Friends PC $1000 budget

[wedge22]

My friend has asked me to help him out with a new PC build, his only requirement is that it runs WoW maxxed out at 1920x1080. I have included all the details below, my main question is will an AMD A8 suffice to reduce cost as he needs to include an OS in this budget or would an i3 with a seperate GPU be the better option.

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
WoW at maximum graphical settings, photoshop, coreldraw, web browsing, printing, email.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
$1000 including taxes and shipping if required.

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
Canada

4. IF YOU have a brand preference.
No brand preference

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
Optical drive

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.


7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
No plans to overclock

8. WHEN do you plan to build it?
within the next 2 weeks

9. What resolution and settings do you use?
1920x1080

10. Are there any specific technologies you want?
SSD
Window on case
Black case
Red fans LED
If possible red components

[great_big_abyss]

An APU will not be enough to play this game with maxed graphics. You'll probably be better off going with an i3 and integrated GPU. A 7770 or 7850 would be a good choice.

[Galcobar]

Originally Posted by great_big_abyss

You'll probably be better off going with an i3 and integrated GPU. A 7770 or 7850 would be a good choice.

I think you mean discrete GPU?

Tom's Hardware actually ran an entire review on hardware versus Cataclysm. While it's a little out of date, it'll give you a decent idea of what the game requires since it's still running on the same engine. MoP is more demanding, but it's not an entirely new game.

Something to keep in mind is that WoW is far more CPU-dependent than most games.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...ance,2793.html

Though they haven't done a full processor and video card review of Pandaria, Tom's does use WoW in its various CPU and GPU tests.
Most recent CPU comparison: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...k,3348-13.html
Most recent GPU comparison: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...6,3318-12.html

[wedge22]

Thanks for the information guys i will try and squeeze an i3 into the budget along with a 7850, that should work.

[wedge22]

Ok here is the latest parts list, please let me know what you think to it.

[great_big_abyss]

I'm not at home just yet, but when I do get there, I'll take a better look. I can trek you right away that you would be better of with a7850 or a 7870 than A 660

[wedge22]

Thanks I switched it to an ATi card.

[Bond007]

Solid overall. I would switch the power supply to a antec, seasonic, or xfx >500watt(ocz arent that great). Wait for some boxing day sales and squeeze a 120-128gb version of an ssd in and your set. Personally I wouldn't bother with a 64gb ssd and I would opt to put those few $ to an i5 (on sale you can get i5 3450/3470 for $175 or so).

[wedge22]

Thanks, the SSD is just for the OS and in my experience they make a huge difference.

I had the same PSU for a long time and it worked well, its also the only one I could find thats black and red, trying to meet the black and red criteria my friend requested.

[Galcobar]

WoW does eat a pretty big chunk of storage -- up to 30 GB if you don't know how to clean it up a little. That said, I've got a 64GB m4 and have all my speed-sensitive programs (W7 64-bit) including WoW, my pagefile and hibernation file loaded onto it and still have 11 GB free.