Saving up for a new computer, suggestions

[shady23]

I bought this desktop back in 2006 a Compaq with a 120g hard drive. When i play wow i have to play on the lowest settings, im dying to play D3 since ive been waiting so many years for it. Problem is this computer wont be able to run it.

I cant afford anything too expensive. What would be the cheapest but yet effiecent for gaming and internet browsing of course. Also desktop or laptop?

Thanks in advance

[zillam]

Here's the desktop that I'm running.

My box is a Dell XPS 8300 ($599.99) with an i5 2320 and 6GB of DDR3. The power supply is the stock 450W PSU. The installed PSU has the required 75W 6-pin PCI-E connector that’s needed for the video card upgrade that I selected (After Market - Amazon). The video card before the upgrade was a Radeon HD 6450. I upgraded to a XFX Radeon HD 6770 model HD677XZNLC. I picked up the 6770 for $109 on Amazon, shop around as there are deals to be found.

WoW looks great on Ultra and this system handled the D3 beta. I'll see how the release looks here in about 24 hours If it looks good and plays good, that's good enough for me. But if you care about frame rates my average fps is between 58-60. A busy day in Orgrimmar is 48-50. Lowest I've seen it drop, 42 fps.

In some of the reviews for the XFX 6770 people complained about the card running loud and hot. I have not experienced these issues. My XPS is my media PC so a noise fan or messed up video after a full day of constant use would be noticeable.

Hope that helps!

[shady23]

Thats something ill look into, you cant beat 600 bucks for a good computer. Running WoW on ultra is just a dream to me right now, running on poor and fair i feel like im missing alot of the experience although i still enjoy the game. Thanks for that

[zillam]

Update: Diablo III runs with everything on High res. No problems!

[papabones]

Whatever you choose, if you're looking at a gaming computer, should not include a Doghouse System. I bought their top of the line Mobius TL and I added features to it like a Solid state drive. This crashed more in the first few months than a demolition derby. Of course I was lead through the insulting "you're not ventilating properly". After 6 months of sending it back and hours on the phone with support. I discovered the problem myself. Doghouse had added my SSD with Windows 7 OS in bay 2 with the standard 500 Gb in bay 1, also with Windows 7 OS.
To make a long story short, I have installed another SSD in bay 1 w/ Windows 7 OS and disabled the Windows 7 OS on the 500 Gb in bay 2 myself. Now the battery is falling out every time I move it so after one year I'm looking for another gaming computer. I can promise you one thing, I would not waste my money on another year long nightmare like Doghouse Systems

[zillam]

Thanks for taking the time to pass along this info papabones. I stopped building my own systems a couple years ago and had considered Doghouse.

As a followup to my original post... my XFX 6770 started making a hell of a racket. I blew dust off the fan and the noise went away. It's not a good sign that throwing the fan a little off balance makes the fan motor bushing vibrate like crazy. This tells me what part will fail first on the card, its cheep fan.

[lilocowboy]

If you are looking for a system that is already put together I really like the ASUS desktops and laptops we purchased from Bestbuy about 2 years ago. My wife and have 1 both have a desktop for when we are home and a laptop for when we are not and they both work beautifully. I dont remember which desktop models we have because I am not home for a week, but our laptops are ASUS Notebook G73Jh Series (17" Monitor). It has Win 7 (64-bit OS), 6 GB RAM, Intel Core i7 CPU, 600GB HD, & ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 graphics card.