I understand you don't like do-it-yourself for the PC. I was always scared of it because I thought I might put together something which couldn't work.
Then I found Ars Technica. They test out their suggestions thoroughly and talk about why they made the choices they did. Even if you don't want to build it yourself it's worth looking at their most recent guide to find out what's "needed." It also tells you how much DIY is (or isn't) going to save.
It's also 8 months old. My guess is that by now - especially if you already have a monitor and can leave that out - a machine to hot rod specs can be built for about $1000.
I went to the Dell website and, starting with their Vostro 460 came up with something vaguely approximating the Ars budget box for $775 (includes speakers, no monitor; monitor's another $200 or so). To upgrade it to something approximating the Ars hot rod bumps it to near $1000, but doesn't have as good a graphics card as the hot rod because they don't offer it.
Personally, I think for Warcraft both the Dell machines will be lacking in the graphics card department. You might be able to get one with no graphics card and then upgrade it, but now you're back in DIY territory.
(As it happens I was recently using the Dell site to spec out a new work desktop)
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2011-11-16 05:55 pm (UTC)Then I found Ars Technica. They test out their suggestions thoroughly and talk about why they made the choices they did. Even if you don't want to build it yourself it's worth looking at their most recent guide to find out what's "needed." It also tells you how much DIY is (or isn't) going to save.
The most recent guide I found is here. http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/guides/2011/03/ars-system-guide-march-2011-edition.ars
It's also 8 months old. My guess is that by now - especially if you already have a monitor and can leave that out - a machine to hot rod specs can be built for about $1000.
I went to the Dell website and, starting with their Vostro 460 came up with something vaguely approximating the Ars budget box for $775 (includes speakers, no monitor; monitor's another $200 or so). To upgrade it to something approximating the Ars hot rod bumps it to near $1000, but doesn't have as good a graphics card as the hot rod because they don't offer it.
Personally, I think for Warcraft both the Dell machines will be lacking in the graphics card department. You might be able to get one with no graphics card and then upgrade it, but now you're back in DIY territory.
(As it happens I was recently using the Dell site to spec out a new work desktop)