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I'm in the beta, but my desktop computer is broken.
Last week, I downloaded an XP update, restarted my computer, and it wouldn't boot up. I tried every option: starting up normally, starting up in safe mode, safe mode with networking, safe mode with command prompt, last known good configuration... Nothing worked. Don't know wtf is wrong with it. It's a pretty old comp, though (about 7 years). Maybe it just died of natural causes. Anyway, it doesn't really matter much, since its specs fall short of the minimum requirements for the SC2 beta.
I want to buy a whole new computer. One that will allow me to play SC2 smoothly on max settings while at the same time running other programs like iTunes and Skype. Only problem is that I have very little knowledge when it comes to computer hardware. I found this old thread which has given me some good info so far:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=97450
A lot of people seem to prefer the Intel quad-core i7-920 processor, but I'm thinking of getting the AMD Phenom II 965 quad-core (3.4 GHz). It's a lot cheaper ($180) and will probably yield similar gaming results from reading the reviews of both products.
I need advice on what to buy to go with this CPU. What type of RAM (and how many GB), motherboard, graphics card, etc. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
 
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I believe psyonicreaver is on an 8800 nvidia card, core i5 and is playing very close to max settings if that helps at all.
Make sure you get ddr3 ram, 1333mhz is sufficient. If you go an i5-i7 chip, you need 3 sticks of ram so that typically means 6 gigs. I don't believe it matters for amd quad, so just get 4 gigs.
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you should note your
-budget
-monitor resolution
-your pc usage (if it's just sc2 you can get away with a integrated gfx)
-if you can wait
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for budget:
AMD quad core
not familiar with AMD motherboards
quality HSF if you want to overclock (find reviews at www.frostytech.com)
4 GB RAM
state budget for video card
~500W quality PSU (Antec Earthwatt line is a popular recommendation)
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Thanks for the replies. My budget is whatever will accomplish the following...
I want to buy a whole new computer. One that will allow me to play SC2 smoothly on max settings while at the same time running other programs like iTunes and Skype.
...with the least amount of money.
I have no idea what my monitor resolution is, but it's not widescreen and I think it's pretty standard.
On February 18 2010 18:13 Pakje wrote:
you should note your
-budget
-monitor resolution
-your pc usage (if it's just sc2 you can get away with a integrated gfx)
-if you can wait
By PC usage, do you mean how many GB of hard-drive I require? Basically I'll just be playing SC2 and storing a LOT of high-quality music files. Possibly streaming too. And no, I can't wait.
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If you want budget, then yeah, AMD is your company.
Do you have access to Newegg?
ejac: Don't give false information. No processor requires triple channel or dual channel RAM.
I suggest going for an AMD Phenom II X4 955 instead of the 965. With the 965, you spend $20 more , but you only get an extra 200mhz which in my opinion is not worth it. Assuming your resolution is like 1680x1050, you probably want to go for an AMD 4850 for around $100. If you have the extra money laying around, you may want to pay an extra $60 for the AMD 5770 and get DX11 support along with it (though this should not be not required at all).
A decent 790X chipset motherboard will carry you a long time, and a decent Corsair/Antec/Thermaltake/Cooler Master PSU will provide reliable performance as well. I suggest getting a PSU that is 80 PLUS certified, because they will generally provide more reliable power, and are always more energy efficient.
4GB of DDR3 will be sufficient (RAM is never a limiting factor for performance really, you could run SC2 at max settings with 2GB, just iTunes might get choppy.).
As for hard drives, in my opinion there are two very good hard drives: The Samsung F3 Spinpoint 500GB/1TB, and the Western Digital Caviar Blue or Caviar Black 640GB. They are both extremely reliable and provide the best price/performance.
edit: If SC2 is going to be your main game, I would actually suggest an alternative to the Phenom II series. Though yeah, they are AMD's flagship, their performance does not actually outshine the performance of the cheaper Athlon II X4 which can be obtained for $50-60 less. Most games at the moment are actually graphically intensive, not necessarily CPU intensive, so that $60 could be invested in a better graphics card. Just something to think about.
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cpu: amd phenom II triple core
mobo: 770 chipset
gfx: HD 5670
ram: 4 gig ddr3
psu: certified 450wat
why is everyone advising quadcores? he simply wants to play sc2 at the lowest price possible
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And at the highest quality possible.
Kinda funny that you're recommending the Phenom II X3s since they actually don't give much performance over the Athlon II X4s in most games.
If he wants to play SC2 at max settings he won't need 4gb of DDR3 either. We aren't in a time where RAM is cheap. The 5670 is ripoff. For $100 you get DX11 and the 4850 completely wipes the floor with that second rate card at the same price point.
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On February 18 2010 18:42 FragKrag wrote:
ejac: Don't give false information. No processor requires triple channel or dual channel RAM.
I don't consider what I said false when someone would have to be a dumbass to not do what I said. While yes, it is not required, if you don't go tri-channel with i5/i7, you void many of the benefits of going with an i5-i7 so you'd basically be paying extra money for no added gain at which point, you may as well save your money and go amd.
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tri channel offers nothing to the gamer, and only comes into play at high level workstations.
dual channel is more than sufficient for any gamer, and the false information statement also goes towards your inclusion of the i5.
The i5 processors, and the i7 8xx processors use the LGA 1156 socket which does not support triple channel RAM. only the i7 9xx processors which use the LGA 1366 socket support triple channel RAM, and even then, every benchmark done on a game with triple channel vs dual channel has shown very little performance difference.
The value behind the i5 and the i7 processor lines is not the x channel RAM, it is the processor itself. The i5 and i7 architecture along with the motherboard architecture makes it more efficient. They also provide TurboBoost, along with in i7 models, hyperthreading. The main factor for buying an i5/i7 is the performance of the processor itself.
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I'm hoping to stretch my AMD Athlon X2 and onboard nForce 430 for SC2. I'm also hoping to run it in Linux. I'm also hoping to win the lottery, and I'm hoping for world peace.
Pity me.
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Athlon X2 will be fine, nForce 430 won't cute it :p
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i5 750, and a 5850 can run most anything at 1920x1200 and under pretty well. But i think things well under that can run sc2 maxed out at 1680x1050
I have no idea what my monitor resolution is, but it's not widescreen and I think it's pretty standard.
prob 1280x1024 so i think he could get by on alot less but an i5-750 and 5770 should do him well accross the board. Or just going Phenom II X3 720 (if you can find one cheap enough) + 4850 would do him fine as him resolution seem to be small as he does not have widescreen monitor.
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The 5770 should perform amazingly at 1920x1200.... No need for the 5850 at all unless you plan on doing crazy shit.
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On February 18 2010 19:01 FragKrag wrote:
And at the highest quality possible.
Kinda funny that you're recommending the Phenom II X3s since they actually don't give much performance over the Athlon II X4s in most games.
here's a review where it says L3 cache matters in games
review
and here's a review with the phenom 2 x3 720 and the athlon 2 x4 620
http://www.hardware.info/nl-NL/articles/amdnaGptZGOa/AMD_Athlon_II_X4_620_test/7
the 720 is slighty more expensive
On February 18 2010 19:01 FragKrag wrote:
If he wants to play SC2 at max settings he won't need 4gb of DDR3 either. We aren't in a time where RAM is cheap. The 5670 is ripoff. For $100 you get DX11 and the 4850 completely wipes the floor with that second rate card at the same price point.
4 gig is getting the norm fast. If you want to play sc2 and have several programs running next to it 4 gig is just right.
every 5XXX card is a ripoff. ATI can lower the price of every card by 20 $ easily.
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On February 18 2010 19:11 ejac wrote:Show nested quote +On February 18 2010 18:42 FragKrag wrote:
ejac: Don't give false information. No processor requires triple channel or dual channel RAM. I don't consider what I said false when someone would have to be a dumbass to not do what I said. While yes, it is not required, if you don't go tri-channel with i5/i7, you void many of the benefits of going with an i5-i7 so you'd basically be paying extra money for no added gain at which point, you may as well save your money and go amd.
lol, i5's don't even support tri channel ram
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You realize that in both of those reviews they test small resolutions where both processors run the games flawlessly right? The human eye can't see the difference between 100 FPS and 120 FPS.
anyways currently the Phenom II 720 is hard to find in stock. Newegg sells them OEM, but then you need to buy a new hsf.
4 gig is getting the norm fast. If you want to play sc2 and have several programs running next to it 4 gig is just right.
every 5XXX card is a ripoff. ATI can lower the price of every card by 20 $ easily.
Then why recommend one of the worst cards in the 5XXX lineup?
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Guys, what kind of hard drive would you recommend? I want a good, reliable one that will last me at least 5 years.
Thanks for all the replies!
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Western Digital Caviar Blue or Caviar Black.
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On February 19 2010 11:30 NeVeR wrote:
Guys, what kind of hard drive would you recommend? I want a good, reliable one that will last me at least 5 years.
Thanks for all the replies!
Samsung Spinpoint F1, definitely
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Thanks for the suggestions. Also, what type of RAM would go well with the AMD Phenom II?
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Alright, I just ordered all my computer parts from newegg.com, but still trying to decide on a new monitor (apparently 4:3 monitors suck for SC2). How difficult do you think it will be for me to assemble everything, considering that I have absolutely no experience whatsoever? Do all the parts come with assembly instructions? I'm wondering if I should perhaps pay someone else with experience to do it for me, since I really don't want to screw this up...
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On February 21 2010 07:53 NeVeR wrote:
Alright, I just ordered all my computer parts from newegg.com, but still trying to decide on a new monitor (apparently 4:3 monitors suck for SC2). How difficult do you think it will be for me to assemble everything, considering that I have absolutely no experience whatsoever? Do all the parts come with assembly instructions? I'm wondering if I should perhaps pay someone else with experience to do it for me, since I really don't want to screw this up...
not very hard
just need to know where to plug which PSU connectors plug into the motherboard, optical drives, and hard drives and where to plug the front panel, fan, and power connectors into the motherboard (this should all be available in a manual or obvious by looking at what matches). the larger stuff like PSU, video cards, hard drives, DVD drives, fans, etc should be fairly straightforward to screw in.
I suggest installing the CPU and heatsink fan on the motherboard outside the case first. either read the manual or look up a guide online for the best way to apply thermal grease for your specific CPU. a very common mistake for first time builders is to apply too much thermal grease which results in poor heat transfer from the CPU to the heatsink.
you might have some difficulty getting some screws into the motherboard standoff due to lack of space. it's not absolutely critical to get a screw into every available standoff but make sure there is enough support (especially with a heavy third party heatsink fan).
building a computer might seem like an intimidating task, but it's really not. the most danger imo is static discharge. make sure to always ground yourself by touching the case and perform the assembly in a low static environment (ie not on the carpet).
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On February 21 2010 10:01 udgnim wrote:
I suggest installing the CPU and heatsink fan on the motherboard outside the case first. either read the manual or look up a guide online for the best way to apply thermal grease for your specific CPU. a very common mistake for first time builders is to apply too much thermal grease which results in poor heat transfer from the CPU to the heatsink.
Thanks a lot for the reply. I was worried about overheating and was unsure of how many fans to buy, so I just got a really nice case with four big fans on each side:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119160
Do you think I still need to install a heatsink fan on the motherboard, or will this case alone provide sufficient cooling to the CPU?
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you need a heatsink/fan for the cpu always
cpu should come with one so it shouldn't be a problem
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you always need at least a heatsink on a CPU. if you don't plan on overclocking, the stock cooler that comes with a non-OEM CPU is fine.
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How easy is it to install Windows 7 on a blank hard-drive? The instructions in my Windows 7 package only talk about upgrading from XP or Vista...
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On February 23 2010 12:10 NeVeR wrote:
How easy is it to install Windows 7 on a blank hard-drive? The instructions in my Windows 7 package only talk about upgrading from XP or Vista...
It's pretty easy. I just did it on my computer and took an hour maybe, most of it was just waiting while the stuff was loading though.
edit: Damn a quad core that is 3.4GHz for $180 sounds amazing. My core 2 duo is 3.19GHz I think and it was only $20 cheaper.
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ghz mhz hz all the same thing~
what matters is real time performance!
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My computer parts just came in the mail! Gonna try to assemble everything tonight when I get back from classes.
WOOHOO :D
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On February 23 2010 12:10 NeVeR wrote:
How easy is it to install Windows 7 on a blank hard-drive? The instructions in my Windows 7 package only talk about upgrading from XP or Vista...
should be pretty easy
turn on PC, insert CD/DVD, follow instructions
you might need to change your motherboard's BIOS settings to have the disc drive as a booting device. also, recommend creating 2 partitions on your hard drive. one is for Windows 7 (30GB sized partition seems to be a popular number to choose) and the other is for everything else.
the reason why you want to do this is if you ever need or want to reinstall Windows 7, only the Windows 7 partition will be affected. hard drive formatting & partitioning will be asked during the beginning sequence of the Windows 7 install.
edit: this is probably stupidly obvious, but do not turn off or reset your computer while Windows 7 is installing. if your install seems to be stuck (no change in screen or progress bar), to be extremely safe, I would wait an hour before resetting the PC. try to look up online what might be causing this issue while you wait.
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On February 18 2010 18:42 FragKrag wrote:
A decent 790X chipset motherboard will carry you a long time, and a decent Corsair/Antec/Thermaltake/Cooler Master PSU will provide reliable performance as well. I suggest getting a PSU that is 80 PLUS certified, because they will generally provide more reliable power, and are always more energy efficient.
The company logo means little when it comes to PSUs, the OEM is the important thing. What you're looking for are the actual manufacturers of your PSU.
Seasonic and PC Power & Cooling generally make the best PSUs. Not surprisingly, a lot of Antec and Corsair mainstream units are actually Seasonics and thus the reason why they're good.
If you're not going anything crazy like SLI/Crossfire, a 500w 80+ PSU is more than enough to power your rig. Thermaltake/Cooler Master are generally pretty mediocre but you can't really go wrong with Corsairs/Antecs/Seasonics.
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On February 19 2010 04:04 FragKrag wrote:You realize that in both of those reviews they test small resolutions where both processors run the games flawlessly right? The human eye can't see the difference between 100 FPS and 120 FPS.anyways currently the Phenom II 720 is hard to find in stock. Newegg sells them OEM, but then you need to buy a new hsf. Show nested quote +
4 gig is getting the norm fast. If you want to play sc2 and have several programs running next to it 4 gig is just right.
every 5XXX card is a ripoff. ATI can lower the price of every card by 20 $ easily.
Then why recommend one of the worst cards in the 5XXX lineup?
This is incorrect.
http://amo.net/NT/02-21-01FPS.html
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On March 01 2010 19:31 Redshirt wrote:Show nested quote +On February 18 2010 18:42 FragKrag wrote:
A decent 790X chipset motherboard will carry you a long time, and a decent Corsair/Antec/Thermaltake/Cooler Master PSU will provide reliable performance as well. I suggest getting a PSU that is 80 PLUS certified, because they will generally provide more reliable power, and are always more energy efficient. The company logo means little when it comes to PSUs, the OEM is the important thing. What you're looking for are the actual manufacturers of your PSU. Seasonic and PC Power & Cooling generally make the best PSUs. Not surprisingly, a lot of Antec and Corsair mainstream units are actually Seasonics and thus the reason why they're good. If you're not going anything crazy like SLI/Crossfire, a 500w 80+ PSU is more than enough to power your rig. Thermaltake/Cooler Master are generally pretty mediocre but you can't really go wrong with Corsairs/Antecs/Seasonics.
Oh I wasn't aware of that o_O
wasn't PC Power & Cooling bought by OCZ? OCZ power supplies are pretty bad :/
haha that's also interesting that the human eye can see more than 200fps. I never knew anyone could distinguish past 100FPS o_o.
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On March 02 2010 00:59 FragKrag wrote:Show nested quote +On March 01 2010 19:31 Redshirt wrote:On February 18 2010 18:42 FragKrag wrote:
A decent 790X chipset motherboard will carry you a long time, and a decent Corsair/Antec/Thermaltake/Cooler Master PSU will provide reliable performance as well. I suggest getting a PSU that is 80 PLUS certified, because they will generally provide more reliable power, and are always more energy efficient. The company logo means little when it comes to PSUs, the OEM is the important thing. What you're looking for are the actual manufacturers of your PSU. Seasonic and PC Power & Cooling generally make the best PSUs. Not surprisingly, a lot of Antec and Corsair mainstream units are actually Seasonics and thus the reason why they're good. If you're not going anything crazy like SLI/Crossfire, a 500w 80+ PSU is more than enough to power your rig. Thermaltake/Cooler Master are generally pretty mediocre but you can't really go wrong with Corsairs/Antecs/Seasonics. Oh I wasn't aware of that o_O wasn't PC Power & Cooling bought by OCZ? OCZ power supplies are pretty bad :/
Even if OCZ bought out PC Power and Cooling, for whatever reason the lower end models (not their 1000W beast which is awesome if noisy as fuck) are still re-branded Fortron Source products.
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EPT
