StarCraft 2 Ultra Gaming Build

[Nightmare674]

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
Gaming, Web browsing

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
$700-800

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
USA

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.
Intel, nVidia

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
None.

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.
Read similiar threads, talked to many friends. Looking for expert advice from here to make a final conclusion.

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
Default speeds, know little of overclocking.

8. What resolution YOU plan on gaming with.
1280x1240

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
ASAP.

10. Don't ask for a build configuration critique or rating if you are thin skinned.
Ok

Additional Comments:
The main purpose of this computer is to run StarCraft 2 on ultra settings. There are no current(or future) games that i intend on playing. So basically, this rig i would like to design for StarCraft 2 and that alone. Thanks in advance!

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Have you checked any hardware reviews that include Star-Craft 2 ?


EDIT: And welcome to the Anandtech forums :thumbsup:

 

[Puppies04]

Sorry to do this but...

I5 2500K overclocked to 4.5ghz on a Z68 mobo and a GTX560TI. Thats all she wrote.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

you said you were not going to reuse anything

are you going to reuse your montior?
what about mouse and keyboard?
what are your current specs

 

[Athadeus]

That aspect ratio will cripple you if you want to play SC2 seriously. Definitely get a widescreen monitor with your system, and don't worry about a beast video card. My 6850 runs all ultra 4v4s fine at 1920*1080.

P.S. Your resolution would produce even narrower field of view than the 4:3.

 

[Leet0nee]

I am with Athadeus, I've got a 23.6" ASUS at 1920*1080 on a Powercolor HD6850 atm and I can play 1v1's ,2v2's Nexus Wars, and a few other minigames with about 60-80fps no problem ( havent tried 3v3 or 4v4) .

 

[Zap]

Sounds as if you are re-using the monitor for now, so here is a complete build minus monitor for $800-ish.

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit $100
Core i3-2100 $120
4GB dual channel DDR3-1333/1600 1.5v $20
micro ATX H67 chipset motherboard $70-100
decent 60/64GB (easily holds Windows + Starcraft) SATA 6G SSD $80-120 depending on deals
DVD writer $20
Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti $180-220
cheap but decent micro ATX case $40-70 (Fractal Design Core 1000, Cooler Master Elite 341, In Win Dragon Slayer, etc.)
cheap but still good quality 500W-ish power supply $40-70 depending on deals/rebates (Antec Neo Eco, Antec HCG, Antec Earthwatts, XFX Core Series, Corsair CX500, etc.)

Graphics may even be a bit overkill for Starcraft, since it is stuck in DX9c. Dual core CPU chosen because that's all Starcraft uses.

 

[Puppies04]

I was under the impression SC2 really likes 1 fast core, the faster the better. Hence the fact I recommended the 2500K earlier on. I seem to recall reading that most people are CPU rather than GPU limited so would paying the extra for an unlocked chip be worthwhile?

 

[mfenn]

I was under the impression SC2 really likes 1 fast core, the faster the better. Hence the fact I recommended the 2500K earlier on. I seem to recall reading that most people are CPU rather than GPU limited so would paying the extra for an unlocked chip be worthwhile?

Theoretically a faster CPU will help you in a big 4v4 or whatever, but chances are that you'll be lagging anyway because at least one of the other people in the game won't be able to keep up. A fast dual core is perfect for 1v1 and 2v2.

 

[mfenn]

That aspect ratio will cripple you if you want to play SC2 seriously. Definitely get a widescreen monitor with your system, and don't worry about a beast video card. My 6850 runs all ultra 4v4s fine at 1920*1080.

P.S. Your resolution would produce even narrower field of view than the 4:3.

:thumbsup: to this. You need to get a new monitor if you hope to be able to play SC2 properly. Luckily, that is still doable in an $800 budget.

i3 2100 + DVD Burner combo $135http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138332
ASRock H67M $80
G.Skill DDR3 1333 8GB $37
6870 $150 AR AP
500GB HDD $85
500CX $41 AR AP
Fractal Design Core 1000 $40
ASUS VH232H $145 AR
Total: $713

 

[Nightmare674]

Have you checked any hardware reviews that include Star-Craft 2 ?


EDIT: And welcome to the Anandtech forums :thumbsup:

Yes, i've read a few. I just know so little of what goes with what, as far as hardware.
And Thanks, glad to be here!

you said you were not going to reuse anything

are you going to reuse your montior?
what about mouse and keyboard?
what are your current specs

Yes, going to use my 26"HDTV as my monitor. And i have a gaming mouse/keyboard/headset from Razer.
My current specs suck to be honest, just going to do a whole new rig

That aspect ratio will cripple you if you want to play SC2 seriously. Definitely get a widescreen monitor with your system, and don't worry about a beast video card. My 6850 runs all ultra 4v4s fine at 1920*1080.

P.S. Your resolution would produce even narrower field of view than the 4:3.

Thank you soooo very much for this. I would like to go with 16:9:thumbsup:

Theoretically a faster CPU will help you in a big 4v4 or whatever, but chances are that you'll be lagging anyway because at least one of the other people in the game won't be able to keep up. A fast dual core is perfect for 1v1 and 2v2.

Thanks for clarifying this, because i will primarily be doing 1v1. Occasionally 2v2 and up.

And thanks to everyone for posting the builds, i am looking into them right now. Further advice/builds will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again everyone! :thumbsup:

Edit: I do have 4 gigs of ram which i could re-use, not sure how good it is though. It's DDR3, 2 sticks of 2gig each. Doesnt seem like anything special. Probably should just buy all new?

 

[blckgrffn]

DDR3 doesn't need to be special, I would just re-use it

Can you tell us what brand and speed it is?

I would honestly spend that little extra more you are saving on a 128GB SSD - like the M4 Crucial on sale right now for $160 @ NewEgg. I think you'll find that extra room saving you hassle a year or so from now.

Superbiiz is running a sale on CPUs right now, a retail i3 2120 (a touch faster than the i3-2100 mentioned earlier) is ~$100 shipped. Both of those deals can be found over @ slickdeals.net or maybe in our own hot deals forum here. Hopefully you can work in a little extra speed for a little less dough

What is SC2 now, 15GB alone? It is big.

Focus on getting at least 1GB of VRAM. That seems to be the biggest contributor to playing at the highest settings in SC2 in my experience, and is pretty easy these days. A 6850 was mentioned earlier, that should do nicely, really. The 560 ti would be a pretty epic card but seems like it is going to be overkill for your TV. Is your TV 1080p?

 

[Zap]

I was under the impression SC2 really likes 1 fast core, the faster the better. Hence the fact I recommended the 2500K earlier on. I seem to recall reading that most people are CPU rather than GPU limited so would paying the extra for an unlocked chip be worthwhile?

Starcraft II can use two cores. Quads are not needed, and single core would limit performance. Starcraft II also likes fast CPUs too, so a fast dual core like a Sandy Bridge Core i3 would easily outperform a slower quad (at stock speeds) like any AMD or Intel Core 2 Quads.

 

[blckgrffn]

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
Default speeds, know little of overclocking.

8. What resolution YOU plan on gaming with.
1280x1240

Additional Comments:
The main purpose of this computer is to run StarCraft 2 on ultra settings. There are no current(or future) games that i intend on playing. So basically, this rig i would like to design for StarCraft 2 and that alone. Thanks in advance!

Yeah - so I would think that a GTX 460/560 would tear it up at that resolution. You could even get by with a GTS 450/550. "Get by" as in play in Ultra Quality. In the budget range you have posted though, that GTX 560 Ti is really a great card and would be a better investment if you thought at some point you were going to move to a higher resolution (your TV dies and you replace it, you decide you want a monitor with lower response times, etc.)

Point 7 says that "k" CPU would likely not be the best investment you could make... as that is specifically for OC'ing...

 

[Nightmare674]

I think i'm just going to go ahead and get a monitor. Several people have informed me that would be the smarter route to take, and that i will see better results.

 

[TidusZ]

16:9 is also better for Diablo 3 as well.

 

[MrTeal]

That aspect ratio will cripple you if you want to play SC2 seriously. Definitely get a widescreen monitor with your system, and don't worry about a beast video card. My 6850 runs all ultra 4v4s fine at 1920*1080.

P.S. Your resolution would produce even narrower field of view than the 4:3.

Intesting. I haven't purchased SC2 yet, but is the information bar on the bottom a fixed resolution or a percentage of the vertical of the screen? You little animated gif would seem to suggest that you actually get a bigger FOV at 1920x1080 than at 1920x1200, and I have a hard time believing that.

 

[TidusZ]

believe it. Same in Diablo 3 as well. At 2560x1600 I see less than at 2560x1440 or even 1920x1080. In fact, I see the same at 1920x1080 as at 2560x1440. Its for competitive reasons and keeping ppl with smaller monitors on the same footing as people with 30 inchers.

 

[blckgrffn]

believe it. Same in Diablo 3 as well. At 2560x1600 I see less than at 2560x1440 or even 1920x1080. In fact, I see the same at 1920x1080 as at 2560x1440. Its for competitive reasons and keeping ppl with smaller monitors on the same footing as people with 30 inchers.

Right.

With that in mind, OP, I would find the nicest 1080p monitor your budget allows. Will you be replacing your TV with this monitor? If so, you'll want to stay away from many of the cheaper ones with "TN" panels as their viewing angles make them unsuitable for TVs. I've tried

 

[MrTeal]

believe it. Same in Diablo 3 as well. At 2560x1600 I see less than at 2560x1440 or even 1920x1080. In fact, I see the same at 1920x1080 as at 2560x1440. Its for competitive reasons and keeping ppl with smaller monitors on the same footing as people with 30 inchers.

That's terrible then. There shouldn't be an advantage to playing at 1366x768 vs 1920x1200 at the same FPS.

If that's the case, might as well drop the extra $150-200 on a 24" 1080p display for SC2, and keep the 1280x1024 as a secondary display. If it's a 19" display you have, the physical vertical dimensions between 24" 16:9 and 19" 5:4 are very similar, and the 5:4 aspect ratio works awesome as a secondary display.

 

[blckgrffn]

That's terrible then. There shouldn't be an advantage to playing at 1366x768 vs 1920x1200 at the same FPS.

If that's the case, might as well drop the extra $150-200 on a 24" 1080p display for SC2, and keep the 1280x1024 as a secondary display. If it's a 19" display you have, the physical vertical dimensions between 24" 16:9 and 19" 5:4 are very similar, and the 5:4 aspect ratio works awesome as a secondary display.

I guess the alternative would be to lock us all down to 4:3? Bleh. I know it supposed to be competitive and all, but you'd think they'd instead force the "biggest" on everyone and put some black bars on the screen like a movie would.

If you have a nice monitor you should be able to specify a new resolution and disable scaling, effectively turning your 1920*1200 display into a 1920*1080 screen. That sounds silly, but it is easy to imagine that many folks do this. SC2 is serious stuff, man

 

[Nightmare674]

:thumbsup: to this. You need to get a new monitor if you hope to be able to play SC2 properly. Luckily, that is still doable in an $800 budget.

i3 2100 + DVD Burner combo $135
ASRock H67M $80
G.Skill DDR3 1333 8GB $37
6870 $150 AR AP
500GB HDD $85
500CX $41 AR AP
Fractal Design Core 1000 $40
ASUS VH232H $145 AR
Total: $713

I went ahead and purchased this. I left out the HDD, as i already have a 1tb.

 

[blckgrffn]

I went ahead and purchased this. I left out the HDD, as i already have a 1tb.

I really want to recommend a nice SSD here, but it looks like the M4 sale is over and I am not seeing any other nicely priced models that I could really recommend. You could do much worse than the 128GB M4 @ $175, though...

That's going to be a nice rig, especially for SC2

 

[Zap]

If you have a nice monitor you should be able to specify a new resolution and disable scaling, effectively turning your 1920*1200 display into a 1920*1080 screen. That sounds silly, but it is easy to imagine that many folks do this. SC2 is serious stuff, man

I wonder how League of Legends handles this? I'm so going to test it out when I get home. If it lets me see more, I totally don't have a problem running with black bars top/bottom to make my 16x10 monitor into a 16x9.

 

[blckgrffn]

I wonder how League of Legends handles this? I'm so going to test it out when I get home. If it lets me see more, I totally don't have a problem running with black bars top/bottom to make my 16x10 monitor into a 16x9.

Ah hah! If SC2 is serious stuff, LoL is doubly serious! Hopefully it will give you the edge!