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Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit
Intel Core i3-2100 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 2000 BX80623I32100
SAPPHIRE 100315L Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-8GBRL
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
ASRock H61M-VS LGA 1155 Intel H61 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power Plus RS500-PCARD3-US 500W ATX12V v2.3 Power Supply
SAMSUNG CD/DVD Burner 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model SH-222AB
LIAN LI PC-7B plus II Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Is this fast enough to run SWTOR? Will it run SWTOR on high settings at 1600x or 1920x?

Tip it will run swtor well, the only bottleneck I can see is the processor. If you end up participating in large events you will notice a slowdown based on the number of objects the pc has to keep track of.

I would suggest going or an i5 or i7. If you are building the rig yourself, pm me, I just got my intel promo for next to nothing so I have a spare i7 and deluxe intel mobo kicking around, i would be willing to sell for a ton off retail.


Good luck!

Looks pretty good, but AMD offers more bang for your buck in the processor range you seem to be looking at. Just never, ever, even consider buying a tri(defective quad)-core processor from them, they will overheat, and probably take out the motherboard too. (Also, clthomps' deal looks pretty good there...)

In video games, processor speed ususally does not matter, unless you are very far below average. RAM and Video Card are much more important for that ,in my experience. My primary computer at my mom's house is only a 2.8GHZ AMD Athlon II dual core, but I run most games, including behemoths like Skyrim, at 40-50 frames per second because of my Radeon 4850 with 1GB of RAM, and my 4GB(Not a lot, I know) DDR 1600 RAM. The processor you currently have selected is right at the peak of the bell curve as far as typical computers go. It should do fine for SWTOR, with these minimum specs I found.

This is just plain incorrect. A processor is far more important than both ram and video card, and AMD does not offer more "bang for your buck" people sell products for what they are worth and amd has not had an innovation that out benchmarked its intel counter part since the old AMD 64s.

Take into account that you can always upgrade your ram and video card, but upgrading a processor will most likely involve buying an new mobo too. Which may in fact invalidate your ram as well.


When building a gaming machine I always start with the highest processor i can afford, then attach it to a quality mobo and a name brand Power supply with at least 2 rails. After that I look at my budget and select a mid range video card, then look for some cheap ram, name brands rarely matter just make sure the timing is compatible with the mobo. After that pick up a HD that runs at least 7200 rpm and a cheap case.

SWTOR is not that demanding of hardware.

I'd also bump that up to at least a 2500 or 2500K if you are for overclocking.

I am going to have to disagree with you. You can extend the life of a computer by upgrading the video card and adding more memory. The reason for this is the bulk of work in video games are the graphics specifically the high resolution textures and depending on the game's engine the video card can even handle geometry as is the case with the Unity engine. The more memory present in the system the more quicker a game can launch and operate. If a video card has 1GB on memory that's 1GB of dedicated memory specifically for caching textures and graphics data. I say this because I was able to extend the life of a computer in the 90s for eight years by simply upgrading video cards and adding more memory.



My experience with motherboards is that most offer large upgrade capabilities specifically with the memory and CPU. The choice of video card is irrelevant because as long as the mobo has a PCI-e slot it will support any PCI-e card. And since PCI-e is the industry standard it'll be around for the foreseeable future. Case in point the mobo I bought, ASRock H61M-VS, supports second generation Intel Core i3, i5, and i7 processors. In terms of growth potential I should be able to go from the current purchased i3-2100 3.1GHz processor to a blazing fast Intel i7-3930K 2nd gen processor. And the potential of the i7-3930K processor? I go from 2 cores to 6 cores, 4 threads to 12 threads all at 3.2 Ghz. One day when the i7-3930K processor drops from $583 down to $150 then I'll upgrade. And it's nice to know the mobo will be able to handle it.



I selected what I felt was a good mobo with upgrade potential and CPU to get me playing SWTOR at a level that is good. I splurged extra for the video card and memory. I don't know if that's the way people do it today but it has worked for me in the past.

Last edited by kxmode on 14 Feb 2012, 1:17 am, edited 1 time in total.

Just a side note that

that CPU is on LGA2011, which is a different socket.

Quite right you are. My apologies, I couldn't find that information then I found it on the Intel product pages under sockets supported. It looks like the fastest i7 2nd gen processor with a LGA1155 socket is i7-2700K. 4 cores and 8 threads running at 3.5 GHz. That's really fast! As soon as it drops from its current price of $370 to $125-ish I'll buy it.

Yes and no to both. CPU is important, ram is important, video card is important. Look for your bottlenecks. If you have cheap ram in your computer and your motherboard supports overclocking features for at least ram and also hopefully CPU, adding quality RAM will make a huge difference. Not all RAM is the same, some have better timings than others and will perform much better. Adding matched pairs is also recommended so you'll take advantage of proper timings and full DDR(whatever number2,3,4,10) speed.

Video cards are the bugaboo. Some are just plain better than others. The only way to know whether video card A is better than B or C is by reviews. You simply can't go by stats alone on a video card. Some are prone to over heating/crashing. Others while having good stats just don't perform well or have BIOS issues. While others are just too large for your case

The first part you are not disagreeing with me you are illustrating my point, you started with a computer with a decent processor and upgraded the easy parts to keep is current enough to last eight years.

As for your assessment of hardware functions you are a bit off. Game load times are a function of hardrive speed and ram, mostly hard drive speed, if you want to speed this up look into a solid state HD they are simply amazing in terms of load speed.

Moreover the amount of storage the card has for texture is a marketing gimmick, what you should really look for is pixel pipelines and Mghz. Cost is a good reflection of this look at a 2gb card in the $100 range, then look at a 1GB card in the $300 range. The 1gb card will smoke the 2gb card any day of the week.



Now for a little more for you to mull over, the graphics card only handles the graphics portion of the game. That's why I suggested you will bottleneck on an i3 in large group events. All of the math done for each piece of gear on each character and all dmg and healing done goes through the processor, let alone on hit effects and DOTs and the npcs effects.