need the computer to be delivered - GPU($200) supply issues mentioned.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117562
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128863
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820232241
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151119
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147153
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820228143
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131687
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832416892
That's an older generation video card, but prices have dropped, so it's not too bad. It's not as good as the Radeon RX 470 that should show up soon and probably be cheaper, too, but it's not bad. It's easy to upgrade a video card later without touching the rest of the system. The video card is more than double the recommended card for WoW: Legion, so it should run WoW well.
There's a 480 GB SSD, but no hard drive there. That assumes that 480 GB will be enough for you. If you're not using anywhere near that on your current computer, it will be fine. If you run out of space, it's easy to add more storage later, or you could just get a hard drive up front.
There's also no optical drive. You can probably swipe one from a previous computer to install Windows. Alternatively, it's cheap to just buy a new one, especially if you use CDs or DVDs for other things:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106393
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832588528&cm_re=Windows_10_USB_drive-_-32-588-528-_-Product
You can get the computer up and running on IGP, which will run WoW on about Medium settings (my son plays this way), the drop in the video card when it shows up a week or so later.
After thinking about it, I believe we are going to grab everything and wait on the card as you guys mentioned. Thanks for the insight.
I'm usually against partial builds because you either create a temporary frankenrig mixing old and new parts, which can create various problems, or else you don't find out if the new parts work until it's too late to return them. But your approach avoids both of those problems.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814137024
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202229
That's a little higher price than I was hoping for, but it's still a good value at that price compared to what else is in stock. Wait a few weeks and maybe you can get the same thing for $20 or $30 less, but if you just want to finish the computer, you likely don't want to wait.