I'm pretty new to this stuff, so if you would help me I would appreciate it. I am dying to play sc2, but my computer just can't handle it. I'm not sure what I need to buy or how to install it or put it in the comp.. Here are my specs (My comp is a little old and I can't afford a new one).

Operating system:Windows 2.5.1.2600 (SP 3)
CPU type:Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T9800 @ 2.93GHz
CPU Speed (GHz):2.945
System memory (GB):3.488
Graphics card model:NVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M
Graphics card driver:nv4_disp.dll
Desktop resolution:1440x900
Hard disk size (GB):97.655
Hard disk free space (GB):41.54

That's a laptop. You can't upgrade it. Or at least, you can't upgrade the GFX, which is probably its weakpoint right now. So yeah, that laptop is never going to run SC2.

Oh woops, I gave you the specs for my Dad's laptop, let me get my own, which is incredibly older, and terrible o.O .. (Don't laugh at it's ancientness..)

Operating system:Windows 2.5.1.2600 (SP 2)
CPU type: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.80GHz
CPU Speed (GHz):2.813
System memory (GB):0.498
Graphics card model:Intel(R) 82865G
Graphics Controller
Graphics card driver:ialmrnt5.dll
Desktop resolution:1280x1024
Hard disk size (GB):37.245
Hard disk free space (GB):22.457

I probably need more RAM, and Graphics card

Vortex you have roughly the same system as David, who I already gave advice to, check out his topic here, because you're in the same situation:
http://www.staredit.net/topic/10792/

The short is just dropping parts into your current computer isn't going to help. Its too outdated. However if you can scrounge together 300$, you can save parts from your current system and make something that can actually play SC2.

What are you talking about? It will run. Maybe not on ultra, but I'm sure he'll do fine on medium.


Also, you haven't answered my question:

What resolution is the TV? If it is a 1080p TV, then that is a very reasonable resolution to use with it as a computer monitor.

As for input lag, there are various factors that can affect that. Among them are display technology (which type, and if LCD then which panel type) and delays from any image processing the TV might do. For the former, there's nothing you can do about that. As for delays from image processing, I think you can reduce that by selecting your TV's native resolution on whatever device you connect to it. Also, some TVs have a "game mode" setting that does less image processing to reduce the delay. Sometimes which connector type you use can also have some effect on the amount of delay.

Did you read those specs or are you just that ignorant to PC parts? That GPU is about equal or lesser than a 9300GS. Its going to fail miserably. And don't quote me the requirements Blizz listed, I know what they are, I'm saying that laptop is not going to run Sc2 comfortably at any settings or resolution, and there's nothing that can be done.

Nude there's no way for me to determine the actual latency/input lag without a lot of details on the monitor. Suffice to say a lot of TVs aren't made to do games.

Yeah I know any game that doesn't run at at least 60 fps is unplayable in your book, but that doesn't mean everyone is as picky.

So there's no guidelines for bad/medium/good TVs regarding latency? Any TV can be anywhere between 5ms and 0.5s? I'm not talking exact numbers here, I'd just be interested in a very rough estimation of a likely case. This info is for me. In general. Not for his TV.

I find it funny how Ex says no fanboyism. Brand loyalty is key, you just have to be loyal to a good brand. Seasonic makes the best PSUs. Period. That means any PSU made by seasonic is a good PSU, and you can't go wrong, so long as the price is good. They can't keep that name if they start producing shit products (which is what happened to hitachi and seagate, and even probably ultra).

As for ATi vs. nVidia, nobody cares about anything higher than a 5850, since they're WAY too expensive for any normal user. nVidia has some power/heat problems, but for the most part the 480 and 470 outperform the 5850 and 5870. On top of that, nVidia has CUDA, which is a much better system than Stream. nVidia is the larger company, and has many advantages. However, ATi point blank now has the better cards in terms of efficiency, both in power and price. The end result is no spectacular difference. What's a few fps in the long run? I didn't buy an nVidia card because the past 3 nVidia cards my family has owned have failed/not worked right. When replaced with an ATi card everything worked fine. Now I'm sitting on a 4 year old high end card which still works fine, but I'm about ready to upgrade. I'll probably get an ATi again because it's the best at the price I will buy at right now.

Also, nVidia only shines at the top, where ATi has no competition, and just below the 5850, where the 5830 is just too disgusting to want to buy. That leaves the GTS 260 and GTX 275. Neither are DX11. I'd rather get a 5770 for 50-100 less and call it a day.

The Quadro 160M will sort of run SC2, but the other laptop won't. The Quadro is also not designed to play games.

I say it because putting a name over a better product from another name is idiocy. Note that reliability, warranty, performance, these are all things that factor into which is the better product. Unfortunately most people just look at the name and assume that it's a better product than the other name. Has SeaSonic ever made a bad unit? Sure. It happens to everyone. Does that mean that if your SeaSonic happened to be a dud OCZ is now a better company to buy from? No. People do not look at things realistically in most of my dealings which is why I have to do it for them, and that's very hard to do when they're stuck on buying a certain brand when my choice is far better. I don't have the time nor would I want to if I did, to go through every little detail with them. If I say this is whats good, that's whats good, and I'm not going to fight with them due to their being uninformed.


False. Not everyone is a normal user and even normal users like to have parts they wont have to upgrade for a long time. Do I wish the 5870 was cheaper? Sure, just about everyone that wants one does, but in the current GFX market, I would not call them over priced, at least not by much.

Really? Its my understanding that after the 10.3 drivers the 5850 put the 470 in its place and the 480 is still trading blows with the 5870. Not to mention the price differential.

And how many users are actually going to care about/use CUDA?

Such as....?

Did I not just point out where the 480 is a total loser in anything and everything? The only games the 480 beats the 5870 in are tessellation-heavy games which NV specifically worked with the devs on knowing the only thing Fermi has on the HD 5000 series right now is tessellation. That doesn't qualify as a deal maker/breaker in my book.

We all know how overpriced the 5830 is, but with how high the 5770s overclock, I would consider the 5830 nonexistent. A good 5770 can probably OC enough to keep up with the 5830.

The other one is a desktop, and that Quadro is going to struggle like a motherfucker. My advice is valid and still stands.

Expensive is not overpriced. I'm just not going to spend $400 on a graphics card. Most people do not have that kind of money.

IMO, this shouldn't ever happen. Drivers shouldn't magically improve performance so much. They should just start out good. (you can make arguments either way).

The enthusiasts who buy high end graphics should care. Such a waste if you aren't going to use the graphics for some sort of single precision processor. Folding@home clearly shines on nVidia. Although, nVidia does the idiot thing and limits double precision on their GeForces to promote people to buy their workstation graphics.


They can pay other companies to advertise their game ("the way it's meant to be played"), they can survive much easier due to contracts with PC manufacturers, they don't have a CPU division bringing them down, and they produce a MUCH better workstation graphics card than ATi. They also can work with game developers much easier to deliver better drivers and optimizations for that specific game. Larger companies also have more manpower, and thus are able to accomplish a whole lot more due to having more money.

It's too bad you're wrong. The 480 still beats the 5870 in nearly everything. Skimming through the results showed me that there wasn't any game which the 5870 bean the 480 and the 480 didn't score under 60 fps on the highest settings. The 10.3 drivers helped a lot in games where the 480 completely decimated it, but actually hurt (slightly) most other games. If you want the fastest single gpu on the market, it's the 480. The 5870 is a better buy though, since the extra you pay for the best makes it overpriced.

You shouldn't ever compare an overclock to stock. If the 5830 is overclocked as well, it clearly beats the 5770 (but is overpriced).

I'm too lazy to re-quote everything so I'll just do it like this:

Quite obviously, you get what you pay for. If you want 400$ performance, than that's what you have to pay.

If it should or shouldn't happen isn't the issue. The fact is it did.

Everyone here uses their GFX card for gaming. F@H and similar aren't even valid enough to be in the equation here. At Anandtech it might be an issue, but at SEN it isn't.

AMD/ATI's CPU division does not bring them down, and I think they've shown despite their size and funding they've managed to meet or beat NV at every turn in the last two generations. NV's size and stubborn behavior have really hurt them because they refuse to rethink their architectural design and have had major problems with manufacturing. Bigger =/= better.

Its too bad that review clearly states in test setup ATI: Catalyst 9.12 (Noted the Also added HD 5870 w/ Catalyst 10.3 WHQL however, 10.3b or 10.4 are what I want to see.) are the drivers being used. Lets see them go up against 10.4 and see who wins and by what margin. I'm not saying the 5870 isn't going to in some games lose by 1-5fps, I'm saying that in the cases it does, its either due to tessellation or the price differential more than justifies the slight variation.

Comparing is what we do with technology, its how we measure things. Its how I know where to classify cards like the GT 240 in terms of performance, I know it performs around the level of a 9600GT. The 5830s from what I hear already run hot and don't have nearly the OC headroom of a 5770. Could you OC a 5830 to near-5850 performance? Probably, but very few people are buying or OCing 5830s compared to 5770s. Its nearly guaranteed that the 5770 can OC and beat the 5830 @ stock. Its all about the risk you're willing to take.

AMD was in the hole last year a bunch of money. People were thinking they were going to go under. ATi kept them afloat.

If you could post the review which has 10.4 and compares it to the 480, I'd love to see it. Otherwise, I don't see 10.4 increasing performance the 10% it needs to match the 480 (9.12 to 10.3 only increased 2%). Looking at those charts it's clear the 480 trails in only a few games, but in all the cases, it still puts out 3 digit fpses. In some of the games the 480 leads at, it leads at a LARGE margin, whereas the same can't be said of the 5870. Also note, I'm not saying the 480 is a good buy, I'm just saying that the 480 is faster than the 5870. I already know who wins in the 10.4 vs 480 fight--the 480. The question is by what margin. 5% max, I think.

So the 5770 OCs better. How about this: you take the max overclock on the 5770 vs the max overclock on the 5830. The 5830 will win every time, so it can't really "keep up" with the 5830. They are separate cards, with the 5770 being a much better card for the price. If they were both free, you'd take the 5830, right?

So it has been a little over a month since I created this topic, and just yesterday did I finish this build.

The reason it took me so long was because I got paste under the cpu. While trying to clean it, I bent a pin or two... or five... I returned the mobo to the manufacturing company, and they took their sweet ass time. They lagged so much on me. I returned the mobo on the 14th of may, and I got it returned yesterday.

Now that the build is finished, I am in need of a good monitor. My price range is from 175 - 200, but please, try to find something under 175 because I'm trying to save as much money for my gf's birthday this month.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236050

Sorry to bring back this old topic, but it's been a year and I thought I'd let you guys in on what has happened to my pc. Nothing!
I swear, the day the pc was finished I thought to myself, "well, i might need to upgrade parts next year, and/or build another pc."
The PC is running smoothly to this day with windows 7 and linux. I still haven't used up half of the TB.
I'm completely in-love with my PC. The NZXT was an awesome choice. I feel like I still own a brand new computer. Thank you SEN

Glad everything worked out.