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When using this resource, please read FragKrag's opening post. The Tech Support forum regulars have helped create countless of desktop systems without any compensation. The least you can do is provide all of the information required for them to help you properly. |
Hey guys, looking for parts that will improve my performance in games (mainly sc2) and other than that i guess watching streams and browsing around the internet are the main uses im lokoing for.
So i guess to improve my sc2 performance is the main goal as in game pop ups keep popping up saying "your computer is slowing the game" or "try shutting other processes to improve performance" even when nothing else is running. it also lags to a degree that is pretty much unplayable when there is large battles and even in cutscenes in the campaign, despite playing on the lowest possible settings in everthing. I also always load up slower than my opponant.
My current hardware is...
NVIDEA GeForce 7300se
1GB Ram
Intel pentium 2.8GHz (not sure about this as two show up so i guess it may be duel core?)
and my screen resolution is 1024x768 according to www.screenresolution.org/
and i run on windows xp.
Ive never upgraded a computer before and am not sure if ive given all the detail that is required so if more is needed please ask and i will try to get it for you, for exapmle i have no idea what a heatsink is or how to find it =s )
My goals would be to play SC2 on ultra or high with no lag, but i have no idea what this is like pricewise and to be honest will probably play on low but i am using ultra as a benchmark as im guessing if it can play ultra with no lag, playing it on low or medium will be fantastic. But as i have no idea if this is the way things work or if this adds to the price signifigantly i would be very happy playing on lowest (online and campaign) with no problems.
As for price, no real limit but id rather have the basics to play on lowest possible settings with no problems than pay much extra, so no real limit but would appreciate rough estimates as to how much extra it would cost to go with hardware that would handel ultra with no problems.
For reference im in europe.
Thanks alot
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Was wondering if someone could build me a gaming computer in a 600-700 budget nothing amazing but able to play starcraft 2 and mw2. This should include an OS as I don't have one. Already have a monitor though so no need for one.
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i dont think i can do that, cause my power supply only has one connector, instead of two
so that means its not powerful enough, right?
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On August 02 2010 04:59 Nfi wrote:
Was wondering if someone could build me a gaming computer in a 600-700 budget nothing amazing but able to play starcraft 2 and mw2. This should include an OS as I don't have one. Already have a monitor though so no need for one.
My set up came out to 750 and should be able to run ultra on 1920x1080
Phenom ii x4
gtx 460 1gb
4gb gskill ripjaws ram
antec 550w psu
antec 300 case
1tb spinpoint f3
ASUS M4A87TD/USB3 AM3 AMD 870 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 AMD Motherboard
I imagine if you got a cheaper processor, went with the 768mb 460 (or a cheaper card) as well as a cheaper mobo this build could be in the 600 range
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Pure.Calm: First off, please ID your processor more specifically. It might be a dual-core, but it might just be an older Pentium with hyperthreading and actually only one physical core. You can just run something like cpu-z. I'm guessing that your RAM is most likely DDR2, but you should check that to be sure. Regardless, your graphics card is the main culprit at the moment. Fortunately, the 7300 se seems to be connected with PCI-Express and not the older AGP standard, so you have more options for a replacement.
Playing on high settings with no lag might require an entirely new system in the 500 USD range, even with that low resolution. An incremental upgrade to play smoothly on medium or low would just require a budget graphics card (~55 USD) and probably another 1 GB of DDR2 RAM (~25 USD). Hopefully the CPU won't need upgrading, but I'm not sure about that.
This is a decent tier list for ranking graphics cards. Your card isn't listed, but it's weaker than a 7300 LE. Anything above is probably an upgrade, so you can get whatever cheap card you find that doesn't require an extra power connector. Something like a 8600 GT or a HD4650 should be more than enough for medium at those resolutions.
s2pid_loser: maybe the PSU is powerful enough, maybe (probably?) not. You can try the HD 5770 instead, which takes less power for roughly the same performance.
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On August 02 2010 05:04 s2pid_loser wrote:
i dont think i can do that, cause my power supply only has one connector, instead of two
so that means its not powerful enough, right?
The 6 pin connector that your PSU has, you connect to the gfx card. Then you mentioned a two molex -> one 6 pin adapter that your gfx card came packaged with. That is the second 6 pin connection to your gfx card if I'm not mistaken.
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United States1631 Posts
So the 4870's power connectors looks something like this, but your power supply only has 1x 6pin connector?
If that's the case your 4870 should have come with a molex power adapter, where you connect 2 molexes to power the 2nd 6pin connector.
Can you check the wattage, brand, and 12v rails on your power supply? Maybe then we can tell you if it's powerful enough to run the card.
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Hey, am looking to upgrading my HP notebook's graphics card. Am wondering if this is possible or even worth it, i got a $200 budget specs are:
+ Show Spoiler +
Operating system
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Processor
Intel Core2 Duo Processor T6600
Processor speed
2.20GHz
Memory
4096MB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm); max. supported=8192MB
Accessible memory slots
2
Display
17.3" Diagonal HD+ High-Definition HP LED BrightView Widescreen Display (1600 x 900)
Video graphics
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD (shared) with up to 1759MB total available graphics memory
Audio
Altec Lansing
Primary CD/DVD drive
LightScribe SuperMulti 8x DVD±R/RW with Double Layer Support
Hard drive
320GB(5400RPM) Hard Drive(SATA)
Networking
Integrated 10/100Base-T Ethernet LAN(RJ-4
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Generally, it's not possible to upgrade notebook GPU's
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Laptop graphics are not upgradable**, even if you had a discrete graphics card there to replace. Your laptop unfortunately has some integrated graphics on the motherboard.
**Well, some external laptop graphics solutions do exist, but they're something like $300 for the performance of a $60 desktop card and have to be connected to an external monitor. They're connected to the laptop through the ExpressCard slot, which is just one PCI-E lane of connectivity.
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On August 02 2010 01:32 R04R wrote:remind? more like inform  keep in mind we're mostly building towards sc2 specs. you probably should have mentioned this was for more than sc2 in your original post if you didn't want flak on the overspec'd new pc you're building.
ah it seems I did not copy that part from the original thread on AT my bad, I should probably post here about my general performance woes with SC2 as well as everyone seems to think this system is fine and well its not.
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Ok... I've been putting off making this post, but for all the shopping I've done, I just can't make a decision.
I have a $1,200 budget, give or take maybe $100-$200 more if I decide to really splurge.
I want a legit gaming machine, but my only real requirement is that it run SC2 smoothly at the highest settings.
Additionally, I have never built a computer before. I've installed a sound card, I've installed video cards, I've upgraded RAM, but I've never built a PC from the ground up. Because of this, I'm not so sure that I want to... How hard is it? What are the chances of me screwing up some important component? And how the hell am I supposed to install Windows if I don't have Windows?
So here's my dilemma: I want a new machine. I know that building it myself would save me some money, but I'm not completely confident in my ability to do so. I could really use some advice on this point.
That said, I would also really appreciate recommendations from the gurus. Here's what I'm working with:
Budget: $1200. Maybe up to $1500 if I decide to go hog-wild. No more than that, though.
Resolution: 1024x768, but it'd be nice knowing I have the flexibility to buy a slightly bigger monitor. Nothing crazy, though.
Use: Mostly gaming.
Upgrade Cycle: Probably pretty long since SC2 is likely the only taxing game I'll likely be playing for the next couple of years. (So let's say 2 years)
When to build (or maybe order prebuilt): ASAP. I want it NAUUUU!
Overclocking? Probably not... This is something I've never done before. If it's not too difficult/dangerous to my system, though, I'm not against it. For all practical purposes, though, I wouldn't bother unless I had to to get more SC2 performance
Where Am I shopping: Newegg most likely
Operating System? Windows 7 Pl0x. (Yea, I'd have to buy it)
Second GPU? SLI? Crossfire? To this I say, "lulz I dunno". Do I need this stuff?
tl;dr
Should I try building this myself?
If yes: Recommendations/Advice would be huuugely appreciated.
If no: Any pointers on where to shop for pre-built systems would make me a very happy panda.
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United States1631 Posts
Yeah, at first it seems like a big task to tackle, building a PC from the ground up. Even for me all I had to do was read the instructions that came with the items you bought. After that it was really easy, just make sure you don't misread or skip any steps. Since you've replaced parts in your CPU before, it should be even easier since you have a gist of what everything looks like.
The next part is being able to find compatible parts, which may take awhile if you don't look at product specs carefully.
With a $1200 budget only needing to fill a 1024x768 screen, you'll get 100 fps all the time ez.
With that budget you're looking at either an i7 or a 6-core AMD processor. For graphics I'd say $300-400 range which would run ultra on every game for the next 2 years, bar something like the next-gen Crysis.
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Hi guys, I have a question that I've tried to answer for myself, but couldn't.
So the Intel GMA HD GPU is an integrated card, which means that it doesn't have its own dedicated memory, so does this mean that the performance of the GPU depends on the CPU that you use it with? Will the Intel HD work better on a machine that has an i5 instead of an i3?
If so, how does it compare against the ATI Radeon HD 5450? I've seen various benchmark lists, and they place the 5450 ahead of the Intel HD, but they don't mention anything more specific about the Intel card itself.
This would suggest that either the Intel HD is not dependent on the CPU, which would answer my first question, or that the difference isn't enough to push it past the 5450.
From the SC2 Computer Thread, though, I remember it talking about the Intel HD suggesting that it actually is dependent on the CPU:
Some of the more common ones that are under the system requirements:
NVIDIA GeForce 6150, 6200, 7150, 8300, 8400
ATI Radeon Xpress 200, 1150, 1250, X1050, 8500-9600, X300-600
All Intel GMA adapters minus the one in the i3/i5 chips. Those tend to run better but we don't know how much.
So does that mean that if I use Intel HD with an i3 or i5, then it can run SC2 (and, therefore, the 5450 can run it as well)?
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MrBitter: With that kind of budget, I would recommend that you allocate $200 of it to buy a new monitor. You should have enough left to buy components that can play at a resolution like 1920x1080.
DTK-m2: In my understanding, i3 (-5xx) or i5 (-6xx) should not make a difference in how fast the integrated graphics can access the main memory. Memory access speed should be dependent on the front bus speed I think, which should be the same at stock conditions for those processors. That said, the i5-661 integrated graphics is slightly better than the other integrated graphics just because it is clocked at 900 MHz while the integrated graphics for the other processors are clocked at 733 MHz.
Architecturally, the i3 and i5 (-6xx but not -7xx) are the same processor design, Clarkdale. The difference is just the clock speed of the processor, and the integrated graphics clock speed of the i5-661. Rather than put the northbridge controller and integrated graphics chips on the motherboard, these processors include them on the same package as the CPU.+ Show Spoiler [Clarkdale block diagram] +
But performance should be pretty weak regardless. The comment made in the computer thread refers to the fact that there exist previous Intel GMA adapters. The Intel GMA 3100 and the 4500 are the most recent prior to the integrated Intel graphics on the i3 and i5 dual core processors. Those integrated graphics are even worse than the new ones.
The Radeon HD 5450 is also pretty weak, but it should be fine playing on lowest settings. As you read, the Intel HD integrated is worse than that.
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United States8477 Posts
I'm trying to build a computer that can run sc2 on ultra. I have a $800 budget including monitor but not including OS. This is what I have so far.
Case-Antec 300 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower $60
CPU- i3-530 $100
Motherboard - GIGABYTE GA-P55-USB3 $120
PSU - OCZ Fatal1ty OCZ550FTY 550W ATX12V v2.2 $45
HD - WD Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb $56
Memory - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 $98
GPU- Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 $140
Monitor-Hanns·G HW-191APB Black 19" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor $120
Total: $739
So my questions are can this run sc2 well and on what settings? Can i swap out a part for a similar part that's better for the price? Is everything compatible? Also, if i plan to overclock should I get a fan and if so which one? Is it worth it to upgrade to a IDE hard drive?
Also what's the diff between these two:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231277&cm_re=gskill_ddr3-_-20-231-277-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231193&cm_re=gskill_ddr3-_-20-231-193-_-Product
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United States1631 Posts
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On August 02 2010 12:05 DTK-m2 wrote:Hi guys, I have a question that I've tried to answer for myself, but couldn't. So the Intel GMA HD GPU is an integrated card, which means that it doesn't have its own dedicated memory, so does this mean that the performance of the GPU depends on the CPU that you use it with? Will the Intel HD work better on a machine that has an i5 instead of an i3? If so, how does it compare against the ATI Radeon HD 5450? I've seen various benchmark lists, and they place the 5450 ahead of the Intel HD, but they don't mention anything more specific about the Intel card itself. This would suggest that either the Intel HD is not dependent on the CPU, which would answer my first question, or that the difference isn't enough to push it past the 5450. From the SC2 Computer Thread, though, I remember it talking about the Intel HD suggesting that it actually is dependent on the CPU: Show nested quote +Some of the more common ones that are under the system requirements:
NVIDIA GeForce 6150, 6200, 7150, 8300, 8400
ATI Radeon Xpress 200, 1150, 1250, X1050, 8500-9600, X300-600
All Intel GMA adapters minus the one in the i3/i5 chips. Those tend to run better but we don't know how much. So does that mean that if I use Intel HD with an i3 or i5, then it can run SC2 (and, therefore, the 5450 can run it as well)?
A certain i5 (the 661 I believe), has a higher clocked gpu, but it really wouldn't make much of a difference. The HD 5450 should outperform it on everything, though I don't know why you wouldn't spend a bit more to get an HD 4670 or an HD 5570.
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Hi, so I'm customizing a dell desktop (I'm a pretty big computer noob), and had 3 questions. Note: honestly this computer is mostly for school/general purpose stuff, maybe occasional gaming.
1) I can upgrade to an i5-670 or an i7-860 for about the same price. I figured I would just go for the i7, or is the i5 better for what I'm using the computer for?
2) I am planning to upgrade the graphics card to 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 330; however, I noted it only has 1DVI + 1DP. Will I still be able to hook up dual monitors? I will probably just get a single monitor but I was just wondering in case. There is also the option to upgrade to dual 256MB ATI Radeon HD 3450, or dual 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4550. All 3 upgrades are within similar price range. Is there any advantage of having dual 512MB vs 1 1GB?
3) I'm going to have some RESnet internet at school (but I know nothing about it). I figure I will need to buy a router so I can get internet on my laptop as well. The desktop doesn't come with a wireless lan but I can upgrade to 1394 FW Controller Card + Serial Port Adapter. I figured this is useful to have or is it useless?
Thank you very much. I apologize if some questions sound lame/retarded.
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1. i7 860 is the better choice no matter what you are doing.
2. All of the cards suck, but with the GT 330, you will need a DP Monitor (expensive) or a DP to DVI ACTIVE converter to use dual monitors. I would suggest against getting dual 3450s or 4550s since they are subpar cards anyways.
What's keeping you from buying your own card? An HD 4670 would serve your purposes well.
3. In order to use wireless internet, you need a wireless adapter. Not sure what the rest is. A router provides a signal that the adapter connects to, and as far as I know, you don't need one to connect to the school's wireless. (in fact, UCSB bans routers)
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EPT![[image loading]](http://techreport.com/r.x/clarkdale/h55-block.png)
