I’ve got a used PC box at my house, which actually has a (I think) 2.6 gig P4 processor. With some added RAM, and a video card (it’s got a free AGP slot as well) I think it would make for a decent gaming box, but I just don’t know about the CPU. Is 2.6 on a P4 decent enough for gaming?
Anyone?
Depends on what kind of games you want to play. My CPU is only a 2.4, and I’m able to run EQ2, CoX, and other relatively new games…but there are some games I can’t quite run with what I have. I’ll probably be doing a major upgrade about the time Vanguard launches. Rumor is that game is going to require a real high end (by my standards) machine…
I’m definitely no expert, but the machine I recently had to replace had a 2.4 gig processor, 1.5 gigs of RAM, and an X800GTO video card. It ran Oblivion pretty well at reduced settings, so depending on what games you’re playing, I’d be somewhat optimistic about your machine.
I had to replace it because the motherboard fried, but the video card worked great for me, so I may put it up on my local craigslist for dirt cheap. Shoot me an e-mail if you want first dibs on it.
–KidScruffy
kidscruffy, I would be intrigued, but it’s gonna be February at the earliest before I can talk my wife into letting me work on this project. So please, hit Craigslist and I hope you get a good bite!
I think the most graphic intensive game I’m playing on my machine right now is Civ4, and that’s running in the lowest graphic settins possible. Not having an AGP slot was a dumb decision to make… I bet the guy at Fry’s is still laughing at me.
It’s looking like a build is actually in my future, so that’s a good thing.
The CPU is helpful, but these days what you really seem to need is a ton of normal RAM, a ton of video RAM, and a really fast GPU. So I’d spend the money on the video card and probably at least 2 gigs of RAM, the fastest your motherboard can support.
These days, PCI Express is even better than AGP 8X. Of course, you need a PCI Express slot and those will only be on newer motherboards. I’m pretty sure PCI Express was out 18 months ago when I bought my current motherboard but I went with an AGP 8X slot for backwards compatibility with an old AGP video card.
Hmmmm… everything I’ve found online says that this box has an AGP 4x slot. I’m hoping that’s still decent enough to play the median games on, with a decent card.
I’m not looking to run the latest and greatest FPS, so I’ve at least got a leg up on that.
It’s a NetVista M42, for those that were wondering. They sell for around $1000-$1500, but I don’t think I could get that much for it, since it’s going for much MUCH less on e-bay. But it’s got a better mobo than my current e-machine.