Building A PC For Battlefield 3

Featured 19 Comments 13 Votes 2691 Views 05/08/2011 Back to Articles

Building A PC For Battlefield 3

So DICE have had no quarms admitting that the PC version of the upcoming Battlefield 3 is the bee's knees. You want to experience it on the lead platform, however when you look in the corner and see your dusty white box of shame your heart sinks a little. You want to upgrade but you don't know where to start. Well that's okay because we have you covered. Check out our three builds below that will service all your Battlefield 3 needs.

The Budget Build - $1000

Okay so we're taking into account you already have a keyboard, mouse and some kind of monitor. This build will run Battlefield 3 and most new titles comfortably, and will last you quite a while as you play through some of the bigger titles.

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD3 $169
CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1055T $159
RAM: Corair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 $59
HDD: Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB HD103SJ $59
GPU: VTX3D Radeon HD6950 2GB $269
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gaming 750W Power Supply $139
Case: CoolerMaster Elite 370 $55
CPU Cooler: Thermaltake SpinQ VT $62
Optical: Lite-On DVDRW $29

View the parts list from PC Case Gear here

The Mid-Range Build - $1495

So you have a little more cash to splash and you'd love to run Battlefield 3 with a little more eye candy than the budget build. We totally understand your needs so that's why we threw together this affordable, yet super solid build that will run any game on the market right now and give you great results!

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3P-B3$199
CPU: Intel Core i7 2600 $285
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws 8GB (2x4GB) $69
HDD: Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB HD103SJ $59
GPU: ASUS GeForce GTX 570 DirectCU II 1280MB $379
Power Supply: Corsair TX-750 V2 Power Supply $145
Case: Thermaltake Element S $129
CPU Cooler: Antec KUHLER H20 620 $99
Optical: Samsung SH-222AB DVDRW $22

View the parts list from PC Case Gear here

The Overkill Build ($1992)

Money is not of your concern, but eating FPS for breakfast is high on your list of priorities. You want a beast of a machine, one that can handle anything that you throw at it. Look no further than this build of pure awesome.

Motherboard: ASUS Sabertooth P67 $239
CPU: Intel Core i7 2600 $285
RAM: Corair 1600 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 $129
HDD 1: Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB HD103SJ $59
HDD 2: OCZ Vertex 3 60GB SSD $159
GPU: ASUS GeForce GTX 580 DirectCU II $549
Power Supply: Corsair HX-850 Power Supply $219
Case: CoolerMaster CM 690 II Advanced $125
CPU Cooler: XSPC Rasa 750 RS240 Universal CPU Water Cooling Kit $139
Optical: Samsung SH-8123A Blu-Ray DVD Combo $89

View the parts list from PC Case Gear here

Regardless of which build you decide to go with, rest assured that your new gaming rig will comfortably run Battlefield 3 in all its glory. A big thanks to Matthew Armitage who put together these builds based on pricing from the ever popular PC Case Gear an online retailer based in Melbourne.

By Stephen Heller

Link to us http://pc.mmgn.com/Articles/Building-A-PC-For-Battlefield-3

Article by: Heller 142768Kudos 05/08/2011

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More Info on Battlefield 3

Game Profile: Battlefield 3

Review: Battlefield 3 Review
News: Battlefield 3 console version to debut on Thursday
Article: Trailer Trash: Battlefield 3
Video: Trailer Trash: Battlefield 3

Battlefield 3 Australian Release: Out Now

Building A PC For Battlefield 3 Comments

Kudos: 19,173

Pact

I like the mid-range build, but I hate that case!

05/08/2011

The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands, To fight the horde, sing and cry: Valhalla, I am coming!

Kudos: 10

Sharktopus

Good looking builds for the most part. In the budget PC I'd rather go for a CPU with faster clock speeds than buying extra cores that won't get used.

05/08/2011

Kudos: 142,768

Heller

OMG it's the @Sharktopus !

05/08/2011

Melbourne, Victoria

Kudos: 4,193

Josh

Dat overkill. [MOG]

05/08/2011

Legendary God of the Water Temple

Kudos: 12,597

abujaffer

Great article. It's a great starting point so I can change a couple things and I'm set to go! I'm planning on building a PC next year so I'm completely open to articles like these. =D

05/08/2011

3D world... where everything, even flat stuff, are in 3D.

Kudos: 22,369

Marge

pfft thats nto overkill at all [MOG]. I think the budget build could be much cheaper though

05/08/2011

Your Mother's Closet

Kudos: 77,994

renagadez

wow is that the price for the overkill one? not bad at all!

05/08/2011

Sydney, New South Wales

Kudos: 2,741

milo

trouble is the specs for pc games are always changing and makes it hard to keep up

05/08/2011

Riverview

Kudos: 596

Joshmann

Heres a better budget PC for around the same price

CPU: i5 2500K $215
Mobo: ASRock Z68 Pro3 B3 $139
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws F3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 $69
HDD: Seagate 1TB HDD $58
GPU: EVGA GeForce 560Ti $259
Case: CM690 II $115
Optical Drive: LG $39
PSU: CoolerMaster Silent Pro 850w $165

Total $1059

Chances are if your on a budget your not going to want SLI/Crossfire so why pay more for a mobo that has it but you wont use. Oh and no need for CPU coolers LOL. Waste of money. Stock fans will be fine. Only buy the cooler if you plan on overclocking. On a budget PC, you wont be.

05/08/2011

Melbourne, Victoria

Kudos: 6

retards

2600k, what for? Not for gaming.

Hyperthreading is useless in gaming. 2500k = 2600k in games. And it's like 130$ cheaper.

You should really ask someone who actually knows how to build a PC before you make an article.

@up, 560Ti is worse than 6950, also more VRAM is better, especially in BF3, it's going to be VRAM hungry.

Also, you don't need 8GB of RAM for gaming, unless you want to look cool infront of your friends.

06/08/2011

Kudos: 16,691

Dicky

Those are some damn ugly cases [sick]

Plus i'm sure you could of come up with some better builds than those!

The last one is hardly 'OverKill' :P

06/08/2011

Sesame Street

Kudos: 22,369

Marge

yea gotta agree that youv'e mixed them up really weirdly. For example you have a more expensive optical drive in budget then you do for mid-range. Also the case in mid-range is ugly and its more expensive then the overkill one.

Really Really weirdly worked out :S ..

retards said:
You should really ask someone who actually knows how to build a PC before you make an article.

agreed in a less insulting kind of way :P

06/08/2011

Your Mother's Closet

Kudos: 16,691

Dicky

Marge said: retards said:
You should really ask someone who actually knows how to build a PC before you make an article.
agreed in a less insulting kind of way

I thought Guyver did but obviously not :O

Plus wouldnt these builds need a copy of Windows or something?

06/08/2011

Sesame Street

Kudos: 21,084

maxiboy

$1000 isn't budget for most people, especially people moving from a console wanting to not spend a lot of money.

I whipped this up in 5 minutes, it costs $530:

Not getting a bundled PSU & case is a stupid move when on a budget.
Quad core is still more than enough for anything, even AMD.
a 6770 is fine, upgrade in a year if you really want to. My 5770 runs all games, even Crysis 2 on full high at 1900x1200.
You don't need a 3rd party cooler on a budget PC, the stock one does the job, upgrade later if you really want.
A 500GB HDD will hold everything for a while, if it gets full, just whack in another.

07/08/2011

Sydney, NSW

Kudos: 198,117

Ben

So noob question, but have the specs for Battlefield been revealed yet?

07/08/2011

twitter.com/Ben_Salter | Dennis, your mule is shit. I am no longer turned on by mules.

Kudos: 22,369

Marge

pc.mmgn.com/...

not officially but they sound fairly close

07/08/2011

Your Mother's Closet

Kudos: 28,110

Ren-dog

retards said: 2600k, what for? Not for gaming.
Hyperthreading is useless in gaming. 2500k = 2600k in games. And it's like 130$ cheaper.
You should really ask someone who actually knows how to build a PC before you make an article.
@up, 560Ti is worse than 6950, also more VRAM is better, especially in BF3, it's going to be VRAM hungry.
Also, you don't need 8GB of RAM for gaming, unless you want to look cool infront of your friends.

1. 2600 has a major performance impact over the 2500, how do i know, i have had both, boot and load times are drastically shortened. it may not have a major performance impact in older games but newer ones are taking advantage of the extra "cores" and the difference is noticeable.
2. GTX560Ti for slightly less performance, granted the fps difference might hit 5fps... but you dont BSOD every time you install a driver, and you dont have CCC causing your boot times to bloat.

How about you think before posting. I can burn your troll all day mate.

07/08/2011

Kudos: 3,897

S_Facelift

I think ive already got close enough to the overkill build only problem no SSd yet [sick]

07/08/2011

The Valley, Vic

Kudos: 87,358

Skarteh

Might not need 8GB for gaming, but if 8GB costs $69 and 4GB costs $49, why would you buy 4GB? Agreed on the 2600K vs 2500K for the mid-range build, high range build where the price doesn't matter I'd get it because I can. Theres no way I'd make a high end system with one card anymore though.

Marge said: pc.mmgn.com/...
not officially but they sound fairly close

Minimum means nothing. I didn't suggest any builds for this because I don't know if it is or isn't using tessellation and that hugely increases the performance draw.

07/08/2011

Melbourne, Victoria | Walk with me in hell