Diablo 3 PC Build

T

Tosser

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Well the time has come for an upgrade, as my current PC is no longer able to play the more recent game titles at all.

Initially I was going to wait for Diablo 3, but who knows how long that is going to take to be released :confused:

So I decided that it’s time to build a new PC that should be able to handle Diablo 3. I don’t play FPS, I do a bit of excel and watch the occasional movie. But mostly it’s gaming & surfing for my pc.

Now I haven’t done this kind of thing for a while, and I don’t my telling you that my last PC build was cheap & nasty, and was probably my worst build yet :o
So I read up all the threads about PC rigs and have tried to assimilate & apply the advice so kindly metered out by the more knowledgeable folk here.

What I found interesting about most of the builds here is that there doesn’t seem to be too many AMD enthusiasts.

So pse feel free to pass comments on the suggested build, and let me know if there are any glaring omissions or errors. I would of course like to stay within the current cost, or as close as possible.

So here is my idea of a rig that should be able to manage D3, of course I have no idea what the official Blizzard specs will be like :)

HDD : Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB 3.5" SATA2 Internal Drive – OEM R393 – yea it’s small, but I have a flurry of external drives for bulk storage.

Case : CoolerMaster RC-310-oKN1, Elite 310, Black with Orange Highlight, No PSU - ATX R340 – may change, depending if this one is unbearable fugly :sick:, but it goes below the desk so aesthetics aren’t too important.

PSU : Corsair CX430, Eps12V, ATX 12V V2.3 - 430W (12V : 336W) R476 – What about the Radeon HD6850 – enough juice for this? :confused:

GPU: VTX3D Radeon HD6850 1GB PCI-E Graphics Card R1749 – Assuming it’s ever back in stock! :(

RAM : Corsair Value Select 2x2GB DDR3-1333 Desktop Memory - Retail R596 – Is this OK for Diablo3, latency is quite high?? :confused:

MOBO: MSI 880GMA-E45 AM3 AMD 880G+SB850 M-ATX Integrated Desktop Motherboard R969

CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 640 3.0GHz AM3/AM2+ 95W Quad-Core - Retail R1108

Total R5631

I have all the other stuff already like mouse, screen, DVD, etc, so just need the above items. I also don’t have the time or patience anymore to overclock, so will be leaving it standard.
Oh ja, used wootware to put it together. Would prefer to get all the components from the same place, if possible.
 
Release date for D3 is supposedly Q4 2011
Anyway, whats your max budget? Will make recommendations from there
 
I'm by no means an expert you might see that from my response but personally: If what you've given is your budget i would probably go for the similarly or slightly higher priced intel CPU maybe a high end core2quad if you want quad and not dual but then you wont have LGA1156 but in that case I'd go for a cheap intel board rather so that when i upgrade that can go out the window without worry.

I like the underdog but the benchies seem to point to intel. On the gpu front thats a different story, ATI all the way and spend as much as you can.
 
Well done with that build!!!
I usually recommend exactly those components in my budget gaming PC builds!

Depending on how demanding D3 would be (which I have no clue), you might need a better CPU, like the AMD X4 955 @ ~R1500.

The PSU would be more than capable to power that CPU + graphics card.

As for that case: I have one with a windowed side panel at my office and it actually looks pretty good.
It's not the most ideal case in terms of cooling, which is why I'd suggest that Coolermaster Elite 430 @ ~R460 if you can afford it.
 
Thanks guys. Budget is pretty much what I came up with i.e. R5600. It was actually R4500 originally but I couldn't come up with a decent system at that price, and I wanted to avoid the crap of my previous build :D
 
Pada said:
Well done with that build!!!
I usually recommend exactly those components in my budget gaming PC builds!
Click to expand...

he he he I know, I did some searching here before I came up with my build, so tbh it's thanks to the guys here that I was able to put the build together
 
Hmmm, at R5600 that is pretty much the best you will be able to do (right now)
PSU is fine
RAM is fine, you'll never notice the high latency while gaming
GPU is good too
Only things to keep in mind is the new socket from Intel 3 weeks from now that may drive some prices down, and the GTX560 that should be launched January that also may drive prices down. But all of that is speculation, and involves waiting of course
 
Thanks Archer, I'm going to order it early in the new year. A person can go crazy waiting for the new tech & for prices to drop. It's a never ending cycle.
 
It is definitely worth the wait, because most of the online retailers are closed till new years in any case.

Just take note that shipping from WootWare is a percentage of the total price and it can be quite expensive - like R300. WootWare is in Somerset West, so it might be cheaper for you to just collect it :)
 
Tosser said:


Well the time has come for an upgrade, as my current PC is no longer able to play the more recent game titles at all.

Initially I was going to wait for Diablo 3, but who knows how long that is going to take to be released :confused:

So I decided that it’s time to build a new PC that should be able to handle Diablo 3. I don’t play FPS, I do a bit of excel and watch the occasional movie. But mostly it’s gaming & surfing for my pc.

Now I haven’t done this kind of thing for a while, and I don’t my telling you that my last PC build was cheap & nasty, and was probably my worst build yet :o
So I read up all the threads about PC rigs and have tried to assimilate & apply the advice so kindly metered out by the more knowledgeable folk here.

What I found interesting about most of the builds here is that there doesn’t seem to be too many AMD enthusiasts.

So pse feel free to pass comments on the suggested build, and let me know if there are any glaring omissions or errors. I would of course like to stay within the current cost, or as close as possible.

So here is my idea of a rig that should be able to manage D3, of course I have no idea what the official Blizzard specs will be like :)

HDD : Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB 3.5" SATA2 Internal Drive – OEM R393 – yea it’s small, but I have a flurry of external drives for bulk storage.

Case : CoolerMaster RC-310-oKN1, Elite 310, Black with Orange Highlight, No PSU - ATX R340 – may change, depending if this one is unbearable fugly :sick:, but it goes below the desk so aesthetics aren’t too important.

PSU : Corsair CX430, Eps12V, ATX 12V V2.3 - 430W (12V : 336W) R476 – What about the Radeon HD6850 – enough juice for this? :confused:

GPU: VTX3D Radeon HD6850 1GB PCI-E Graphics Card R1749 – Assuming it’s ever back in stock! :(

RAM : Corsair Value Select 2x2GB DDR3-1333 Desktop Memory - Retail R596 – Is this OK for Diablo3, latency is quite high?? :confused:

MOBO: MSI 880GMA-E45 AM3 AMD 880G+SB850 M-ATX Integrated Desktop Motherboard R969

CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 640 3.0GHz AM3/AM2+ 95W Quad-Core - Retail R1108

Total R5631

I have all the other stuff already like mouse, screen, DVD, etc, so just need the above items. I also don’t have the time or patience anymore to overclock, so will be leaving it standard.
Oh ja, used wootware to put it together. Would prefer to get all the components from the same place, if possible.
Click to expand...

Great build. Don't change anything.
 
Another option would be the Gainward GTX 460 768MB card @ R1399 - also at WootWare.
Then you can afford the slightly better case. The downside would be that you won't be able to run SLI on that motherboard, but for CrossFire, you'll need a bigger PSU in any case.
 
Considering you aiming for D3 - blizzard have a reputation for aiming for the lowest bar when it comes to system specs (hence their overflowing stashes full of money ^^) - so expect the game to fly even on a dual core machine

Your graphics card and internet connection will be the major things to concentrate on for performance gains
 
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The thing to keep in mind is what resolution you will be running at. The higher that is, the beefier your system needs to be. From what I understand, Diablo 3 is going to look good, but it's not going to a Crysis in terms of sheer graphical fidelity. Depending on what resolution you intend to play at, your build should be ok.
 
Best bang for buck GPU at the moment seems to be the GTX460 1GB because of it's massive overclockabilty. If I were buying a mid range GPU now I would get the cheapest 1GB GTX460 and overclock the hell out of it. There's even a factory overclocked version that matches/beats the HD6870 and GTX470. The EVGA GTX460 FTW model. So we should be able to tweak it further than that. I would by a cheap reference and overclock myself though. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/evga-geforce-gtx-460-ftw-01g-p3-1378-tr-overclocked,2795.html
 
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