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On November 15 2011 12:25 skyR wrote:Show nested quote +On November 15 2011 10:54 HarryHood wrote:+ Show Spoiler +Hey guys
I have a few hundred bucks to upgrade my computer, mostly just to be able to increase my graphics settings in games like Skyrim and BF3. The problem is I'm not that good at all this stuff so I was hoping somebody could recomend the most cost efficient upgrades to my current system, which is listed below:
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 820
GPU: ATI Radeon 5770 1gig
Motherboard: Gateway RS780
RAM: DDR2 6gig How much is a few hundred dollars? If you play at 1080p, you probably want to upgrade to least a Radeon HD6870 (~$170) which most likely requires you to upgrade your power supply as well to something of higher power and higher quality than what's provided with your prebuilt such as the CX500V2 or Antec Neo Eco 520 or XFX Core Edition 450.
I'd say I have about $250 to spend. I already had to upgrade the PSU when i got the 5770 so I have a ModXtream PRO 700W.
So you think the GPU is the main part to upgrade, rather than the mobo or the CPU?
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On November 15 2011 14:46 HarryHood wrote:+ Show Spoiler +On November 15 2011 12:25 skyR wrote:Show nested quote +On November 15 2011 10:54 HarryHood wrote:+ Show Spoiler +Hey guys
I have a few hundred bucks to upgrade my computer, mostly just to be able to increase my graphics settings in games like Skyrim and BF3. The problem is I'm not that good at all this stuff so I was hoping somebody could recomend the most cost efficient upgrades to my current system, which is listed below:
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 820
GPU: ATI Radeon 5770 1gig
Motherboard: Gateway RS780
RAM: DDR2 6gig How much is a few hundred dollars? If you play at 1080p, you probably want to upgrade to least a Radeon HD6870 (~$170) which most likely requires you to upgrade your power supply as well to something of higher power and higher quality than what's provided with your prebuilt such as the CX500V2 or Antec Neo Eco 520 or XFX Core Edition 450. I'd say I have about $250 to spend. I already had to upgrade the PSU when i got the 5770 so I have a ModXtream PRO 700W. So you think the GPU is the main part to upgrade, rather than the mobo or the CPU?
Your power supply is fine than, quite overkill though and not the best choice either but what's done is done.
Phenom II X4 820 is mediocre and $250 isn't enough for a worthwhile processor + motherboard + DDR3 upgrade, at least imo. You'll just be getting a dual core Sandybridge which is more of a side grade really, it'll give you better performance in CPU intensive games (Starcraft II and Skyrim) but more or less the same performance in GPU intensive games (Battlefield 3).
I'd suggest a GTX 560 Ti which is about $230 or a Radeon HD6870 which is about $170. You can see the difference between the 6870 and your 5770 here: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/290?vs=296
And the difference between the 5770 and GTX 560 Ti: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/330?vs=296
I'd probably hold off upgrading until early next year when the Radeon HD7000 and GTX 600 series along with Intel's Ivybridge processors are released.
Like I said, If you don't mind having a one year warranty provided by Cyberpower instead of the longer (three, five, etc) warranty provided by the manufacturers and you aren't picky about the parts than the 2600k + 6850 prebuilt is a reasonable purchase since making that same configuration right now costs around $1000.
The Radeon HD6670 isn't that great of a card, especially if you want reasonably high settings at 1080p. And not to mention that prebuilt comes with a 2500k and a H61 motherboard whereas the other one is a 2600k on a Z68 which actually will allow you to overclock.
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ok, i think i will go for the 2600k+6850, I will be able to play starcraft 2 smoothly on ultra, right? I can't find any review of the 6850 on starcraft 2...only Youtube videos...but no more information and not maxed armies.
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thank you so much skyR 
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Hi TL, I was wondering if you could help me make a decision here. I have a friend who wants to sell me this computer for around $300:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor BX80562Q6600
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017
SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100283VX-2L Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102898
4 GB RAM (DDR2)
ENERMAX MODU82+ EMD625AWT 625W ATX12V Ver.2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Compatible w/Core i7 Modular Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817194027
3rd party cooler
Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129066
320gb HD
ASUS P5K DELUXE/WIFI-AP LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131182
I can ask for any further specifications on the computer. I hope this is enough information as I really do not know much about computer hardware. If it matters, I'd like to work with around a $400 budget, but I can easily get the keyboard, OS and monitor for free. I also don't plan on upgrading for a few (2-3) years at least.
I would like to know if this would be an acceptable computer for streaming at moderate quality, if this would be able to reliably play games/emulate for the next year, maybe two, at a decent quality, and if this would remain a good deal at around Christmas (Late December). I'm not that interested in quality, but I do want more than 20 FPS on very low settings on Skyrim during character creation, because that's what I'm getting right now (It's pretty terrible). I'd be fine playing on low to medium settings for most games.
Any help is greatly appreciated!
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Sure, if it's a friend, I'd take it for $300 if you need a new computer.
Q6600 is pretty ancient, but still okay for most things. For low-quality streaming of most games, it will work. That's also since it's a chip that can generally be overclocked well, and it's coming with an aftermarket cooler and a sufficient motherboard for overclocking.
vs. i3-2100 (modern dual core with hyperthreading, costing about $115 by itself; needing a ~$50+ motherboard and $20+ RAM to support it)
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/53?vs=289
The power supply, case, hard drive, optical drive, and video card are arguably worth $300 by themselves, though that's being a bit generous.
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On November 15 2011 16:33 Ryrk wrote:Hi TL, I was wondering if you could help me make a decision here. I have a friend who wants to sell me this computer for around $300: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor BX80562Q6600 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100283VX-2L Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168141028984 GB RAM (DDR2) ENERMAX MODU82+ EMD625AWT 625W ATX12V Ver.2.3 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Compatible w/Core i7 Modular Active PFC Power Supply http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168171940273rd party cooler Antec Three Hundred Illusion Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129066320gb HD ASUS P5K DELUXE/WIFI-AP LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131182I can ask for any further specifications on the computer. I hope this is enough information as I really do not know much about computer hardware. If it matters, I'd like to work with around a $400 budget, but I can easily get the keyboard, OS and monitor for free. I also don't plan on upgrading for a few (2-3) years at least. I would like to know if this would be an acceptable computer for streaming at moderate quality, if this would be able to reliably play games/emulate for the next year, maybe two, at a decent quality, and if this would remain a good deal at around Christmas (Late December). I'm not that interested in quality, but I do want more than 20 FPS on very low settings on Skyrim during character creation, because that's what I'm getting right now (It's pretty terrible). I'd be fine playing on low to medium settings for most games. Any help is greatly appreciated!
I personally disagree with Myrm, I don't think it's an acceptable deal. Your friend should be giving YOU the good deal. The CPU is outdated like he said and barely holds it own in current gen games - I think it will be pretty awful a year or two from now which is what you're hoping for. The graphics card is ok/decent, but isn't mindblowing. The computer is already used and won't be upgradeable (can't upgrade RAM or CPU really). For streaming, do you mean watching streams? If so, then yes, it's perfectly acceptable for that, but not if you mean streaming yourself playing games or something else.
Instead of spending $300 on used, dated hardware, why not just build yourself a new rig with the $400 budget you have. You could get a much more decent setup, especially since you don't need an OS.
If you don't mind hardware used at all and don't care about warranties and stuff, yeah, it might be decent since you could salvage some parts (case, PSU, GPU, and optical drive). But I hate using old/other people's HDDs, the RAM isn't transferable to a new build, dead socket, old CPU...
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I just meant that a friend is less likely to pawn off stuff that's going to stop working the next day, and would probably provide assistance if something goes wrong.
Pricing/value is taking into account not being able to purchase hard drives at reasonable prices now and also the lower effort and time required to build (maybe significant for somebody who "really do[es] not know much about computer hardware). I was also assuming streaming meant streaming yourself playing games.
If $400 requires buying an OS and a hard drive, there's not really reasonable budget left for much of anything, much less getting stuff like an HD 5770. If you already have an OS, then building your own becomes a good alternative so long as you don't need to stream yourself playing games (what was the correct interpretation on that?).
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Thanks for the suggestions so far! I really appreciate them.
I meant to stream myself playing games. I usually play League of Legends, but I might also stream myself playing Stepmania, and possibly some Gamecube games if I can. I apologize for not originally clarifying.
If the computer is not good enough to stream games, would I be able to if I built my own on a $400 budget? I would be able to get assistance for building the computer, so I don't think that would be a huge problem.
Also, I plan to do this hopefully around Christmas. Should I expect prices to rise, fall or stay the same?
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Wow, 8GB RAM is so cheap now! Is it worth the upgrade from 4GB?
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On November 15 2011 17:41 Myrmidon wrote:
I just meant that a friend is less likely to pawn off stuff that's going to stop working the next day, and would probably provide assistance if something goes wrong.
Pricing/value is taking into account not being able to purchase hard drives at reasonable prices now and also the lower effort and time required to build (maybe significant for somebody who "really do[es] not know much about computer hardware). I was also assuming streaming meant streaming yourself playing games.
If $400 requires buying an OS and a hard drive, there's not really reasonable budget left for much of anything, much less getting stuff like an HD 5770. If you already have an OS, then building your own becomes a good alternative so long as you don't need to stream yourself playing games (what was the correct interpretation on that?).
Yeah, I just am personally wary of buying used, dated hardware for anything more than absolute basic tasks. Since he said he wants this computer to play games a year from now, possibly even two.... I just think it's a poor investment of $300. One of the best thing about buying super cheap computers prebuilt or from someone else used is that they come with an OS, but since he can get one free himself, it takes out one of the biggest factors.
I wasn't really considering HDD prices I guess. Still having problems adjusting my price values from those. Still, the older/more used a HDD is, the closer and closer it gets to failing...
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5930 Posts
On November 15 2011 17:57 Path wrote:
Wow, 8GB RAM is so cheap now! Is it worth the upgrade from 4GB?
Its like $10 difference. There really isn't a reason not to.
On November 15 2011 17:48 Ryrk wrote:
Thanks for the suggestions so far! I really appreciate them.
I meant to stream myself playing games. I usually play League of Legends, but I might also stream myself playing Stepmania, and possibly some Gamecube games if I can. I apologize for not originally clarifying.
If the computer is not good enough to stream games, would I be able to if I built my own on a $400 budget? I would be able to get assistance for building the computer, so I don't think that would be a huge problem.
Also, I plan to do this hopefully around Christmas. Should I expect prices to rise, fall or stay the same?
LoL, Starcraft 2, and Stepmania will be playable with the system your friend wants to give you. Gamecube games on Dolphin will probably run quite poorly however.
With $400, you can't honestly do much with it. Unless there are some mad Christmas/Black Friday deals but don't count on it. If you save $600, you can start cooking with gas so to speak.
I wasn't really considering HDD prices I guess. Still having problems adjusting my price values from those. Still, the older/more used a HDD is, the closer and closer it gets to failing...
From personal experience and advice from server janitors, hard disks tend to die extremely early in their life span (say 2 weeks) or keep on trucking for a stupid length of time. The hard disk he's probably going to get is really slow compared to our modern monsters but I doubt it'll die from natural causes.
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On November 15 2011 17:57 Path wrote:
Wow, 8GB RAM is so cheap now! Is it worth the upgrade from 4GB?
For a new computer build with a decent budget it's a reasonable choice.
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On November 15 2011 18:06 Womwomwom wrote:Show nested quote +On November 15 2011 17:57 Path wrote:
Wow, 8GB RAM is so cheap now! Is it worth the upgrade from 4GB? Its like $10 difference. There really isn't a reason not to. Show nested quote +On November 15 2011 17:48 Ryrk wrote:
Thanks for the suggestions so far! I really appreciate them.
I meant to stream myself playing games. I usually play League of Legends, but I might also stream myself playing Stepmania, and possibly some Gamecube games if I can. I apologize for not originally clarifying.
If the computer is not good enough to stream games, would I be able to if I built my own on a $400 budget? I would be able to get assistance for building the computer, so I don't think that would be a huge problem.
Also, I plan to do this hopefully around Christmas. Should I expect prices to rise, fall or stay the same? LoL, Starcraft 2, and Stepmania will be playable with the system your friend wants to give you. Gamecube games on Dolphin will probably run quite poorly however. With $400, you can't honestly do much with it. Unless there are some mad Christmas/Black Friday deals but don't count on it. If you save $600, you can start cooking with gas so to speak. Show nested quote +I wasn't really considering HDD prices I guess. Still having problems adjusting my price values from those. Still, the older/more used a HDD is, the closer and closer it gets to failing... From personal experience and advice from server janitors, hard disks tend to die extremely early in their life span (say 2 weeks) or keep on trucking for a stupid length of time. The hard disk he's probably going to get is really slow compared to our modern monsters but I doubt it'll die from natural causes.
I have also had similar experiences with hard drives, but still, it does have a useful lifespan which gets shorter the more and more it's in use...
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So I finally got money for a new comp.
I haven't upgraded my PC for like seven years, and don't know much about new hardware. So keep this in mind.
Here's the build I made quickly:
Intel i5-650 3.2G 4M LGA1156
Kingston Hyper X 8GB 1600MHZ DDR3
Asus S1156 P55 DDR3 USB3.0 SATA6 ATX
...and some GPU for ~170€, any suggestions?(1680x1050)
Now I'm not sure about the CPU, I looked at some performance charts and it was way lower than some cheaper and older socket processors. Any better ideas for around 170€? Gaming performance is all I care about. Thanks in advance.
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On November 15 2011 12:20 skyR wrote:Show nested quote +On November 15 2011 11:11 MicroMarine wrote:+ Show Spoiler +Hey guys, have some questions here. First off, since it's nearing the holidays (well, black friday and cyber monday), I know there will be some deals here and there. Should I build a custom gaming build or go with a gaming laptop? I've found some nice laptops on sites that fit my budget of ~500. I want to use my machine for gaming on SC2 and more graphic intensive games like BF3 or MW3 (Obviously upgrades are possible). I want SC2 to run on higher settings and other games slightly high without lagging. I also need it for video editing classes, streaming, etc. I might think of overclocking, but as of now, probably not. If I were to go a desktop build, here would be my plan: Intel Pentium G840 - 85$ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116398&Tpk=Intel Pentium G840BIOSTAR H61MLC - 55$ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138340Sapphire Radeon HD 6770 1GB DDR5 - 120$ (100 after rebate) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102941Pareema 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 - 22 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820576003Xigmatek ASGARD- 40$ (30 after rebate) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811815004CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2 430W- 45$ (35 after rebate) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139026&Tpk=corsair 430wSAMSUNG CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-222AB - OEM -15$ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151233TOTAL WITHOUT REBATES: About 387 (Not counting the hard drives of course) TOTAL WITH REBATES: About 347 (Not counting hard drives) There we go. A few questions though. I haven't picked out a hard drive because of its overpricing. Does anyone know a lower priced at least 500GB hard drive? Also will the power supply handle the 6770? Does everything check out? And also since the final pricing is a bit low (well you can add on 100 for the hard drives), is there anything I can add to make it better while staying in budget? I have an OS and a monitor by the way. And by the way as for the gaming laptop I'm looking at one with a GTX 260m, 6gb RAM, and 2.53 dual processor. Which one works better (I want to be mobile with gaming, but desktops work as well). Prices may not be current because of such of the flooding (stupid hard drives -.-) and may drop because of the holidays :D Thanks for reviewing. Pentium G840 and H61 is not capable of overclocking. You need to decide whether you are overclocking or not upfront because only P67 / Z68 motherboards allow for overclocking and only K suffix processors such as the core i5 2500k have an unlocked multiplier for overclocking. You'll need a quad core for a smooth and decent streaming experience since games use two cores (some use more) so... this leaves you no cores for encoding and everything else. Yes, the power supply is overkill for the listed configuration. There's not any significant upgrade that will keep you within your budget with 500GB HDDs being ~$100. There won't be any $60 1TB HDD sales during Black Friday or Cyber Monday - I can guarantee you this. You also did not specify what resolution you play at. I suggest you save up more.
My is it crowded in this thread o0. Anyway, thanks for the help. I play at 1920x1080 (current monitor) or a different monitor with a resolution less then this but I can't recall it. Do you know any decent quad cores for around that price (maybe higher?), since my budget is a bit over 500. If I tone down my power supply a bit maybe that will give me some extra money too. As for the HDDs, I think I'll just get the cheapest one I can find.
EDIT: Well I found this:
AMD Athlon II X3 450 Rana 3.2GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Desktop Processor ADX450WFGMBOX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103886
78$
Yes, I hear AMD processors lack power. You can unlock cores here, correct? If I get this, then I plan on doing that. Do you guys like this processor?
Because of this should I get the laptop? I do want to stream, yes, but couldn't I manage a stream with 2 cores (I can on my 2 core computer, though it's a bit laggy since my processor speed sucks and my graphics card sucks)? Why does sc2 use 2 cores? It seems to work fine when I set affinity to SC2
Thanks again skyR
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On November 15 2011 20:17 MicroMarine wrote:Show nested quote +On November 15 2011 12:20 skyR wrote:On November 15 2011 11:11 MicroMarine wrote:+ Show Spoiler +Hey guys, have some questions here. First off, since it's nearing the holidays (well, black friday and cyber monday), I know there will be some deals here and there. Should I build a custom gaming build or go with a gaming laptop? I've found some nice laptops on sites that fit my budget of ~500. I want to use my machine for gaming on SC2 and more graphic intensive games like BF3 or MW3 (Obviously upgrades are possible). I want SC2 to run on higher settings and other games slightly high without lagging. I also need it for video editing classes, streaming, etc. I might think of overclocking, but as of now, probably not. If I were to go a desktop build, here would be my plan: Intel Pentium G840 - 85$ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116398&Tpk=Intel Pentium G840BIOSTAR H61MLC - 55$ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138340Sapphire Radeon HD 6770 1GB DDR5 - 120$ (100 after rebate) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102941Pareema 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 - 22 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820576003Xigmatek ASGARD- 40$ (30 after rebate) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811815004CORSAIR Builder Series CX430 V2 430W- 45$ (35 after rebate) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139026&Tpk=corsair 430wSAMSUNG CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-222AB - OEM -15$ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151233TOTAL WITHOUT REBATES: About 387 (Not counting the hard drives of course) TOTAL WITH REBATES: About 347 (Not counting hard drives) There we go. A few questions though. I haven't picked out a hard drive because of its overpricing. Does anyone know a lower priced at least 500GB hard drive? Also will the power supply handle the 6770? Does everything check out? And also since the final pricing is a bit low (well you can add on 100 for the hard drives), is there anything I can add to make it better while staying in budget? I have an OS and a monitor by the way. And by the way as for the gaming laptop I'm looking at one with a GTX 260m, 6gb RAM, and 2.53 dual processor. Which one works better (I want to be mobile with gaming, but desktops work as well). Prices may not be current because of such of the flooding (stupid hard drives -.-) and may drop because of the holidays :D Thanks for reviewing. Pentium G840 and H61 is not capable of overclocking. You need to decide whether you are overclocking or not upfront because only P67 / Z68 motherboards allow for overclocking and only K suffix processors such as the core i5 2500k have an unlocked multiplier for overclocking. You'll need a quad core for a smooth and decent streaming experience since games use two cores (some use more) so... this leaves you no cores for encoding and everything else. Yes, the power supply is overkill for the listed configuration. There's not any significant upgrade that will keep you within your budget with 500GB HDDs being ~$100. There won't be any $60 1TB HDD sales during Black Friday or Cyber Monday - I can guarantee you this. You also did not specify what resolution you play at. I suggest you save up more. My is it crowded in this thread o0. Anyway, thanks for the help. I play at 1920x1080 (current monitor) or a different monitor with a resolution less then this but I can't recall it. Do you know any decent quad cores for around that price (maybe higher?), since my budget is a bit over 500. If I tone down my power supply a bit maybe that will give me some extra money too. As for the HDDs, I think I'll just get the cheapest one I can find. EDIT: Well I found this: AMD Athlon II X3 450 Rana 3.2GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Desktop Processor ADX450WFGMBOX http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681910388678$ Yes, I hear AMD processors lack power. You can unlock cores here, correct? If I get this, then I plan on doing that. Do you guys like this processor? Because of this should I get the laptop? I do want to stream, yes, but couldn't I manage a stream with 2 cores (I can on my 2 core computer, though it's a bit laggy since my processor speed sucks and my graphics card sucks)? Why does sc2 use 2 cores? It seems to work fine when I set affinity to SC2 Thanks again skyR
No, don't get an Athlon. Terrible choice.
For an actually decent quad core with a strict budget you can look at a i5 2300 or i5 2400, that usually go for around $180.
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