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sup tl. So I've been playing some SC again, losing a shit ton of games trying to learn the style fantasy play's TvP and TvZ with and getting increasingly frustrated with my computer.
Now about 6 months before I went to uni about a year ago I bought a pretty mediocre £300 laptop, for use in carrying between lectures and what not. Then I got there and realised that you didn't really need to do that anyway. So, needing a monitor and keyboard to play SC anyway, my laptop has turned into a desktop, albeit a frustratingly bad desktop.
Now I don't really know anything about computers, or any particularly good websites to buy high towers from (my friend recommended Overclockers, which seems fairly reasonably priced, but then I'm not sure).
So I thought I'd come on here and see if anyone could help, I need a desktop that will do the following things:
- not die after a year and a half
- Run SC2
- Not cause me to eat spaghetti for the next 2 years (not really looking to spend more than £350-400 if at all possible)
- Will just be a solid, reliable computer that will see me through the next 3-4 years without needing a great deal of servicing.
So with those very technical specifications in mind, can anyone give me some advice on what to buy and where to buy it?
thank you 
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Build and service your own computer. It's not that hard if you find a really good how to guide (there are lots of them online). The September 2009 issue of Maximum PC had 3 dream machines (for different budgets). The cheapest one only cost 690USD but it can definitely run SC2.
CPU: AMD Phenom II x3 720 ($139)
Motherboard: MSI DKA790GX ($122)
RAM: Kingston HyperX 4gb ($55)
Videocard: HIS Radeon 4870 512mb ($153)
Harddrive: Western Digital Caviar 500 black ($69)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-S223F ($25)
PSU: Rosewill RP550v2-S-SL ($52)
Case: Antec 900 ($77)
It's got a tri-core processor (the guys at MaxPC overclocked theirs from 2.8GHz to 3.7 using the stock heatsink), 4gbs of RAM and a pretty good video card. 692USD is 419 pounds. I looked at overclockers and they seemed reasonably priced so it's up to you.
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That wasn't the September issue was it? I recall seeing the budget dream machines this year way earlier online?
i5, 70 bucks more expensive from newegg, ridiculously more performance. Unfortunately I have no idea about EU pricing for processors.
Yes, I know it pushes the upper bound of the guy's budget some, but really. i5 mobos don't go for all that much, especially since most people won't need to use sli and you can get away with a lower level graphics card and push for a better graphics card in the future. If we are looking in terms of being able to upgrade in the future, I feel like going with i5 offers an edge.
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right now it's best to wait. i5s just came out which means both AMD and intel are probably going to downmarket some processors. as well as the upcoming ATI 58XX (sometime this month?)
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those specs madnessman posted are way overkill, dont spend more then 200 for the stuff you want.
2 years ago i spent 350 euros on a computer with a 2.4 gh duo processor and some random geforce 8000 series grafixcard. im able to play stuff like fallout 3 and farcry 2 with near perfect settings. nowadays the same computer probly goes for half the price and its still way more then what you want. and the 50€ fee for building it together and installing my windows is included in those 350.
edit: ah crap i misread the sc2 for sc kk youl have to spend a lil more then 200 but a 3 or 4 core processor is still overkill in my opinion
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On September 10 2009 00:46 Wurzelbrumpft wrote:
those specs madnessman posted are way overkill, dont spend more then 200 for the stuff you want.
it's for a "low end dream machine". that's an oxymoron!
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Why is a 3 or 4 core process an overkill, really? Sure, you can probably run SC2 great with Wolfdale and some decent graphics card, but eh. I can't say that I am not made happier when I can just slap games on highest settings and have everything look pretty. But even in normal use, the ability to stuff in a large amount of tasks and the options in having the computing power to do weird stuff is nice. If you build a computer solely to what you will do and adhere strictly to that, then yes, spending only as much as you need to fit that pattern is logical. But who does that?
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On September 10 2009 02:21 Ecael wrote:
Why is a 3 or 4 core process an overkill, really? Sure, you can probably run SC2 great with Wolfdale and some decent graphics card, but eh. I can't say that I am not made happier when I can just slap games on highest settings and have everything look pretty. But even in normal use, the ability to stuff in a large amount of tasks and the options in having the computing power to do weird stuff is nice. If you build a computer solely to what you will do and adhere strictly to that, then yes, spending only as much as you need to fit that pattern is logical. But who does that?
are you serious? the op wrote down specifically what he wants to use the computer for and also wrote that his budget is pretty limited. i just stated my opinion that id rather save 200 bucks to spend on something else, then use them for my computer to play sc2 on a lil better settings. the money makes a difference if your a student
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That's understandable, except for that the suggest posted by madnessman was perfectly fine, you are simply undercutting him. I won't push an i5 suggestion since that will probably go over the line that he drew, but imo to think that you won't use your comp for anything else is quite unrealistic. Maybe it is just me, when I first got a netbook, my thoughts were pretty much like "Yeah it'd be great if I can take notes and surf the web on the go with good battery power. Then it turns to 720p vids, maybe a go at mat lab, etc. I can know how much money I need to keep around, a month of rent, a month of food, amounts of emergency cash. I can't quite know that I'll never want my computer to do something else. If you have that kind of ability, then bravo, you are a better man than I am.
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The i5 needs to get cheaper.
I waited for it and Dx11 ( only got a new 23" screen ) but it is too expensive atm for me. Maybe in one month...
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EPT
