So its been for ever since I've looked at a pc gamer magazine. so I need a bit of advice. I'm saving my paychecks after i deal with my car for a new computer, my laptop is ok , its a dell inspiron 6000 with an upgraded graphics card and its a pretty solid machine. The only problem is I'm worried that it might not be able to handle Starcraft 2 smoothly. So in short I want something that should be able to handle the predicted specs for Starcraft 2 with relative ease in the 500-1000 price range. Desktop preferred. Any suggestions guys?
If you want to build your own, I would highly suggest you simply go with one of the Dell deals that don't include a Monitor. Less time, less hassle, quality components, no risk, and you'll get a decent deal. If you build it on your own it's gonna cost you $800 for a really nice piece of equipment. Then you have to throw in the man hours to build the thing, plus the hours down the line of maintenance because you forgot to put the right size heat sink in the damn thing, plus the cost of buying a new computer a year early when yours break. Of course, yours is also more upgradable, but Dell has gotten better with that. You can then get the same specs on a PC from Dell for about $950 without the monitor. So an extra $150 for less hassle. I've built 5 computers, and I will never do so again.
I always build my computers. The extra $100 could be used for a better graphics card, cpu, ram, etc. If you know what you're doing you don't have to worry about screwing up.
Come on, don't tell me you're always 100% sure on those damn faulty cooling fan wires. I've had them stop randomly... There's just so many things that go wrong, I'd rather have a manufactured machine with at least some type of warranty which I can thwart.
I use water cooling. I usually don't screw up, and when I do, it's easily fixable. Besides, I never had to use a warranty.
Please, you're a LIAR! You can't tell me you've never burned up a $200 processor. LOL! One time I had a young cousin switch the black and red wire while I wasn't looking... REAL funny prank. I think he still walks funny.
LOL. If someone did that to me... SPLAT!!! Besides, the only thing I ever screwed up was when I forgot to plug in one of the power cables. It took me two weeks to find out that was the issue.
As in he reversed the power connectors on an AT? I've never burned a $200 processor. Most newer motherboards have safties and I have never seen any processors below 6th generation self destruct so long as they have passive sinks on them. BTW don't get thermaltape. I got a boxed AMD and the heat sink had that crap on it. Went to remove the fan once and the heat sink ripped the processor out of its socket. Had to pry the chip off the heat sink with a screwdriver.
Yeah... Well another aspect is that I'm no longer at the age where time isn't an issue. I could make much better money and value in my time than I used to be able to. So that 10 hours of building the computer can be better spent now.
Speaking of awesome deals on desktops... here's one I just got as an e-mail... $300 off select Inspiron 530 desktop. Only $699 after savings!
