diablo 3/htpc box

M

mycomputersucks

2[H]4U
Joined
Oct 31, 2001
Messages
2,163
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Little Gaming (Diablo3.), streaming content (netflix, amazon vod, hulu, etc)
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
~$500 total
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
Virginia, USA
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
CPU, RAM, Case(w/ PS), Mobo, Hdd, DVD drive.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
None
6) Will you be overclocking?
Don't plan on it
7)What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
65” DLP TV, 1080p
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
before may 15th :p
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
SFF would be nice. HDMI out. Integrated BT and Wifi would be a plus as would it being quiet.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If so, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
Windows 7 64bit

My desire is to have a HTPC (for consuming streaming content, not working as a dvr) that is capable of playing diablo3 with max settings on a 65” dlp tv. I’d like to keep it as cheap as possible and a small form factor would be nice but not necessary depending on costs.

For costs, I’ve been thinking about the amd apu line. Thoughts?
 
mycomputersucks said:
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
before may 15th :p
Click to expand...
Ok, here's the deal: You're planning this build too soon then. It does you no good to plan this early since our parts recommendations tend to change over time due to parts becoming outdated, out of stock, overpriced, or out performed. As such, the build we recommend this week may not be the same build we recommend next month let alone two months from now.

In addition, considering your budget, Newegg combo deals are gonna be very important as they save you money and/or get you faster parts for less money. However Newegg combo deals expire at the end of the month.

As such, if you can't buy before March 31st, please bump up this thread when you're 1-2 weeks away from buying the PC.

mycomputersucks said:
My desire is to have a HTPC (for consuming streaming content, not working as a dvr) that is capable of playing diablo3 with max settings on a 65” dlp tv.
Click to expand...
That bolded part may not be possible as early reports from the Diablo 3 beta shows it scaling really well with more than two cores. Considering your budget, a fast quad-core isn't possible.
mycomputersucks said:
For costs, I’ve been thinking about the amd apu line. Thoughts?
Click to expand...
Not a good choice on account of the weak CPU. Like SC2, Diablo 3 is very CPU heavy. And even more so considering its supposed capability of scaling past two cores which SC2 rarely did.
 
I believe he stated before May 15th with a smiley because that is the release date of Diablo 3. In all likelihood he may be ready for order 1-2 weeks.
 
Can you (or your friend) make it to the Fairfax Micro Center store? It has a few in-store specials that are competitive with NewEgg's deals.

Do you want an HTPC case (or, failing that, a smaller, desktop-style mATX case)?
 
tiraides said:
Can you (or your friend) make it to the Fairfax Micro Center store? It has a few in-store specials that are competitive with NewEgg's deals.

Do you want an HTPC case (or, failing that, a smaller, desktop-style mATX case)?
Click to expand...

yup, i live about 30 mins from micro center.

i am open to case designs as long as it is smaller (matx is just fine).

i priced out this at micro center:
https://www.microcenter.com/Insider...7G6MVl&Email=ASxAKKwJRpwH0xPyeOiMB4uczEUZqibk

i could get a comparable i3 system for a little more $ but the passmark score for the a8-3870k is higher than the i3 series chips.

the amd system also comes w/ the imbedded radeon 6550d gpu which should be more than enough to handle diablo 3 which recommends NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 512 MB or ATi Radeon HD 4870 512 MB... right?
 
Last edited:
Last edited:
mycomputersucks said:
i priced out this at micro center:
https://www.microcenter.com/Insider...7G6MVl&Email=ASxAKKwJRpwH0xPyeOiMB4uczEUZqibk
Click to expand...
Don't get any of those parts as they're not good at all:
- The PSU is a total piece of shit. It's more likely to kill your system than to power it
- The SSD is of low quality and not of really high performance
- The RAM is overpriced and effectively negates the little price to performance advantage the AMD platform
- The case is of low quality and won't provide sufficient cooling, even with the extra fan, for a modern gaming PC.

Now when exactly are you buying parts for the PC? Prav's build list is a good place to start. I'd aim for the HD 6870.

mycomputersucks said:
i could get a comparable i3 system for a little more $ but the passmark score for the a8-3870k is higher than the i3 series chips.
Click to expand...
Passmark is a synthetic benchmark. So it means nothing in regards to real world performance.
mycomputersucks said:
the amd system also comes w/ the imbedded radeon 6550d gpu which should be more than enough to handle diablo 3 which recommends NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 512 MB or ATi Radeon HD 4870 512 MB... right?
Click to expand...
No. the 6550D has slightly lesser performance than the regular HD 6570 card. The HD 6570 is outperformed by the GTX 260 and HD 4870 cards. So the HD 6550D isn't going to be enough to handle Diablo 3 unless you're playing at 1280x1024 with medium settings.
 
mycomputersucks said:
yup, i live about 30 mins from micro center.

i am open to case designs as long as it is smaller (matx is just fine).

i priced out this at micro center:
https://www.microcenter.com/Insider...7G6MVl&Email=ASxAKKwJRpwH0xPyeOiMB4uczEUZqibk

i could get a comparable i3 system for a little more $ but the passmark score for the a8-3870k is higher than the i3 series chips.

the amd system also comes w/ the imbedded radeon 6550d gpu which should be more than enough to handle diablo 3 which recommends NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 512 MB or ATi Radeon HD 4870 512 MB... right?
Click to expand...

I agree with Danny. Diablotek is notorious for selling PSUs that can't handle even half of their advertised wattage to begin with ~ in other words, Diablotek is basically Powmax with a different name. And the Agility 3 SSD is very slow for an SSD because it uses asynchronous NAND flash chips. Finally, that Linkworld case cannot accommodate any cooling fans larger than 92mm without major metalwork modifications.

And that's not to mention that the RAM does not make the integrated AMD HD 6550D graphics as fast as even a bottom-of-the-pile current-generation GPU. However, using slow RAM can greatly diminish any advantage it has over Intel's integrated graphics.
 
Last edited:
I also recommend going with an Intel Sandybridge CPU and an add-on video card. It gives you a nice upgrade path to ivybridge coming out later this year, and you can pick-up a nice performing former top-of-the-line video card used relatively inexpensively. I've seen the GTX260's going for around $60 +/-.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top