$600-$650 Gaming Rig

[abudoabudo]

First gaming build, trying to budget myself, but will spend the extra cash if I see it's worth it.

Approximate Purchase Date: As soon as possible, could wait for Bulldozer to come out (when exactly is it being released?)

Budget Range: $600-$650 for system, $100-$120 for monitor all before rebates

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming (Starcraft 2, Diablo 3), General mid-to-heavy multi-tasking, Matlab and some light programming

Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, speakers, OS, DVD drive

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: NCIX, ME, Newegg (if shipping doesnt kill it)

Country of Origin: Canada

Parts Preferences: Still deciding if its worth skimping on the CPU by going AMD or by going for performance and hopefully a longer lasting build with the 2500k but would definitely want a quad core CPU; preferably Samsung or LG for the monitor

Overclocking: Initially no, but in the future maybe

SLI or Crossfire: No

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080 is preferred, but wouldnt mind going lower

Additional Comments: I'm not too sure about what kind of video card I'm planning to get. I'd love to get a 560Ti incase I wanna play more intensive games like BF3, but will the GT460 be enough for sc2 or D3? Also found some good Samsung Spinpoint HDDs on newegg, as they have the $11 off of orders $55 and above.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[chulex67]

i think it got delayed till october the new bulldozer cpu, Do you have 650 for the pc only? or its 650 dlls for pc and monitor?. Do you plan in playing sc2 on ultra at that resolution? gtx 460 is good for sc2 on ultra it gets you about 35 to 40 fps. But with diablo 3 and bf3 its not gonna be enough. if you could get 750dlls it would be future proof for like 2 years, i suggest waiting till october for your new build to see ivy intel and bulldozer and, thats what aim doing, and if u still don't wanna wait and play, just get a gpu and put it on ur old pc xD, for bf3 you better get a gtx 570.

 

[jReps0l]

Some GPU advice:

At 1600x900, I can run SC2 on Ultra with at least 60 fps with a GTX 460 SE and stock i5-2500k.

Although no D3 system specs are officially out, some forums have reported specs on Blizzard demo machines: i7-870 and GTX 460 1GB
Source: http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=797175

The 560Ti is superior to the 460s but depending on how money you want to drop (and how badly you want to play BF3 at higher settings), the 460s will be enough for SC2 (and its expansions) and D3.

 

[abudoabudo]

Thanks for the reply, guys!

Right now, I'm aiming to fit the computer in the $650 budget, although it I were going to spend an extra $30-$40 on the cpu for a lot better performance, I wouldn't mind. So yeah, its $650 not including the monitor.

Will BF3 be playable on the 560Ti? Because if yes, then I'd gladly pay some more as well. While I play mostly sc2 right now, I'd like some extra room for more power just incase I ever decide to play another game with more intensive graphics.

 

[Exquisitee]

Heres my $700 gaming build i will soon be buying, and will also be using 1920x1080p monitor. But mine is a micro atx mobo build, because im going to college and i didnt wanna a big ass case in my dorm, i wanted a low profile simple looking one.

So youd prolly want a full atx mobo and case...so you would have to change it around a bit, and i got the core i5 2500 instead of the 2500k because i dont plan on OCing. Its over your budget too, but it would play all those games at max. I could probaly come up with a build in your budget with a normal atx mobo and case...this is just a copy and paste of mine. Lol


■ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM

■Rosewill FBM-01 Dual Fans MicroATX Mini Tower Computer Case

■SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

■SAPPHIRE 100314-3L Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

■CORSAIR Builder Series CX500 V2 500W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply


■G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Desktop Memory Model F3-8500CL7D-8GBRL


■ASUS P8H67-M LE (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel H67 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard


■Intel Core i5-2500 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500

TOTAL: $695.92

 

[chulex67]

Look this post

http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/7467562.page

read it a little it seems that bf2 perfomance better on ati cards

 

[siege_templar]

i think it got delayed till october the new bulldozer cpu, Do you have 650 for the pc only? or its 650 dlls for pc and monitor?. Do you plan in playing sc2 on ultra at that resolution? gtx 460 is good for sc2 on ultra it gets you about 35 to 40 fps. But with diablo 3 and bf3 its not gonna be enough. if you could get 750dlls it would be future proof for like 2 years, i suggest waiting till october for your new build to see ivy intel and bulldozer and, thats what aim doing, and if u still don't wanna wait and play, just get a gpu and put it on ur old pc xD, for bf3 you better get a gtx 570.

Ivy bridge isn't scheduled until next year..... Sandy Bridge-E is coming around November-December but wont fit in this price range, due to the cpus start from $400 and go up... don't worry you know now.