1 00:00:00,640 --> 00:00:06,480 Today's episode of my video blog is actually going to be something I've 2 00:00:04,240 --> 00:00:11,519 never done before. This is a sneak preview of an upcoming NCIX PC 3 00:00:09,280 --> 00:00:16,720 newsletter. So, our newsletter goes out to all of our subscribers and uh it's an 4 00:00:14,080 --> 00:00:22,640 official NCIX communication and this particular one is going to be themed 5 00:00:19,439 --> 00:00:24,960 around uh Starcraft 2 as well as the GTX 6 00:00:22,640 --> 00:00:32,239 460. So, I've actually got a GTX 460 with me today. This is MSI's GeForce GTX 7 00:00:28,480 --> 00:00:34,000 460 1 gig cyclone OC card. That means it 8 00:00:32,239 --> 00:00:38,960 has an aftermarket cooler. It is factory overclocked and it's a 460 with 1 gig of 9 00:00:36,480 --> 00:00:42,559 video memory. And I just wanted to talk a little bit about Starcraft 2 in 10 00:00:40,719 --> 00:00:46,399 general. So, this article here, actually, if you're not subscribed to 11 00:00:43,920 --> 00:00:49,680 the MCX newsletter, and if you're not getting the PC newsletters about once or 12 00:00:48,320 --> 00:00:56,879 twice a month, you should definitely subscribe. If you go to uh NCIX 13 00:00:53,280 --> 00:00:58,879 and you go to Wow, it's been so long. Oh 14 00:00:56,879 --> 00:01:03,039 yeah, newsletters up at the top, then you can actually subscribe to our weekly 15 00:01:01,359 --> 00:01:06,159 uh weekly specials and all of our other newsletters. So, make sure you do that. 16 00:01:04,960 --> 00:01:10,400 Anyway, so this is going to be an upcoming PC newsletter. As a bit of a 17 00:01:08,320 --> 00:01:14,479 joke, we talk about the uh Brood War system specifications required by 18 00:01:12,320 --> 00:01:19,200 Blizzard versus the Wings of Liberty recommended specs. And uh you know, if 19 00:01:16,720 --> 00:01:22,240 you're not um if you haven't upgraded your PC since Brood War, you're probably 20 00:01:21,040 --> 00:01:26,320 going to be looking at a bit of an upgrade here. And we just talk a little 21 00:01:24,560 --> 00:01:30,560 bit about what the recommended configurations are for Starcraft 2. So 22 00:01:29,040 --> 00:01:34,720 really, that's the point of this video is what are the recommended 23 00:01:32,880 --> 00:01:39,600 configurations for Starcraft 2? Well, there's two levels from Blizzard and one 24 00:01:36,880 --> 00:01:43,280 of them is a fairly basic PC. Basically, the graphics card they recommend is 25 00:01:41,119 --> 00:01:47,520 about five plus years old, and they're saying that's what it takes to run the 26 00:01:45,119 --> 00:01:51,840 game. And then they have kind of a recommended level, and we've positioned 27 00:01:49,759 --> 00:01:55,759 a couple different PCs around their minimum spec as well as their 28 00:01:53,680 --> 00:01:59,840 recommended spec. But really, if you want to get the most out of it, I turn 29 00:01:57,600 --> 00:02:04,320 to my friends at Hardware Connects because they did a terrific GPU roundup. 30 00:02:02,719 --> 00:02:09,520 You can see we've actually featured that here because it is a third party site 31 00:02:07,520 --> 00:02:14,080 that really just took a whole bunch of cards from ATI as well as NVIDIA, put 32 00:02:12,480 --> 00:02:17,440 them through the ringer on Starcraft 2, and they came up with a recommendation 33 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:22,000 that makes a lot of sense and we're seeing echoed all over the place. The 34 00:02:19,200 --> 00:02:25,920 GeForce GTX 460. It offers the best price to performance balance. It has 35 00:02:24,400 --> 00:02:29,760 good power consumption. If you get it with a good aftermarket cooler, it's 36 00:02:27,440 --> 00:02:34,239 going to be very, very quiet. and it just kills in Starcraft 2 because even 37 00:02:32,560 --> 00:02:38,239 though Starcraft 2 will run on a 5-year-old card, in order to get the 38 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:42,560 most out of it, play HD resolution, turn up anti-aliasing. You will need a 39 00:02:40,400 --> 00:02:47,120 GeForce GPU at this time to enable anti-aliasing, by the way, but you're 40 00:02:45,040 --> 00:02:52,720 going to want a fairly beefy graphics card in order to actually run it at full 41 00:02:49,680 --> 00:02:55,680 strength. So, here you can see the uh 42 00:02:52,720 --> 00:03:00,959 Vesta i5 3200 SLI is the recommended config. It has a GTX 460 in it. And then 43 00:02:59,040 --> 00:03:05,120 if you click here when you get this newsletter, it'll actually take you to 44 00:03:03,040 --> 00:03:09,200 the Starcraft 2 GPU performance comparison that they do on hardware 45 00:03:06,640 --> 00:03:14,480 connects. So this uh actually leads us to our recommendation, the GTX 461 gig. 46 00:03:12,159 --> 00:03:18,159 And and there's another piece of news that's pretty cool is that if you're 47 00:03:16,400 --> 00:03:21,360 like me and you missed out on the beta, because I would have loved to do some 48 00:03:19,440 --> 00:03:25,920 testing on Starcraft 2 before release, but I didn't have a chance. Uh if you 49 00:03:23,440 --> 00:03:30,720 buy a GTX 460 after the Starcraft launch, you actually get a coupon to try 50 00:03:28,239 --> 00:03:34,560 Starcraft 2 for seven hours uh with multiplayer. So it'll have full support 51 00:03:32,799 --> 00:03:38,239 for the game for 7 hours. So you can actually find out if you like it, find 52 00:03:36,400 --> 00:03:42,239 out how well it runs on your new GeForce card, and then buy the game if you're 53 00:03:40,400 --> 00:03:46,640 not entirely sure. Thanks for checking out my video blog and don't forget to 54 00:03:43,920 --> 00:03:50,879 subscribe to the NCIX newsletter as well as to my Linus Tech Tips video blog.