Since the old post was deleted due to the launch of the game, I thought I would post the thread again. This has not been updated since early December and I will try and go through all the builds again.

For those of you who are looking at building a machine to play swtor but not sure what to get, I have parted a few machines together for different budgets. I would like to just keep this thread to help people selecting parts for their new machine. If you want your build posted please use the same format below and I'll add it.

Minimum System Requirements:

• OS: Windows XP, Vista/7
  
• CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4000+ or better • Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 2.0GHz or better
  
• RAM: Windows XP: 1.5GB RAM • Windows Vista and Windows 7: 2GB RAM • PCs using a built-in graphical chipset, 2GB RAM recommended.
  
• Video Card: ATI X1800 or better* • nVidia 7800 or better* • Intel 4100 Integrated Graphics or better*
  
• Optical Drive: 8x or better DVD-ROM

*Minimum of 256MB of on-board RAM and Shader 3.0 or better support.

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BUDGET BUILD - ENTRY LEVEL (Under $600)

-------------------------------------------------------------

• CPU: Intel Core i3-2100 - $125
  
• Motherboard: MSI H67MA-E35 - $85
  
• Memory: G.Skill 8GB DDR3-1333 - $50
  
• Video Card: XFX HD 6790 - $150
  
• Hard Drive: Western Digital 500GB Caviar Blue - $45
  
• Disk Drive: ASUS 24x SATA DVD-RW - $20
  
• Case: Thermaltake V3 Black - $40
  
• Power Supply: Antec BP550 - $55

Total: $570

• CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 955 - $120
  
• Motherboard: ASUS M5A97 AM3+ - $100
  
• Memory: G.Skill 8GB DDR3-1333 - $50
  
• Video Card: XFX HD 6790 - $150
  
• Hard Drive: Western Digital 500GB Caviar Blue - $45
  
• Disk Drive: ASUS 24x SATA DVD-RW - $20
  
• Case: Thermaltake V3 Black - $40
  
• Power Supply: Antec BP550 - $55

Total: $580

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MID-RANGED BUILD ($600 - $1500)

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• CPU: Intel Core i5-2500k - $220
  
• Motherboard: MSI P67A-G45 (B3) - $120
  
• Memory: G.Skill Ripjaw 8GB DDR3-1600 - $65
  
• Video Card: XFX HD6870 1GB - $195
  
• Hard Drive: Western Digital 750GB Caviar Black - $65
  
• Disk Drive: ASUS 24x SATA DVD-RW - $20
  
• Case: Cooler Master CM690 II - $70
  
• Power Supply: Corsiar 650TX - $95

Total: $850

• CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 - $135
  
• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3 - $140
  
• Memory: G.Skill Ripjaw 8GB DDR3-1600 - $65
  
• Video Card: 2x Sapphire HD6850 1GB in Crossfire - $330 or EVGA GeForce GTX 570 - $325
  
• Hard Drive: Western Digital 750GB Caviar Black - $65
  
• Disk Drive: ASUS 24x SATA DVD-RW - $20
  
• Case: Cooler Master CM690 II - $70
  
• Power Supply: Corsiar 650TX - $95

Total: $920

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Enthusiast BUILD (More than $1500)

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• CPU: Intel Core i5-2500k - $220
  
• Motherboard: ASUS P8Z68-V Pro - $209
  
• Memory: G.Skill Ripjaw X Series 8GB DDR3-1600 - $80
  
• Video Card: EVGA GTX 570 - $340
  
• SSD: Crucial C300 128GB SSD - $231
  
• Hard Drive: Western Digital 2TB Caviar Black - $150
  
• Disk Drive: ASUS 24x SATA DVD-RW - $20
  
• Case: Corsair Graphite 600T - $150
  
• Power Supply: Corsair HX850 - $175
  
• Cooling: Corsair H60 Liquid CPU Cooler - $70
  
• Sound: ASUS Xonar - $90

Total: $1735

• CPU: Intel Core i5-2500k - $220
  
• Motherboard: ASUS P8Z68-V Pro - $209
  
• Memory: G.Skill Ripjaw X Series 8GB DDR3-1600 - $80
  
• Video Card: 2x Sapphire HD6950 in Xfire - $560 or EVGA GTX 580 - $499
  
• SSD: Crucial C300 64GB SSD - $123
  
• Hard Drive: Western Digital 2TB Caviar Black - $150
  
• Disk Drive: ASUS 24x SATA DVD-RW - $20
  
• Case: Corsair Graphite 600T - $150
  
• Power Supply: Corsair HX850 - $175
  
• Cooling: Corsair H60 Liquid CPU Cooler - $70

Total: $1760

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MONITORS

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SAMSUNG 23" LED LCD monitor - $199.99

LG 23" LED LCD monitor - $199.99

Sony BRAVIA 40" 1080p LCD HDTV - $549.99

Sony Bravia 46" Class 1080p 240Hz LED Edge Lit LCD HDTV - $1399.99 (I am using the NX711 | 46" 3D LED-Edge Lit)

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ACCESSORIES

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Logitech G110 Keyboard - $59.99 (I actually use this one)

Creative Fatal1ty Gaming Headset - $39.99 (Very cheap but good)

Corsair HS1 Circumaural Headset - $94.99

Logitech Z506 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers - $79.99 (I liked the quality of the sound out of these)

RAZER DeathAdder Mouse - $49.99 (Im currently using this one but I like my Logitech much more)

Logitech G500 Mouse - $57.99

Dont Forget your OS:

Windows 7 Home Premium x64

First of all, thank you for this. I'm going tomorrow to begin the construction of a rig, and am SOOO computer illiterate; just love the games.

Any suggestion of something "above mid" and "below enthusiast"?

Like the $1000-$1200 area?

Thanks in advance for any help

Synful

I spent under $1500 for the PC I built for TOR and it runs circles around the game at max settings:

AMD T1100 Hexa Core CPU

16 Gigs Ram

RAID 0 SSD's (2 Crucial 64gigs each) game runs on this

RAID 0 WD250's - OS and storage

1 Radeon 6850 (crossfire coming!)

Windoes 7 64 bit

1000wat PSU

I run the game at max settings and get amazing frame rates while watching Netflix on another monitor. You do not need to spend allot of money to get great performance. The RAID 0 SSD's are such a boost I will always do that from here out. I can only imagine the performance when i add the second GPU and enable Crossfire.

I spent under $1500 for the PC I built for TOR and it runs circles around the game at max settings:

 

AMD T1100 Hexa Core CPU

16 Gigs Ram

RAID 0 SSD's (2 Crucial 64gigs each) game runs on this

RAID 0 WD250's - OS and storage

1 Radeon 6850 (crossfire coming!)

Windoes 7 64 bit

1000wat PSU

 

I run the game at max settings and get amazing frame rates while watching Netflix on another monitor. You do not need to spend allot of money to get great performance. The RAID 0 SSD's are such a boost I will always do that from here out. I can only imagine the performance when i add the second GPU and enable Crossfire.

I found on Taris that when it started to get slow even with 6gb ram it was because it was using so much memory. It was having to grab from the hard drive. I could see the hard drive light going nuts exactly when my frames would drop. Just got two Corsair Force GT's and cannot wait to set them up. I know for sure that when it needs to hit the hard drive up for info it will effect performance WAY less than now with striped mechanical drives I have now

I found on Taris that when it started to get slow even with 6gb ram it was because it was using so much memory. It was having to grab from the hard drive. I could see the hard drive light going nuts exactly when my frames would drop. Just got to Corsair Force GT's and cannot wait to set them up. I know for sure that when it needs to hit the hard drive up for info it will effect performance WAY less than now with striped mechanical drives I have now

Thats why I went with the 16 RAM, I wanted the entire game to load into RAM so there would be as little paging as possible. But the irony is, the RAID 0 SSD's are as fast or even faster than my RAM so its totally seamless.

I spent under $1500 for the PC I built for TOR and it runs circles around the game at max settings:

 

AMD T1100 Hexa Core CPU

16 Gigs Ram

RAID 0 SSD's (2 Crucial 64gigs each) game runs on this

RAID 0 WD250's - OS and storage

1 Radeon 6850 (crossfire coming!)

Windoes 7 64 bit

1000wat PSU

 

I run the game at max settings and get amazing frame rates while watching Netflix on another monitor. You do not need to spend allot of money to get great performance. The RAID 0 SSD's are such a boost I will always do that from here out. I can only imagine the performance when i add the second GPU and enable Crossfire.

Any chance you could find a site online that could incorporate all those features you purchased and would build it for me so I can order it online?

Hi folks,

I have a HP Pavillion a6355 from years ago that I added a 250W PSU and 9800GT Geforce Card to... in hindsight this probably nuked my mobo... I got one full days play out of SWTOR then my PC fried.

I replaced both PSU and GFX card with the ones that came with the computer plus checkedthe BIOS but still no joy. The screen stays blank and the fans spin like hell.

Would these components benefit me for SWTOR?

Best Value EW07 Midi ATX Black 500W PSU

£19.95

AMD Athlon II X4 645 3.1Ghz 2MB 95W AM3

£79.99

Gigabyte M68MT-S2P AM3 AMD GeForce 7025 DDR3 mATX

£34.99

Kingston 2GB (1 x 2GB) DDR3 1333MHz HyperX Blu CL9

£9.99

Total (inc VAT) £144.92

from http://www.dabs.co.uk

Then transfer my hardrive, cdrom and GFX card to the new system, and dump the rest, with this I get a new case + 500w power supply a quad core processor and 2Gb of DDR3 Ram for £144.92

I'm not looking for a mammoth rig, just and upgrade to what I have, enough to play SWTOR decently, with no frying of components lol.

Cheers

bump

If anyone could link me to a build on a website that I could buy a good one from that's under $2000 and can run this game on full settings. I would be grateful.

OP, are you the same guy who did specs for mmo-champion? do you realize that your sub 600 configs both wont draw more then 350 watts from outlet performing at their hardest? that a 400-450 watt PSU would be more then enough?

also for all those who actually care, go to anandtech forums, find a monitor thread. read it, get a point why the author of this thread is a rather clueless person, and make up your mind. since he didnt suggest a single proper LCD monitor for gaming.

edit

wow, you suggest 850 watt psu for a machine without CF/SLI and no raid, and you suggest a premanufactured watercooling system also.

dude, really. overclockers.com. educate yourself a bit before suggesting to others.

i am about to order this pc package and thought id put it here and get any feedback. Bascailly i just want a nice powerful pc that will run max graphics (with a bit of overkill) and i am aiming for around $2000 (this is currently quoted at about $2400 so i really cant add/upgrade anything else. Any tech experts got any opinions on this?

NZXT Havik 140 CPU Cooler

Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-D3 Motherboard

NZXT Hale82 650W Power Supply

Intel 320 Series 120GB SSD

Logitech G510 Gaming Keyboard

Aerocool VX-E Pro Limited Edition Case

Pioneer BDR-206 Blu-Ray Disc Writer OEM

ICY BOX 3.5in Multiport Panel with Card Reader

Scythe Kaze Master Ace 5.25" Fan Controller Black

Viewsonic VX2453MH-LED 23.6in LED Monitor

Razer Orochi Black Chrome Bluetooth Gaming Mouse

D-Link RangeBooster N 650 Desktop Adapter

ROCCAT Sense Glacier Softpad Fiber Coated Mousepad

Corsair Vengeance CMZ16GX3M4X1600C9 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3

Logitech LS21 2.1 Speaker System

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit with SP1 OEM

Intel Core i7 2600K

VTX3D Radeon HD6970 2GB X-Edition

Seagate Barracuda 1TB ST31000524AS

LG E2441V-BN 24inch LED Widescreen Monitor

Sorry about the possibly confusing order of the list, ive changed/added/removed stuff from the cart and this is the current list.

PS does it seem like everything will actually work together? (i.e. im not trying to match oranges with apples?)

i everyone, I am hoping to get some help.

So I am looking to upgrade my Graphics card as it is awful, It is a Hd 5450, So I am looking to upgrade it to either the Ati Radeon 6850 or 6870 are these good cards are they worth the price?

So My motherboard is a ASrock M3A UCC hope that helps.

I need to upgrade my psu as I need one that has 2 external power cables to plug into the graphics cards, so what is the most cost effective one?

also I have 4gb ram looking to upgrade it, is it worth it.

Any help would be great.

Thanks

I recommend http://www.hardware-revolution.com/computer-systems/gaming-pc/

Updated monthly for the newest, best builds for your money.

Not trying to be mean, I know the OP hasn't updated their builds, but you can build a gaming pc from this site much cheaper and much better than the OP builds.

Very good builds for the beginner and pros. All hardware compatible and the builds start with

Budget $300-$700

Mainstream $700-$1500

High End $2000-$3500

Decided to buy these items from scan.co.uk

MSI HD 6870 ATI - AMD Radeon Graphics Card - 1GB

R6870-2PM2D1GD5/OC - 1GB MSI HD 6870, 4200MHz GDDR5, GPU 900MHz, 1120 Stream Processors, DVI-D/ DLDVI-I/ HDMI/ 2x Mini DP

Corsair Memory XMS3 8GB DDR3 1333 Mhz CAS 9 Dual Channel Desktop

CMX8GX3M2A1333C9 - 8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 XMS3, PC3-10600 (1333), Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 9-9-9-24, 1.50V

Corsair Enthusiast TX V2 CMPSU-650TXV2UK 650W Power Supply (PSU)

CMPSU-650TXV2UK - 650W PSU, Corsair Enthusiast Series 650TXV2UK, 85% Eff', 80 PLUS Bronze, SLI/CrossFire, EPS 12V, Quiet Fan, ATX v2.31

SilverStone AP121 120mm Fan Silver

SST-AP121-BL - 120mm SilverStone AP121 Air Penetrator 1500rpm FDB Blue LED Fan

I use Windows 7 64-bit

My motherboard is a ASrock M3A UCC

the motherboard can be upgraded to 16 gb ram (Special board)

Case is MARS BLUE GAMING ATX CASE PC COMPUTER TOWER & FRONT LED FAN

Here is the system I built for SWTOR:

Corsair Carbide Series 400R Case - $100

Intel Core i5-2400 CPU - $190 (This is running stable at 3.9GHz)

ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z Micro ATX Mobo - $170

ASUS GTX 550 Ti GPU - #130

G.Skill RIPJAW Series 8GB (2x4GB) PC 12800 RAM - $44

Diablotek UL Series 775W PSU - $71

Samsung CD/DVD Burner - $18

Cooler Master HYPER 212 EVO Heat Sink - $34

Mushkin Callisto 120GB SATA II SSD - $130

I already had a 24" ASUS LCD monitor and G15 keyboard with a decent mouse. Up until 1.1. patch, I was able to run everything at max and see 65-90 FPS depending on the area. Shadows have been playing havoc since 1.1 so they are at low setting along with AA. This keeps me in the same 65-90 FPS range at all times, except for certain places on the Fleet.

Temperature is never an issue even after 6-7 hours of continuous play, which is very rare anyway. Just for some comparison MW3, which really is the only other game I play on the PC runs at or over 60 FPS without question. Don't have Skryim so I have no comparison there.

Edit: Windows 7 Pro 64-Bit running @ 1920x1080 Resolution in-game.

if you alread own a computer but want to update it or get a new one you can save a ton of money by salvaging parts from the old computer.

i had a laptop that i had upgraded the hard drive in and had two externals for, all of these are now internals in my desk top as well a a solid state (which i run programs off of).

if you already have a desk top then there probably isn't any real need to buy a new monitor/mouse/keyboard.

you probably can salvage the disk drive the memory and network card out of your existing desktop.

also for those of you who are looking to build/upgrade your rig Newegg.com is amazing for purchasing parts. as mentioned before i had a laptop(mind you the screen keyboard and trackpad were all broken so externals had already been purchased) but i spent around 670 this past summer on my desktop. i can run everything but the shadows on high and have zero lag. i can also run skyrim on ultra settings with no problems, and it looks twice as good then on a console.

Sorry about the hijack, but I created a thread around the same time as this one (and also v1.0 before the forum reset) for the sole purpose of building a budget PC capable of playing SWTOR at high to maximum settings. I, along with contributors, have done the hard work of finding the lowest prices already.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=158940

I would encourage people to post additional builds and vendors. We especially need help from people outside the U.S.

So I got this as a christmas gift two years ago:

• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

• Intel® Core 2 Quad processor Q8300 [2.5GHz, 4MB L2, 1333MHz FSB]

• 4GB DDR2-800MHz SDRAM [2 DIMMs]

• 640GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive

• 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 220 [DVI, HDMI, VGA]

• LightScribe 16X max. DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive

• Integrated 10/100/1000 (Gigabit) Ethernet

• 15-in-1 memory card reader, 2 USB, audio

• Integrated 7.1 channel sound with front audio ports

The main problem is that it was a gift, obviously it wasn't built. It is *gasp* an HP PC. Now I'm wondering if any of you tech guru's can tell me if there is any way to upgrade this sucker to get better FPS in this game? The main issue I have is certain areas where there is fog/gas and my frames just instantly drop to ~10. Also obviously Ilum is practically unplayable.

Is there anything I can do?

well im just waiting for my pci x16 hd's to come, got 2 of them coming and then giggidy giggidy giggidy.

enjoy the fleet on your new machine!

I spent under $1500 for the PC I built for TOR and it runs circles around the game at max settings:

 

AMD T1100 Hexa Core CPU

16 Gigs Ram

RAID 0 SSD's (2 Crucial 64gigs each) game runs on this

RAID 0 WD250's - OS and storage

1 Radeon 6850 (crossfire coming!)

Windoes 7 64 bit

1000wat PSU

 

I run the game at max settings and get amazing frame rates while watching Netflix on another monitor. You do not need to spend allot of money to get great performance. The RAID 0 SSD's are such a boost I will always do that from here out. I can only imagine the performance when i add the second GPU and enable Crossfire.

I hope you back this system up regularly because if either of those SSDs or WDs go down, you've lost that portion of your system. You're basically running those 2 SSD and 2 250s as single drives in RAID 0. You are more likely to get a failure in two drives than one so you doubled your failure rate. It's a games system so maybe you don't care if you loose a system drive.

SSD also don't have a good rep for being reliable.

With that said should provide excellent performance though. But I would never recommend it to a client. Try RAID 10 instead.

I hope you back this system up regularly because if either of those SSDs or WDs go down, you've lost that portion of your system. You're basically running those 2 SSD and 2 250s as single drives in RAID 0. You are more likely to get a failure in two drives than one so you doubled your failure rate. It's a games system so maybe you don't care if you loose a system drive.

 

SSD also don't have a good rep for being reliable.

 

With that said should provide excellent performance though. But I would never recommend it to a client. Try RAID 10 instead.

step 1 - go to store

step 2 - pay more than $500 for new computer

step 3 - enjoy