Computer Upgrade Suggestions for SCII

[Jake Command Wolf]

Hello,

I'm a huge Starcraft fan and have wanted to play Starcraft II since it was first announced, but my PC is to out of date to be able to run Starcraft II at all.

I have, however, been looking online for some parts to upgrade my PC so she can handle Starcraft II and other next gen games with no problems, as was hoping some other Starcraft II players would be able to tell me if the parts I'm looking at are what I need and or a good buy.

My computer is a stock Dell E310 running Windows XP Home Edition, her is her specs
(System Requirement Labs):

CPU
Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.06GHz

CPU Speed
3.1 GHz

OS
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 3 (build 2600)

RAM
1014.1 MB

Video Card
Intel(R) 82915G/GV/910GL Express Chipset

According to Can You Run It my PC doesn't met the recommended requirements, saying I need a better Video Card, more RAM and Vista or Windows 7.

Windows 7 or Vista is easy enough to get and I've found a Video Card and RAM that are reasonable priced but I have no clue if they are what I need / want, since there names and specs are all gibberish to me;

Video Card
Zotac GeForce GT 220 1GB DDR2 PCIe

RAM
Transcend PC8500 2GB DDR3 Desktop Memory Upgrade

So are these two what I need or not? I'm truly lost as weather or not they are what I need.

Any suggestions about what I should upgrade too would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Jake

 

[MGCǂSpectre]

depens on what settings you wanna play, 512MB video wil make you use medium if you dont want lag. get at least 1GB video card for high-ultra even 2 GB to plau on ultra settings no prob, memory should be min 3 GB all the way, anything higher works (because i think most of the lag comes from lack of video memory, I have 3GB DDR3 PC menory != video memory). Processor - get at least 3 GHz, I have 2.4 which I think can be the reason for Alt+tab 1 minute waiting to restore, also have in mind that these observations of settings and when it lags for WoL, for HotS will slightly increase despite blizz saying 'we will try to keep requirements to minimum like WoL

Zotac? Where did you get than name from?

 

[Jake Command Wolf]

Zotac? Where did you get than name from?

Here: Link

Can You Run It gives suggestions if part of your PC doesn't meet the specs required. The site it links to is called tigerdirect.com, its online computer parts store from what I gather.

Also I don't want to run Starcraft II with minimum specs, since the game looks awful at such low settings.

So are those parts good or bad? I really couldn’t tell by your post.

Regards,

Jake

 

[Dr Super Good]

512MB video wil make you use medium if you dont want lag. get at least 1GB video card for high-ultra even 2 GB to plau on ultra settings no prob

896 MB graphic RAM (im using a 275 GTX) is more than enough to run the game at ultra at 1680*1050. I would advise 1 GB for 1920*1080 play though. You definatly do not need 2 GB unless you plan to play it on a UHD display.

memory should be min 3 GB all the way, anything higher works (because i think most of the lag comes from lack of video memory, I have 3GB DDR3 PC menory != video memory).

Video memory does not directly cause lag. Lag is mostly caused by bandwidth restrictions or extreemly low performance (as you can only issue orders on rendered frames).
Most frame skipping in SC2 occurs as a result of insufficient processing power on the main threads. Graphics will only really cause skipping in the case of scenes which abuse visual effects or if you really have too little graphic memory (less than 1GB and trying to play at 1080p could cause such a situation). Do keep in mind that difficult to render scenes are also hard work for the processor as managing the GPU takes processor resources which depend on scene complexity.

Processor - get at least 3 GHz, I have 2.4 which I think can be the reason for Alt+tab 1 minute waiting to restore, also have in mind that these observations of settings and when it lags for WoL, for HotS will slightly increase despite blizz saying 'we will try to keep requirements to minimum like WoL

Clockrate has little to do with how well a processor performs. A lot of clock cycles are wasted on I/O locked states. My 2.67 GHz I7 processor runs SC2 fine and even demanding games can be restored from alt+tab in a couple of seconds.
I would advise a prcoessor from intel which is near 3 GHz in clock rate such as an I5 but try and get a quad core as it will give 2 whole cores to run system tasks and secondary SC2 threads.

For nice SC2 play you need...
1. A reasonable display (pointless playing at low resolutions like 1024*7xx as most detail is lost).
2. A non budget desktop graphic card. A nvidia 460 or 560 will max SC2 no problem. Laptops would need more expensive higher end cards as graphics on laptops is much weaker than those on desktops. Most cards for gaming will have near 1GB of memory anyway nowdays so that is not really a concern.
3. A decent amount of system memeory. I advise between 4GB and 6GB (obviously DDR3). Try and get matching chips and take advantage of accelerator patterns your CPU/motherboard may support.
4. A 64bit Windows 7 OS. Windows 7 for DX11 support (better than vista and allows best performance with modern graphic cards). 64bit so as to take advantage of all that memory (otherwise it only allocates 4 GB which includes the dedicated graphics in that range).
5. A quad core or better processor at around 3GHz (slighly less is ok but more is generally better). An I5 is a good place to start if you have a tightish budget while I7 if you want extreem performance. Keep in mind the memory support as a lot of cards support dual channel while higher end ones allow tri or even quad channel memory acess.

A fast hard disk is not particually important. If you have enough memory (such as 6GB or more), most of the game data that gets used will be cached into memory after being loaded once from disk where it remains until free memory starts to run out or your system shuts down.

 

[MGCǂSpectre]

^ This is just my observations with my specs but I use laptop with monitor 1280x1024 ofc PC processor 2.X GHz will still run better than mine 2.X GHz. My observations with 512MB video, 2.3 GHz and 3 GB DDR3 are that:

- Medium textures & graphics can be played without a problem, and still in battles especially vs Zerg units it lags like 1 huge lag when zerg units die then your units dead - obviously caused by the animations i.e graphics. So for perfect running besides using Medium settings, I had to make Model Quality: Low which replaces the death and explode animatiolns of Zerg and burning with simple blood splash and I can do normal (not laggy) battles now. - I didnt have problems when fighting Protoss or terran to use Model High, maybe Zerg animations overload?
- In beta I could play High graph&text and i still can but it may cause slight lag from time to time, again should Models be High - wow that's gonna be a big lag when zerg dies or acid splashes or burns
- Ultra and above with my specs - lags a lot for get it

OP can make conclusions based on how it runs with these specs so for playing high/ultra ofc better than that are needed. I empahsized on the Video and Processor because exactly the animations of Zerg deaths used to cause the lag during battles and because the loading which is not fastest but normally fast, but the Restore after Alt+Tab sometimes can take me a minute or 30 seconds im not sure, a lot more time and I see the reason Processor, what else? I mean restoring to Main Menu that is less grahpics than restoring In Game

Not to say Alt+Tab during Battle Net game and then restoring results in disconnection - with faster PC that would restore it faster and not disconenct you even if alt+tabbing may cause little lag and Dropping Count until you restore, it wont count to the point it will disconnect you if you have faster processor and u wont get lag during zerg deaths with better video, maybe all processor idk. I said with 512MB Im supposed to run High settings and maybe processor is the reason for lag during deaths? Or is it all because I use a Monitor to my laptop? Have in mind all other ingame runs smoothly.

So OP to answer you directly, 3GHz or so is good enough, video 1GB? that's good enough for high/ultra but now most are DDR3, im not sure this is a reason to ask for better video card, PC memory - you do need at least 2GB DDR3 you could do 3 GB as i bought my laptop 3 GB that was 3 years ago now this should be usual to have mostly and above all - make sure what you will buy is compatible with your PC. You can refer more to DSG the above poster as he is more into these things, but Im just telling you my observations with my specs.

 

[Dr Super Good]

^ This is just my observations with my specs but I use laptop with monitor 1280x1024 ofc PC processor 2.X GHz will still run better than mine 2.X GHz. My observations with 512MB video, 2.3 GHz and 3 GB DDR3 are that:

Thats the cause of most of your performance problems. Laptop processors are slower than desktop processors as they are generally choosen for energy efficiency rather than performance.
Same with the graphic cards, a mobile graphic card will be weaker than a desktop graphic card of the same series.

video 1GB? that's good enough for high/ultra but now most are DDR3,

Most graphic cards use GDDR5 which is different from DDR3. Only few use DDR3 and most if not all of those are budget models not suited for modern games.

Modern graphic cards like the GeForce GTX 560 come with atleast 1 GB of memory so that is not really a problem.

 

[Jake Command Wolf]

I see I have come to right place as far as computer know how but I'm still competely lost.

Is the two items I asked about any good? Do they have the specs I am looking for to play Starcraft II?

Video Card
Zotac GeForce GT 220 1GB DDR2 PCIe

RAM
Transcend PC8500 2GB DDR3 Desktop Memory Upgrade

Regards,

Jake

 

[Dr Super Good]

Zotac GeForce GT 220 1GB DDR2 PCIe

That will probably make low or medium. Old card, budget model means bad performance.
I would advise a GeForce 500 model like the 560 or if you want something older a 460 (my brother uses one and runs SC2 perfectly). Ofcourse there are always AMD graphic cards which also have nice performance to cost ratios (I just prefer nvidia).

Transcend PC8500 2GB DDR3 Desktop Memory Upgrade

Very little memory, you are advised to have about 4GB to run modern games like SC2 well. I also assume you are buying a new processor and motherboard as I doubt that one supports DDR3 even (as DDR3 is prety new).

 

[Jake Command Wolf]

I also assume you are buying a new processor and motherboard as I doubt that one supports DDR3 even (as DDR3 is prety new).

A new processor and motherboard? Oh boy, I was hoping in total the the upgrades would be 50-60 dollars, so much for that...

What kind of motherboard and processor do you reccomend I get?

And could you give me a ballpark estimate on total cost for all the parts?

 

[Dr Super Good]

Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.06GHz

Those are very old... I remember having one like 5-6 years ago (although yours may be slightly more modern production).
Inorder to run SC2 at high or ultra you will need atleast a dual core processor.

The memory type you mentioned probably is not even compatible with your motherboard (I had a P4 back when there was only DDR1).

I would advise an intel I5 processor as they have good performance to cost rations. You could also look at some of AMD processors.
I am not too sure about motherboard.

You are looking at abot 600$ or more for a new computer.

 

[Jake Command Wolf]

You are looking at about 600$ or more for a new computer.

Well... Crap... I was really hoping it would be a simple upgrade but I guess I was wrong...

I really don't have 600 dollars for a brand new computer, seeing as I am currently jobless. But would you by chance have any suggestions for a new computer Dr SuperGood?

I don't need a monitor, keyboard, or mouse, just the computer itself.

And a big thanks for all your help so far, both you and Imtor.

Regards,

Jake

 

[Dr Super Good]

Well you could always do upgrades to make it run better, but inorder to run more than low you would need to upgrade everything prety much (aka a whole new computer).

 

[brayden430]

You could also go for a low end AMD processor/motherboard. The sub 100$ triple cores or quad core will be capable of running starcraft 2.
At a later point you could always just drop in newer processor or a dedicated graphics card the integrated card (ati 3200) will be able to run star craft 2 and low-med settings I could on my laptop during beta