Good gaming machine for Starcraft II?

I'm planning to pick up a new system to coincide with the release of Starcraft II, but I haven't been keeping up with gaming hardware for a while... What system do you feel is the best value currently that will let me turn up all the settings to high, but won't cost an arm and a leg?

(NOTE: I'm not a cheapskate so an arm OR a leg is fine, but not both... I guess that would be an arm XOR a leg.) :)

From gaming Skrymsli

• Blizzard recommends that a PC should run Vista or Windows 7 and have:

  • Dual Core 2.4Ghz Processor
  • 2 GB RAM
  • 512 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800 GTX or ATI Radeon® HD 3870 or better

  For Macs, it's recommended that you have:

  • Intel® Core 2 Duo processor
  • 4 GB system RAM
  • NVIDIA® GeForce® 9600M GT or ATI Radeon® HD 4670 or better

  However, I don't know what specific system to suggest.

  Ricket : I wonder why a Mac needs so much better hardware, especially since all their hardware is overpriced and you'd think the Unix-based OSX would run more efficiently... I guess maybe it's a low quality port of the Windows version?

  Kevin Y : Yeah, in most cases with cross-platform games Macs get [not so great] ports of the Windows counterparts. That's my best guess.

  Skrymsli : Those recommendations are weak. I currently have a quad core 2.4 with 3 gigs of ram and a GeForce 9500... starcraft 2 is a slideshow with at the highest settings.

  Kevin Y : They're what Blizzard recommended; not my personal recommendations.

  Lee : @Skrymsli You may be under the mistaken assumption that a 9500 GT is more powerful than an 8800 GTX. It isn't; not even close.

  Jay R. : The Mac specs are sometimes higher because the drivers aren't as tuned for Mac OS X. Also, memory usage is higher primarily because PC game specs are written assuming 32-bit Windows. Most 64-bit Windows users already have larger memory size or they wouldn't be using 64 bit. Mac OS X is varying degrees of 64-bit. You can't install 32-bit only Mac OS X. 64-bit executables generally consume more memory while running.
  From Kevin Y

• My baseline MacBook ran the Beta just fine. I'd go 27" iMac :)

  Matt Williamson : 4 Gigs of Memeory, no less.

  Ricket : [why did you comment on your own answer rather than editing it?]

  gfr : Could you expand on your MacBook specs? CPU, GHz, graphics chip?
  From Matt Williamson

• I'd suggest the following:

  • i5 or equivalent. While i7 might be better you won't need the performance difference, you'll run out of memory first
  • 9800 GTX or better. The 1 GB of Graphics Card RAM really makes a difference.
  • 4+ GB RAM
  • SSD -> This one is key. Put your OS and game on this, but make sure your saves and other files go on a normal HD. You want to avoid writing to your SSD unless you have to. Its best when reading from.
  • Widescreen monitor. SC2 actually chops off the sides of the image to project on 4:3 monitors. Widescreen you'll see more.
  Drake : It seems a bit overpowered for StarCraft II and I really don't understand the additional cost of a SSD

  Ricket : I agree, quite overpowered for this game especially the SSD since their prices aren't very low yet.

  Skrymsli : Marking this as answer because this is the only answer that actually suggests some specs, but what I was really looking for is a link to a pre-built system, guess I should have clarified.

  tzenes : @marco.ragogna you can get a 30GB SSD <$100, and its well worth the cost.

  Drake : @tzenes I prefer spend that $100 more for a better CPU o GPU. SSD does not improve your gaming experience and with 30GB nowadays you can install maximum the OS and 2/3 games max

  tzenes : @marco.ragogna wrong! The SSD will make the BIGGEST difference in your gaming experience these days. Modern CPUs are very very powerful, however the bottleneck in most computers is not processing power, but bandwidth. I don't mean internet, I mean getting the data to the GPU and CPU. This is why a Graphics card with more RAM is better (hence my suggestion of 1GB) and why an SSD will improve your performance more than going from i5 to i7. Also, I fit Windows Vista and about 12 games on my SSD.

  Drake : @tzenes link me some benchmark

  r00fus : SSD for starcraft helps with load times and startup; also I've noticed that my 2010 13" MBP on Med would sometimes warn me when I ran off HD (to reduce GFX settings), but not since I moved it and OS to SSD.

  Davy8 : SSD would only really help load times unless you're low on RAM and it has to page to disk. Bang for the buck, getting 8GB is gonna help more overall.

  tzenes : @Davy8 Starcraft doesn't push much past 1.5 GB because it doesn't preload textures into RAM before pushing out to the GPU. It does, however, load them from HD. So a SSD will seriously improve your load times and texture loading when your GPU starts thrashing.
  From tzenes

• If you're looking to mitigate cost but still have some significant power, I'd have to agree with the i5. The extra cores in an i7 is nice but for gaming, including StarCraft, you won't see enough different to warrant the price jump. Instead, invest in a faster i5 vs. an equivalent i7.

  Definately keep memory above 4Gb, although keep in mind to make use of anything above 3.6Gb you'll need to be running a 64-bit OS. Again, if you're trying to get as much bang for your buck, you'll find that Dual-Channel memory doesn't take much of a performance hit compared to the newer Triple-Channel memory and when comparing DDR2 vs. DDR3, DDR3 still doesn't provide enough kick to be worth the significant cost increase.

  An SSD for the OS/Main Game you're playing plus a standard drive will be key to providing the best experience you can get. If you're looking for a compromise, I'm using a Seagate Momentus XT that is a hybrid SSD drive. It uses 4Gb of SSD attached to a regular drive and frontloads the most commonly used information to the SSD portion. It doesn't quite perform as well as an SSD, but it does consistenly perform better than standard drives and costs significantly less. I picked mine up for aroun $130 and it is a 500Gb drive, whereas a good SSD at 128Gb will cost at least that much if not closer to $200.

  Definately get a widescreen monitor if you don't already have one, as you'll want to take advantage of higher resolutions and games that tailor to widescreens typically put you at a disadvantage when you aren't using one. If you can, look for a widscreen that can handle 1920x1080 or 1920x1200.

  The most important part you'll pick up is your video card. Definate pick something with 1Gb of RAM or better on it. As previously stated by other posters, the 9800 GTX is a good choice that doesn't break the bank, although if you want to push the system farther you might consider something more along the GeForce GTX 275 line. Alternatively, ATI has the Radeon 4870 and even better, the Radeon 5870.

  From CaedJar4

• I built a machine just for StarCraft II. I use a 24" 1920x1200 Dell LCD with all of the settings maxed and get 60-120 FPS. It gets a little choppy, however, when I use Page Up/Down to zoom in on gameplay, but one usually only does that during replays and not live gameplay.

  Here are the specs from March, 2010:

  • Intel Core i7 920 CPU ($100 off at my local Microcenter)
  • EVGA 141-BL-E757-TR motherboard
  • Cooler Master V8 CPU cooler (overkill but awesome)
  • 3x2GB Corsair Dominator DDR3 1600 RAM (mobo supports triple-threading)
  • Corsair 750TX power supply (overkill, shoulda gone modular)
  • MSI-brand ATI Radeon HD 5770 "Hawk" (1GB SDRAM, bad-ass heat sinks, best 5770 variant)
  • Logitech X-540 speakers (good enough, nice breakout volume knob)
  • Belkin 802.11n 2.0 wireless adapter
  • Windows 7 Pro 64-bit

  I already had some Western Digital drives and a case. Solid-state drives seemed overkill; all I would save would be game boot-up time.

  I planned on overclocking the system a bit. I turned on EVGA's "dummy O.C." mode to peg the CPU at 3.23 GHz, used the Radeon Afterburner app to push the GPU clock to +900 MHz, and haven't bothered to push anything further.

  --

  Alternatively, I use a MacBook Pro for development. I got one with a 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, 4 GB of RAM and dual NVIDIA GeForce 9400M/9600M GT graphics chips. I play the Mac StarCraft II client at medium settings at 1440x900 resolution and it's pretty consistently smooth -- about 25-50 FPS.

  Hope that helps.

  ahsteele : What do you mean by modular on the power supply?

  a paid nerd : Modular means that most of the cables plug into the main brick and can be removed. They'll give you less-cluttered case innards (for sexiness or air flow, allegedly) but will cost a little more. Make sure to read reviews on NewEgg — on one of them I read that every cable was removable except for the ultra-useless floppy cable. Corsair usually gets great customer ratings.
  From a paid nerd

• I have this machine. I run everything on all the highest settings and it never slows or glitches. It is super quiet, and frankly, bad ass. You can get it for under $1500 at best buy.

  From Jason