I work for a company that buys other companies’ used computers and resells them. I wanted a case to use at home, so I bought a used HP DC7700 tower. It still has the mobo and chipset in it (it’s been tested and passed as working), so I could just roll with what’s in it if adding a GPU and drives will make an adequate gaming rig.
So, it’s got a 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo processor and 5GB of RAM. Could I just add an SSD, an HDD (for storage), and a GPU and call it good? Or will the processor be too underpowered for modern games?
I don’t want this to be a peak-performance machine - just looking better than my 360 will be fine. Let’s say I want to play (just play, not have it at max settings) Arkham City, Civ V, and Far Cry 3; can I do that? What GPU should I add?
The Core 2 Duo E4300 in it is going to be pretty underpowered. That model has two different tower models. One is roundy-looking and has a 200-watt PSU. The other is a normal box with hard edges. The latter has a 365-watt PSU, which greatly improves your GPU options. If you have the 200-watt version, don’t even bother with it. Assuming you have the 365w version, you could throw in a HD6850. That’s probably the best GPU to align with your wattage and CPU bottleneck.
I think Civ 5 and Batman will be playable on low settings. Far Cry 3 and other high-end titles are pretty much off limits. Honestly, that PC is from the same era as the Xbox 360. A modern GPU is going to improve things a lot, but don’t expect a miracle. You’d only be in it for $150 though. Don’t bother with the new HDD or SSD. That’s putting too much money into this project.
Reusing the case shouldn’t be a problem. It looks like normal ATX, but maybe HP did something silly to it. Don’t let finding a case hold you back if you’re looking to assemble a new PC. You can get perfectly acceptable cases for only $40 or so.
500w is plenty for pretty much any single GPU setups these days. Power efficiency on GPUs is very good these days.
Ohh, old system. I agree that you shouldn’t spend more than $150 or so investing on a GPU. It should handle just about any game fine though, including Far Cry 3, depending on your output resolution. I don’t know why Palooka thinks it wouldn’t.
720p at medium-high settings, 1080p at low-medium settings easily in most games with a 6850 all at around 30-40 FPS.
Heck, the system only cost me $25, and I bought it for the case for a different project that I abandoned. If nothing else, it’s a nice enough case to build from.
The processor hits minimum specs for Far Cry 2 as a duo core but 1.8GHz is pretty slow. I wouldn’t expect much from it. How acceptable it is will depend a lot on your tolerance for playing at minimum settings. I certainly wouldn’t call it a “gaming rig” but I’ll leave the importance of the semantics to wmulax93 to decide.
Wonder if the processor can be overclocked. If it’s a Core 2 Duo E4300 as Palooka guessed, this site claims a 100% overclock up to 3.6 GHz. Still a duo core but nice…
Edit: It should be noted that the linked example uses a water cooling set up. Even moderate overclocking would probably require a hard look at upgrading the heatsink and air cooling set-up.
Edit II: Bottom of the site says he got 3.2 GHz with stock cooler. Not shabby at all.
Until just a few months ago, my desktop was comparable (almost identical processor, though overclocked to 3 ghz). With a decent graphics card (a GTX 460 picked up during a fire sale) it was OK for many games, though it chugged on anything CPU intensive. For some specific examples:
Skyrim would run just fine even with very high graphics settings at medium resolution (1680x1050).
Civ V would run, frame rate wasn’t a problem, but the AI turn took a long time particularly in the late game.
Shogun 2 was almost unplayable.
I haven’t played many recent shooters on that box. My WAG is that there will be some with heavy physics or AI calculations in the background, and your system will choke on those. On the other hand, others will be OK with any old and busted CPU as long as you have a decent graphics card.
Make sure the case is compatible with the motherboard that you buy. Most hp computers that I see are small form-factor systems, so they have uATX boards. If you want an ATX, make sure it will fit.
You will probably have to rip out the rear I/O ports from the case, which can be a pain in the butt on pre-made systems such as Dell and hp, but any motherboard you buy will come with its own rear panel.
Be careful of sharp edges. hp doesn’t expect people to tinker with its pre-made systems so they don’t make user friendly cases. I got a pretty nasty slice on my finger last year for running my finger on an edge while fixing a fan in an hp case.
One problem that people haven’t brought up: cooling. Most pre-built PC cases are not designed for gaming rigs. I tried the same project as you a couple years ago; took an old hp case, put in a Radeon 4870 and an Athlon x2 (which was decent for its time). They got smothered due to lack of air flow. I ended up having to dremel a hole in the side of the case, into which I installed an extra fan. In the end I just bought a gaming case and don’t regret my decision at all.
Finally, measure the interior of the case. My 4870 barely fit into the hp case. The 6950 I’m using now would simply not have fit. Measure the amount of room that you have between the PCI-e port and whatever is behind it, and compare it to the length of card that you want to buy.
Hope this helps
Edit: I just looked at the DC7700 on Newegg… it does not look like a well ventilated case. Any gaming hardware you buy is going to choke inside unless you do some drilling or somehow squeeze water cooling equipment into it.
