The PC Builder's Guide

[Eligor]

Thanks, I was wondering how can any post 9000 generation NVidia card be so cheap (as small a price as 41$ in some places).

There's another question concerning which I'm rather clueless which is what is the best motherboard to buy (I'm trying to fit all parts (except the monitor) into a budget of around 260 $)?

[Xyvik]

$260 is a bit small of a budget. I'll see what I can whip up for you, but $300 was the lowest I think I've gone before.

Best bang for budget buck is AMD and always will be, so I'll see what I can do for that.

/Edit: a quick build brought me to $262.59 with shipping and handling, but you'd have to rely on an onboard graphics card until you could afford to upgrade. I'll dig around a little more, see what deals I can find. $260 is a tough budget for gaming!

[diddlydo]

I am looking picking up a laptop with the Intel i7 mobile processor that is clocked at 1.6 GHz but will overclock up to 2.8. How would this do with Starcraft 2 I know the requirements were looking for 2.6 GHz minimum.

[EvilGenius]

$260 is a bit small of a budget. I'll see what I can whip up for you, but $300 was the lowest I think I've gone before.

About the best i've seen is a dual-core ion nettop - Atom 330 (1.6ghz x2) with a Geforce 9400(ion)

AMD's closest would be anything Congo based... Athlon x2(~1.6) with a Radeon 3200

It actually costs less to buy these machines from a manufacturer - trying to build anything decent on that budget is difficult unless there's a Fry's or Microcenter nearby. :P

I am looking picking up a laptop with the Intel i7 mobile processor that is clocked at 1.6 GHz but will overclock up to 2.8. How would this do with Starcraft 2 I know the requirements were looking for 2.6 GHz minimum.

An i7 would be RATED much higher than 1.6 - i doubt you'd even need the over clock

[Xyvik]

About the best i've seen is a dual-core ion nettop - Atom 330 (1.6ghz x2) with a Geforce 9400(ion)

AMD's closest would be anything Congo based... Athlon x2(~1.6) with a Radeon 3200

It actually costs less to buy these machines from a manufacturer - trying to build anything decent on that budget is difficult unless there's a Fry's or Microcenter nearby. :P

The Atom is unworthy to run web-browsers, let alone games. Never, ever, EVER purchase an Atom for anything more intensive than E-mail. I am not kidding.

The Regor Athlon X2s (245 especially) get consistently excellent scores in lower-end games (including StarCraft II) so that would be what I would recommend. Certainly a million times more than an Atom.

If you use an onboard graphics card for now you can get that budget and then upgrade later. The beauty with going Regor is that it's AM3 platform, which means you can upgrade anything you want down the road (for at least several years). Intel locks you into your motherboard and the only way to upgrade is to scrap it. But using a nice lower-end ASUS AM3 board you can start with an Athlon X2 245 and the onboard graphics card, and then six months later when you've got a couple hundred more bucks you can grab a new processor and a new graphics card without ever changing the motherboard.

That's my current recommendation. I'll dig a little more though.

[EvilGenius]

The Atom is unworthy to run web-browsers, let alone games. Never, ever, EVER purchase an Atom for anything more intensive than E-mail. I am not kidding.

The Regor Athlon X2s (245 especially) get consistently excellent scores in lower-end games (including StarCraft II) so that would be what I would recommend. Certainly a million times more than an Atom.

If you use an onboard graphics card for now you can get that budget and then upgrade later. The beauty with going Regor is that it's AM3 platform, which means you can upgrade anything you want down the road (for at least several years). Intel locks you into your motherboard and the only way to upgrade is to scrap it. But using a nice lower-end ASUS AM3 board you can start with an Athlon X2 245 and the onboard graphics card, and then six months later when you've got a couple hundred more bucks you can grab a new processor and a new graphics card without ever changing the motherboard.

That's my current recommendation. I'll dig a little more though.

Atoms aren't THAT bad... I've been using netbooks for school, they're sufficient for note-taking and light web browsing.

It seems that games often over-estimate their CPU requirements - Fallout 3 for example - It's requirements claim it needs a 2.4 ghz processor, while i can run it on an Ion netbook running at 1.6ghz (at 20-30 fps). Starcraft 2 is no exception - while the beta didn't run smoothly at 1.6ghz a minor overclock shoots into playable framerates.

Still, you're right - I don't recommend an atom for a gaming rig - but in the interest of a small budget, you can force a little more performance out than you'd expect

*Your suggested build looks excellent - the regor would even overclock well

[Xyvik]

Atoms aren't THAT bad... I've been using netbooks for school, they're sufficient for note-taking and light web browsing.

It seems that games often over-estimate their CPU requirements - Fallout 3 for example - It's requirements claim it needs a 2.4 ghz processor, while i can run it on an Ion netbook running at 1.6ghz. Starcraft 2 is no exception - while the beta didn't run smoothly at 1.6ghz a minor overclock shoots into playable framerates.

Still, you're right - I don't recommend an atom for a gaming rig - but in the interest of a small budget, you can force a little more performance out than you'd expect

CPU requirements are a bit bally-hooed, yes. However, in defense of my opinion, every client of mine who purchased an Atom has begged me for refunds, which I obviously can't allow. I've used them on several times and have never come away with a good impression. I give Intel credit where credit is due (i7s, for instance) but their Atoms are total junk lol.

I still think AM3 platform is best bang for buck right now. I found a couple more deals on Newegg so I'll see if I can hammer the numbers down a little, but it's in the ballpark. As long as he has a dvd-player and hard-drive already, lol. *sigh* so many parts to choose from, so little time to test them all...

[SpikeVorador]

hey guys, im total noob in this things about building a pc xD.

so i have a pretty basic question

to install a new video card i need to uninstall the previus one?

[GnaReffotsirk]

So, guys, do you have a list from top to bottom?

Like, for
cpu: list
pros cons
votes

mobos: list goes here
pros and cons here
user votes here

video card: list goes here
pros and cons here
user votes here

ram: list
pros cons
votes
etc.

I get confused with all the back and forth discussion, and cannot make up my mind. So, it would be cool to have a digest or the likes.

[EvilGenius]

That's a good idea... maybe Xyvik and I could work on a comprehensive list or something.

Perhaps ideal parts for certain categories?

Here's a start:

(the following list assumes a Mid/Full Tower ATX case)

PSU:
Budget: Corsair 450 watt
Mid-Range: Corsair 650 watt
High-End: Corsair 850 watt modular

CPU:
Budget: Athlon II X2 255 Regor
Mid-Range: AMD Athlon II X3 440 Rana
High-End: AMD Athlon II X4 635 Propus

Motherboard:
Budget: BIOSTAR TA785G3
Mid-Range: ASUS M4A87TD
High-End: ASUS M4N98TD EVO

Ram:
Budget: 2Gb Crucial DDR3 1333
Mid-Range: 4Gb Patriot Gamer Series DDR3 1333
High-End: 6Gb Patriot Extreme Performance DDR3 1333

Video Card:
Budget: Nvidia Geforce 9600 / ATI Radeon 5670
Mid-Range: Nvidia Geforce GTX 260 / ATI Radeon 5770
High-End: Nvidia Geforce GTX 460 / Radeon 5870

*Sorry if I messed anything up, I was tired while compiling this list :P