Please pardon my newbie question... (Starcraft II installation)

[flipangle]

I bought a copy of Starcraft II yesterday. Installed it on my late 2006 iMac (2.1 gHz Core 2 Duo with 3 gigs of RAM). During the installation process, an error message said that my drivers may not be compatible. The installation completed anyways. However, when I tried to sign in to play, the game errored out and kicked me out to the desktop. So far, all I've been able to "play" is the intro video! It's killing me!

Which one of these options would be best:

1. Revert to 10.6.3 as some have done here in this forum.

2. Boot Camp it and install Windows 7 32-bit.

3. Boot Camp it and install Windows 7 64-bit.

4. Boot Camp it and install XP 32-bit.

I know that I need a new computer but until then, I would love to be able to play SC2. I just need to know given my specs, which OS would run SC2 the best. Thanks for you help.

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

Options 2, 3 or 4 will run it pretty much the same. Since your machine doesn't support more RAM than 3GB in Windows anyway, I'd just go for Windows 7 32 bit.

On high end graphics cards I don't really feel like there's that much difference in performance in OSX compared to Windows (for Starcraft) but my impression is that low end (or older) cards run it better in Windows. The minimum graphics card requirements are lower for Windows than it is for OSX after all.

 

[flipangle]

Options 2, 3 or 4 will run it pretty much the same. Since your machine doesn't support more RAM than 3GB in Windows anyway, I'd just go for Windows 7 32 bit.

On high end graphics cards I don't really feel like there's that much difference in performance in OSX compared to Windows (for Starcraft) but my impression is that low end (or older) cards run it better in Windows. The minimum graphics card requirements are lower for Windows than it is for OSX after all.

Thanks. You've been really helpful. Now I just have to google how to use Boot Camp to install Windows 7. The last time I tried it, it was a nightmare since that was before the time that Apple supported Boot Camp with Windows 7. I got a black screen!

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

Apple claims that 2006 iMacs don't support Windows 7 which is a lie but if you've got Windows XP lying around you may just want to use that instead this time around. It'll probably save you a few headaches. Windows 7 can work just fine on iMacs such as yours but you have to work a bit to get it all set up - manually install some of the drivers etc. If it's just for one game then don't bother, just put XP on.

Let us know how it goes and what performance is like!

 

[flipangle]

Apple claims that 2006 iMacs don't support Windows 7 which is a lie but if you've got Windows XP lying around you may just want to use that instead this time around. It'll probably save you a few headaches. Windows 7 can work just fine on iMacs such as yours but you have to work a bit to get it all set up - manually install some of the drivers etc. If it's just for one game then don't bother, just put XP on.

Let us know how it goes and what performance is like!

The problem is that I have both XP and Windows 7 lying around. I would actually prefer to install XP but I think I've already used that license so when it asks me to activate, I won't be able to. On the other hand, it may just last long enough for me to play the game before the nag screens begin.

 

[Mackilroy]

I installed Windows 7 64 on my 2006 Mac Pro – you don't need Boot Camp at all. It should automatically download drivers for you once the OS is installed.

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

I installed Windows 7 64 on my 2006 Mac Pro – you don't need Boot Camp at all. It should automatically download drivers for you once the OS is installed.

Very true but you won't have things like support for the eject button on the keyboard and brightness control of the screen etc from the keyboard. This stuff can be installed manually though by running the installer packages manually but it takes a little know how.

OP are you currently using that XP install on another computer? If not then reactivating it shouldn't matter.

 

[Mackilroy]

Very true but you won't have things like support for the eject button on the keyboard and brightness control of the screen etc from the keyboard. This stuff can be installed manually though by running the installer packages manually but it takes a little know how.

True, but the latter doesn't work with my monitor anyway. Don't really use the optical drive all that much either, but I know for some people both of those would be dealbreakers.

I do recall TheSpaz installed Boot Camp 3.0 and Windows 7 on his machine, but he's banned now so you'd have to find the topics he posted in about it to see what he did.

 

[flipangle]

Finished installing XP via Boot Camp. Tried to install Starcraft but couldn't since I didn't have Service Pack 3 installed yet. Tried to install SP3, but errored out. Finally came upon this page which enabled me to finish installing Service Pack 3:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3841

Now installing Starcraft 3 finally. Will let you guys know how it plays on XP. What a bunch of hoops to jump through!

 

[Huntn]

Finished installing XP via Boot Camp. Tried to install Starcraft but couldn't since I didn't have Service Pack 3 installed yet. Tried to install SP3, but errored out. Finally came upon this page which enabled me to finish installing Service Pack 3:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3841

Now installing Starcraft 3 finally. Will let you guys know how it plays on XP. What a bunch of hoops to jump through!

Great link! I added it to the MacRumors Windows Gaming on a Mac Guide.

 

[flipangle]

Installed Starcraft. Played it for about 10 minutes. Before it totally crashed I was having major video artifacts. I give up. Time for a new computer. The question is Mac Pro or a Hackintosh. I don't "need" the power of a Pro but may not be able to resist it. I have found that I prefer a tower that I can upgrade over an all-in-one iMac. Have had my iMac for over 3 years now. My current wishes are:

1. New hard drive.
2. New DVD ROM drive. The original died.
3. New grapics card.

Can't do any of the above on the iMac since I've heard that it's very hard to upgrade yourself. Got myself and external DVD drive to replace my SuperDrive but the problem is that when you do things like Boot Camp, the iMac will only install off the native drive and not off a USB external drive (as far as I know). Sigh...

 

[milbournosphere]

Installed Starcraft. Played it for about 10 minutes. Before it totally crashed I was having major video artifacts. I give up. Time for a new computer. The question is Mac Pro or a Hackintosh. I don't "need" the power of a Pro but may not be able to resist it. I have found that I prefer a tower that I can upgrade over an all-in-one iMac. Have had my iMac for over 3 years now. My current wishes are:

1. New hard drive.
2. New DVD ROM drive. The original died.
3. New grapics card.

Can't do any of the above on the iMac since I've heard that it's very hard to upgrade yourself. Got myself and external DVD drive to replace my SuperDrive but the problem is that when you do things like Boot Camp, the iMac will only install off the native drive and not off a USB external drive (as far as I know). Sigh...

I'm currently pondering the same thing as you. I want the upgrade potential not present in my iMac. Personally, I am leaning towards the Pro over a Hackintosh. I do real work on my machine too much to want to sweat bullets whenever I apply a software update to a Hackintosh. For me, reliability is worth the extra $$. That and the Mac Pro towers look awesome.

 

[flipangle]

I'm currently pondering the same thing as you. I want the upgrade potential not present in my iMac. Personally, I am leaning towards the Pro over a Hackintosh. I do real work on my machine too much to want to sweat bullets whenever I apply a software update to a Hackintosh. For me, reliability is worth the extra $$. That and the Mac Pro towers look awesome.

Yeah, I do real work on my machine too (medical imaging). Until a few years ago I could do my work only on a PC. Now that Macs are Intel based, I can do my work on a Mac via Boot Camp. I haven't upgraded my work computer in 3-4 years and my play computer in 3 years. Maybe I'll just bite the bullet and buy a Pro to use as both my play computer and my work computer. Which Pro model were you looking to get?

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

I'm currently pondering the same thing as you. I want the upgrade potential not present in my iMac. Personally, I am leaning towards the Pro over a Hackintosh. I do real work on my machine too much to want to sweat bullets whenever I apply a software update to a Hackintosh. For me, reliability is worth the extra $$. That and the Mac Pro towers look awesome.

I don't think most hackintosh users get too stressed about updates. If you go for one of the most popular (Gigabyte) boards then they're pretty solid and there are way more guinea pigs ready to test updates before you try it a few days later.

Still, if you can afford a good Mac Pro then it's worth it, they're great machines. They're not ideal for gaming purposes really and for sake of your own sanity it's best not to ever go to Dell and spec up an identical system but the construction is superb and they hold their value well.

 

[milbournosphere]

If you go for one of the most popular (Gigabyte) boards then they're pretty solid and there are way more guinea pigs ready to test updates before you try it a few days later.

They're not ideal for gaming purposes really and for sake of your own sanity it's best not to ever go to Dell and spec up an identical system but the construction is superb and they hold their value well.

Rest assured, it's not just for gaming, I can certainly use the horsepower in other ways. I've also never believed in the practice of comparing apple machines to other vendors (lenovo, hp, dell, etc.).

Maybe I'll just bite the bullet and buy a Pro to use as both my play computer and my work computer. Which Pro model were you looking to get?

Yeah, I try to stick to one machine as well. In terms of models, that 8 core box looks mighty nice... can't decide if I need 8 cores or 4. A related question: does anybody know if the quad core nehalem and the six core westmere share the same socket type?

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

A related question: does anybody know if the quad core nehalem and the six core westmere share the same socket type?

Yes they do. The only question, however, is if Apple is being stingy and has given the quad and octo core models the 2009 Mac Pro firmware or not (which doesn't have hexacore support).