Suggestions for Upgrade - Diablo 3

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Klynt

Weaksauce
Joined
Apr 17, 2005
Messages
85
Hi all,


So I'll be putting together a brand new machine for myself in here in the coming weeks and I was thinking about giving my old machine to a friend of mine so we can play Diablo 3. I'm a little concerned about the status of my current setup so I was hoping to get some advice on potential upgrades to get the most bang for his buck.

CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E6850
MB - Abit IP35 Pro
RAM - 2 GB Patriot DDR2-1000
GPU - EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB
PSU - Corsair 650w

Recommended System Specs for Diablo 3

Windows® Vista/7 (latest service packs)
Intel® Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz or AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 5600+ 2.8 GHz
2 GB RAM
NVIDIA® GeForce® 260 or ATI Radeon™ HD 4870 or better

I was thinking definitely upgrade the video card and maybe upgrade the memory to at least 4 GB if not 8? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
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I assume you are really trying to minimize the amount of extra cash you have to put on the table for this upgrade. With that in mind, I would suggest checking out some of the deals for GTX 460 cards right now. After rebates it's pretty common to find them for $120 or less. My wife's machine has one of these and we have played the D3 beta without any hitches.

Example: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1742651&CatId=3669
 
Klynt said:
Will a PCI Express 2.0 card work in a PCI Express 1.0 slot?
Click to expand...

To copy and paste from Wikipedia:
"PCIe 2.0 cards are also generally backward compatible with PCIe 1.x motherboards, using the available bandwidth of PCI Express 1.1. Overall, graphic cards or motherboards designed for v2.0 will work with the other being v1.1 or v1.0a."
Click to expand...

In other words, it shouldn't be an issue.
 
I average 100fps in the D3 beta with everything jacked up, so it's not really that stressful on systems, it seems.
 
I'd suggest upgrading the memory and the GPU and he'll be fine for D3. As others stated you can get away with doing that for under 200 bucks easily if money is a factor.
 
Could put a slight overclock on the cpu, that and a gpu would be enough.
 
Assuming you are running a 2x1gb kit of ddr2, you could buy another kit for $40 new, but im sure there is better deals in teh fs/ft section. Just make sure they are running @ the same latency and voltage(list your Patriot model # so we can check for you)

As for a gpu there are many reasonably good deals right now. Here are a few;

ASUS EAH6850 DC/2DIS/1GD5/V2 Radeon HD 6850 1GB $139.99 - $20 mir + free shipping.

PowerColor AX6790 1GBD5-DH Radeon HD 6790 1GB $119.99 - $15 mir + free shipping

PNY XLR8 RVCGGTX465XXB GeForce GTX 465 (Fermi) 1GB $104.99 + free shipping

if you want to do some overclocking grab this as well to get the most out of the cpu,
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus $26.99 + free shipping
 
I bet your friend could run D3 without bigger problems, so if he wants to save some money I would wait with upgrading.

I am currently running D3 beta with the same GPU and only C2D E6300@2.8Ghz and 2GB Ram.
I end up with 30-40fps on high settings, I find it playable. I bet I would get more fps if I was running a supported platform like Windows, currently playing it under Linux.
I
 
twau said:
I bet your friend could run D3 without bigger problems, so if he wants to save some money I would wait with upgrading.

I am currently running D3 beta with the same GPU and only C2D E6300@2.8Ghz and 2GB Ram.
I end up with 30-40fps on high settings, I find it playable. I bet I would get more fps if I was running a supported platform like Windows, currently playing it under Linux.
I
Click to expand...


This, I just downloaded the beta onto my 4 year old (atleast) laptop and it runs fine at max settings @ 1440 x 900 (though it maxes out the CPU pretty hard). It has an 8800M GTS in it and a p8300, which is a 2.4ghz mobile core 2 duo. Just looking at it you can tell it's not very GPU intensive, and according to my % usage on afterburner it's about as graphically taxing as WoW
 
yeah i dont see why people are getting the upgrade bug for this game. get it and then upgrade if needed.
 
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