Absolute cheapest spec to play Starcraft 2 at average settings.

[sswats]

I'm currently building 4-6 basic systems for a bunch of kids to play World of warcraft and a bunch of other older games. Which themselves don't need too high a spec.

But just seeing if this system would be capable of playing the upcoming Starcraft 2. again at just playable settings, even at 1024x768 resolution. And if not what exactly is needed.

Thinking along the lines of

AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 240 2.80GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £46.99
Asus M2N68-AM SE2 Motherboard £36.99
1Gb 6400 DDR2 ~£15
XFX ATI Radeon HD 5450 512MB £39.99


I think the CPU should be fine. Ram upgrade can easily be done later when SC2 is released. its just the GPU. Next step up for the 5570 is £30 extra which is too much. any other alternatives at that price range which would be better for games, yet consume very little power so that the generic PSU's we'll get for them will manage.

 

[PermaBanned]

PC Minimum Requirements:
• Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1/Windows 7
• 2.2 Ghz Pentium IV or equivalent AMD Athlon processor
• 1 GB system RAM/1.5 GB for Vista and Windows 7
• 128 MB NVidia GeForce 6600 GT/ATI Radeon 9800 PRO video card
• 1024x768 minimum display resolution
• 4 GB free hard space (Beta)
• Broadband connection

Shouldn't be to hard... how about you tell us how much you would like to spend on each system?

Just a hint though, OCUK are a specialist enthusiast shop. They aren't very good at the budget end of things.

 

[Alex74]

For the graphics card, if we're on superbudget, I might consider something like the HD4670 (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-209-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1274). £20.00 more, but I've got one in my rig and it is very happy handling the starcraft 2 beta at 1280x1024.
Also it's a fantastic card for power usage.

If it's just blizzard games they intend to be playing, then HD5000 features aren't going to be that important. The low end do have some very impressive power consumption numbers, however (especially at idle).

I would worry more generally about the longevity of the rig you've specced, but on a budget i think you're wise to head for AM3 to give a base to build upon in a few months.

 

[sswats]

Budget is around £140-£150 for those bits (CPU, mobo, ram, GPU).
So if i were to get the 4670 I'd have to drop the CPU to comething like a sempron 140.

 

[PermaBanned]

Well if you're not bothered about upgrading...

E3200 - £35
Gigabyte G41 Motherboard (or similar) - £35
2GB DDR2 - £30

Then you've got £50 for the graphics card, something like a 4670 if you want new.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Budget is around £140-£150 for those bits (CPU, mobo, ram, GPU).
So if i were to get the 4670 I'd have to drop the CPU to comething like a sempron 140.

I would get the following:

AMD Athlon II 425 X3 ~ £54

Crucial 1GB DDR2 800MHz ~ £19

MSI 740GTM-P25 ~ £38

This has the SB710 southbridge.

Sapphire HD 4650 512MB DDR2 ~ £42

You may also want to add the following PSU:

OCZ StealthXStream ~ £25

The retailer I got the prices from also does free postage too.