Building Rig for SC2 , need advices

September 14, 2010 11:43:59 PM

Hi this is my first time building a computer , so im really noob with all these stuff .
I currently want to build a computer so i can play Starcraft 2 on ultra .
My Budget is around 1200 CAD ( but the lower the better) .
I asked both of my friends to help out but both of them have different views
1 chooses INTEL , while the other chooses AMD
These are the Specs they both gave me

AMD Athlon™ II X4 635 2.9GHz w/ 2MB Cache (Retail Box, Socket AM3) - 104.99
Asus M4A78T-E w/ Radeon HD 3300, DualDDR3 1333, 7.1 Audio, Gigabit Lan, 1394, Hybrid CrossFireX, HDMI - 129.99
Patriot Extreme Performance Viper II Series DDR3 4GB (2 x 2GB) PC3-12800 Low Latency Dual Channel Kit - $139.99
Western Digital 1TB Caviar Blue 7200rpm SATA II w/ 32MB Cache - 69.99
Samsung SH-S223B 22x SpeedPlus™ DVD-Writer, SATA, Black, OEM - 19.99
Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E w/ Dual DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort, Dirt 2 - 319.99
Antec EarthWatts EA 650W Power Supply w/ Triple +12V - $89.99
Cooler Master Elite 310 Case w/ Window - 47.99
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium x64 (64-bit) DVD - OEM - 119.99

or this one

Asus Maximus III Gene Motherboard w/ Dual DDR3 1600, 7.1 Audio, Gigabit Lan, 1394, PCI-E CrossFireX / SLI - $179.99
Intel Core™ i5 Processor 760 2.66GHz w/ 8MB Cache - 199.99
Patriot Extreme Performance Viper II Series DDR3 4GB (2 x 2GB) PC3-12800 Low Latency Dual Channel Kit - $139.99
Western Digital 1TB Caviar Blue 7200rpm SATA II w/ 32MB Cache - 69.99
Samsung SH-S223B 22x SpeedPlus™ DVD-Writer, SATA, Black, OEM - 19.99
Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E w/ Dual DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort, Dirt 2 - 319.99
Antec EarthWatts EA 650W Power Supply w/ Triple +12V - $89.99
Cooler Master Elite 310 Case w/ Window - 47.99
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium x64 (64-bit) DVD - OEM - 119.99
Corsair Hydro Series H50 CPU Cooler - $79.99

the second is over my budget but he said its better later on.

So i need a suggestion and advices on these two builds. Any advices will be appreciated

More about : building rig sc2 advices

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MadAdmiral

September 15, 2010 5:11:14 PM

With your budget, you should definitely be looking to go with AMD.

CPU/RAM: X4 955 and GeIL Ultra PLUS 2x2 GB 1600 mhz CAS Latency 7 $260
Mobo: ASRock 870 Extreme3 $120
GPU: HD 5870 $360 after rebate
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1 TB $80
Case: Anything you like that's in budget. The Antec 900 (or 902), Coolermaster 690, and HAF 922 are all excellent in this budget range.
PSU: XFX 750W $130 before 20 USD rebate ($110 in total)
Optical: Cheap SATA DVD burner $20
OS: Windows 7 Home 64-bit OEM $100

Total: $1,050 without case. You can easily drop the 5870 to a 5850 and save $90.

If you want a heastink for overclocking, throw in a Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus or Scythe Mugen 2 Rev. B (SCMG-2100) for cheap. Corsair's Hydro series isn't well thought of. Generally, you'll get better performance for a better price by sticking with air cooling regardless of the budget.

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dndhatcher

September 15, 2010 7:48:46 PM

The HAF 912 may be the best case out now. Its at the Antec 300 price and size, but can fit larger graphics cards (including a 5970) and has dust filters and lots of fan slots.

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MadAdmiral

September 15, 2010 8:27:54 PM

I forgot to mention that this would be massive overkill for StarCraft. You could easily drop down to the HD 5770 and have no trouble at all. If you want to play other games, I'd stay with at least the 5850.

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FrederickLee1

September 20, 2010 10:45:11 PM

MadAdmiral said:

I forgot to mention that this would be massive overkill for StarCraft. You could easily drop down to the HD 5770 and have no trouble at all. If you want to play other games, I'd stay with at least the 5850.

Yeah I think im probably to play other games as well .

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