Another "Can my comp run this thread" sorry guys...

from Sins Forums

So I'm finally getting back into Sins (with Rebellion! :D) after over 2 years but my old gaming desktop is no more. I currently have a pretty basic HP pavillion dv4 laptop. It's running a Core I3 second gen, 2.2Ghz, 6GB ddr3 RAM, and has built in Intel HD3000 graphics. I still have my original harcdopy of sins and I did a short test run; it seems to be very smooth and responsive even at high settings (this is of course with minal map and ship activity). I know Rebellion upped the graphics but I'm fairly confident that with 6GB Ram that i'll do okay even in larger late-game scenarios with at least medium settings.

What I'm worried about is my laptop overheating. What's a safe temperature zone to operate at? Are there cooling pads out there that actually work? Do any of you have a similar set up to mine and could tell me what your playing experience has been like? Any help or advice from you guys would be greatly appriciated. I know I will get some. I've been in dozens of forums and you guys here are the best community by far. It's good to be back.

8,185 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

To be entirely honest the specs needed for Rebellion aren't much different from base Sins, if at all.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

I have two computers, one i built for gaming and then an old laptop that I use mostly for just word-processing and programming. I don't really use my laptop for gaming at all as I found i was unable to run anything released in the last year or two (or in 3d for that matter). However, I had heard sins ran pretty well on old hardware so I decided to give it a go and found that low and behold the old compy could run it on low settings. So like he said above they have done a great job with the graphics scaling and you really shouldn't have a problem running it. 

In regards to heat, sins is like any other game and is gonna generate a pretty good bit of it. I would advise you just to make sure that whenever your playing to have your laptop on a hard surface where the fans can circulate the air well. As long as your on a hard surface it should be able to keep itself cool enough. Other than that enjoy the game and I wouldn't worry too much. I've been terrible to my laptop and even had it hit the heat threshold once which caused it to do an emergency shut down to try to save itself. After letting it cool down it ran fine the next boot (though I wouldn't recommend ever having this happen ^^).

Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

Also if you were wondering about my laptop specs:

Intel Pentium Dual Core T4200 2Ghz

3GB DDR2 RAM

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD

Running SoaSE:R on Ubuntu 12.04 with Wine and PlayOnLinux, Low Settings

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

I use speedfan to keep my temp on the desktop and monitor cpu usage. I would not recommend to much time operating past 65c on the cpu or gpu. At about 68c - 70c my fan rpm almost triples notifying me of high heat but that's already going to hot to long for me.

Playing a laptop on the bed using the blanket or a pillow is sure quick death for any laptop.

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

Quality responses of course  :grin:

@pyscho917 - Damn those are some ancient specs! lol. That certainly allieviates any reservations i might have had about system reqs ;)

@my fist0 - i just installed speedfan myself, excellent little app there. So you say 68-70 is too hot? Yeah speedfan clocked me right around that after only about 10 minutes with nothing going on :-/. Looks like i need a good cooling pad...