World of Warcraft is a global sensation that’s been around for 20 years, and it’s still going strong with new expansions like “The War Within” that deliver incredible storytelling and art direction. The core gameplay loop remains as addicting as ever, and the game is arguably in the best place it’s been in years.
A big part of WoW’s attraction is its relatively low PC system requirements. Even for the latest expansion, you can comfortably play on an older PC and still expect smooth framerates. If you’re playing World of Warcraft Classic, the system requirements drop even lower.
For that reason, there’s a wide variety of PCs, including desktops and laptops, that are suitable for WoW. With native ARM64 compatibility, you can even enjoy WoW with Windows on ARM, and no emulation is required.
I’ve included some of our favorite desktop and laptop PCs here that will deliver a quality World of Warcraft experience at different budgets and performance thresholds. From custom-built desktops to Copilot+ AI PCs, they’ll help you get back to raiding in no time.
The quick list
Following is a quick list of our favorite PCs for World of Warcraft. You might find the info you need here, but be sure to click through any of the options for more information, including review highlights, pros and cons, and specs.
Editor’s choice
Maingear’s MG-1 is an easy recommendation for those who want a desktop gaming PC that truly feels like it was built by hand. Starting at about $1,199, you can get a carefully assembled system with more than enough power to handle World of Warcraft and your other favorite PC games.
2. iBuyPower Trace 7 Mesh
Also great
iBuyPower’s Trace 7 Mesh delivers stronger CPU and GPU performance than the MG-1 Silver, but it also costs more at about $1,600. The good news is that it often goes on sale, landing you a Ryzen 7 7700 CPU, Radeon RX 7800 XT, 32GB of RAM, and a 2TB SSD for hundreds less.
3. Lenovo Legion Tower 5i (Gen 8)
Budget desktop
Lenovo’s Legion Tower 5i (Gen 8) with Intel Core i5-14400F CPU and NVIDIA RTX 4060 GPU starts at only about $900 or less when discounted, making it a great choice for any desktop gamers who don’t want to overspend. It’s not the most conducive to future upgrades, but that won’t matter to lots of gamers.
Best ARM64 laptop
This Copilot+ PC takes advantage of WoW’s native ARM64 support to deliver next-gen AI tools as well as smooth gaming. The Snapdragon X Elite SoC offers true all-day battery life, and the 15.6-inch OLED display has a 2.8K resolution with a 120Hz refresh rate. All that for $1,300 or less makes it a tempting choice for anyone who splits time between work and play.
Best gaming laptop
The Alienware m16 R2 is our favorite gaming laptop, and it’s a top pick for gamers who want to enjoy more titles than just WoW at smooth framerates. Prices start at about $1,600, but that gets you a Core Ultra 7 155H CPU, NVIDIA RTX 4060 Laptop GPU, and a 16-inch QHD+ display with a sizzling 240Hz refresh rate.
Best budget laptop
Those looking for a laptop that can deliver a smooth experience in WoW on the cheap should consider Acer’s Nitro V gaming laptop. It’s not the most feature-laden laptop with the best build quality, but about $655 for a Core i5-13420H CPU and NVIDIA RTX 3050 Laptop GPU is an easy recommendation for any gamers who don’t want to overspend.
Our favorite PCs for World of Warcraft in 2024
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With the quick list out of the way, we can now get into a more detailed breakdown of our favorite PCs for World of Warcraft. We’ve tested and reviewed a bunch of these PCs, including laptops and pre-built desktops, and I’ve been sure to include models for a wide range of budgets and performance levels.
Editor’s choice
Maingear’s MG-1 is my go-to pre-built gaming desktop recommendation. It’s a PC that I’ve personally tested and used, and it’s the right option if you want a system that feels like you built it yourself.
Maingear is made up of PC enthusiasts who clearly enjoy their job. The MG-1 Silver’s cable management is stellar; the company only uses standard parts that you can buy yourself, and the lack of proprietary hardware or designs means you can easily upgrade pieces as required.
You’ll pay a bit of a premium to have the system assembled for you — and to get the excellent lifetime support and one-year warranty — but at $1,199 to start, you’re not looking at an extreme cost. That entry price nets you an AMD Ryzen 5 7600X processor (CPU), an NVIDIA RTX 4060 graphics card (GPU), 16GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe solid-state drive (SSD), which is altogether more than enough for a quality World of Warcraft experience.
Maingear also has plenty of other configs available if you have some extra money to spend, and you can always extend the warranty coverage for up to three years.
Also great
Want more GPU power and a stronger Ryzen CPU? iBuyPower’s Trace 7 Mesh gets it done for about $1,600, though you’ll often find discounts that drop the price as low as $1,400.
The system has an AMD Ryzen 7 7700 CPU, AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT GPU, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, and 2TB of M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD storage, setting you up well for WoW and plenty of other titles.
The air-cooled system comes with various RGB fans, and the stylized mesh front panel allows plenty of air through the system. The RAM is also RGB-infused, and there’s plenty of room inside the case if you’d like to add different cooling or more storage and memory.
The Trace 7 Mesh isn’t as boutique as the Maingear MG-1, but that won’t matter as much for those who just want a system that runs out of the box and can handle World of Warcraft with ease. An RGB keyboard and mouse are included, but you can always check out our favorite PC gaming accessories for more options.
Best budget desktop
Lenovo’s Legion Tower 5i (Gen 8) is a recommended pre-built gaming desktop PC for those who don’t mind a system that’s harder to upgrade in the future. Lenovo uses a non-modular (and rather cheap) PSU in the build, which is the main argument against buying the system.
As I mentioned in my Legion Tower 5i (Gen 8) review, “The obvious drawback of a pre-built PC from a major manufacturer like Lenovo is that you don’t get as much attention to detail compared to buying from a boutique builder (or building something yourself).” Nevertheless, the system delivers rock-solid performance even at about $900 at Lenovo.
The 14th Gen Intel Core i5-14400F CPU, unbranded OEM NVIDIA RTX 4060 GPU, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, and 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD can easily handle anything World of Warcraft wants to throw its way, and it’ll also run pretty much any other title that you have your eye on.
Lenovo offers plenty of configuration options, allowing you to spec-up as needed. The top model boasts a Core i7-14700F CPU and NVIDIA RTX 4070 SUPER GPU, which is far more than you’ll need for a smooth WoW experience.
Read our in-depth Lenovo Legion Tower 5i (Gen 8) review
Best ARM64 laptop
World of Warcraft picked up native ARM64 support a few years ago, and anyone who wants to play the game on a Copilot+ laptop should check out the ASUS VivoBook S 15.
It’s powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite (X1E-78) System-on-Chip (SoC) that includes an integrated Adreno GPU and a Hexagon Neural Processing Unit (NPU). It’s powerful enough to run World of Warcraft, and you can also get in on the added Copilot+ AI features in Windows 11.
Windows Central Senior Editor Zac Bowden, in his ASUS VivoBook S 15 review, said:
“The Snapdragon X Elite elevates this laptop from a good one to a great one. If it were an Intel laptop, it wouldn’t be that special, but Qualcomm’s new chip is genuinely impressive, allowing this laptop to do much more than you might expect. It’s a competent video editor and multitasker with excellent AI capabilities that, up until now, hasn’t really been viable in a laptop this thin and light, and certainly not for $1,299.”
It’s not going to crush more recent AAA games with demanding system specs, but it will run WoW while delivering true all-day battery life for productivity work. Everything looks great on the 15.6-inch OLED display with 2.8K resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. The laptop usually costs around $1,300, but you can often find it discounted by hundreds.
Read our in-depth ASUS VivoBook S 15 Copilot+ PC review
Best gaming laptop
The Alienware m16 R2 is our favorite gaming laptop right now. In Windows Central Editor Rebecca Spear’s Alienware m16 R2 review, she said:
“If you tend to play graphically intensive games and want a laptop that can keep up with your gaming sessions, you should consider getting the Alienware m16 R2. Its performance and how long the battery can last when running average office programs thoroughly impressed me. For this reason, the laptop will serve you well if you need to use it for work, school, and video games.”
World of Warcraft won’t likely come anywhere near maxing out the system’s hardware, making it a great choice for those who enjoy a variety of demanding games. It’s also technically considered an AI PC thanks to the Core Ultra CPUs inside.
Prices start at about $1,600 for a model with an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H chip, NVIDIA RTX 4060 Laptop GPU, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD, and a 16-inch display with 2560×1600 resolution, 240Hz refresh rate, NVIDIA G-Sync, and 100% sRGB color.
There’s plenty of space to spec up, with Dell offering up to a Core Ultra 9 185H CPU, NVIDIA RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, 64GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 2TB SSD.
Read our in-depth Alienware m16 R2 review
Best budget laptop
Acer’s Nitro V 15 (ANV15-51) might not have the best build quality or the strongest performance hardware, but at about $655, you can’t go wrong if you want to play World of Warcraft on the go.
Its 13th Gen Intel Core i5-13420H CPU, NVIDIA RTX 3050 Laptop GPU, 8GB of DDR5 RAM, and 512GB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD surpass the system requirements for WoW, and you can expect smooth gameplay thanks to the 15.6-inch 144Hz display at a 1080p resolution.
The laptop’s RAM can be upgraded after purchase thanks to an additional DDR5 slot, and you can also access the SSD to add extra space. It has a decent selection of ports, including Thunderbolt 4, and it remains fairly portable thanks to a starting weight of about 4.66 pounds.
How to choose the best PC for World of Warcraft
If you’re looking for a pre-built desktop gaming PC but don’t want to build your own, Maingear’s MG-1 is the next best thing. The company builds PCs with careful attention, resulting in a system that feels like it was you who put it together. Cable management is excellent; parts that you can buy yourself are used to make upgrades easier in the future, and you get great customer support for anything that might go wrong.
The entry-level MG-1 will handle World of Warcraft with ease, but there are a bunch of different configuration options if you’d like more power.
As for a gaming laptop, Alienware’s m16 R2 is our current favorite, thanks to outstanding performance, quality display, and a sleek build. It doesn’t really come cheap, so you might want to check out the Acer Nitro V instead. And if you’d like a system that can handle productivity work during the day and gaming at night, the ASUS VivoBook S 15 Copilot+ PC makes a lot of sense thanks to WoW’s native ARM64 compatibility.
You don’t need a powerhouse gaming PC to run World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft isn’t a very demanding game. Sure, it’ll take up most of the hours in your day if you allow it, but it certainly won’t stress most PCs. That’s especially true if you’re into World of Warcraft Classic, which could probably run, as they say, on a potato.
Recommended specifications for standard WoW and its expansions include a CPU with six cores, a GPU with 8GB of VRAM, 16GB of system memory, and at least 128GB of SSD storage space.
If you’re playing WoW Classic, the recommended system hardware drops even further. You need just 1GB of VRAM for the GPU, as well as 4GB of system RAM and 15GB of available storage space.
All of the PCs I’ve included in this roundup make the cut for at least the minimum requirements for standard WoW, and WoW Classic will clearly have no problem either with any of the systems I recommend.
