Looking to play Starcraft 2

Floob

Floob

Floob

Associate
Joined
3 Jan 2008
Posts
115
Hi,

My current spec is *very* low, although it manages to play Starcraft2 on mostly 'High', but no Ultra. Plus if I have too many Zerg on the screen it does stutter/pause for a few seconds.

Otherwise I use my PC for browsing/ftp/Usenet/email/IRC - nothing strenuous and its fine for that.

So basically I'm looking for a bit of a newer spec that wont struggle with starcraft. I'd like a pre-built box as opposed to me sticking it together. I like the look of the configurator on the main page.

I don't really want to spend more than £500. Possible? (I'm assuming a small SSD boot disk is out of the question?)

Current spec is:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4800+
2GB RAM
Nvidia 8800GT
XP SP3

Thanks

Floob.
 
option 1 self build

1 x AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz (Socket FM2) APU Trinity Quad Core Processor (AD580KWOHJBOX) £99.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £71.99
1 x Toshiba SSD HG5D Series 60GB Solid State hard Drive - (THNSNH060GCST) £66.95
1 x Gigabyte F2A85XM-D3H AMD A85X Chipset (Socket FM2) DDR3 micro ATX Motherboard £61.99
1 x Adata XPG Gaming v2.0 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-15000C9 1866MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AX3U1866GC4G9B-DG2) £55.99
1 x BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W '80 Plus' Power Supply £54.95
1 x Zalman Z5 Plus Midi Tower Case - Black £52.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £494.80 (includes shipping : £10.00).



option 2

pre built,

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-315-OE&groupid=43&catid=2475&subcat=2485

Why You Should Buy This System
- AMD A10-5800K quad core CPU running at a swift 3.80GHz
- Epic GFX performance courtesy of the AMD intergrated graphics
- Precision built and cabled by Overclockers UK expert technicians
- 8 Hours stressed tested and quality controlled
- Dual Channel DDR3 memory for unlimited bandwidth
- Quad core processing for seamless multitasking
- Pre-installed with Windows 8 64 Bit

System Specification
- Case: BitFenix Merc Beta Tower Case - Black
- Power Supply: Corsair CX 430w PSU
- CPU: AMD A10-5800K Black Edition 3.80GHz Quad Core APU
- Motherboard: Asrock FM2A55M-DGS AMD A55 (Socket FM2) DDR3 Motherboard
- Cooler: Stock AMD CPU Cooler
- RAM: TeamGroup Elite 8GB (2x4GB) 1600MHz C11 DDR3 Dual Channel Kit
- Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache HDD
- Graphics Card: Intergrated AMD HD 7660D Graphics
- Sound: Onboard 7.1 Audio
- Optical Drive: OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter - Black
- Network: Asus USB-N10 WiFi 150Mbps Pen

£435.00 inc VAT
 
Last edited:
 
Or non "B" grade.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7850 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards with Tomb Raider & Bioshock PC Games £149.99
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £92.99
1 x Asus P8Z77-V LX Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £85.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020046-UK) £40.99
1 x Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CW) - Blue Light £37.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard III Windowed Gaming Case - Black £32.99
Total : £455.94 (includes shipping : £12.50).



Or.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7850 OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Cards with Tomb Raider & Bioshock PC Games £149.99
1 x Intel Core i3-3220 3.30GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £92.99
1 x Plextor M5S 128GB Solid State Drive - (PX-128M5S) £82.99
1 x ASRock B75 Pro3-M Intel B75 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £55.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 430W V2 '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020046-UK) £40.99
1 x Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U16000904G-2CW) - Blue Light £37.99
1 x Xigmatek Asgard III Windowed Gaming Case - Black £32.99
Total : £508.03 (includes shipping : £11.75).



But these are all self build.
 
Last edited:
zakblood said:
quote " I'd like a pre-built box as opposed to me sticking it together" end quote
Click to expand...

Just trying to let the guy know what he can get if he was to build it himself. I would much rather have my spec, than waste money on the Trinity build. It also offers the OP a better upgrade path. :p
 
I bought a laptop for £600 that can play SC2 very well (the sole purpose for buying it), so I would be gobsmacked if you couldn't get a decent desktop for £500 with a good dedicated GPU for £500.

For reference the following laptop spec gives me 1080p textures ultra, all else low an average of 200fps in 1v1, or 90-100 fps in 3v3 at peak army supply (no idea what higher settings will do, but I run campaign at high settings and no AA at about 80fps):

Nvidia 660M (~Desktop 550 Ti territory), 8GB RAM, i7 3610QM (equivelant to a low spec i5 desktop CPU)

I wish I knew more about current desktop hardware to help you out :(
 
Last edited:
Thanks for all your feedback. Looking at the prices I'm tempted to look at building my own - even if it was 1998 the last time I did it!

I'm thinking about with the £494.80 build by zakblood above.

I'd like 8GB, small SSD boot disk, but besides that just something that will run SC2 pretty well. I'll probably add extra budget to buy Windows 7.
 
Bacon? said:
I dont understand Zaks RAM choice when you can get this:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-017-AD&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1387

Faster RAM on the Trinity setup will increase the graphical performance nicely.
Click to expand...

+1. APUs love fast RAM.

I ran SC2 on an A8-3520M, overclocked to 2.4ghz with a 6620G and it can run the game fine on 1366x768 medium even with lots of units on screen. The A10 should perform much better, especially considering the resolution you're playing on.

It's well worth playing the game on widescreen however... ;).
 
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