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When using this resource, please read FragKrag's opening post. The Tech Support forum regulars have helped create countless of desktop systems without any compensation. The least you can do is provide all of the information required for them to help you properly. |
Agreed, HAF 932 is pretty excessive unless you're running lots of HD's or planning on cooling high-end overclocking, multiple GPUs, or a top-of-the-line GPU. You probably want 4 GB of RAM, yes, and you need DDR3 RAM, not DDR2 RAM, for all modern systems use. You want an AM3 socket motherboard for your AMD processor, btw.
A dual core is okay for SC2 and most games, but maybe you should consider a quad core, in this day and age. If you upgrade reasonably often, a dual core may still be reasonable though to last for a few more years.
CM Silent Pro PSUs are good but not great. You wouldn't be using half of 700W anyway, even at max load with the GTX 460 in the system. If you don't plan on heavy upgrading in the future, getting a good 400W like the currently $45 (before $15 MIR) Antec Neo Eco 400C would save some money too.
edit: A GTS 450 should be great for high settings at most resolutions, though you'd probably want to step up to the GTX 460 for ultra.
As mentioned earlier, the GTX 460 SE is the co-called "slow edition" or "sucky edition." Actually, it's just a little bit slower than the other GTX 460, so it's still a decent step up from the GTS 450. Unless you can find a GTX 460 SE for less than the normal 1GB or 768MB models, it's not worth the price.
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The GTX 460 SE is better than the GTS 450, but the GTX 460 768MB performs a bit better than that. If the 460 SE is cheaper, go for that, if not, go for the 768mb.
As far as CPU goes, I'd rather add in an extra $50 for the Phenom II X4 955. For 50% more you get 100% more cores 
You're tell me Gokuon LOL
I have an i7 860 and a GTS 250 lulz
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GTX 460 768 MB is definitely the better choice here
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On December 11 2010 18:59 FragKrag wrote:
Looks like a solid choice, and it should be barely enough to get ultra at 1920x1200.
If you really want Ultra at finest, then you should consider the GTX 460 1GB or the HD 6850 1GB, and also consider upgrading the CPU to a faster Phenom II X2 565 (and also trying to unlock some cores on the CPU).
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Would the Phenom II X2 565 add much performance? With the cores unlocked the only difference between it and the Athlon II x3 445 is .2Ghz and the L3 cache right?
@TheeCrooKed
All those links are to the Canadian newegg site, if you live in the USA you're in luck because their prices are usually better
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I honestly hate the BE 565, but SC2 doesn't respond to more cores as it does L3 cache and clock rate. I'd go for the BE 565 if you can't spend an extra $50 on a Phenom II X4 955
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Nice choice for the motherboard! I have the AMD 870 version of that board and it is amazing. So many features and overclocking is a breeze.
You might want to increase the power supply to at least 500 Watts just to be on the safe side. 430 Watts is a bit on the low side and would not be sufficient if you want to upgrade your cpu or your gpu later. Also, I would recommend a Radeon HD5770 or a Nvidia GTX 460 (768 MB version) as those outperform the GTS 450 at similar prices. If you have extra money to spend, get the Nvidia GTX 460 1GB version as their prices have come down quite a bit now that the new Radeon HD 6000s are out.
Everthing else looks pretty good. You have the same CPU as me and if you are lucky, you can unlock the 2 additional cores to get a quad core. A nice bonus that would otherwise cost you an extra $60.
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Haha, yes I'm in USA, so good news for me! Thanks for all the help guys I think I can make a decision based from everyones input. I'm going to look to purchase after Xmas most likely, until then, low resolution!!
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On December 12 2010 06:52 FragKrag wrote:
I honestly hate the BE 565, but SC2 doesn't respond to more cores as it does L3 cache and clock rate. I'd go for the BE 565 if you can't spend an extra $50 on a Phenom II X4 955
Apparently, the 565 has a list price of $115. That's $25 more than what newegg is selling the 555 for, and only $30 less than what they're selling the 955 for.
It's functionally identical to the 555, but nearly the price of the quad core.
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On December 12 2010 06:54 CaiSter wrote:Nice choice for the motherboard! I have the AMD 870 version of that board and it is amazing. So many features and overclocking is a breeze. You might want to increase the power supply to at least 500 Watts just to be on the safe side. 430 Watts is a bit on the low side and would not be sufficient if you want to upgrade your cpu or your gpu later.
Well, an overclocked i7 and a GTX 460 take about 350W from the wall running Furmark, so that's well under 300W DC. I doubt his CPU would take as much power as an overclocked i7, though total power consumption could be a little higher with the CPU totally maxed out. So I think a 400-430W unit is appropriate.
That said, the Neo Eco 400W is better and cheaper than the Basiq 430W. Both are listed at 30A on +12V anyway, and the former should have better performance, and it has a bottom 12cm fan rather than the side 8cm fan.
But if you're buying after Christmas, prices are likely to change between now and then anyway. If you're holding off, it might be worth waiting for early January when Intel's next-gen Sandy Bridge CPUs get released. It depends on exactly what you're looking for in terms of price and performance.
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the Phenom II X2 555 BE is a great little chip...for $90 you could potentially get the a quad core easily overclockable to ~3.5 GHz (equivalent to stock $190 Phenom II X4 970)
core unlocking is not guaranteed of course. mine is stable on 3 cores @ 3.6 GHz, although I got the chip+mobo for $100 at Microcenter
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I only suggested he get a higher wattage power supply because he might want to upgrade to power hungry GPU or do crossfire/sli in the future. A 430W would definitely not be suitable and he would have to upgrade the PSU. So if he gets a larger power supply now, then he would not have to buy it later on.
Also, I have bought 2 Phenom II X2 555 BE and both have been unlocked to 4 cores @ 3.8GHz
guess i just got really lucky 
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On December 12 2010 06:27 FragKrag wrote:The GTX 460 SE is better than the GTS 450, but the GTX 460 768MB performs a bit better than that. If the 460 SE is cheaper, go for that, if not, go for the 768mb. As far as CPU goes, I'd rather add in an extra $50 for the Phenom II X4 955. For 50% more you get 100% more cores You're tell me Gokuon LOL I have an i7 860 and a GTS 250 lulz
lawl yea forgot about that that's even farther apart than mine =p
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On December 12 2010 07:59 CaiSter wrote:I only suggested he get a higher wattage power supply because he might want to upgrade to power hungry GPU or do crossfire/sli in the future. A 430W would definitely not be suitable and he would have to upgrade the PSU. So if he gets a larger power supply now, then he would not have to buy it later on. Also, I have bought 2 Phenom II X2 555 BE and both have been unlocked to 4 cores @ 3.8GHz guess i just got really lucky
The way I see it, somebody who is asking for build advice will not likely be upgrading constantly, upgrading to Crossfire/SLI (why bother when in 3 years you can get another mid-end card), or overclocking very heavily. It's much more likely for a much beefier-than-necessary PSU to be unnecessary. Granted, I can't predict the future, and people should be allowed to buy whatever they want. I just want to be realistic in how much power people need.
Apparently you can predict the future though, or at least pick quad-core unlockable Phenom II X2's. 
A high-five is in order for i7-870 with a GTS 250, lol. In all seriousness though, a "balanced" computer for gaming is actually pretty lopsided from another perspective. It's not like your GPU does much outside of games anyway.
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okay guys, here is my build for christmas.. i need to order parts asap! let me know if you guys can modify for similar parts making it cheaper etc... let me know if this comp will be good for sc2 and gaming in general.. i have a steady job so i can always upgrade every 2 weeks if needed haha.. let me know what i can do etc and if im good to go to build once all the parts come
adding a spoiler tag:
+ Show Spoiler +
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On December 12 2010 09:45 Myrmidon wrote:Show nested quote +On December 12 2010 07:59 CaiSter wrote:I only suggested he get a higher wattage power supply because he might want to upgrade to power hungry GPU or do crossfire/sli in the future. A 430W would definitely not be suitable and he would have to upgrade the PSU. So if he gets a larger power supply now, then he would not have to buy it later on. Also, I have bought 2 Phenom II X2 555 BE and both have been unlocked to 4 cores @ 3.8GHz guess i just got really lucky The way I see it, somebody who is asking for build advice will not likely be upgrading constantly, upgrading to Crossfire/SLI (why bother when in 3 years you can get another mid-end card), or overclocking very heavily. It's much more likely for a much beefier-than-necessary PSU to be unnecessary. Granted, I can't predict the future, and people should be allowed to buy whatever they want. I just want to be realistic in how much power people need. Apparently you can predict the future though, or at least pick quad-core unlockable Phenom II X2's. A high-five is in order for i7-870 with a GTS 250, lol. In all seriousness though, a "balanced" computer for gaming is actually pretty lopsided from another perspective. It's not like your GPU does much outside of games anyway.
That's pretty much how I thought of it. I saw no purpose in spending $200 for a GPU that I will barely ever use and I really just needed something SC2 capable at a decent price. $80 GTS 250 was good enough for me.
As far as the i7 860 goes, it was only $200 so why the fuck not.
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Happy with my i5 760 for $175, gonna OC it when I replace this crappy stock HSF. Wait till GPU prices drop further next year, then pick up a decent card, still using my old 4770.
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Hey everyone,
This is my first time trying to build my own computer. I was going to steal the above build minus the heat sink and monitor. I'm trying to get a SC2 ultra settings capable computer, and I'd like to have one that will run D3 when it comes out in 5 years. Not planning on OCing unless I need to because I don't know how...but if you guys convince me its "easy" maybe I'll try it. I wanted some feedback on the above build since only 1 person commented on it before. Also, will I need anything other than a small screwdriver to put this all together (cables)?
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On December 12 2010 22:25 Smoothy wrote:+ Show Spoiler +Hey everyone, This is my first time trying to build my own computer. I was going to steal the above build minus the heat sink and monitor. I'm trying to get a SC2 ultra settings capable computer, and I'd like to have one that will run D3 when it comes out in 5 years. Not planning on OCing unless I need to because I don't know how...but if you guys convince me its "easy" maybe I'll try it. I wanted some feedback on the above build since only 1 person commented on it before. Also, will I need anything other than a small screwdriver to put this all together (cables)?
That's a solid build that should play SC2 on ultra fine. Dunno about Diablo 3, since its pretty much impossible to comment on anything that will come out in 5 years, but you should be able to still play D3 (not on ultra most likely)
I'm not going to go through and check prices now, because they change so quickly. My advice for that is: the day of, or before, when you are planning to buy, check up on prices, and see if you can find a nice combo deal or two for components that are not too specific and interchangeable (HDD, graphics, RAM, ODD, maybe HSF, PSU and case).
For buy timing, I usually know exactly what CPU/mobo/PSU/case I want and I wait for those to go on sale. If you really want to save money, watch prices daily, and buy the parts separately over a period of weeks.
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EPT
I still have my build though. I'm just wondering if I'm missing anything. Here's my build:
