1 x ($64.99) RAIDMAX Blackstone series RX-700AC 700W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.3 / EPS12V V2.91 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
700W is a little too much. A friend of mine runs 2xGTX560Ti SLI with an OCed i5-2600k 4.5GHz on a 750W PSU. If you don't plan on using CrossFire and overclock, 550W will be more than enough. Maybe you can save some money here. Aside from that everything seems to be fine.
While Raidmax wouldn't normally be my first choice, I think that this power supply is a reasonable choice for this build. Particularly if you do the mail-in rebate, the price is good for the value. He could probably shave $20 from the cost of the PSU, but this PSU is partially modular, can potentially support crossfire, can probably run slower fan speed (due to less heat from the capacitors because a smaller portion of max wattage is being used) and is unlikely to be the source of any difficult-to-solve problems. To me, that makes it worth the extra cash.
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...and if you disagree with me, you're probably <insert random ad hominem attack here>.
I forgot to mention in my previous post, if you plan to build your own then this is probably a good place to start. It's a few months out of date so the listed components' prices may have changed in some cases, but the base build target was $600. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i5-overclock-performance-gaming,3097.html
Again, I'd go with 8 Gb of ram (currently about $35 on Newegg vs. $25 for 4Gb in the linked build) because the prices have dropped so much. The graphics card market has changed somewhat since that build, so I'd also consult here, which is current as of March 2012: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-3.html
You don't need that much CPU or graphics muscle for D3 or Minecraft though, so you can save a few bucks and/or get an SSD by going for cheaper alternatives if you want.
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...and if you disagree with me, you're probably <insert random ad hominem attack here>.
If you're willing to do some research and are good with your hands, building your own is the definitely the most cost effective and rewarding way to go. Do not skip the research part though or you risk getting components which don't work together (it's a good idea to post links to them all on a forum so people can tell you if you need to change anything) and/or damaging them during assembly. Whether you go the diy route or buy a pre-built system, here's where I'd start.
Forget the minimum specs as even the recommended specs for both D3 and Minecraft are relatively low. Get a CPU with 2-4 cores that run at 2.6 Ghz or better. Aim for 8 Gb of DDR3 RAM (preferably a 2-stick kit of 4Gb each to leave room to upgrade to 16 Gb when the price inevitably drops even lower, though 16 Gb is way overkill for current software).
Make sure you get a video card that's meant for gaming. It doesn't have to be top-of-the-line, but it shouldn't be for offices. If you buy a pre-built system without a video card, you *might* be able to add one, but it really depends on there being enough unused wattage on the power supply and most pre-built systems tend to cheap out on the PSU (which is a bad idea imho -- you should probably spend at least $60 on a PSU for a gaming machine and that's if you get a very good deal).
Unless you plan to overclock, just make sure your motherboard has any particular features you want (IE USB 3.0 if you want that, extra power through USB to charge your ipod faster, etc.) and you should be able to get a good one for $60ish. You should also be fine with a cheap case (again, if you want certain features like front USB 3.0 ports, that's where you should focus, but otherwise just go cheap) and you should be fine with the heatsink that comes with the CPU so long as you don't buy a bare CPU without one. If you do plan to overclock, that's a whole ball of wax that you'll need to do your own research on, but definitely ignore this paragraph in that case.
Other than that, if you want amazing loading times you can look into an SSD boot drive (a 60 GB should be plenty for Windows 7 + Diablo 3 + Minecraft, but you'll still probably want a regular hard drive for general storage), but they take some research and effort to set up properly.
There's tons of good info on tomshardware.com about just about everything you might ever want to know about PC's and how to build them. As far as where to buy stuff, I'd recommend newegg.com as they tend to have extremely competitive prices and solid customer service.
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...and if you disagree with me, you're probably <insert random ad hominem attack here>.
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While Raidmax wouldn't normally be my first choice, I think that this power supply is a reasonable choice for this build. Particularly if you do the mail-in rebate, the price is good for the value. He could probably shave $20 from the cost of the PSU, but this PSU is partially modular, can potentially support crossfire, can probably run slower fan speed (due to less heat from the capacitors because a smaller portion of max wattage is being used) and is unlikely to be the source of any difficult-to-solve problems. To me, that makes it worth the extra cash.
Again, I'd go with 8 Gb of ram (currently about $35 on Newegg vs. $25 for 4Gb in the linked build) because the prices have dropped so much. The graphics card market has changed somewhat since that build, so I'd also consult here, which is current as of March 2012: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-3.html
You don't need that much CPU or graphics muscle for D3 or Minecraft though, so you can save a few bucks and/or get an SSD by going for cheaper alternatives if you want.
Forget the minimum specs as even the recommended specs for both D3 and Minecraft are relatively low. Get a CPU with 2-4 cores that run at 2.6 Ghz or better. Aim for 8 Gb of DDR3 RAM (preferably a 2-stick kit of 4Gb each to leave room to upgrade to 16 Gb when the price inevitably drops even lower, though 16 Gb is way overkill for current software).
Make sure you get a video card that's meant for gaming. It doesn't have to be top-of-the-line, but it shouldn't be for offices. If you buy a pre-built system without a video card, you *might* be able to add one, but it really depends on there being enough unused wattage on the power supply and most pre-built systems tend to cheap out on the PSU (which is a bad idea imho -- you should probably spend at least $60 on a PSU for a gaming machine and that's if you get a very good deal).
Unless you plan to overclock, just make sure your motherboard has any particular features you want (IE USB 3.0 if you want that, extra power through USB to charge your ipod faster, etc.) and you should be able to get a good one for $60ish. You should also be fine with a cheap case (again, if you want certain features like front USB 3.0 ports, that's where you should focus, but otherwise just go cheap) and you should be fine with the heatsink that comes with the CPU so long as you don't buy a bare CPU without one. If you do plan to overclock, that's a whole ball of wax that you'll need to do your own research on, but definitely ignore this paragraph in that case.
Other than that, if you want amazing loading times you can look into an SSD boot drive (a 60 GB should be plenty for Windows 7 + Diablo 3 + Minecraft, but you'll still probably want a regular hard drive for general storage), but they take some research and effort to set up properly.
There's tons of good info on tomshardware.com about just about everything you might ever want to know about PC's and how to build them. As far as where to buy stuff, I'd recommend newegg.com as they tend to have extremely competitive prices and solid customer service.