TUTORIAL: Buying a Computer for StarCraft 2 for under $650

Common now, think what that extra 100 could buy you, consider it this way, if you build it yourself, you will have at least another 100 to spend on the computer or booze....

 

hmm, I have to think about it, Plus collect the money if im going to do it, I dont think everyone has 700+ laying around without them having specific plans for it. =P


@Ste

I dont like booze of any kind(yes I know im weird among men), and I much prefer to already having an already built computer as my base that I can upgrade when I want, rather then going through the trouble to build it from scratch.

 

ok but its alot more fun when you do it yourself, and youll learn alot more..

 

How about a "Buying a Mac for StarCraft 2 for US$ 600,00"?
That would help me

 

Even Worse..

 

Why didn't you change the 8800GT to a GTS 250? The GTS 250 is the same thing as a 9800GTX+ for the same price with better SLI and power/heat efficiency.

I can't critique the rest because the links don't work for me.

 

solid build, but dated

I LoL'd pretty hard when i saw your mobo/proc and GPU, thats the exact same build i put together last year! Twice actually, one for me and one for an architect friend of mine (autocad work).

The power supply on that case looks iffy though, 400w on an 8800gt isn't giving it much headroom, and i didn't see a 6pin PCI-E connector on the details listing.

As a rule, i try to push Antec cases and power supplies to people, they build amazingly quiet and cool cases, and their power supplies have very high efficiency ratings, as well as multiple rails to spread out the load (safer for systems where you daisy chain molex connectors).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371020
that's the power supply i've been using for almost 4 years now, not a single issue, even when the lights flicker.

Even though i love the 8800gt to death, and it's cheap if you can find it, nvidia's hardy g92 core has been put out to pasture. The only remnant of it is in the GT250, and is being replaced by the newer g200 core, with twice the transistors and more stream processors.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130434
for $175 after rebate, this card is the best bang for your buck, works great with SLI too!

Admittedly these couple of changes will cost more, and put you over the $600 mark listed, but the system will last longer for it. Specifically, nvidia will update the driver on the g200 core for much longer, which over time will squeeze more and more out of the card.

Otherwise, you could just get this laptop and probably still run it at medium settings.
http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/note...z/pd.aspx?refid=laptop-studio-14z&cs=19&s=dhs
Yes its a Dell, but the processor and video are pretty good for a laptop, easily enough to handle the generous Blizzard minimum settings.

As far as linux goes, if you can get past the learning curve, you'll love it forever. I run Ubuntu on 3 of my systems and i've yet to have a single crash/virus/hardware incompatibility on any of them. Be warned however, as i started out fairly knowledgeable and still had to spend months googling noob questions before i became linux fluent.

Also, the new macbook air ships with a discrete video card now for $1500, and gets some pretty impressive battery life at that. Food for thought.

 

Antecs are fine but there are still many better choices.

Its better to buy power supplies with long warranties, such as seasonic or pc power and cooling.

 

Hey myrcutio,

Like your name. And great suggestions. Only thing I'm confused about is your "400W" PSU statement.

I definitely didn't list a 400W PSU on there. I think the one I listed was 700W and was either Antec or Corsair. I like Antec cases but I think Corsair makes better PSUs. I'll recheck my links maybe something screwed up.

EDIT: Double checked the links and apparently they changed the combo deal on me. That's why you see a 400W instead of 700W which I'd never pair with the video card I selected.

I repaired the links but the new total is more like $641.88. Again, if you'd like me to I will put together a custom build for you AND assemble and ship you a finished PC. Just send me a PM.

 

Hey Jon, should I post up my system spec? My pc are kind of new.

2,452 MYR. Kind of expensive but it's good if I have a decent job/career.

 

Sure why not..

 

err... How? I know there's a website where you can post up your spec. Care to give the link?

 

Most people do it from memory.

I don't know of a website that will do it for you..

 

You can go to your "Run..." menu and type "dxdiag" and a menu screen will pop up. You can then hit "Save All Information" and save the file "dxdiag.txt" onto your desktop. You can name it whatever you want.

Then you can copy/paste that text and it will give us your exact specifications.

 

Here's my PC Spec.

Is it too long for you Jon? Well you can always erase the unimportant notes above.

 

Ewww you got a triple core? And only 2GB of RAM to go with it....

Shoulda gone with a faster dual core and gotten 4GB of RAM

Stay away from AMD...

But other than that a nice setup. The video card isn't bad aside from it's ATI. It'll run SC2.

 

Amd is fine if you need to spend less.

 

AMD has a track record of a shorter processor life. They also don't hold up well to overclocking for the same reasons.

Thirdly they're less tolerant to higher heat levels.

Intel isn't much more expensive and has none of these issues.

 

most people don't overclock and noone needs a processor to last more than a few years...

Ths distribution is normally.
At least with recent procs

Top performers - intel
cheap build or low requirements - AMD

 

That's what I thought. :laugh: anyway thanks for your recommendation. I will change my processor to Intel when the time is right. By the way, you said that my graphic are good enough for the game right? so I don't need to buy a Nvidia cards?