Retro Gaming Rig [issue resolved]

[tazwegion]

Hello all been a while (quite a while actually) since I have actively built PC's & gamed regularly so please bare with me

 

 

I was recently "gifted" a PC from work which had become surplus since their recent upgrades, essentially the specs with a few additional parts I was able to secure is as follows...

 

MSI K9AGM4 (bios ver 1.3)

Athlon x 2 5000+

2 x 1 Gb Geil ddr2-800

120Gb IDE

DVD/RW Sata

Win 7

nVidia 6600Gt 256Mb PCI-e

 

 

You would be forgiven thinking it looks sufficient to run Star Craft 2 (looking at Blizzards online specification guide) but here's the kicker it's not, it's as laggy as hell

 

The 6600gt ran the game beautifully on a e6400 system I slapped together with similar specs, bios is configured to make the most of the ram timings and the system is otherwise stable, I figured it should have been better as my old 3700+ 939/Radeon 9600xt ran the game to a playable level.

 

The only stumbling block I can see might be the small on die cache, any thoughts?

Edited March 30, 2014 by tazwegion

[ClayMeow]

taz?! Is that really you?! NO WAY! Who's this imposter!

 

Starcraft 2 is not a good judge. Not sure if Blizzard updated the min-specs online, but I know for a fact that when Heart of the Swarm was released, even if you don't own it, the game received some upgrades and is a hell of a lot more resource intensive than it was at launch. I used to be able to run it just fine (with a mix of medium and low settings) on my four-year old laptop, but now it brings my laptop to its knees - I cannot play regular online matches because it lags so bad, I have to play arcade matches that don't require as much precise timing, and it heats up like a mofo.

[IVIYTH0S]

Retro gaming rig but playing SC2 not SC1??

 

Welcome back though!

[El_Capitan]

I thought Starcraft II was CPU heavy, which might be why it's laggy.

 

You might want to try looking at this: http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/9573238685

[tazwegion]

Thanks guys, yes Clay' it is I.... I had an incling the HOTS expansion may have increased the game's resource hunger, this PC is is primarily intended for the kids to game on, not much AMD gear around here these days I guess you could say I've gone to the "dark side" and upgraded an Intel system or two out of spare parts (all very trailing edge gear).

 

Picked up the HOTS expansion last week and had a devil of time resurrecting my old Blizzard account but got there in the end (thanks to really helpful Game Masters).

 

It would appear my last few options are...

 

1) Scraping the system in favour of a (used) more powerful Intel platform.

 

2) Upgrade to the spare 9600gt (I had put aside for my personal PC build)

 

3) Roll back the OS to XP Pro Sp3

 

4) OC the go fast bits (bios options appear limited)

 

5) Any of the above in combination.

 

 

Thanks for that link EL Capitan

Edited March 29, 2014 by tazwegion

[IVIYTH0S]

You probably can pick up a nice core 2 system on the cheap, in fact I think my friend's selling one (with an e8400 I believe but I'll have to get the particulars)

[Andrewr05]

We're it not so expensive for shipping I'd sell you my GTX285 for cheap.

[bishop245]

Glad to se my aussie buddy is still doing his retro builds lol

 

Welcome back Taz stay around and post your specs in the ongoing contest here http://forums.overclockersclub.com/index.php?showtopic=198242 to maybe get a piece of hardware you'll be able to use in 10 years lol

[tazwegion]

Glad to se my aussie buddy is still doing his retro builds lol

Thanks Bush' Retro is cost effective recycling ya' know

 

 

We're it not so expensive for shipping I'd sell you my GTX285 for cheap.

Damned decently fine offer Andrew appreciate the gesture really do, I've relocated the what you might recall the "edge of the outback" surrounded by coarse vegetation and expanses of desert (with pockets of population) and thus all my spares are sourced from Fleece-bay/the web

 

 

You probably can pick up a nice core 2 system on the cheap, in fact I think my friend's selling one (with an e8400 I believe but I'll have to get the particulars)

I pieced together a Frankenstein of a e6400/9600gt/Acer system for our eldest teenage son who's gaming requirements were unsatisfied with his existing socket A/754 systems, currently bang-for-buck the Core2Duos appear to be where it's at and playing SC2 with ease on higher settings (even with the 6600gt)

 

Not fond of trashing a perfectly good system I now (sadly) have quite a collection of s370, s462, s754, s775 as well.

Edited March 30, 2014 by tazwegion

[bishop245]

I may be refurbing a socket 370 celery 600 just for fun in the near future

[tazwegion]

I may be refurbing a socket 370 celery 600 just for fun in the near future

Make a good hardware firewall, DIY router OR basic web streaming server but I'm not sure for what (other than basic email services) such a system would be good for... I'm sure you'll find something though eh?

 

Did I mention I was a hoarder? I found an almost complete s754 system the other day I'd completely forgotten about

 

 

 

 

Edit: Well the gaming issue that originally spawned this thread has been somewhat resolved (without an upgrade) essentially rolling back the OS to XP Pro and some "digital witchery" to prevent the HOTS patches installing did the trick, the x2 5000+ is definitely the bottleneck in this system.

 

Thanks for all your input

Edited March 30, 2014 by tazwegion