going to build a desktop, need advice/tips

[Sam]

ok, so.. i want to build a desktop for world of warcraft mainly. i'll use it to surf the net a bit and write some papers, but the REASON i'm building one is for WoW. I don't need 1tb of space, blueray or fancy stuff like that.. i just want to slightly overbuild a desktop for a game that is, admittedly, not that hardware intensive. as i understand it, the biggest thing you can do to boost performance with WoW is upgrading the cpu. lots of ram and a killer video card are mostly unnecessary, right? also, i want to keep it in a small package so it can travel, that's why the micro-atx case and board..
here's what i'm thinking so far, and just using newegg for links:

Apex micro-atx case: nothing special, big handle on top and $25
ASRock motherboard:supports all the newer AMD chips and all flavors of DDR2. plus it has a PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot, which is rare for a micro-atx board. $55
Radeon HD 4650 video card: low profile, 512mb, 128 bit, GDDR2, 600mhz core clock, 320 stream processors, blah blah blah.. only $55 also.
Corsair 4gb DDR2 800 ram (2x2gb): dual-channel, 1.8v $90
AMD Phenom II X3 black edition: 2.8ghz, 95w, AM3 socket (MB supports this) and eight shades of awesome for $120

add a hdd, optical drive, power supply, whatever network card and an OK monitor (acer 19" widescreen 1440x900 $120) and i am right under $600 shipped. is this overkill? good enough? is there any reason the get a higher resolution monitor? should i step up to a quad core? i don't play any other games..

thanks in advance!

[Sam]

23 views and no suggestions-- does that mean you guys think it's an ok setup? or you are like me and are not really sure..?

[wuyanks]

i would get ddr3 RAM (and more than 4gb) , and if you game get a better video card (1gb ram+). you may also need a better power supply (PSU) than comes with the case. you may need a different motherboard too to support DDR3 RAM (not familiar with the one you chose)

but... you seem tech savvy, if you're going for budget your setup is okay

[mth04]

I would want a Mb that handles 16gb of ram or more and use ddr3 also. Also a graphice card with atleast 1gb dedicated ram on it.

[RinTinTigger]

If he is not running a 64bit OS no need to have more than 4gb ram.
Also a phenom is needing at least a mainboard supporting Socket Am2+ / AM3
AM3 boards NEED to run DDR3




I suggest a mainboard with Socket AM2 (cheap and good)
a AMD Windsor 6000+ Processor
4GB ddr2 ram (its cheap and enuf for wow)
A harddiskdrive from samsung with 7500RPM and 1TB
a 500 watt power supply
a value grafixcard with good performance is the Radeon HD 4890
and a Jon Doe case

Pick an Windows 7 OS

DONE!

If you have any questions, ask, i am an IT Staff personal

[Sam]

i would get ddr3 RAM (and more than 4gb) , and if you game get a better video card (1gb ram+). you may also need a better power supply (PSU) than comes with the case. you may need a different motherboard too to support DDR3 RAM (not familiar with the one you chose)

but... you seem tech savvy, if you're going for budget your setup is okay

This was another similar question I had.. I was under the impression that there are still some latency issues with DDR3 ram. I forgot where I read that, but I guess my real question is this: is there any real benefit to DDR3 ram over DDR2?

And to clarify, I'm not a REAL gamer.. this system will likely never see any game other than WoW, so I don't need it to be able to play crisis.. I seriously doubt I need more than 2gb of any kind of ram, I'm just trying to overbuild it a little. Do I really need a better video card? I was worried about that..

[RinTinTigger]

See my post up over there!

4GB of ram ddr2 is enouf for your needs and its real cheap, as kingstons only costs 15€ per 2GB

[ericwiz]

If this is mainly for WOW then multicore is not that important. What you want is the fastest cores. So, a 3.0 core will perform better than a 2.8, for instance.

Also, 1GB video card would be a plus. The more memory the better your video settings can be.

[RinTinTigger]

If this is mainly for WOW then multicore is not that important. What you want is the fastest cores. So, a 3.0 core will perform better than a 2.8, for instance.

Also, 1GB video card would be a plus. The more memory the better your video settings can be.

Thats why i said on buying AMD WIndsor 6000+
it has 2x 3.0 GHZ ....best he can get and cheapest.

[wuyanks]

i would get ddr3 RAM (and more than 4gb) , and if you game get a better video card (1gb ram+). you may also need a better power supply (PSU) than comes with the case. you may need a different motherboard too to support DDR3 RAM (not familiar with the one you chose)

but... you seem tech savvy, if you're going for budget your setup is okay

This was another similar question I had.. I was under the impression that there are still some latency issues with DDR3 ram. I forgot where I read that, but I guess my real question is this: is there any real benefit to DDR3 ram over DDR2?

And to clarify, I'm not a REAL gamer.. this system will likely never see any game other than WoW, so I don't need it to be able to play crisis.. I seriously doubt I need more than 2gb of any kind of ram, I'm just trying to overbuild it a little. Do I really need a better video card? I was worried about that..

DDR3 is the new standard, especially for 64bit OS (as rintin stated). i would get a top-of-the-line mobo, so you can upgrade to the newest components later on.... ddr3 may have more latency now because it is relatively new, but your pc will be worlds faster....

also if you want to watch HD movies on your pc, and multitask, get the better graphics card.