Breakfast topic: Dream Machine
by Josh Owens 
Dec 8th 2005 at 9:00AM
Our topic today is the machines we use and how well
they handle WoW. The conversation was spurred on by one of my coworkers; he is
thinking of building a new machine and he wants to build something that will
make the game look stunning on his 19 inch LCD. Naturally it turned into a heated debate of how much the processor mattered vs. the need for a lot of memory and a high-end video card. AMD vs. Intel; NVIDIA vs. ATI; the debate was endless. I personally game on an Asus Z80k laptop w/ an AMD 3200+ 64bit processor, ATI 9700 Pro Mobility, and a decent 1GB of PC3200 RAM. The coworker looking to build a new machine was interested in the Dell XPS and the Alienware offerings.
What hardware are you using that works especially well for WoW, or if you could build your dream machine, what would be in it?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Tips
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
pulsedrive Dec 8th 2005 9:35AM
stay WELL away from Alienware and Dell for gaming machines. Particularly Alienware. I personally purchased an Alienware laptop a few years ago and was VERY displeased with their service. I would build the machine yourself if that is something you are comfortable with, because you will end up with a MUCH better machine MUCH cheaper than buying it from a 3rd party like Dell, Alienware, or Falcon NW.
My personal machine that I have pretty much finished building is as follows:
Athlon 64 X2 4600+
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum
2 GB Corsair XMS Dual Channel RAM
160 Seagate SATA HDD
Sony DVDRW
BFG 7800GTX OC 256MB PCI-e
Dell 2005FPW 20" Wide Screen monitor (LCD)
One thing to note, once I got this thing built a while back before I made some upgrades to it. It was running 1GB and an Athlon 3500+ at the time, I used Alienware's little "compare my computer to Alienware's" tool and the cheapest one from them that matched mine's performance was about 4000 dollars, mine had cost about half that.
Dr.Funbags Dec 8th 2005 9:38AM
I've got an AMD 3500+ 64, 1GB dual channel 3200 DDR, ATI 9600xt 256mb. The game runs awesome without a hitch - however next upgrade is a 19" LCD (still got a 17" crt - youch) then a newer Video card possibly next year.
Tom Dec 8th 2005 10:03AM
PowerMac G5 (dual 2.0 GHz), 1.5 GB RAM, 23" Cinema display
It RAWKS
jennie Dec 8th 2005 9:52AM
The Dell XPS systems are nice; we had several at work. I completely echo #1 though - stay away from Alienware. Overpriced, and the laptop I bought from them broke within a month, was repaired badly, broke again, broke again (out of warranty) and left me with an expensive-looking doorstop. Thank goodness for insurance.
illovich Dec 8th 2005 10:13AM
I'm currently waiting for the current parts:
ASPIRE| XNAVIGTOR 500W CASE -- $154.00
ASUS A8N-SLI NF4 Motherboard -- $122.00
AMD 64 |3500+ ATHLON 64 939 RT CPU -- $201.00
2x 512Mx2|RW D400 ram -- $137.98
2x XFX GeForce 6800GT 256MB PVT45GUDF3 -- $558.00
PLEXTOR PX-740A DVD BURNER $59.99
320GB WD|7200rpm Hard Drive -- 131.00
FD 1.44MB|MITSUMI FA404A/404M (floppy/smart card reader) $21.99)
CREATIVE|X-Fi Xtreme SOUND CARD -- $119.99
This should actually be more than enough to run WoW, as I currently run it either on a 1.4Ghz Athlon with a Radeon er, 9800? or on my Apple G4 laptop, and it runs fine on both (a little choppy on the laptop, but hey... it doesn't have the greatest video card).
emosewami Dec 8th 2005 10:28AM
Wow, all your nice machines make mine look a little lame... :)
I got an AMD Athlon 3000+, ASUS motherboard (model slips me at the moment..) 1Gig PC3200 RAM, 80GB Hard Drive, GeForce FX5700LE 256mb AGP, and a 21" CRT monitor.
But, that computer was free courtesy of Microsoft, so I'm not complaining!
boneyard Dec 8th 2005 2:09PM
if you can, do it yourself or let a trusted friend / familymember do it, usually cheaper, better quality components and better tailored to your needs.
pulsedrive Dec 8th 2005 11:28AM
#5 why are you paying 558 for 2 6800 gts when you could be getting ONE 7800GTX that will smoke both of them for about 500 or less?
Mig! Dec 8th 2005 11:30AM
Its funny, me and my wife both use 12" G4 iBooks, that the Apple reps said would not work with WoW. They worke beautifully. Compared to the $4k DELL XPS I had before, I really see no difference besides the lag at Ironforge.
kaygee Dec 8th 2005 12:00PM
Runs just fine on both...
Compy1: MSI K8T NEO, Athlon64 3000, 19" Samsung 191T, 1GB Corsair, 120GB WD SATA, ATI Radeon 9600Pro...
Compy2: 15" Apple Powerbook, 1GB RAM
syco Dec 8th 2005 12:25PM
Heh. I'm running a
Athlon XP 2600+(barton)
Radeon 8500
1GB of SDRAM
90GB Hitachi Hard Drive
If I had a dream machine I'd be playing this on a PowerMacG5. Only because I want a mac, I realize they aren't exactly optimal for gaming. If we are talking strickly x86, then I'd probably put whatever 939 chip I could afford in a good Dual DDR motherboard, a GB of ram (at least), and would probably set up RAID, striping at least if not full Raid 5. I don't pay enough attention to current graphics card trends to know what's "hot" right now, but I tend to stick with ATI cards. I'm not really a PC gamer, though. Except WoW.
Sonburn Dec 8th 2005 12:43PM
WoW sure looks good on my 20.1" wide-screen Dell 2005FPW
Tyler Love Dec 8th 2005 1:38PM
15" Apple Powerbook G4
1.67ghz, 1gig ram, 128mb vram
WoW is pretty crappy on macs because of the lack of DX9 since WoW was developed more for DX9 than OpenGL. But I still get better performance than most, and I don't have to deal with Windows
vectorelement Dec 8th 2005 2:35PM
Originally a 733Mhz PowerMac G4 (purchased in Nov. 2001), it has since been upgraded to:
Motorola 7455 G4 processor running at 1.47Ghz
1.25GB PC133 SDRAM
128MB ATI Radeon 9000 Pro Mac Edition
Dell 2005FPW 20-inch widescreen Flat Panel monitor
I thought that I'd have decreased fps since I got my new monitor (bigger screen, more image to render), but the game seems to play the same @ 1680x1050. I get an avg. 15 fps during normal gameplay. Maybe 10fps in WSG and AB. AV is totally unplayable; 1-2 fps during battle. Despite the ram and decent video card, the bottleneck has to be the RAM speed and the system's Front Side Bus, which is 133MHz.
vectorelement Dec 8th 2005 6:29PM
I see quite a few people here have that Dell 2005FPW monitor, including myself. It's great isn't it?
Bo Link Dec 8th 2005 2:45PM
I'm rockin' WoW with my Mac mini and it's all good. Yes, the resolution, draw distance, textures, etc., etc. all look like ass. Does it's not that big of deal to me? I'm having fun with it anyway.
John Naked Dec 8th 2005 4:54PM
Glad to see some Mac users reppin'. Oh god. I said reppin'.
I've got a dual 2ghz G5 right now. Pretty much the basic package with a little extra RAM.
My dream? Take the new quad G5. Select all those $1k+ extra options and a 30inch monitor. Ship it to me free of charge.
That is. Until the Mactels come out.
syco Dec 8th 2005 7:39PM
I'm terribly upset with Apple for selling out and going x86. PowerPC is a fine archecture, and Apple was the last bastion of hope against a Desktop x86opoly. Don't get me wrong, for an x86 based chip, Athlon 64's are awesome, but PPC's are at least if not more awesome.
Seriously, INTEL?!? The hell are they thinking.
KellyDot, Sookie, kelly, Hepher Dec 9th 2005 3:51PM
w00t #17!!!! haha I was thinking about saying the same thing!
I have a 1.8 GHz G5 iMac 768 mb of ram
I love it! It runs great even in IF, I fall in the hole far less than my husband who has a mac mini LOL.
Mike Dec 23rd 2005 11:00AM
I run WoW on a PoS :)
Athlon XP 1800+
Abit KR7A-RAID
384 RAM
Radeon 9500 Pro (maybe 9700?)
Soundblaster Audigy Gamer
Lite-on CD-RW drive
Although I'm currently planning my next build which will hopefully incorporate an Athlon 64, PCIe GeForce, and at least 1 GB of RAM. And maybe a SATA hard drive.