God-The-RapistV2.0
So with Diablo 3 on the way and it having a real money auction house I actually want to make a go at playing a video game for profit.
Unless you live in China and can live off of about $25/week I don't recommend it. (And for reference, that's less money than you'd earn working at the federal minimum wage for 4 hours in the USA.)
God-The-RapistV2.0
Major problem? My PC hasn't been upgraded since... huh... 2005? Yeah somewhere around there. It's still got a Pentium D in it.
That's not necessarily a problem for your stated endeavor. A Pentium D meets the game's stated requirements.
God-The-RapistV2.0
I need a new computer obviously. It's been a long time since I've had my hands on the inside of a PC and I'm feeling a little more than intimidated. What I would love would be to have a build that is directly focused around playing Diablo 3 at max settings.
If you want to play Diablo 3 for enjoyment then that make sense. If you want to play with the intention of turning a profit then you actually don't want to run it at max settings. But that's neither here nor there. Sure, building a system to play Diablo 3 on max settings is much like building a system to play any other game on max settings. Get a reasonably fast processor, a suitable amount of RAM, and the most expensive graphics card you can afford. In particular, you'll want the fastest dual-core CPU you can afford. Don't "upgrade" to a slower-clocked quad-core, the extra cores won't do squat for you when the game is running. Also, 4-6GB of RAM is all you need. Don't pay extra for more than that, the game can only address up to 2GB anyways because of limitations in the operating system. When picking a graphics card, look at benchmarks of performance vs price. Blizzard lists their recommended cards as "NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 512 MB or ATi Radeon HD 4870 512 MB" so start there, but if you can afford it and the difference in performance is worth it then get a better card. The graphics card will really make the biggest difference in how well your system handles the game.
God-The-RapistV2.0
But honestly I have no idea where to start and would even consider just buying a prebuilt though I'm adverse to that as I am trying to do this as cheaply as possible.
Despite the pervasive myths, it is actually difficult to build a computer for less money than simply buying a prebuilt system. Most of the cost savings in building your own computer comes from re-using old parts. If you're buying everything and starting from scratch it will usually cost you just as much or more than having someone else build it for you.
