$430 Budget Gaming SWTOR PC That Plays It All

Gamers Nexus: "Our PC builds have been getting progressively better in spite of the recent announcement that Hard Drives will remain expensive; this build is spec'd out to steamroll the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO at an impressive build price of $430. With its 6850 and 8GB of memory (and a reasonable 3.2GHz X3), this system can effortlessly handle SWTOR, will handle Skyrim on very high or ultra quite capably (granted, these graphics mods change that), and can even play Battlefield 3 without too many problems -- you'll probably be running BF3 on high or a hybrid of medium/high."

[5yN4MWQU]

We also did a $717 variant for those with some extra cash, themed as a Jedi build. The $430 build uses components that fit the 'Sith' theme.

[fluffydelusions]

My laptop can play BF3 on a mix of medium/high so I'm guessing this game will run on high no problem.

[RedDead]

So jedi are better than Sith? SITHS>>>>JEDIS you silly fanbot. No really good build though. That sith model is cheap and powerful. Entry level gaming Pc for that price.

[5yN4MWQU]

We did both - I admit, I'm a Sith fan. The guy that did the other build loves Jedi -- it shall be an epic duel!

[ATi_Elite]

Good entry level build.

rake some leaves, shovel some snow and add another HD 6850 and play BF3 on Ultra!!

Once you get a taste of Ultra and Uber game play......you'll want MOAR!!

[admiralthrawn87]

why do these build your own pc articles always have to say "that plays it all!!!" when they don't. they might play it all, but not at very high quality. my laptop can "play" it all, but its not something i want to do.

[5yN4MWQU]

This has 8GB of easily OC'd memory (up to 1600MHz), a 6850 (easily unlocked to a 6870), and an X3 proc (potentially unlockable).

Even if you did not do any of these tweaks, it will still easily play Battlefield 3 on high settings (which is unarguably the most stressing big title out there, right now).

It does play it all. That's why.

[cyguration]

Hahaha, you got disagrees by console fanboys.

That's N4G for you.

I have a mid-ranged PC and IT DOES PLAY IT ALL on the high settings. Depends on how you tweak what you got (OC'd Xfire cards).

[MRMagoo123]

LOL no one even said anything at all about consoles so why bring them into it, this pc will def play it all tho just at low setting unless you know how to do all the technical things like over clocking crap, but what you fail to forget is most ppl have a hard enough time installing a game with simple instructions.

[Velox]

. . . the pc build he made is several-fold more powerful than "modern" consoles (you know, the ones from 2005).

[Jio]

The minimum specs for SWTOR are pretty low, I'm sure most computers can play it.

[ECM0NEY]

You would be surprised. TOR forums are full of people saying the specs are to high lol.

[Steadyhndz]

This website always does these builds...and everytime they use the same CPU lol..that CPU isn't that good first of all.

The graphics card is "ehh" it looks good, but look at the specs in detail and it's cheap for a reason.

The RAM is again, "ehh" because it runs at only 1333MHz, which isn't bad, but for a gaming PC, it's going to slow you down, especially for multi tasking.

I don't want to sound like a jerk, but at the same time this PC isn't going to run as well as they make it seem like. It is a very good budget PC, but not as good as it's worded.

Also doesn't include costs for OS which is usually $80 right now for Windows 64-Bit

[Ducky]

For the price, I don't see how the build is bad.

You don't need that strong of a CPU for gaming.
The memmory is fine considering that 'multi-tasking' isn't really an issue when you're gaming.
The 6850 is a decent card for most games.

Also, the price of the OS was included. (Just not in the title)

[5yN4MWQU]

First of all, thanks for noticing us and coming back. We appreciate your patronage.

That said: the 6850 is unlockable to a 6870, it outperforms the 550 Ti, and will give you max settings on most games. Very few games will give this card a hard time -- BF3 is included in that list; you'd have to set (depending on CPU/memory) BF3 to around high with this card.

FatOldMan is correct -- many games do not utilize more than two cores at the moment, and the ones that do are putting the stress on the first 2-4 threads of the CPU, not the last 4-8 threads. This CPU is just fine. We've used plenty of other CPUs (690T, i5 2500k, i7 2600k, 1055T) in builds before, but those are going to be found in our "hardcore" builds, not the budget ones.

1333MHz memory is plenty for gaming -- if you think you're going to notice a 267MHz difference, you must be much more perceptive than the average human. You can overclock the memory effortlessly to 1600MHz, as we stated.

Keep in mind that we assume our readers are willing to educate themselves on computer hardware and we encourage and guide them to gain the maximum performance out of the minimum cost -- this is done by utilizing unlocking and overclocking techniques, neither of which you seem to be familiar with.

[arjman]

How is the 6850 unlockable? If you mean overclocking it to 6870 speeds then ok but I don't think you can unlock extra cores like you can in the 6950.

[Steadyhndz]

I am familiar with it, but the claims you make are making the computer seem almost "Flawless" for gaming, and in this case the new Star Wars game...which I'm doubting.

As I said before, this is a good budget build, but don't make it seem like this computer is doing to do everything.

[Velox]

@arjman: i think he was referring to the core speed and memory clock unlocks.

[admiralthrawn87]

@steadyhndz, no matter what you say they will defend their article. self-serving bias.

[iamgoatman]

Yeah, how dare they correct the people making ignorant comments! They should just sit back and let people spout whatever nonsense they like! /s

[Johnny_Cojones]

Nice build for the money. I'd drop some extra money for an 1155 mobo & an i3 2100 instead, personally, but this will perform fine in most games.

[pucpop]

metro is more demanding than BF3

[5yN4MWQU]

Great note! It definitely is a high-performing game. Good call on that one.

[iamgoatman]

Only if you turn on all the DX11 effects, which honestly don't effect the overall image quality at all much. With them all off or at least turned down the game still looks amazing and runs pretty well.

[Mutley416]

just got myself to a i73930 and a 570geforce...a badass mobo and cool ass phantom case white n red...with ssd and 32gigs of 1600, under 2k...waiting on professional to build...maybe monday...the wait is killing me!!!

my ps3 might turn into a toy for the kids...soon ill never have to play a 2d game again...

[tmoss726]

Why would you get 32 GB of RAM >_> Unless you're doing like 3 games at once and video editing, that's a waste of money.

[arjman]

You could've got 8 gigs of 1600 and upgraded the 570 to a 580 *-_-

[Mutley416]

i can put my os in my ram...make my ssd jealous...besides the gpu i want isn`t out yet...this one will due till then :)...as far as wasting money...maybe...lol

[Johnny_Cojones]

Refer to this link, & it's obvious why I recommended the i3 2100 over the Athlon. The i3 2100 DEMOLISHES pretty much any AMD CPU, & even matches or beats AMDs top 6 & 8 core chips in most games, with rare exception. Saving money is the only reason to ever go AMD for CPUs.

http://www.anandtech.com/be...

[GTrymutos]

Excellent builds, keep up the good work.

[Sjs120]

Lul.

Even a $400 computer is better than any of the consoles around currently. #consolenewbs

[Velox]

All you console tards that are saying PCs are too expensive can now shut up

[Mutley416]

AMD...lmao...Ivy Bridge!!! game with out a gpu....talk about a easy build...

[Pana]

Never, ever, cheap out on the mobo and cpu. Which is what this build seems to do.