Which would be the best for D3??

[Tilitoon]

I'm not an expert about Macs but judging from the CPU and Video card I'd say @ medium settings at least, and it could probably be playable most of the time at the highest quality.

[Mn_Swe2]

Will you play on batteries or not? If you depend on that you must take that into calculation.

[beltt]

No i wont be playing on bats...

Regards Beltt

[MrH]

No offence but it seems you're going for style over substance. If you don't need a laptop build a solid desktop PC.

[beltt]

Thanks for the replies. Ive been thinking about this for a while.. I might end up getting a desktop...

This one costs 817 USD
Intel Core I3 2100 3.1GHz 3MB Standard Intel Box cooler
Gigabyte GA-H61M-D2H-USB3 4xDDR3 4xSATA2 2xUSB3 7.1CH sound card, Gigabit Netkort
2x2GB ( 4GB ) G.Skill Value 1333Mhz DDR3
Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 1024MB GDDR5
Western Digital / Seagate 500GB 7200RPM 16MB SATA3
Samsung Optical DVD-RW 22x
AXP 630W 120mm Low Noise
Antec One Hundred Gamer Case, 1x140mm, 1x120mm Fans


This one costs 1035 USD
Intel Core i5 2500K 3.33GHz 6MB Unlocked Intel Box cooler
Asrock Z68 PRO3 Gen3 4xDDR3 ATX 2xSATA6 2xUSB3 7.1CH sound, Gigabit Netkort
2x2GB (4GB) Kingston 1600Mhz HyperX DDR3
Nvidia GeForce GTX560 1GB Silent Edition
Western Digital / Seagate 500GB 7200RPM 16MB SATA3
Samsung Optical DVD-RW 22x
OCZ ZS 550w 80+ Bronze Certificeret Kvalitets PSU Ultra Low noise
Cooler Master Silencio 550, 2x120mm ULTRA Low Noise fan


How big will the difference between the two be? Is it worth spending 217 USD more on the i5 setup. As far as i can see the main difference is i3 and 1333 ram vs i5 and 1600 ram plus the i5 setup has a nicer case.... From what ive read i found out that 4 GB RAM should be enough or?

Regards Beltt

[Tilitoon]

Both are good options overall regarding the performance / price ratio. The I3 2100 is good enough if you are planning on playing D3 only and not any recent demanding games like BF3. If that's the case, then the GTX560 might even be a bit overpowered, as a GTX 460 would be good enough to drive D3 at max settings. Wierd choice of motherboard since the GA-H61M-D2H-USB3 is using the H61 chipset, which is usually used in computers that only require integrated graphics. Usually gamers want P67 or Z68. That being said, it will work. 4GB of memory should be enough, the Mhz won't make much difference in a real world scenario (1333Mhz or 1600Mhz) same for the timings. GTX 560, really good video card for the money, but like I said if you only need it for D3, you are spending a bit too much here. Maybe it will be useful if you use Nvidia ambient occlusion settings though but since it's a new feature and not optimized yet it's hard to tell. Hard drive is ok, you would get slightly better performances with a Caviar Black but it's not necessary. An SSD would be nice but would considerably increase the cost of the rig so... AXP 630W 120mm Low Noise, never heard of it, must be european or rebranded PSU, hope it's good, it should be. Antec One Hundred, good case for the price.

Bottom line is, for D3, both systems will have pretty much the same performance. The second is a quad core so if you are using applications / games that can take advantage of it then it'll be better, plus it's the K version so you can overclock it (I would suggest you buy a decent aftermarket cooler if you do that).

[MrH]

If you can afford it go with the second one, it's just a better system overall. As always I would suggest building your own if you know someone who could help you do it.

[beltt]

Thanks for the quick replies guys.
A few questions:
1. So the GTX 560 might be overkill.. How would the GTX 550 Ti preform on the i3 setup?
2. Would a P67 or Z68 MB increase the performance of the i3 setup?

Regards Beltt

[jamesL]

here's a build tom's hardware did with the i3-2100 and a Radeon 6850
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/diy-gaming-pc,2970.html

the 6850 is inbetween a 560 and a 550 Ti

that build plays Crysis at 1680x1050 at 57 fps
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...pc,2970-8.html

It plays Metro 2033 at 1680x1050 at 46 fps
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...pc,2970-9.html

here's some comparisons' of the 550 Ti, the 560, and the 6850
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4344/n...m-overclock/12
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4344/n...om-overclock/6

[Tilitoon]

Thanks for the quick replies guys.
A few questions:
1. So the GTX 560 might be overkill.. How would the GTX 550 Ti preform on the i3 setup?
2. Would a P67 or Z68 MB increase the performance of the i3 setup?

Regards Beltt

1. Please, do not even consider the GTX 550TI. It is only there because NVidia tried to fill this price point which is dominated by its competitor with the AMD Radeon 6850. It is an attempt to rework the GTS 450 and they are using the almighty "TI" name to sugar-coat the pill. At that price range, the Radeon 6850 would be a much better choice.

2. No, no motherboard will increase by a significant margin the performances of your rig. The only differences are the features / stability. Please note that if you are buying a K version of the CPU, like the 2500K, do not use a H61 board as it will not allow you to overclock it. If you plan on overclocking, you'd better choose a board that has more phases and also uses good components.

Basically the Z68 has like all the advantages of the H61 and the P67 combined + SSD caching. P67 doesn't have integrated video, but in your case it's not required because you are using a dedicated video card anyway. So in theory, the money they save by removing the integrated video are spent on better components, and like I said, it supports overclocking. That is why it's mostly the platform of choice for hardcore gamers. The Z68 should, in theory be a bit more costly than the P67 because it is packing more features, but if you are lucky you can find good deals on them and they would be pretty much on par with the P67.

So..... if you are going for the i3, any board will be good, just look at the specific feature set of the board. If you go for the 2500K, you need P67 or Z68, again, look at the features and pick the one that has what you need and is the cheapest.