5000 USD? Holy shit dude that is overkill at its best, for playing WoW on ultra you'll only need like 800USD at most. Actually, you don't need 5000 dollars for anything right now. If you want I can mash up some basic ~1000$ build, just say if you like AMD or Nvidia, and Intel or AMD and I'll whoop something up

Also, if you're new to building a PC liquid cooling probably isn't the way to go

Nvidia. Intel. (I can actually get employee discount for Intel parts through a connection.)

I realize 5K is pretty overkill, but I wasn't sure by how much. My mom is very, very serious about her WoW playing. XD

I can skip the liquid cooling as I can keep the computer running quiet, she's just not a fan of the noise. That, and she's absolutely terrified of her computer overheating because of some abnormal problems I had with an HP laptop recently.

You could probably build a 600 dollar PC to play WoW at mostly high settings.

>My mom is also adamant that there *must* be a liquid cooling system. She hates the noise from fans.

Just get quiet fans. Some CPU fans can keep an Phenom II X4 at 13 degrees Celsius idle, without making a sound.

I'm considering advising against feeding your mother's habit but that would be rude and presumptuous.

>>2516

Because seriously she's willing to put $5,000 into WoW holy shit

Intel i5 is considered probably the best for gaming atm. AMD is more budget. Building the things is rather easy, the hard part is making sure all the parts go together before you order it.

HEHHAHAHEHAEHAHE
Six hundred bucks will get you a great gaming PC. Mine was 700, and its still playing new games perfectly.

>>2517
At this point, the money is really less than the time she puts into this game. She maintains five level 80s and is working a hunter up as well (it's something like level 48).

But I can't exactly call her on the WoW addiction. That'd be a bit hypocritical of me, considering how much going to an anime convention costs. Same thing with my brother - it would be hypocritical, considering his own fandom-related ventures. And anyone else? She's not willing to listen to.

Besides, it's her money, and it makes her happy.

>>2519
Thanks for the chart!
So, would you suggest the i5 over the i7? Simply for price reasons, compatibility, or would the i7 just be more overkill? Or something else I'm completely forgetting?
I'm sorry, I really am hopelessly new to most of this.

>>2522
The power of the i5 is more than sufficient for any modern gaming needs. In terms of bang for your buck, it is the most you'll need unless you're going budget, in which AMD will suffice. However an i7 may be shiny but it's kind of an unnecessary overkill. If your mom really wants to spend $5000, I'd say go nuts. But an i5 is enough to run a dozen instances of WoW at the same time. The game is not exactly cutting edge tech.

Also liquid cooling is hardly necessary. Modern CPU fans and Case fans are designed to be as quiet as possible. The guide I posted is actually an updated version of one I previously used, but the one piece of advice I would absolutely follow on it is do the research, even if it's just trawling the newegg reviews for customer experiences with the product.

Liquid cooling is hardly something I'd fuck around with if its' your first build. Just make sure the case fans are quiet and that the CPU fan, if you buy aftermarket, is quiet.

Probably the most expensive thing you'll get for this will be the video card. Askal and Moe probably have more experience in this realm than I, but again, do the research. It's not hard, just a tad time consuming. Computers are designed to be put together, the only issue is making sure that the parts are compatible before ordering the online.

Power isn't an issue when you're buying a graphics card for WoW. The real issue here is how loud they are. And modern graphics cards are LOUD. If you want to keep quiet, I'd recommend you get a GTX 460 or Radeon 6850 for gaming, preferably with a non-reference cooler. My GTX 460 has one of MSI's Cyclone coolers on it, and it hardly ever kicks up. Limiting the fan to a lower speed in which it doesn't make noise doesn't do much harm, thanks to the fantastic cooling the card receives.

Radeon HD 6850
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127531

GTX 460 1GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127510

>>Askal and Moe probably have more experience in this realm

HEUAHUHEUAHEUHEUAHEUAHEH PURELY HYPOTHETICAL AND RESSEARCH BASED I ASSURE YOU

Most of your money will be going into silent parts then. I've never done a liquid cooling loop before so I can't advise there and so will stick with air cooling advice. Noctua is the most recommended brand (though their colour scheme is butt ugly) and Scythe following. You'll want after market coolers for both CPU and video card though I'm not up to date on those because I can't afford to don't really care about noise. I'm sure it won't take much to catch up on it though so I'll get back to you on that.

>>2527
Word of warning, though. Those fans and heatsinks are usually HUGE. Make sure and do your research, and be sure that they can fit in your case, or on your motherboard.

I would also ask your mom if she really wants to play the game on high settings or not. I know WoW isn't the epitome of PC gaming graphics, but I'll say that during raids those 24 other players casting spells and what not can lower your fps a bit even with a decent card on mid-high settings. At least it does for my 4870 when I got it 2 years ago.

Also, it doesn't matter how fast the machine is. If you're on satellite internet, she's gonna have times when ping will flip out and her reaction time will be painful. Fast card to process the data or not. Hope you have a good internet connection upload and download speed.

>>2529
She does. She really, really does.
The first PC we had WoW on played between 3 and 14 fps on low settings and low resolution. The current one hits about 50 on mid quality settings. Mostly she really, really wants to play on Ultra with a decent fps.

Her guild tends to only take 10 men on a raid, as well.

>>2532
We're on Time Warner's cable internet, I'm not entirely certain how fast that is, though. And it tends to vary a little bit, depending who else on the block is hogging bandwidth.

>>2534

What resolution is she planning to run it at?

When I was playing I was running at high-max settings with only a few mods. My resolution though was 1920x1080. The only placed I'd really see a drop in fps was the main city and Crystalsong Forest. I spent about 800-900 on my build about 2 years ago though and haven't really added on to it since. However I've been hearing that Cataclysm is going to upgrade the graphics a bit more so that might be something to consider.