I’m in the market for a new desktop. I found this Dell XPS 8930 on the Office Depot website. I work at OD, so I get a 20% employee discount. I’ll be using it for various other tasks, but is this good for WoW?
https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-desktop-computers/xps-tower-special-edition/spd/xps-8930-se-desktop
what specs?
Also, price?
Typically, I’m a hard pass on major OEM gaming pc’s due to proprietary issues and general lack of quality parts used. They will skimp on a critical part to save themselves $.25.
The i7 processor…on sale atm for $799.99, and with my employee discount down to around $640, which is in my ideal budget range. Reviews are pretty positive (other than fan noise, which is not an issue I’m worried about). “8GB Memory/16GB Intel® Optane™ Memory, 1TB Hard Drive, Windows® 10 Home,” although I don’t know what the 2 different memory specs are referring to.
8gb main memory (going to be single channel, prob)
the 16gb optane memory is linked to your 1tb hard drive to act as a cache to speed it up. It’s kind of turning it into a hybrid sshd.
Personally, I wouldn’t get an OEM pc like that for any money. They usually have bad PSUs, bad motherboards, bad memory configuration, bad physical case dimensions, bad cooling, and bad proprietary crap that you can never upgrade properly later. Any savings you yield would be lost in “fixing” those things.
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What video card do you have? eg Geforce or Radeon. If it’s going to be an Intel iGPu you’ll have problems with WoW running smoothly on high graphics.
Agree with Sal, I would suggest start a saving account and put towards it when you can until you end up with about $1200 ish and then you can build your own with better quality motherboard/PSU/memory/GPU that will last you through several expansions of wow and perhaps other triple A titles.
You can get away with about $600 for a decent 1080p experience; or $1000 for a great one.
I’ll post a pcpp list later
I have zero experience building computers. Can you recommend any sites/companies that build them? I know MMO-Champion occasionally post various builds, so I might use that info to have someone build one for me.
Also, I don’t play any other games besides WoW (I have Guild Wars 2 but don’t play but a few times a year just for the looks). I would be using the computer for music production, so I would want something that can handle digital studios (I have Ableton 9 and nTrack).
Thanks for the input, btw.
I am not certain what kind of hardware requirements those music apps use, or whether they prefer core count or core speed, or if a stand alone sound card might be useful for you, or if you may want a high speed NVMe SSD as a scratch drive.
If you are hesitant to build your own PC I recommend a custom builder, not an oem like Dell/HP.
Look up CyberpowerPC, ibuypower, nzxt
Building a PC isn’t really hard, there are countless channels on youtube that could teach you, (bitwit, Jayz2cents, linus tech tips, austin evans) to name a few. But as for sites that build/ or have prebuilt machines, NZXT has their BLD line where you pick parts and stuff, and they build it for you. Then there is ibuypower pc, and Cyberpower pc, as well. I’ll catch crap for recommending them, but i’ve priced out the parts in the last two companies, and they aren’t that bad. (Building your own is still the best)
But getting back to your original computer option, I would say be cautious. I’ve upgraded prebuilts before (even SFF ones) and you really do have a headache with regards to what the company skimps on. And i’ve upgraded prebuilt Dells, they are no fun. So if you HAVE to go with a prebuilt, go with a company that actually builds gaming PC’s (like the ones I mentioned above)
Thanks. I’m looking at the 3 that have been mentioned. I’m also looking at the Vanquish 7 on Digital Storm’s website right now, and it seems to match up to what I need pretty well. The “Good” is in my ideal price range, but the “Better” seems closer to what would suit me best. Thoughts?
Wow…Digital Storm is WAAY overpriced, and they are poorly configured. The “Good” system uses a 320 board, which lacks features and overclocking, and they also chose to use single channel memory, which is terrible for the integrated graphics. Additionally, it only contains a slow 1TB hard drive. The “Better” systems till chooses to use single channel slow memory, and an outdated motherboard. It also lacks any type of high speed storage which is unacceptable for 2018.
“Good” $699 Build it yourself cost with better parts:
PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/vZKfjy
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/vZKfjy/by_merchant/
CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2400G 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor ($158.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI - B450 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard ($114.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($129.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Team - L5 LITE 240 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($29.99 @ Newegg Business)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($44.85 @ OutletPC)
Case: NZXT - H500 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - EVO Edition 620 W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.90 @ B&H)
Total: $608.60
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-11 14:22 EST-0500
This is uses a better, more future proof motherboard, double the RAM (and faster), and also adds a high speed storage for your OS and WoW.
“Better” $999 Build it yourself cost with better parts:
PCPartPicker part list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/vWdBJ8
Price breakdown by merchant: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/vWdBJ8/by_merchant/
CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor ($159.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI - B450 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard ($114.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($129.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Team - L5 LITE 3D 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($58.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: XFX - Radeon RX 580 8 GB GTS Black Core Edition Video Card ($201.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT - H500 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - EVO Edition 620 W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($59.90 @ B&H)
Total: $915.63
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-11 14:27 EST-0500
This uses double, faster RAM, includes 1tb high speed storage for OS/games, and double the amount of mass storage, as well as a GPU that is about twice as fast.
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Very much appreciate the input, Sal. I am going to look into your suggestions and maybe venture into the build-it-yourself arena.