The $600-ish WoW Computer
garreth — Sun, 06/29/2008 - 22:41
So, this has been a project of mine since I found out that you can run WoW in Linux at really great performance. It kills me whenever I hear from someone that their computers are crashing or that they're getting 1 frame-per-second (guilty) in raid. I kinda always wished that we had a quick and easy "drop ship" solution that people could just order and - BAM - WoW runs great.
The lowest cost I've been able to get this down to is about $600 (including shipping costs). The main parts from Newegg are here: http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=1...
There are about $45 in mail-in-rebates as well. The case and power supply are here: http://www.amazon.com/MFBK400-Micro-V400PSU-2-5-25-ULT33114/dp/B000FIS91...
By running Ubuntu Linux (http://www.ubuntu.com/products/WhatIsUbuntu/desktopedition), we save about $200. Of course, Linux requires a little bit of elbow-grease to get running, but all the parts are compatible.
I've ordered the first iteration of this system for myself and will be testing how it all goes this week. If people are interested, let me know.
The heatsink I used was 90 x
Pettingzoo — Mon, 06/30/2008 - 11:50The heatsink I used was 90 x 90 x 25 mm. This left JUST enough room to put the mobo tray back into the case, so I would make sure to not go larger than those dimensions.
Actually Garreth the new ATi
Shinzwei — Mon, 06/30/2008 - 09:30Actually Garreth the new ATi HD 4850 512MB stomps all over the 8800GT at virtually the same price. Maybe thats something you would wanna look into.
ATI and Linux do not play
garreth — Mon, 06/30/2008 - 09:44ATI and Linux do not play nice. ATI(amd) has refused to release open versions of their drivers for a long time, so community support for ATI cards in Linux distros is pretty shit. Alternatively, Nvidia releases completely open versions of their drivers and you can plop in any nvidia card and Linux runs flawlessly on it. I'm typing this on a six year old laptop with integrated nvidia graphics and it smokes.
As a side note, I'm going to be attempting to make sure that the RAM and the CPU run perfectly synchronous in a 1:1 ratio. Digging through the Tom's Hardware forums (http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/247648-31-help-understand-memory) I came across this little tidbit of info:
Basically I either need to overclock the 1333 fsb cpu up to 1600 and go with stock frequency on the RAM
OR
Downclock the RAM to 667 to match the frequency of the 1333 CPU.
I think I'll be downclocking the RAM in lieu of overclocking the CPU. This will be a small case with not a lot of airflow, so I don't think too much of an overclock will be an option.
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I'm interested G. Let me
Derchlon — Mon, 06/30/2008 - 08:21I'm interested G. Let me know how it works out.
You dont save $200
starstalker — Mon, 06/30/2008 - 08:12You dont save $200 running ubuntu, you save $99. =)
http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=6956745&WishListTitle=$600
If it looks familiar, that is because PC Gamer did the exact same thing for the upcoming title Crysis: Warhead. Looks like a solid machine to me, and does come with Vista. Whiel your machine also looks to be a great performer, not everyone wants to run WoW on Ubuntu. =)
$596.93
I agonized over that Shuttle
garreth — Mon, 06/30/2008 - 09:08I agonized over that Shuttle case for quite awhile until I read some reviews about how they ended up with the "native" 1333 FSB speed. Basically, it's a hard-locked overclock and leads to some havoc with RAM timings: http://us.shuttle.com/scgforum/tm.aspx?m=189
I was also a little thrown off by the power supply in the shuttle. The 8800 GT card is hands down the best in price-to-performance right now and I just had to get it in this box. Yes, I know that a well built 250w PSU can outperform a crappy 400w PSU, but I read some great reviews about the MicroFly's power supply.
The $100 I save by going with Linux, plus that $45 from mail-in rebates, and a ceiling price of $600 (including all shipping), gets a lot more "oomph" than the PC Gamer box. Can you guys see any hardware I could improve? With the MicroFly case only $60 on amazon right now, I kinda want to buy a few ;
)
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I actually have one of those
Pettingzoo — Mon, 06/30/2008 - 08:10I actually have one of those cases for my old lan-box, and I'll tell you first hand that they really are small. Kinda a pain to work in, but that would have been alleviated with a modular power supply (which is not what comes with the case).
The handle will feel pretty weak to you, but it manages to hold my old computer (though I very rarely actually carried it by the handle). I understand the desire to make this as cheap of a build as possible, which is why you are going with the mini-case (and non modular PSU) to begin with. Be prepared to bundle up all of the extra PSU cables to the right side of your drive bays, looking at the computer from the back. After alot of trial and error, this proved to be the best place to store them.
Oh yeah, the CPU cooler can be a bit of a pain as well. Looking back through what you have listed you don't have a CPU cooler that you are ordering (unless I missed it). You should be cautious of how tall the heatsink is.
Good luck, the cases are sweet once they are set up.
The boxed E8400 comes with a
garreth — Mon, 06/30/2008 - 09:11The boxed E8400 comes with a heatsink-fan. I'll run stock for a bit and see how it goes. Do you know if stock HSFs fit well in this case, Zoo?
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It's mainly to accommodate
garreth — Mon, 06/30/2008 - 07:52It's mainly to accommodate that case: http://www.amazon.com/MFBK400-Micro-V400PSU-2-5-25-ULT33114/dp/B000FIS91...
Trying to keep this small and very "shippable". However, this mobo happens to have the features I'm looking for and is dirt cheap. I'll be disabling the onboard video, of course :)
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I'm just curious Garreth.
Kybosh — Sun, 06/29/2008 - 23:58I'm just curious Garreth. I've noticed you pick micro-atx motherboards. Any particular reason? I've always considered standard ATX to be the way to go unless you want a really small case.