DotGet's Guide: Buy a Computer for SC2 - $630 (updated 5/19) I've been building computers for about a year and a half, and over that period of time I've done a pretty good job of keeping my finger on the pulse of new parts and brand quality and all of that business. If you've never built a computer before it can seem like a pretty daunting task but I guarantee you it's not that bad. New builders usually run into a few snags while putting the PC together; this tutorial is here to make sure you know you're getting the right parts. I linked to Joneagle's building tutorial below mine so the next step goes just as smoothly. Below that is a little bit of a knowledge dump for those who want to know more about what they're looking at, what you should buy, and why. ***UPDATE (02/14)*** Apparently the laptops used to run Starcraft II at ESL have been identified. The brand is Asus and the model is the G71V. Specs are as follows: This is good news. The 9700M GT is a good deal less powerful than the 9800 GT. And even though the laptops have a quad core CPU and not dual core, this should not make any difference whatsoever as far as playing Starcraft II is concerned. DDR3 doesn't matter either. Now onto the build... (updated 5/22)* Case: your choice -- $75-$100 Pretty much any case between $75 and $100 is guaranteed not to be a clunker. There are some good ones between $50 and 75, but I wouldn't go any lower than that. Be sure the case you select supports ATX motherboards, and not just m-ATX. You can check by clicking the specifications tab once inside the product's profile. Motherboard: MSI P43 Neo3-F -- $85 It supports up to 16GB of 1066MHz DDR2 memory, which is as good as it gets for 775 socket boards (DDR3 memory on 775 boards is pointless). Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB -- $70 Very low price for quite a lot of space. You probably won't find any smaller HDD's for less. Video Card: Zotac GTS 250 512MB -- $130 EVGA is a solid brand and I almost always recommend going with them because of their "step-up" program, where you trade your card for a newer card at the added cost of the difference between the two. CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz -- $165 A beast, simply put. Had E7400 here earlier but overall I think the E8400 is a better choice. RAM: G.Skill 4GB (2x2) DDR2 1066MHz -- $49 G.Skill is a very reliable brand, 4GB is the gaming standard, and 1066MHz is very fast. Need I say more? Optical Drive: LG CD-RW/DVD-RW -- $22 Just got one of these myself and it's very fast and very solid. PSU: COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power Plus 500W -- $40 Great brand, efficient wattage. Overall: $635 - $660 + $20-$60 shipping depending on how much newegg likes you . You must also factor in the price of an OS if you don't have an install CD for one. Take note that if you have 4GB of RAM, you want a 64-bit OS, not 32. I recommend Vista 64 over XP 64, as I use it and have heard from others that XP 64 is a steaming pile. Or, if you want to be brave you can go with Windows 7, which i believe is currently free in beta. **Once you get your system, there's a great tutorial for actually putting it together, stickied at the top of this forum. Here's the link, just in case you missed it: http://www.starcraft2forum.org/forums/showthread.php?t=6062 **PC PARTS KNOWLEDGE DUMP** Q: How can I judge the quality of a CPU just by name and specs? A: There's quite alot to take into consideration when looking at what CPU you want to buy. The first thing most people look at is the speed, because it's pretty much the only one relatable part of a CPU's headline you will see with every processor. Be sure this isn't the only thing you look at. A Pentium 4 can go up to 4GHz, but that doesn't mean it's better than a 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo chip. You can get really in-depth on a processor's specs, looking at things like L1, L2, (and L3) cache - which is the bandwidth of the processor - or looking at the front side bus and multiplier (locked/unlocked?). Is it overclockable? All of these things are fun to know if you really care, so you can compare CPU's side by side. Generally, though, the most important attribute of the CPU that will determine its "power" is the architechture. Pentium 4's are stronger thant Pentium 3's; Core 2's are stronger than Pentium 4's; Core i7's are stronger than Core 2's. This will repeat itself to infinity as new architectures are constantly pushed out by Intel. The same goes for AMD chips. It's very important to look at small changes in architecture (Core 2 E7000 vs Core 2 E8000) as well as big changes (P4 vs Core 2). The speeds between the small changes in architecture are almost never directly relatable. The Core 2 Duo E8500 is a much stronger chip than the E7500. Conversely, you can relate speed between the newest architecture of Core 2 Duo's, the (E8000 series) and the newest of Core 2 Quads (Q9000?). A faster Core 2 Duo chip will perform better in current-day games than a slightly slower Core 2 Quad. Speed, cores, and the latest architechture: these are the things most relevant. SO, in short, to analyze a CPU you must look at two important things, in this order: 1. architecture (is it newer or older?), then speed. You could also say 'overclockability' is the 3rd factor. Q: Hard drives - 10,000 RPM or 7,200 RPM? How about SSD's? First off, don't get a 5,400 RPM HDD. These are sometimes disguised as "eco-friendly", which means they consume less power, which means they access slower. Slower loading, slower installing, slower everything. I can't recommend it. These companies aren't making "eco-friendly" drives to benefit the environment; it's a marketing scheme to charge too much for old technology. If you're into going green, you shouldn't be looking into building a powerful computer, really. As far as 7,200 vs 10,000, the difference is negligable. To some, the extra couple of seconds saved means alot. For most, including myself, 7,200 is perfect when it comes to value, speed, and space. Western Digital Caviar Black is usually a safe bet for the best price in this category. SSD's aren't a good investment in their current state. They don't read and write as fast as 10,000 RPM HDD's (though they theoretically should be much faster), and as with all flash memory, capacity will degrade over time. The bigger the drive, the more noticeable the degradation. They're also super expensive, so... Q: Judging video cards? I'm more a fan of the way ATI identifies their GPU's, as I think they make them incremently better along with each new number. 3850, 3870, 4850, 4870, etc. I could be wrong, but they seem more linear. With Nvidia, it gets a little more complicated. With the 5000, 6000, 7000, etc. series, you will have varying quality in each. The closer to the base number of the series, the weaker; the closer to the end, the stronger. For example, the 9000 series begins at 9500, punctuates the middle with 9600, and ends at 9800. The 9500 is the multimedia GPU, the 9800 is the gamer GPU, and the 9600 is the comfortable middle-man. Establishing this, we'll have little identifiers on the end such as GS, GSO, GT, GTX, and GTX+. I think they range in strength that order. So with 9800's you'll have the 9800GT, 9800GTX, and 9800GTX+. As far as memory goes, getting, say, 1GB over 512MB might get you an extra 5-8 fps in a demanding game. Judging cards across series just takes a little research. For example, the 7900GT is relatively the same "power" as the 9600GT. The 9800GT and 8800GT are nearly identical. So on and so forth. Q: What size monitor should I get? A: That depends strongly upon your graphics card, and what games you intend on playing. If you want to use a 9800GT to play Crysis at mixed High/Very High settings (DX9), you'll want a 19". If you have tri-SLI GTX 295's, don't be shy - 26" all the way. You probably fit somewhere in the middle there depending on the games you play, so it shouldn't be too hard to figure it out from there. For Starcraft II, with the build-a-rig I posted above, I would recommend a 20" monitor at most if you want to be sure you can play at the highest settings. I can't be sure since Blizzard hasn't released the necessary specs - I'm saying that just to be on the safe side. I use a 19" monitor and couldn't be happier. Q: RAM: DDR2 or DDR3? 2GB vs 4GB? A: The only reason you'd have a choice is if you were using a socket 775 motherboard, as socket 1366 motherboards make DDR3 memory mandatory. To be plain, DDR3 memory makes little to no difference on socket 775 motherboards. Don't waste your money. With gaming, you shouldn't have less thant 4GB of RAM these days - and at least 800MHz. 1066MHz is optimal for a DDR2 system. If you're building a Core i7 system, you should plan on using 3 sticks of ram - 6gb highly recommended, and at least 1333MHz.
Great post! Thanks for throwing it up. I always appreciate help like this, and tutorials are always welcome!
The best bang-for-the-buck: E8400 @3,0GHz (@dotget: the stockspeed is 3,0GHz for the 8400) [Really cheap and powerful processor with 2 cores, better than the quad 6600] ATI 4870 (alt: 3850, 3870) [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYnXxI1UjxE&feature=channel_page] Corsair CMPSU-620HX [Really Cheap and reliable, good manufacturer] 2-4 GB RAM (DDR2 and a 800MHz+ speed) (note: max 2GB for 32bit windows) Harddrive (SATA2 is best) A x38 or x48 motherboard for around $100 And any ATX case really. I strongly suggest that you WAIT a week or two before SC2 is out though. Talk with me if you want feedback or help! I've worked with computers all my life.
It is a very knowledgeable tutorial, and I also agree on waiting till SC2 is closer to coming out. Of course since I'm a cheep guy and don't want to spend a lot to make a new computer I'm just going to wait until SC@ comes out get a copy and see the requirements so I can then just update my old computer with the closest things I can get.
Lobster, I'm not sure if you're talking to me or just stating your opinion generally, but I guess I'll reply regardless of which. Yeah, I had the E7400 there and when I changed it to E8400 I forgot to change the clock speed. My mistake - fixed now. I agree the 4870 is the best bang-for-buck atm. If going a step up from the 9800GT, no card would come recommended more; I just kept it at the 9800GT for this tutorial build to make it as affordable as possible. Eh, sort of a price thing; I'm not of the opinion that $150 for a 620w PSU is all that cheap. I have a Corsiar 700w in my system (or is it 600w... can't remember), but for budget builds I don't think it's necessary to spend so much. I think 2GB is getting a little dated. From this point forward, imo, all new builds should at least have 4GB. This is just coming from somebody who had to deal with 2GB gaming on Vista... it wasn't the greatest experience. Yeah, I totally agree. Unfortunately, life throws curveballs. It'd be ideal to wait, but for somebody like me - I had to decide on my build ASAP because I just got accepted to recieve new higher-level graphic art jobs. I'm pretty proud of what I put together; Core i7 920, 9800GT, 6GB 1333MHz RAM. I'm well aware the CPU outclasses the GPU by a long stretch, but this computer is primarily for my work so I wasn't too focused on getting the best video card. Might upgrade to a 216 core GTX 260 soon... dunno. As a continuation of what I was saying, some guys out there may be looking at what kind of build they should do before starting college, and don't have time to wait. Stuff like that. I just think it's good have lists like these up for people who need help choosing parts. Thanks for your input.
