My First Gaming Rig (for Diablo III)

[jonvuboy]

Approximate Purchase Date: In 3-5 weeks.

Budget Range: $600-800

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Gaming, surfing the internet, watching movies.

Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, OS

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: newegg.com, microcenter.com

Country: U.S. California, Orange County

Parts Preferences: Intel CPU, Z68 Motherboard, SSD

Overclocking: Maybe, or in the future.

SLI or Crossfire: No, but possibly in the future.

Monitor Resolution: 1920x1080 (HD)

Additional Comments: I want to be able to play Diablo III and Starcraft II at max settings on 1920x1080 resolution while maintaining a minimum of 60FPS. In addition, I would like a quiet PC if possible, at least not noticeably noisy.

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These are the parts I am considering, based on weeks of research and reviews:

[bought] Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072
[strike]-Is this a good aftermarket cooler for my i5?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103057[/strike]
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

SAPPHIRE 100315L Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102908

[bought] ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157271

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600, CL9
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428

Mushkin Enhanced Chronos 120GB SATA III Solid State Drive (SSD)
This will be my main drive + an add-on HDD later on.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226236

CD/DVD Drive is a no-brainer. Simply, ASUS 24X DVD Burner.

[strike]CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W ATX12V v2.31/ EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC High Performance Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020[/strike]
Rosewill CAPSTONE Series CAPSTONE-550 550W Continuous @ 50°C, 80 PLUS GOLD Certified
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182068

IN WIN Dragon Rider White (Limited Edition) 1.0 ~ 0.8mm SEEC Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811108405
image:

The [bought] parts are the ones that I just purchased due to a deal that ended on 04/01 at Micro Center. Basically the deal was that any Z68 motherboard I purchase will be $50 off if purchased with an i5-2500K processor. At Micro Center it was $180 for the CPU and $125 for my mobo so the subtotal was only $255 That leaves 6 components left.

I’m hoping that all the parts I chose are excellent for my Diablo III PC! Game’s release date is on 05/15 I believe, so I must be ready by then.

Lastly, I plan to upgrade my GPU over time, either running another copy of my listed Radeon card for Crossfire or a single GTX card. Over time I might also consider implementing liquid-cooling for the CPU to overclock and whatnot.

Thanks for any tips/rate!

 

[jmsellars1]

I think you are going to be underwhelmed by the performance of that graphics card to be honest. I don't think you will get ultra high frame rates on the highest settings with it. I would aim for the HD 7850 or HD 7870. There are a few places you can cut costs to do this:

- Perhaps get a cheaper case? That one looks unnecessarily big anyway.
- You only really need 500W for this kind of setup, the Corsair CX-500 perhaps?
- That cooler looks OK but maybe drop it for now to cut costs and buy one when you decide to overclock.

Hopefully that should save enough cash for the HD 7850 or HD 7870.

 

[begnme]

Better yet....Diablo 3 is not coming out until May 15 so I would hold off buying a video card because Kepler is going to drive prices down soon and you can save a few more dollars. Personally I would recommend an evga nvidia based card (get the ar for the lifetime warranty) A 560ti is a bit over kill for Diablo 3 but it seems to be in your budget.

I have run Diablo Beta 3 on a EVGA Superclocked GTX460 (it runs great at the highest settings). That card is in for RMA right now so I have tried the beta on a GTS 250....runs decent only when reducing everything to low graphics. Finally, I tried it on the built in motherboard 4250 and you can forget about trying to run it on that.

 

[Guest]

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus $29.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

the 6850 for $150ish is the best for the price point. however if you could trim a little off the cost of a case. i was going to suggest a smaller SSD but for the price . .keep it

 

[Akinos242]

I'd recommend getting a different case. The Corsair Carbide 400R is an amazing case and is $40 cheaper: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139008
(I used this case for a buddy of mine's build, cable management was very well done, there weren't any issues with the rubber grommets falling out when running cables behind the motherboard tray, airflow was great, and if you don't like the white lights on the front fans, there's a switch to turn them off.)

I'd also check into getting a different power supply. The Rosewill Capstone 550 should be plenty for what your doing, is $10 cheaper, and 80 Plus Gold. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182068

With the $50 saved, you could easily upgrade to a 6870, or if you felt like spending a little more, getting either a 7850 or a 560Ti. Benches for the 7850 and 560Ti: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/549?vs=547

 

[Zero_]

Check the builds on my sig.

 

[jonvuboy]

I'll look into cheaper cases. Wow I didn't notice the Rosewill PSU cause I thought the gold-certified ones were much more costly, so I'll definitely grab one of those
Now I want to get the HD 6870 instead or else wait for Nvidia prices to go down.
As for the 120GB SSD, I can probably downgrade to a 90GB one if I'm just going to have 2-4 games and all other files on an HDD.

 

[Rockdpm]

I'll look into cheaper cases. Wow I didn't notice the Rosewill PSU cause I thought the gold-certified ones were much more costly, so I'll definitely grab one of those
Now I want to get the HD 6870 instead or else wait for Nvidia prices to go down.
As for the 120GB SSD, I can probably downgrade to a 90GB one if I'm just going to have 2-4 games and all other files on an HDD.

dude..........just get a 7850. idk why people always buy previous technology when a new card is out and kicks the card it replaced in the arse

 

[Soda-88]

d3 is not a demanding game, it flies on my pc at 100+ fps

as others mentioned, no reason not to buy 7000 series equivalent of 6870

 

[jonvuboy]

Nevermind on 90GB SSDs, the Mushkin 120GB is still the best worth.
And haha, well the thing is I'm getting just a decent card now since I won't have the money for a really nice GPU till months later (upgrading from small to large). I'm sure the 6870 will work fine for me but I guess if I wait a bit longer than I can save some bucks on the 7850 or GTX 560Ti.

 

[jonvuboy]

Are there differences in the Cooler Master Hyper N 520 and the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus? All I see is that the 212 has more reviews while the N 520's heatsink looks neater, in my opinion.

 

[Rockdpm]

Nevermind on 90GB SSDs, the Mushkin 120GB is still the best worth.
And haha, well the thing is I'm getting just a decent card now since I won't have the money for a really nice GPU till months later (upgrading from small to large). I'm sure the 6870 will work fine for me but I guess if I wait a bit longer than I can save some bucks on the 7850 or GTX 560Ti.

true. and the better choices will be out for your price range. in a few months anyways

 

[jmsellars1]

Are there differences in the Cooler Master Hyper N 520 and the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus? All I see is that the 212 has more reviews while the N 520's heatsink looks neater, in my opinion.

It is a bit smaller and has smaller fans. It also has dual fans which means it is probably noisier.

 

[Akinos242]

as others mentioned, no reason not to buy 7000 series equivalent of 6870

The only problem with getting the 7000 series equivalent is that currently the 7770 is the equivalent price wise, and it performs worse. http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/536?vs=540

If you can wait and save, by all means pick up a 7850, or potentially whatever Nvidia's midrange Kepler variant ends up being.

Here's a review of the Capstone series PSUs if you needed any more information on it. http://www.anandtech.com/show/5698/rosewill-capstone-450w-and-650w-80plus-gold

Also, if you don't plan on overclocking right away, I'd suggest just using the stock heatsink for the time being and sinking whatever you save into the video card, might end up getting you even closer to the 7850 being in your budget. The 2500k is plenty beastly stock.

 

[jonvuboy]

Best answer selected by jonvuboy.

 

[jonvuboy]

Alright. With all these changes in mind, the only thing left is choosing a cheaper case. I'm probably going to go with Antec or Cooler Master mid-tower, thanks everyone!