Is this config good for a gaming machine?

[vkarthik]

My budget is below $1000 ... I want to be able to play PC games like counter strike and halo comfortably. Is this config good enough for that?

Dimension E520 Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6300 (1.86GHz, 1066 FSB)
Operating System Vista Premium
Memory 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz- 2DIMMs
Video Cards 256MB ATI Radeon X1300 Pro
Hard Drives 250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™

There was an option to choose "256MB nVidia Geforce 7300LE TurboCache" or "Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X3000" but I chose the more expensive ATI Radeon, since I've heard it performs better. But please do advise on the video card too.

This config costs < $950 ... Let me know if its gaming performance will be tolerable. I'm not a hard core gamer, but I do like to play now and then.

[ikeray]

the geforce is nice, but i think you will definitely get more out of the radeon. and the intel surprisingly doesnt get much support with gaming software, they prefer you use a nVidia or ATI.

[jlreich]

I would suggest, if possible, choose onboard video (Intel GMA) and make sure you have a PCIe x16 slot in the system, buy your own video card and install it yourself.

Both those cards you listed are low end budget cards. The fact that the system will be running vista only makes it worse. You can get a much better card yourself for a lot less.

I do agree with ikeray though, the ATI card is the better choice of the two. So if you are not up to getting the card and installing it yourself...

Otherwise the system looks good.

Although I am not sure if you will have any problems running those games on vista or not.

Anyone have a clue on these games running on vista? Does Steam work on vista yet?

[ikeray]

i thought the same thing about getting the onboard video and making sure to have a PCIe or AGP slot and a power source that would be able to run that extra graphics card. is this a pre-built or a constructed one?

and jlreich all the things online, and heard from friends, leads me to the conclusion that vista wasnt setup as a gaming machine and thus will give very poor performance for CS as well as halo. my friends reverted back to XP while others have talked about dual-booting running both OS's. if you are more into games than multimedia then i would stay with XP until vista develops into a gaming system.

[mjc]

and jlreich all the things online, and heard from friends, leads me to the conclusion that vista wasnt setup as a gaming machine and thus will give very poor performance for CS as well as halo. my friends reverted back to XP while others have talked about dual-booting running both OS's. if you are more into games than multimedia then i would stay with XP until vista develops into a gaming system.

It isn't so much that Vista is the problem (well, sort of it is...but that is a different rant), but, rather, the lack of 'serious' drivers for it. The current crop of video/audio drivers just don't have what it takes to do justice to games. As the manufacturers roll out updated/optimized drivers the current performance issues when gaming should diminish...

[vkarthik]

hmm .. thanks guys, perhaps a dual boot with XP makes sense ... any recommendations for a hassle free partition manager (preferably free)?

as for the gfx card, im not sure if i can afford an extra one, coz im planning to add a cheap home theater system to this ... i read some reviews that said that ati x1300 pro is one of the best among the entry level cards.. i think i'll go with that.

[vkarthik]

oh btw, can one of u tell me which motherboard is given with Dell Dimensions E520? i dont find it in their specs. reason is, they have an integrated audio, and i heard it isn't very good. later on if i plan to install a sound card, the mother board should support it. i dont want to use up a usb port for an external sound card.

im also interested in knowing if the usb ports will be in the front or the back of the cabinet, and how many ports will be there.. if someone has used E520 before, please let me know these details.

[ikeray]

audio: * Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic with Dolby 5.1
* Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio

Expansion slots: PCI: 2 Slots
PCIe x1: 1 Slot
PCIe x16 (Graphics): 1 Slots

usb port wise: 7 Ports (2 Front, 5 Back) + 1 internal

http://i.dell.com/images/global/products/dimen/e520_specs_shots_525x265.jpg


all from:
http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/dimen_e520?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~tab=specstab

[rond36]

I don't know about Halo but Steam/Counter-Strike run fine in Vista.

The only problem that I have had was when I installed Half-Life 2 Lost Coast.
The installer popped up a message saying that I have a 2.7GHz processor and the minimum is 2.9GHz then it gave me a link to where I can buy a video card that supports HDR :D Any idea where I could get one of those :rolleyes: LOL

It gives the same message when you start the game but click continue anyway and the game plays fine. I get 174.46 FPS in the video stress test without CF enabled.

any recommendations for a hassle free partition manager (preferably free)?Just use the one that comes with Vista.

You will need 2 partitions on your hard drive or 2 hard drives.

Win XP will need to be installed first then Win Vista.

If you initiate the Vista installation from Win XP your drive letters will remain the same Win XP on C: and Win Vista on D: whether you boot XP or Vista.

If you initiate the Vista installation by booting from the Win Vista DVD the drive letters will change depending on which operating system that you choose to boot.
If you boot XP; XP will be on C: and Vista will be on D:
If you boot Vista; Vista will be on C: and XP will be on D:

[vkarthik]

thanks all .. very helpful.

I've finally purchased it with the config I gave above, with 7.1 channel integrated audio. Also added logitech z-5300e speaker set to it.