Alright everyone, I had talked about doing it ages ago, and I read another topic earlier about system specs. With the beta in the (potentially) near future, I think now is as good a time as any (despite the lack of any confirmed system requirements) to begin making some rough estimates. Nobody wants to wait til the day beta opens to realize their PC won't play it and their beta keys are just pretty little post-it notes that the sticky stuff has worn off of. So I believe I'll kick off the discussion on what system specs could be comfortably expected. Please note: I am not aware of the system requirements for SC2. This is at the moment purely speculation as to what I believe will be an adequate system and is subject to change. This can be summed up as what I expect to be an affordable and very capable system for those who are looking to upgrade in preparation for SC2. I would like to advise against system upgrades at this point, at least until we know a little more about release, but I would also like to give people in need of an upgrade a place to start early in the game. Any feedback, anything I missed or mistakes, please don't be shy. Let me know so I can make changes. ~$415(S&H N/I) - Micro ATX system MOBO: ASUS M3A78-EM - ~$76 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131324 CPU: AMD Athlon X2 7850 Black Edition Kuma 2.8GHz (Dual Core) - ~$77 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103678 MEM: OCZ DDR2 1066 2x1GB OCZ2N1066SR2GK (Dual Channel) - ~$30 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227181 GPU: BFG Tech BFGE98512GTGE GeForce 9800 GT 512MB(550MHz core) - ~$115 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814143186 HDD: Western Digital 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb - ~$36 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822135106 PSU: hec X-Power Pro 600 600W (SN: Concerned about case size.) - ~$45 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817339025 CASE: Athenatech MicroATX Case (W/230w PSU, scrap it.) - ~$38 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811190003 ------------Approximately $415 Once again, I'm not certain of SC2 system req, and this is just my rough estimate of a mid-range system that should easily run SC2 with desirable settings. This is just a starting point for those who want to start considering the direction of their next upgrade. And while I'm fairly certain everything will work, if someone notices any mistakes please let me know. The PSU and case dimensions are the point of least confidence, a smaller PSU might be necessary for that micro ATX. I tried to stick with products that have good warranties, however I did not dedicate more than about 30 minutes to the search at this point, I'm certain there are better deals and better set-ups out there and I'll keep my eyes open and try to keep updated here. I'll put a standard-ATX setup in here soon too, I just used micro-ATX for the challenge, but the GPU and PSU may need more breathing room, so I'll account for that in the near future. I'm eager to see what you guys can come up with to add to the list.
while a super-low cost rig is possible, i'd recommend spending just a tad more. mobo and CPU: good choice for low cost, easily overclockable. hopefully SC2 won't be too CPU-intensive, especially with its unit limits. RAM: don't get 1066mhz DDR2. DDR2-800 is much more common, cheaper, and you won't notice the performance difference. i'd recommend 2x2GB sticks. GPU: decent choice, but personally i'd prefer the radeon 4770 at this price range. it will generally outperform the 9800GT. and despite the "mob opinion" my personal experience with drivers is that ATI's are more stable (and come out at regular intervals). Hard drive: maybe you were going for the lowest possible price, but that's an old drive. you can easily find much, much larger drives for only a few bucks more. i'd recommend a 320GB WD caviar, or samsung F1. higher capacity also generally means higher density, which means faster read/write speeds. not a huge impact on actual gaming, just everything else- bootup, loading the game, etc. PSU: 600w is overkill. and i've never heard of that company before. the PSU is definitely one part that you don't want to skimp on- it is capable of frying every other component in your build if things mess up. for a low-power build, 400w is more than plenty, but only with a good manufacturer. I'd recommend seasonic or corsair (who gets their components from seasonic), enermax, PC Power & Cooling, or OCZ (who sources from PC P&C). so yeah, my changes might end up pushing the price up to $450, maybe even $500. but i STRONGLY recommend at least changing the PSU.
At this point you should wait until you know when the game is being released (sometime next year...lame!!), if its being released next may, that 400 bucks will go much further for a new rig.
I do agree with you about the PSU. I don't have any experience with that company either, it was just one of the best reviewed in that price range, and i just realized the oversight that - I wanted 600w for upgrade potential, but the board isn't going to support x-fire or SLI, so it's a moot point at the moment. I will ammend that soon. On the HDD, I assume most people will have one on hand, or can generally select that by themselves so I grabbed the cheapest SATA3.0 I could find. I'm going to work out a few more builds, hopefully from $350-$500 which will all run the game relatively smoothly (theoretically) while maintaining affordability. My only problem with the ram personally is the latency. I am still a bit undecided on the ram, I will add some options for GPU and ram soon and justify each(I'm partial to nvidia cards lately, I'll try to give both equal time though). I'm happy to have some feedback on the first draft. @Prodigal: I agree, I would just like to keep it updated at least until we have a release date so that people looking to upgrade can stay on top of things, and also to accommodate the possibility they need an upgrade now, but also want to play sc2 on it later. I do however agree 100% that if it can be avoided, people should not do their upgrading this early in the game. thanks for the feedback guys.
