I'm trying to put something together for a friend (haven't really kept up on processor and motherboard stuff for years) and I need some suggestions. He is NOT a heavy gamer, but I would assume for a total system cost of around $600 (with a decent 21"+ monitor) he should be able to get something to play Starcraft II at pretty high quality with very good framerates.
Here's your first problem. "Very good framerates" is a bit subjective, but Starcraft II at high resolutions does not mix with cheap processors AND no overclocking.
If you're not going with high resolutions, then maybe this won't be a big problem for you.
So, I'm starting here. He WILL NOT be overclocking, so I'm looking for stock performance. I'm looking at spending around $100 there, so that leaves me with this:
AMD Athlon II X4 635 Propus
Core 2 Quad Processor Q8200
Core 2 Quad Processor Q8300
Straight off, you should take everything LGA775 off your list, especially if there is no overclocking involved.
Since Starcraft II is the game you've listed, you need to keep in mind that it is not currently capable of utilizing more than 2 cores, which means that, at most, you'd want three cores (one extra for background tasks) or a dual-core with Hyperthreading (so background tasks can be shunted to a logical core).
That means you should be looking at either a Core i3-530/540/550 or a Phenom II/Athlon II x3. I would probably recommend the Phenom II x3 720BE, even though he isn't going to overclock, THOUGH, Starcraft II seems to heavily favor Intel processors.
So basically you're looking at the Core i3 530 ($100) vs. the Phenom II x3 720 BE (also around $100, maybe a bit less). The Core i3 530 might yield better framerates, but the x3 720 BE might result in lower system cost if you've got spare DDR2 that you can use with an AM2+ board.
Of course motherboard cost will come into this to, and the Athlon I can get @$100 at Newegg (so I can probably grab a combo discount) and the other two are from Microcenter (the 8300 is $120). Which is the best for cost/performance, and which motherboard should he choose (he needs a basic, rock-solid stable board, nothing special).
Thank you all very much for your help.
Since there is no overclocking involved, you can get a metric ton of cheap motherboards for an x3 720 BE; just make sure the board has whatever features you need. Also, you have not mentioned RAM at all, and this is an issue since the x3 720 BE can either use DDR2 in an AM2+ board or DDR3 in an AM3 board.
The Core i3 530 needs an LGA1156 H55, H57, or P55 board with DDR3. Presumably, he will not be using the i3 530's IGP, but that doesn't mean he can't go with a cheap-ish H55 board so long as it meets his other needs. Is he going to go with Crossfire or SLI? Otherwise his requirements shouldn't be too stringent.
But really, unless he needs Crossfire or SLI, I'd focus on getting something with a rep for reliability above anything else, since you've listed no feature requirements that might require a niche product. He doesn't need fancy stuff like extra PWM cooling, quadfire support, 8-phase power, blah blah blah. He just needs a board that won't go up in a puff of magic purple smoke (that goes for the i3 and the x3).
And since I'm a G.Skill fanboy, I'm going to recommend this RAM to you:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231321
. . . because 1.35v DDR3-1600 is awesome, and the price is right. Both the x3 and the i3 will enjoy that stuff. As alternatives:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820226122
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820104175
That is, assuming, that he goes with DDR3. Buying DDR2 new these days doesn't make much sense, but he might get a killer deal on an AM2+ board and have some leftover DDR2 lying around, making the x3 an obvious choice since he can spend his savings on a nice video card.
Beyond that you've got to worry about the PSU. For modest single-GPU setups he could go with a Corsair CX400 or TX450 (an HD5970 or GTX 480 might require more than this, but I don't think those cards fit in his budget). He's going to want more juice for Crossfire/SLI.
Case . . . well, I'm going to punt on the case. My taste in cases is generally pretty bad, or shall we say, overly spartan.
Also he's going to need a harddrive. I like my 640 gb WD Black drive (64mb cache model), but for a bit extra you can get 1TB with the same cache that should run a bit faster (better platter density).
Have you looked at video cards at all yet? What resolution is he planning on running, and what are his framerate expectations?