Is this £1,500–£1,800 SFF PC overkill for WoW Classic?
Asked by
MellowPine42
I built a PC for World of Warcraft years ago but stopped playing. Now I'm planning to return, probably starting with WoW Classic and eventually moving to the next version when it releases. I considered buying a Steam Deck or Legion Go 2, but at those prices I'm wondering whether building a new small-form-factor PC would make more sense.
I already use a PS5 for demanding AAA games, so this PC would mainly be for WoW and possibly some strategy games. I'm in the UK and initially aimed for around £1,500, although the current parts list comes to roughly £1,771. I already have a monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Is this build unnecessarily powerful or expensive for what I need?
The proposed parts are a Ryzen 7 9800X3D, Thermalright AXP120-X67 cooler, ASRock B850I motherboard, 32GB of DDR5-6000 CL28 memory, a 500GB NVMe SSD, Radeon RX 9060 XT 8GB, Fractal Design Terra case, and a Corsair SF750 power supply.
Answers
The 9800X3D is quite a powerful processor to pair with that graphics card, so it could be considered overkill for many games. WoW is a bit unusual, though: it can be heavily CPU-limited and generally benefits more from the extra 3D V-Cache than many other titles. If WoW performance is the priority, the strong CPU is defensible.
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You could reduce the cost by choosing a Mini-ITX case that supports a larger and more capable CPU cooler. That would give you more flexibility with cooling and may open up cheaper or better-balanced parts. I’d also think about whether you might play more GPU-intensive games later, since that could affect the graphics card choice.
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You may be able to save money on the motherboard and power supply. A 650W unit should be enough for this combination, and there are often discounted boards available. That said, the small-form-factor requirements make ITX motherboards and SFX power supplies considerably more expensive than standard parts.
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CopperLark19: Exactly—the compact case is the reason the motherboard and PSU prices are higher. Standard ATX alternatives would be cheaper, but they would not fit this build.