Building an MMO Gaming PC
MMOs might not have the best graphics in the gaming industry but they are some of the most resource demanding games out there. Today we’ll build together two MMO gaming systems that will run perfectly your favorite MMO in its highest detail!
We’ll be building two different systems, one budget MMO gaming system for $640 and one performance MMO gaming rig for $1000. The reason we’re building these systems piece by piece and we don’t suggest a ready-made branded PC like Alienware, Dell or Lenovo is that we want the best for our buck without paying extra for the brand. We’ll be using Amazon.com
Budget MMO Gaming PC – $640
Our Budget MMO Gaming PC will play most MMORPGs 1080p on high detail, but some frame rate drop might occur in heavily populated areas like cities or massive PvP fights.
For our budget PC we’ll be using an Intel i5 as it’s core. Benchmarks show that Intel CPUs achieve much higher frame-rates from the AMD counterparts in heavily CPU bound games like Guildwars 2 and World of Warcraft. Since it’s a PC focused on gaming we’ll need a fast GPU and at our price range we’ll be getting the AMD Radeon HD 7850.
But lets see our system in detail…
CPU: Intel Core-i5 3350P Quad-Core Processor 3.1 Ghz 6 MB Cache LGA 1155
Motherboard: ASRock LGA1155 Z75 PRO3
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8 GB ( 2 x 4 GB ) DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3 12800) 240-Pin DDR3 Memory Kit
Graphics: Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 1GB DDR5 HDMI/DVI-I/DVI-D/DP PCI-Express Graphics Card
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 500 GB HDD SATA 6 Gb/s NCQ 64MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive
Case: Thermaltake V3 Black Edition VL80001W2Z No PS Mid Tower Gaming Case (Black)
Optical Drive: Samsung 24x SATA DVD¡ARW Internal Drive
Power: Antec VP-450 450 Watt Energy Star Certified Power Supply
Total – $640
Performance MMO Gaming PC – $1000
For our performance PC we’ll be using again an Intel i5 processor but this time it will be an i5 3570k with unlocked multiplier allowing you to overclock over 4ghz. There is no reason to choose an i7 as their gaming performance is exactly the same and the 3570k costs $100 less that would be better spent on a fastest Graphics Card. For our Graphics we’ll be choosing a top of line gfx card, the AMD Radeon 7870 that is the best card we can get on the price range we’re at. Our Performance MMO Gaming PC will play all the released MMOs and MMORPGs on their highest detail with very high frame rates even in the highest resolutions.
CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K Quad-Core Processor 3.4 GHz 4 Core LGA 1155
Motherboard: AS Rock LGA1155 DDR3 SATA3 USB3.0 Quad CrossFireX and Quad SLI A GbE ATX Motherboard Z77 EXTREME4
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8 GB ( 2 x 4 GB ) DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3 12800) 240-Pin DDR3 Memory Kit
Graphics: XFX AMD Radeon HD 7870 2GB GDDR5 2DVI/HDMI/2 Mini Display Port PCI-Express Video Card
Storage: Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 240 GB SATA 6.0 Gb-s 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive 
Case: Rosewill ATX Mid Tower Computer Case REDBONE
Optical Drive: Samsung 24x SATA DVD¡ARW Internal Drive
Power:Corsair Builder Series CX 600 Watt ATX/EPS 80 PLUS (CX600)
Total – $966
Need More Power?
The ASRock Extreme 4 motherboard allows multiple card configuration so if you need something even faster you can add a second Radeon HD 7870 bringing the total system cost to $1200. You could also get a better case like the Cooler Master HAF X Full Tower
Our next hardware oriented article will be about MMO gaming peripherals, so keep tuned!
About the Author
George X. is a lover of MMOs. Been playing full time since the first days of Everquest and never stopped since then. Currently he's addicted with DOTA 2 and GW2.
2 Responses to Building an MMO Gaming PC
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Hey, Please can you do this for Laptops too OO?
Next article will be about MMO Gaming Peripherals. When research is done I’ll get you some info on Gaming Laptops suitable for MMO games but expect double the price of what you see here for worse performance.