I had office including Microsoft Project, Access, Visio...as long as I needed it for class I was free to download it. The idea being I'd only use it for class, of course. I also went to a pretty large university that could probably absorb some cost.

Yeah, my school is the same, office for 10 bucks, but no OS deals.

Edit: so back to my question, would i be able to get a more reliable motherboard for a bit more, and still have it work with rockz' build?

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Dec 28 2012, 5:13 am by ShredderIV.

But, what does "run out of RAM" mean? And how does this impact on the game itself? I've never had a problem running SC2, no slow downs or anything. Although I've only played the campaign, I haven't played custom games or whatever that may stress your system more.

Sure! You just need the socket to match the CPU. Like this one for $25 more (not including shipping).

Awesome, im definitely willing to spend that for a better mobo.

I also might need a bit of help actually getting the build together. I'm planning on ordering the parts real soon, and ill be doing my research in the meantime, but stil could have a few questions. Thanks to all of you guys for the help so far.

This is the final build im going for. I added in an optical drive and the more reliable mobo, so yes, it is more, but i'm fine with that.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($102.37 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($91.78 @ eCost)
Video Card: PNY GeForce GTX 670 2GB Video Card ($279.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 430 ATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 620W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($82.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS324-99 DVD/CD Writer ($28.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $866.06
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2012-12-28 02:03 EST-0500)

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Dec 28 2012, 7:05 am by ShredderIV.

windows beeps and tells me I am running low on system memory. It will now close programs until you have enough memory. Then it tries to close SC2.

SC2 is using 2.5 GB of ram, windows is using a little over 1 GB. If I run a web browser on top of that, it yells at me.

@ Shredder

I rescind the 620 W PSU at $82. for $8 more, you get a gold power supply which will pay for that difference in a few weeks.

Link? I cant find it on Pcpartpicker haha.

He's probably talking about this beast. I'm actually using that in my build as well; fully modular and everything.

Though with your build, you could get away with a 550W PSU. This is gold, modular, and cheaper than the bronze you selected if ordered through Amazon.

In a few weeks?! I don't know how expensive power in the US is but I'll use generous ballpark numbers from where I live:
1kWh = $0.20
Efficiency gain from gold to bronze: 10% (amount of the total power consumption that will be saved)
Average power consumption of computers during mixed usage (office, emails, gaming): 130W
Average computer usage a day: 8 hours

130W * 10% * (0.2$ / 1000Wh) = 0.26ct / h
0.26ct / h * 8h/d = ~$0.02 / day
=> After using your computer for over a year, 8 hours daily, the $8 for the more expensive PSU have paid for themselves. But keep in mind I rounded up my figures a lot too.

Paying top dollar for a power supply isn't worth it: http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/143029-empowered-can-high-efficiency-power-supplies-cut-your-electricity-bill

Also of it were me, I'd just get 8GB ram and a 240 GB ssd. Adding mass storage and RAM later if you find you need them is easy and cheap. There's no point paying for stuff you aren't going to use.

Energy is cheap in the US, so the reason enthusiasts buy more efficient power supplies is not always to save on the power bill, but rather, to keep the rig cooler/quieter.

There's also something to be said about max wattage vs. wattage use and efficiency.

The article states that under 12h / day mixed usage you can save $6 - $9 a year, which roughly confirms my calculations. So I don't understand the conclusions that followed that it wouldn' be worth it. It clearly is.
A PSU isn't going to be used for just a year. You could easily save $20 - $30 over its lifetime. So even if you spend $20 for a better PSU (in our case it's only $8) you still have gained some (insignificant amount of) money while at the same time having a cooler system and using a more green component.

Assuming you're using your computer that much, not everyone does. Also leaving it 'idle' for 8 hours - you could just turn it off for those 8 hours and you've save even more money than just buying a higher-rated PSU. There's also the time-value of money: money now is 'worth' more than money later, so paying more for a PSU up-front 'costs' more than deferring the slightly higher power bills till later. While I use my computer quite a lot, probably not coming too far off the 8 hour/day usage, the majority of that would be web browsing and other light tasks, so I wouldn't reach the 4 hours of full-power use anyway. Thus the savings for me would be quite meagre.

The best reason to buy a higher spec'd PSU isn't really given much attention in the article, which is buying a better PSU from a well-known maker will give you better components, thus likely to last longer and less likely to explode and fry all your other stuff. But in that respect, going from a Gold to a Platinum rating probably isn't worth it.

I'm pulling 111W from the wall right now. My computer is on all the time.

$0.20 / kWh, Gold is 90% efficient, Bronze is 85% efficient, assuming 104 W being used by the computer.

my math puts it paying for that $8 at 6000 hours of power on time, which is 250 days. So 35 weeks is a few weeks to me (my bad). If anything it goes to show you what turning off your computer will do. But we're also talking about an $8 price hike for a spectacular PSU vs a standard (overpriced) PSU.

I don't know if you already bought your computer and operating system, but you can get Windows 7 from Newegg for $80 with promo code EMCNJNJ46. It's not that great of a deal, but it's probably better than most. The sale will probably end soon, by the way, so if you haven't bought the OS yet, you may want to get this.

Complete edit:

Okay, so its up and fully functioning However, im not sure how to set my 1 tb HD as where i want new programs and such to download to, as i dont want to put everything on my SSD. googling and such hasnt really helped me so far with it.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jan 10 2013, 7:55 am by ShredderIV.

It depends on your browser. In Firefox go settings and the download folder setting is in the middle of the first tab ("general").

Yeah, changing your downloads to the HDD should be a setting in your browser. To change my default install path, I had to edit my registry a bit, however people here may know an easier way. I used this guide to guide me through it. Also, it says it only works with vista/7 but I've used it on my Windows 8 computer as well. You should post pics / the final specs that you decided to go with!

Something else that can be useful for putting files in a different location is the mklink command on the Windows console, which you can use to make directory junctions or symbolic links. This way you can have folders that appear to be on your C drive but are actually elsewhere, for example. IIRC, you would use directory junctions for local paths and symbolic links for network paths. There are some rare programs that aren't compatible with this, but usually it works.