The PC Builder's Guide

[screw_ball69]

Ahh I see

[Xyvik]

Yeah, current board is socket 939 :P it just doesn't cut it anymore

I guess i'm looking at an almost entirely new build though - should be fun

Ahhh...it was only last year that I upgraded my last socket 939...*sniff* I loved that machine. The 939 was a great socket.

I would definitely recommend going for a full upgrade. While 939 is still a nice socket, it's several years too old. You'd still be using SDDRAM, if I'm not mistaken, as opposed to DDR2 or DDR3. Those two ram upgrades can make a world of difference.

And yeah, the 5870 is the preferred card, but the 5850 is not one to sneeze at either. Later you can crossfire a second one in and get some niiiice performance increase. If you can't swing for the 5870, get the 5850. If you can't swing for the 5850, go for the 5770. Two of those in crossfire mode are almost as good as a 5870, but you have to deal with the occassional game that doesn't do so good with crossfire/SLI rigs.

[SinsWage]

Well after downloading the beta client and checking the graphics options I'm very glad I decided to build a new system. My current PC has Starcraft 2 recommending everything at medium and some graphical tweaks turned off. I ended up doing this:

i7 860 quad core 2.8 GHz
8 gigs ddr3 1600 ram
Radeon 5870 1gig ram GPU
ASUS SABERTOOTH 55i LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard
Window 7 64-bit home premium

I didn't get a sound card or gaming NIC yet. For the sound card, it's really lost on me at the moment, I always use headphones, and I'm not sold on the gaming NICs yet. I'm going to look around before I commit. I have to say I'm really pleased to be getting a PC without a truckload of bloatware. My first custom computer, I have a feeling I'll never go back.

EDIT: So someone was poking their nose in the wrong forum but wanted to know what the minimum requirements would be to run the game at ULTRA setting. Any of you computer geniuses care to take a stab at that? What is good enough without being overkill?

[sandwich_bird]

Thread is now sticky.

[iaN]

@sinswage for the previous thread xD Whats wrong with your i7 and the stock speeds are like 2.4 or something. So I do have it semi heavily over clocked on air so my temps get pretty hot >.<

And everything on my system was recommended at ultra and runs like a charm! Cheers to beta!

[SinsWage]

Well I don't have it in hand so I'm not having any problems since I don't even have the PC yet :P I was just saying the i7 was listed as an issue by blizzard. They said that the chip causes the game to run slowly sometimes.

[Nicol Bolas]

So someone was poking their nose in the wrong forum but wanted to know what the minimum requirements would be to run the game at ULTRA setting. Any of you computer geniuses care to take a stab at that? What is good enough without being overkill?

There's a thread in the Beta forums where several people have posted their boxes. My GeForce GTS 250 plays SC2 just fine at 1920x1200. I can't say that's the minimum, however, but a GTS 250 is pretty cheap (~$130). The ATI performance equivalent is the 5750, which can be found for ~$150.

Now, I can't say how much SC2 is stressing my system. But I don't think I've heard the fan kick into high gear the way it does when I'm playing an FPS. So something less may well be in order.

[iaN]

Ooh thats a little scary. xD I'm glad mines running fine right now and without problems. Although that doesn't mean they won't arise in the future xD

[Zigurd]

So I have a question, I plan on getting the following computah:

Intel i7 920 2.66 Ghz
2 gb x2 DDR3 1060
GTX 275 video card 893 mb

Would that run SC2 at max settings ? And also, do you have any thoughts upon those parts ? any ones cheaper and better ?

[spychi]

GTX275 is a no go, anyway anything that is now better than GTX260 is not worth buying even including the card itself.
Until nVidia won't release the new 4xx cards and lower the prices of 2xx cards it a no go for Geforce.
Instead of that GTX260 buy yourself a HD 5850 price almost same and the ATI card is better