First time user. Help with parts list?

N

NickLee808

n00b
Joined
Aug 26, 2011
Messages
12
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming. More specifically, running StarCraft on the highest settings possible.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
$500. Yes, tax/shipping included.

3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
United States/Hawaii

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc.
CPU, RAM, case, motherboard, fan(s?), video card, sound card, internet card, USB slots, power supply, hard drive (and anything else important that I may have missed for internal parts).

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
N/A

6) Will you be overclocking?
Nope.

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
Don't have exact measurements on me right now, but it does run at least 1440×900.

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Before the end of the year.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard?
As long as it plays games well. USB 3.0 would be a nice feature if it can be added into the budget.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS?
Yes (Windows 7).
 
Are you ready to buy everything, say, in a week or two from now?

Can you find out what particular monitor you have?
 
Starcarft II or the original Starcarft?

Come back to us the week you plan to order your parts, so we can get you the best deals at that time. What's a good deal right now might not be the best deal a few weeks from now.
 
Yeah, I'm still waiting around for funds to come in. Gotta figure out priorities first. I'll post again in this thread in a few weeks' time.

Also, this is more for StarCraft II and not Brood War. Might wind up getting Battlefield 3 as well, but I figure that if this comp can run SCII really well, it should run BF3 pretty decently, right?
 
Reason why I asked is because SCII seems to be more CPU dependent than GPU and if you wanna run SCII on the highest settings possible, you're gonna need a larger budget than $500 for all the parts you need for this build. I don't think we can run SCII on the highest settings on a system basically starting from scratch minus the monitor.
 
NickLee808 said:
Also, this is more for StarCraft II and not Brood War. Might wind up getting Battlefield 3 as well, but I figure that if this comp can run SCII really well, it should run BF3 pretty decently, right?
Click to expand...
Nope. As Skillz pointed out, SC2 is pretty much CPU heavy whereas BF3 is more than likely going to be both CPU and GPU heavy judging from BFBC2's usage. So whereas SC2 will be fine with the HD 5770/6770 1GB, for BF3, you may need a beefier card like the GTX 560 or HD 6870 or as low as the HD 6850.

Anyway, when you've posted again in this thread, we'll start recommending parts to you.
 
Alright, I'm back. I now plan on buying all the parts I need sometime this weekend, maybe next weekend at the latest.

I think I'm going to up the budget to $600. If I still can't run StarCraft II on the highest possible settings, that's fine. As long as I can squeeze the best possible graphics as I can out of this budget. As for Battlefield 3, I just hope that I can run it decently? The videos for it make it look like I'd need a budget a hundred times bigger anyway.
 
I do believe the videos were used with a 580 GTX, which means you'll need about a $1500 budget to get something that nice. With a 1440x900 resolution you probably wont need that kind of video power. Though I will get to work on getting you the best system for $600.
 
$59.99 - SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB
$189.99 - GIGABYTE GV-R687OC-1GD Radeon HD 6870 1GB
$59.99 - SeaSonic S12II 520 Bronze 520W
$84.99 - MSI PH67S-C43 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel H67
$124.99 - Intel Core i3-2100 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz

Total shipped: $527.51

Choose your own case.
$60 - NZXT Source 210 Elite ATX Case
$60 - Cooler Master HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 ATX Case
$60 - NZXT Source 210 Elite ATX Case
$70 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K58W ATX Case
$70 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K56 ATX Case
$90 - Cooler Master CM690 II Advance ATX Case
$90 - Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B ATX Case
$100 - Lian Li PC-7B Plus II ATX Case
$100 - Cooler Master HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$110 - NZXT Whisper WHI - 001BK ATX Full Tower Case
$100 - Lian Li PC-7FN ATX Case
$110 - Lian Li PC-60FN ATX Case
$113 - Velocity Micro GX2-W Silver Classic Aluminum Case with Side Window
$110 - Fractal Design Arc Mini Tower
$120 - Corsair Carbide Series 400R ATX Case
$130 - Fractal Design Define R3 Black ATX Case
$140 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001WT White Full Tower ATX Case
$140 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-001BK Black Full Tower ATX Case
$140 - Lian Li PC-9F ATX Case
$140 - Cooler Master HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP ATX Case
$140 - Antec Performance One Series P183 V3 ATX Case
$143 - NZXT Phantom PHAN-002OR Black Finish w/Orange Trim Full Tower ATX Case
$150 - Corsair Graphite Series 600T ATX Case
$160 - Silverstone RV02B-W ATX case
$178 - Silverstone RV02B-EW ATX case
$190 - Corsair Obsidian Series 650D ATX Case
 
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Wow, that was fast. Thanks a lot, man.

Of all the cases you listed, any one of them would do in terms of fans and cooling as well, right?
 
Yes all the cases I recommended (They are Danny Bui's list honestly) are all the best value, providing the best cooling for high end systems. Also cable management was in mind in creating this list.

Starting at the $90 CM 690 II and higher (price wise, going down the list) are all recommended cases in terms of going mutli GPU.
 
Shellshocker has 8GB for $35 - G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-8GBSR
 
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