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On August 18 2010 08:24 FragKrag wrote:
Hm I don't remember seeing SC2 benched on L3 vs No L3 so I can't comment on that, but I really can't recommend buying a dual core atm. Phenom II X2 is by no means a bad choice, I just like the Athlon II X3 more based on the benchmarks I've seen :p (you can try to unlock the Athlon II X3 as well)
Hi I just pondered this exact dilemma about 2 hours ago as I finally made my order. The stock Athlon has better performance than the Phenom but by average 550 and 555 BE´s are beasts compared to it when OC´d. Also I heard the Athlon doesn´t unlock that well and most 550´s do (hugely popular by enthusiasts), so I took the middle road and 550. I´m planning on upgrading more often in the future so I think it´s worth the risk as I can always get rid of the dual core after a few years...
BTW here´s my build, it should(?) run SC2 at 1920x1080 ULTRA quite effortlessly:
Cooler Master GX550W
ASROCK M3N78D
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1 TB
Radeon 5830 1 GT
Phenom II x2 550BE
A-Data 2x2 GT 1333mhz
+Fans&coolers
I already have a 24" monitor,headphones and other stuff and will use my brothers old pre2000 Antec case ( huge server case, super awesome  )
I know the mobo and memory aren´t quite at the level of the other stuff but I had to save money somewhere and can´t wait for replacements that are out of stock  But I´ll upgrade those if needed and got all the other stuff so cheap that I´m quite happy with what I got for around 500€
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SC2, nope, but the L3 cache makes a big difference in gaming apps:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2775/9
Note the 250 vs. 550BE. It's 3Ghz vs. 3.1Ghz, so basically same clock-rate. In the only GPU-limited game, Crysis, is the Athlon II remotely competitive (only 7% less FPS). Otherwise the PhII is comanding a 15-18% FPS advantage at the same clock.
http://techreport.com/articles.x/18448/6
Borderlands is a good balance between CPU/GPU loads, and again, the lack of cache really hurts the Athlon II. True, the Athlon II's are competitive with Kentsfield generation stuff, I'll give it that. However, the Kentsfield came out 3.5 years ago.
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United States11539 Posts
yet in those games the Athlon II X2 still offers completely playable framerates :/
More games are going to be threaded so unless you get lucky with your Phenom II X2, I don't think it will hold up as well as an Athlon II X3
Hwangjae: unless you got a magnificent deal on that HD 5830, you got ripped off
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Well this is my new pc build that can run ULTRA with 62+FPS on 1900X1200
AMD Athlon II X3 440 Processor (3 CPUs), ~3.0GHz
XFX 5770 1GB
4GB of Ram
500GB HD
ASUS M4A785-M
OCZ ModXstream 600W
This build costed me about $750 with the Antec 900 Case
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On August 18 2010 10:07 FragKrag wrote:
yet in those games the Athlon II X2 still offers completely playable framerates :/
More games are going to be threaded so unless you get lucky with your Phenom II X2, I don't think it will hold up as well as an Athlon II X3
Hwangjae: unless you got a magnificent deal on that HD 5830, you got ripped off
I got it at the price of HD 5770, the price of Nvidia GTX 460 still seems so high, couldn´t get one of those
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hey all,
I just picked up an almost complete, but outdated computer for FREE on craigslist.
It includes the following components:
Ultra Black Aluminus ATX Case with 550W Ultra power supply
2x 1GB Corsair DDR2 RAM
NVidia GeForce 7900 GS 256MB
i think its a pentium 4, not sure, where does it say what processor it is?
not sure of the motherboard either.
basically, all it needs is a harddrive. Is it worth using as is to play SC2, or should i try to upgrade some of the components, or just keep the case and maybe RAM and get new components? Ive got about a $400 budget.
Thanks in advance for advice
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if you're running a p4, your motherboard is probably ancient and you might not have a 775 socket, so you can't upgrade to a core2duo or quad. can you run cpu-z to find out what motherboard / socket you have and what processor you have?
will need a little more info about the computer before we can really decide if it's usable or not. However, your first upgrades (if you do have a 775 socket) would probably be a cpu upgrade and a video card upgrade, and some more ram maybe.
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ok i still have no idea what processor is there, but the mobo is NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI. This is a 775 socket...
Is there any way to tell what processor it is just by looking at it? I dont have a hard drive yet so i can't boot up the system i dont think. I am pretty much a noob when it comes to hardware.
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On August 19 2010 00:24 gerd1022 wrote:+ Show Spoiler +hey all,
I just picked up an almost complete, but outdated computer for FREE on craigslist.
It includes the following components:
Ultra Black Aluminus ATX Case with 550W Ultra power supply
2x 1GB Corsair DDR2 RAM
NVidia GeForce 7900 GS 256MB
i think its a pentium 4, not sure, where does it say what processor it is?
not sure of the motherboard either.
basically, all it needs is a harddrive. Is it worth using as is to play SC2, or should i try to upgrade some of the components, or just keep the case and maybe RAM and get new components? Ive got about a $400 budget.
Thanks in advance for advice
If I were you I'd sell everything except the case. With the money you''ll have you'll be able to buy an AM3 PC which should run SC2 on Ultra with no problem It's a better solution than upgrading the LGA775 PC.
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United States11539 Posts
I would expect your computer to run SC2 perfectly fine at low or medium. Save your money for a new computer, don't upgrade the LGA 775
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You can add mine to the list
Laptop
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 @ 2.1 GHz (2 core)
GPU: ATI Radeon Mobility HD 3650, 128 MB
RAM: 3GB
Setting: Low @ 1280x800 (it recommends medium)
OS: Win 7 Ultimate 32 bit
Can handle 1v1 on low (although framerate will not be playable in 200+200 fights). No 2v2
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This thread is quite possibly the most informative guide to buying a gaming computer for SC2 on the entire internet. Thanks alot.
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United States11539 Posts
3.5ghz phenom ii x4 =< 2.66ghz Nehalem
T______T;
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On September 17 2010 16:04 FragKrag wrote:
3.5ghz phenom ii x4 =< 2.66ghz Nehalem
T______T;
I'm assuming this has to do with AI coding, also assuming why on medium the cpu is still so bound. All i got form this test, is that you need to go i5-760 oc that suckker to 4Ghz and then your min frame rates might only be in the low 30's ! in the worst case with some serious graphic muscle, disable 2 cores and run it at 4.4-4.6Ghz!
I feel that this test should have also had a more typical load instead of the cluster fuck style she made there.
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United States11539 Posts
I agree, but I guess having worst case scenario isn't terrible :/
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CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 2.20ghz
GPU: NVIDIA 256MB DDR2
Resolution: 1440x900
RAM: 2GB DDR2
Setting: Low
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This test by tomshardware shows that not even with a high end i7 you get above 30fps at all times, that's ridiculous!
That's very sad :/
I just hope that Blizzard will patch in some real multi-core support, so we may have lag-free games in the future.
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A couple things -
1) They tested the i7 @ 3.06Ghz.
The better tech sites realized that CPU-bottlenecking is possible and OCed their i7's to more respectable 3.7Ghz or so. And even then, the CPU-bottlenecking remains a problem
2) They tested with 380 units. This is more relevant to custom/UMS gameplay, and less for ladder games. So again, as I've posted on other threads, judge each benchmark in its own context.
A good example is Guru3D's hilarious nVidia > ATi conclusions. Notice that they use the older 10.6 drivers (not 10.7) - but don't even bother emphasizing that in their conclusions. Please - and I can't emphasize this more, be diligent in recognizing that every website is benching the game differently and adjust your expectations accordingly.
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On September 18 2010 01:28 mav451 wrote:
A couple things -
1) They tested the i7 @ 3.06Ghz.
The better tech sites realized that CPU-bottlenecking is possible and OCed their i7's to more respectable 3.7Ghz or so. And even then, the CPU-bottlenecking remains a problem
2) They tested with 380 units. This is more relevant to custom/UMS gameplay, and less for ladder games. So again, as I've posted on other threads, judge each benchmark in its own context.
A good example is Guru3D's hilarious nVidia > ATi conclusions. Notice that they use the older 10.6 drivers (not 10.7) - but don't even bother emphasizing that in their conclusions. Please - and I can't emphasize this more, be diligent in recognizing that every website is benching the game differently and adjust your expectations accordingly.
What you say is true but it doesn't change the point that it is disappointing that SC2 doesn't run smoothly at ALL TIMES with a decent system. I'm not asking for ladder games, for UMS maps, 1v1 or 4v4, early game or late game or something else. I'm asking for always.
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EPT
