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@holynorth: It's difficult to say. In terms of CPU usage, SC2 will max out one CPU core, use another core at something around 50%, and tickle a third or fourth core with a very very light load maybe. Video encoding--for streaming or whatever--also is heavy on CPU usage. So if you have a dual core, that's generally not enough to run SC2 plus anything else CPU-intensive. 3 cores may give you enough CPU resources for streaming on top of SC2, depending on how demanding the stream is and how fast the cores are. 4 cores would be safer. The Phenom II are identical to the Athlon II except that the former have L3 cache. This means the Phenom II are faster at most tasks.
If you don't want to spend over budget and want to keep the GTX 768 MB, you can wait around to try to scalp for better deals or maybe just go with a Athlon II X4. Or you can get a Phenom II X2 (any) and hope one or two of your cores unlock (see here). If no cores unlock, you're probably out of luck playing SC2 + streaming with acceptable fps. Crossfire is for multi-GPU, which is useless for your purposes. This combo would be cheaper. If you need USB3, you can just buy an add-on PCI-E card.
@LazyMacro: All games these days are 32-bit programs, which means they can only use up to 2GB of memory IIRC. The details are a little more complicated than that. If your game has everything it would want to put into RAM actually stored into RAM, having more RAM isn't going to do anything really. If you're just gaming, 4 GB is fine.
It's mostly CPU and GPU that determines how fast a game can be run, but that depends on the game. Lowering graphics settings and screen resolution will reduce the demand on your GPU by a lot and your CPU maybe by some (depending on the game). SC2 is unusually heavy on the CPU cores it's actually using. Many games would run great on a low-end CPU and high-end GPU. At a given graphical setting and game, and situation in the game, your fps is either going to be constrained by the CPU or the GPU--whichever can't handle all the work to do.
If you get a Core i5-2500, this will be faster in games than any CPU in history except the Core i7-2600, which would be somewhere between insignificantly to slightly better, depending on the game. You couldn't spend more on the CPU to future-proof. Something like a GTX 570 is already past the price/performance sweet spot, where you're beginning to throw away money for not too much more performance (unless you go multi-GPU). But it's already got way overkill graphics performance for a game like SC2.
@jellytoast: Come back and ask whenever you're actually going to build it, as we can't predict future products and prices. $1000 probably gives you enough money to get a new PSU if your old one is not up to the task (what's the exact model?).
As a guess, you're probably looking at a Core i5-2500, compatible mobo, something priced where the GTX 460 is now (maybe HD 6870 will be down in price, and GTX 560 will be released???), 2x2 GB DDR3 RAM, etc. No multi-GPU, or you'd go over budget. And it's probably not worth it either. You'd also want the i5-2500k (k version) if you're overclocking, though that probably wouldn't be necessary.
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How would my current build work? As you saw, I upgraded it to different Athlon II X4 2.9 as well as a different motherboard.
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It should be enough.
But I don't see what features the 790GX mobo has over most 770 or 870 mobos that would be useful to you. The mobos with the G have integrated graphics, but you have your own discrete graphics card. You can get the same CPU with a cheaper mobo like here.
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What is your budget? $500-$600
What is your resolution? 1920x1080
What are you using it for? Gaming,Facebook,Email,Web Browsing,etc
What is your upgrade cycle? 3-4 years
When do you plan on building it? Late Winter, Early Spring
Do you plan on overclocking? No
Do you need an Operating System? No
Do you plan to add a second GPU for SLI or Crossfire? No only want 1 gpu
Where are you buying your parts from? newegg
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If you're building in "Late Winter, Early Spring," why ask for advice now (or all the previous times)? Are you planning on buying all of it now; from now to then; or right before you put it together? I'd advise doing either the second or third: gradually accumulating parts over time by only grabbing great deals or just forgetting about it all until you actually are going to buy.
If you accumulate parts over time, you can use the above build by R04R as a guideline for prices to beat. With some effort, you could get a GTX 460 (or HD 6850), a Sandy Bridge Core i5-2x00 processor, and a cheap LGA 1155 motherboard (plus equivalent RAM, PSU, case, optical drive, hard drive as the above) in the $500-600 range.
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hey guys. i've got a situation here and need some help.
my old 8600gt got fried a few days ago and now i need a new gpu. i don't have a high end pc. but i want to get a gpu which will be able to play almost every game at high / max settings. my screen resolution is 1440x900. i was hoping to get a gtx 570. but do you guys have any better suggestions?
my current rig:
Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 3.15 ghz
Gigabyte P35 DS3R
2x2 gb ddr2 800 ram
Thermaltake 550w psu.
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Your CPU is going to bottleneck a GTX 570. In your case, I would recommend an ATI HD 6870 as a max which will still play all the games you want it to. If you're batting for the green team, the GTX 460 1GB is calling your name. Both are around $180-220 (with ATI being a bit more expensive).
The HD 6850 1GB, GTX 460 768MB will also work at a lower price along with the GTS 450 and HD 5770.
The GTX 570 will also work, but at your low resolution, it wouldn't really be a good use of your money.
I would recommend a GTX 460 1GB/HD 6870 for your purposes unless you plan on upgrading your CPU/monitor later on.
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Well i'm kind of an Nvidia fanboy. i'd pick up the gtx 460 for sure but i've heard that it has dpc high latency issues with lower chipsets. so i'm kinda reluctant. i don't want to get an amd product really because i've had bad experience whi leusing them. though i'm not sure how good amd products are these days. anyways i'm currently running my cpu @ 3.15 ghz using the stock intel cooler. will i be able to solve some of the bottlenecking issues by overclocking it to a higher speed using an aftermarket cooler????
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I request some advice on the following, this will be the first PC I have ever built so obviously I'm anxious as to whether it will 1: Work correctly 2: I won't bodge it up myself.
I keep reading about bottlenecking, but I have no idea whether any of the following parts would bottleneck one another.
These include:
Motherboard bottlenecking the Graphics Card
Motherboard bottlenecking the RAM
Everything being bottlenecked by the PSU
And other bottlenecking things I have no idea that exist (as I mentioned, I'm a newbie)
The following parts are
AMD Athlon II X4 Quad Core 645 3.10GHz
XFX ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB GDDR5
Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H AMD 880G
OCZ StealthXStream 2 500W Power Supply
Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz
As for (some of) the questions
Resolution: 1920x1080
Use: Gaming and HD anime playing (both seem to cripple my current CPU hence the reason for getting a new PC)
Overclocking: I've heard that the CPU requires no additional cooling at 3.5Ghz so perhaps to that, again I'd like verification as to whether I should do that.
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Thanks to all your help I acquired the parts and I have assembled my pc mostly. The only problem is that I can't seem to attach the HDD to the PSU. The PSU (corsair seasonic) came with some cables which will attach to my WD caviar black HDD. For some reason I can't find any way to connect the cables that come directly out of the PSU into the cables that can connect into the HDD. Those cables coming from the psu have 8 connectors (2x4, medium sized). The cables that attach to the HDD have at one end a long flat connector - to the HDD, and either a 1x4 pin or 1x5 pin connectors at the other end - to the PSU???. Am I missing some sort of way to connect them together? The cables that I have came with the PSU so I am confused as to why they connect to my HDD but not to my PSU. Nor can I find a place on my motherboard to connect them to. All of the cables I have have connectors at the end, as does the PSU cable. The only pins I see are on the motherboard, but not in the right sizes/alignment/number.
pins ---
connectors ===
Help again please/too confusing/better thread to post this in?/someplace that actually describes how to fix my problem?
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Hey guys, I have most of the pieces for my computer, and I have bought my CPU:
AMD Phenom II X3 740 Black Edition Heka 3.0GHz 3 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Desktop Processor HDZ740WFK3DGI - OEM
However as you can see it is OEM. I am not sure what kind of heatsink/cooling system I should use. Any advice would be extremely appreciated. I prefer to order from newegg as well.
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On January 03 2011 17:43 DCLXVI wrote:
Thanks to all your help I acquired the parts and I have assembled my pc mostly. The only problem is that I can't seem to attach the HDD to the PSU. The PSU (corsair seasonic) came with some cables which will attach to my WD caviar black HDD. For some reason I can't find any way to connect the cables that come directly out of the PSU into the cables that can connect into the HDD. Those cables coming from the psu have 8 connectors (2x4, medium sized). The cables that attach to the HDD have at one end a long flat connector - to the HDD, and either a 1x4 pin or 1x5 pin connectors at the other end - to the PSU???. Am I missing some sort of way to connect them together? The cables that I have came with the PSU so I am confused as to why they connect to my HDD but not to my PSU. Nor can I find a place on my motherboard to connect them to. All of the cables I have have connectors at the end, as does the PSU cable. The only pins I see are on the motherboard, but not in the right sizes/alignment/number.
pins ---
connectors ===
Help again please/too confusing/better thread to post this in?/someplace that actually describes how to fix my problem?
What? -_- that was just jibberish to me.
You need to have two cables running from your HDD. One is a sata cable which looks like this: http://www.sierra-cables.com/Cables/Images/SATA-Signal-Cable-1.jpg. This plugs into your motherboard sata port which looks like this: http://www.overclockzone.com/zolkorn/Pic/jrp45/9.jpg (the orange ones)
This is the power cable that should be connected to your HDD: http://www.cooldrives.com/lib/cooldrives/sata-hard-drive-power-cable-connector.jpg
Every PSU comes with these by default. Non modular Seasonic PSUs usually have 2 cables of 3 connectors each.
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depends what you're going to do with it, you don't need anything quite as large or good as hyper 212 if you keep that at stock it's a 95w TDP cpu.
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What is your budget?
$650-ish
What is your resolution?
Normal. Isn't this kind of irrelevant though, since the video card needed to smoothly play most games will overpower most basic monitors anyway. If this is really necessary, I can look it up.
What are you using it for?
Mainly gaming and web-browsing.
What is your upgrade cycle?
3-4 years
When do you plan on building it?
ASAP
Do you plan on overclocking?
No
Do you need an Operating System?
Standard windows 7 for like $65. (so subtract that from the 650 I guess)
Do you plan to add a second GPU for SLI or Crossfire?
No
Where are you buying your parts from?
Newegg
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@AdmiralSimon
There is no such thing as a normal resolution... Some people prefer gaming on 1280x720 or the smaller resolutions because they're absolutely use to it and a video card such as a GTS 450 or 5770 is fine for that... But some people like to play at 1920x1200 and at the higher resolutions, the GTS 450 and 5770 won't be fine. You're looking at a minimal of a GTX 460 1GB.
What's a basic monitor? A TN panel? A panel doesn't really have anything to do with how powerful a graphics card is...
Here's a rough estimate of what you want.
case = $60 (something like the antec 300)
psu = $60 (antec earthwatts 400-500w)
hdd = $60 (samsung f3 500gb)
ram = $50 (4gb gskill 1333mhz)
cpu = $150 (some AMD phenom x3 or x4)
mobo = $100
dvd-drive = $20
windows 7 home premium = $100
gpu = $100 - $300 (depends on your resolution)
It's best to increase your budget if you want this computer to last 4 years..
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By resolution are you reffering to the size of the monitor, or...?
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Another random question: What determines how laggy your PC gets?
With my current PC, if I have SC2 open (I run it windowed and fullscreen) and I alt-tab to use other programs like AIM, Skype, etc., I notice a lot of actual lag. Clicks are delayed, typing is delayed, and so forth. Is this just my PC getting old or am I straining the hardware?
How can I avoid this in the future?
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EPT
