Computer Build Resource Thread - Page 1479

graphics is graphics, cpu is cpu. So a weak CPU, might struggle to stream 480, but it will struggle all the same whether it's on low or ultra graphics if it's got a good enough GPU. SC2 is an old game, and not very graphics intensive, but your budget is so low that even spending just $60 for a gtx460 on ebay to max out sc2, would take a significant bite on everything else. You can always upgrade your card later, but you need to tell me, do you prefer playing on low or would you rather play on medium, high, etc? Maybe we can find you a cheaper, but acceptable PSU and case.

I mean this is still a very decent computer w can make here, it's just we got to cut a few corners on value or ease, like buying a 6 year old mid-range graphics card that will still play medium just, or an old 4 year old SSD that's still much faster faster than a HDD, that isn't the fastest SSD around, but at least you can incorporate an SSD into your build whereas you wouldn't otherwise.

okay, so with no mc, and your budget now (so much for possibly getting an i7!)

• i5-3570k $219 Newegg
  
• Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Motherboard $124 AR Newegg
  
• Crucial Ballistix Sport 1333mhz CL9 single 4GB stick $26 Newegg
  
• Zalman CNPS14X $29AR Newegg
  
• NZXT Source 210 $34 Newegg
  
• PC Power and Cooling Silencer MK3 $49AR Newegg
  
• Intel X25-M or 320 80GB on Ebay $50-60 Ebay
  

$531 without a graphics card.

That's $536 for a very high quality CPU, motherboard, and heatsink, so you will be able to actually overclock very far, to the limits. It's possible you'll get a badly binned chip that won't overclock as far as others, but you will still be able to push an extra 100-200mhz. That motherboard, and CPU, are so good, that you can push a ton of power in the chip and be safe and cool.

The shortcomings - you are buying an SSD off ebay (whereas you couldn't afford an SSD otherwise, you'd have to buy a $20 piece of crap HDD that'd really suck), the corsair 200R is a better value case at the moment for a slightly higher price, the rosewill capstone is a better value psu for a slightly higher price (silencer mk3 is still a very good psu though), only 4gb of low quality ram (which won't make an impact on day to day performance anyways and you can add more ram easily if you need to, which you likely wont). And your graphics card, it won't be much.

Now. It's up to you how much more you want to put into a graphics card. You could get a $20-30 4850 on ebay, play on medium, maybe with a few settings reduced on higher resolution (will definitely do low lol), and either save money, or get a rosewill capstone 450w, corsair 200R, maybe a better heatsink for even further overclock if you think overclocking sounds like fun, and 8GB of decent quality RAM so you can run a million tabs on the 2nd monitor when you get it while streaming. There's also the 4870 for $50 or less for medium/high.

Or, you can easily get a 7770 1GB on Newegg that will max SC2 with no sweat, for $99 AR and then sell the bundled games it comes with for $35 (wow it commonly sells for $40-45, the bioshock/crysis/farcy package sells for only $30, probably because market is flooded with them) and ultimately have paid $65, which would put your total price tag at $596. The 7770 will also be strong enough to play modern games like Crysis 3 and Farcry on decent settings.

That is after rebates and selling that game code, so bear in mind you will need to have like... I dont know, $630-650 on your actual card and it'll be a month before all that money comes back. But there's a reason why the 7770 comes highly recommended on this forum.