[CravinR1]

A friend of mine is looking to buy a tower for $500, I told him he'd be better off buying the components and assembling. He is in Canada so Canadian etailers links please. His only expression to me was he wants to play SC2 on Ultra settings.

(No OS since I already have found a deal on that)
Thanks in advance

NO OVERCLOCKING at all. Here is what I was thinking:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.679924
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500187

The 450 is supposed to do 1080P ultra in SC2
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews/1032/pg12/nvidia-geforce-gts-450-graphics-card-review-starcraft-2.html

I'm not sure if a 450 will play on ultra settings, but do know a q6600+5770 and e6400+GTX 260 will

 

[nitric0]

With those benchmarks, they are using an i7. SC2 is more CPU dependent than it is GPU dependent

 

[179232]

Pick up a 955/965 BE. On your budget I think you could also accommodate a HD 6850.

 

[xd_1771]

1. Buying a DIY combo deal is a ripoff
2. Buying on Newegg in Canada is a ripoff (shipping costs)

Suggestion, from a Canadian store, in a moment...

 

[overclocker23578]

Gts450 = hd 5770

 

[nitric0]

Quote:

Originally Posted by xd_1771;14197800
1. Buying a DIY combo deal is a ripoff
2. Buying on Newegg in Canada is a ripoff (shipping costs)

Suggestion, from a Canadian store, in a moment...

NCIX or CanadaComputers

 

[xd_1771]

All suggestions from NCIX. They ship all over Canada for a much lower cost than Newegg.ca as they are actually based in Canada, or the person can pick up locally in metro Vancouver or Toronto area. They will also price match to Newegg and other stores (copy link & paste, provide price, in shopping cart). I personally shop here.

Phenom II x4 925 + basic MSI 785G motherboard - $150, $140 AR (with 9-day no-wait rebate)
2x2GB G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3-1600 - $35.57 price matched
MSI GeForce GTS 450 - $110, $70 AR (with 9-day no-wait-rebate)
NZXT GAMMA - $35 price matched
Mushkin Enhanced Volta 500W PSU - $27.66 price matched, $22.76 AR
Seagate 1TB 7200RPM HDD - $49.69 price matched (You ideally want a 7200RPM for the main OS drive)
ASUS 24X DVD - $17.79 price matched

Total cost: $425.71 before all rebates and shipping
$377.71 after no-wait 9-day-return rebates (+/- $1)
$372.71 after Mushkin rebate

Original cost of Newegg parts: $468.98
Original cost of Newegg parts after shipping: $523.21

Total amount of cash you saved: $120-150
Parts quality: Better all-around
Budget headroom: Plenty. Go get yourself another hard drive or something.

^^^ Yeah this is what I mean when I say:
1. Buying a DIY combo deal is a ripoff
2. Buying on Newegg in Canada is a ripoff (shipping costs)

Enjoy

I might also recommend you wait for a new (big) sale to begin tomorrow, to commemorate a new NCIX store opening in Mississauga (speaking of which if your friend lives near there he/she should go at July 16th, there will be prizes at the door among other things!)

 

[CravinR1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by xd_1771;14197897
All suggestions from NCIX. They ship all over Canada for a much lower cost than Newegg.ca as they are actually based in Canada, or the person can pick up locally in metro Vancouver or Toronto area. They will also price match to Newegg and other stores (copy link & paste, provide price, in shopping cart). I personally shop here.

Phenom II x4 925 + basic MSI 785G motherboard - $150, $140 AR (with 9-day no-wait rebate)
2x2GB G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3-1600 - $35.57 price matched
MSI GeForce GTS 450 - $110, $70 AR (with 9-day no-wait-rebate)
NZXT GAMMA - $35 price matched
Mushkin Enhanced Volta 500W PSU - $27.66 price matched, $22.76 AR
Seagate 1TB 7200RPM HDD - $49.69 price matched (You ideally want a 7200RPM for the main OS drive)
ASUS 24X DVD - $17.79 price matched

Total cost: $425.71 before all rebates and shipping
$377.71 after no-wait 9-day-return rebates (+/- $1)
$372.71 after Mushkin rebate

Original cost of Newegg parts: $468.98
Original cost of Newegg parts after shipping: $523.21

Total amount of cash you saved: $120-150
Parts quality: Better all-around
Budget headroom: Plenty. Go get yourself another hard drive or something.

^^^ Yeah this is what I mean when I say:
1. Buying a DIY combo deal is a ripoff
2. Buying on Newegg in Canada is a ripoff (shipping costs)

Enjoy

I might also recommend you wait for a new (big) sale to begin tomorrow, to commemorate a new NCIX store opening in Mississauga (speaking of which if your friend lives near there he/she should go at July 16th, there will be prizes at the door among other things!)

Nice I'll send him a link to this page now

 

[xd_1771]

Hey I actually live up here and make computer recommendations/builds to a lot of my friends, what else can I say

 

[CravinR1]

I just noticed the cpu is OEM, can you give me a canadian link to a good HSF? As mentioned earlier no OC'ing so price is the important point here

 

[Citra]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CravinR1 I just noticed the cpu is OEM, can you give me a canadian link to a good HSF? As mentioned earlier no OC'ing so price is the important point here

CM 212+
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=41337

Sent from my iPod using Tapatalk

 

[CravinR1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Citra CM 212+ http://ncix.com/products/?sku=41337 Sent from my iPod using Tapatalk

Thanks

 

[xd_1771]

Be sure to check out the new NCIX sale for the Mississauga grand opening - there are some great deals there, i.e. $25 2x2GB DDR3-1600 RAM! The MSI GeForce GTS 450 is also only $60 AR under this new sale. Oh and $5 heatsink

 

[mdocod]

Any of the following cards are great for a budget conscious SC2 build: (some would be best found used, others new).

8800 Ultra, 9800GTX/+, GTS250/450, GTX260/275/280/460-768MB/460SE
HD4850/4870/5750/5770/5830/6750/6770/6790

Anything above that level of performance is generally going to be wasted in an SC2 build, ESPECIALLY a non-OCed AMD build as it's one of those games that tends to bottle at the CPU and it only really uses about 1.5 cores so it needs faster cores, not more of them to work better. The i3-2100 Is a far better SC2 CPU if you are not planning to OC. SC2 is one of those few games where to get the best value the CPU should be the most expensive components in the build, not the GPU. (most other games scale better with expensive GPU builds).

I would suggest dropping to a higher clocked 2-3 core AMD, or doing an i3 build.

Eric