Is my PC good enough for playing todays games?

[Hektik]

Processor:Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 2.80GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.8GHz
Memory:1022MB RAM
Hard Drive:250 GB Total
Video Card:NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS
Monitor:Generic PnP Monitor
Sound Card: on board
Speakers: (High Definition )
Keyboard:Multimedia ps2 port
Mouse: USB dell optical
Operating System: Windows vista ultimate service pack 1

[hockey man]

Hey Hektik, what sort of games are we talking about? The majority of new hardware intensive games would "play" on your computer. . .but play well no. The two major hardware issues that I see are first the graphics card and then then RAM. That graphics card is not really up to the task of gaming. Secondly only one gig of ram with Vista! You could get away with that in XP but Vista needs at least 2 gigs to be happy to run almost anything!

[Hektik]

nvida 512mb 8400 is bad? Oo

[wickedestman]

not bad, but to efficiently run games today, a better gfx card is needed if you can afford it. Then more RAM as said.

Do you have a budget?

[minus-sign]

Your card will run the games. They will not be the "OMG! Blinding beautiful graphics!" that a brand new "built for gaming" PC, Vista OS with DX10 with two monster crossfire cards can produce, but you don't need that to run the latest games. If you squeeze an extra gig of RAM in there, you should be relatively lag free with few--if any--crashes due to hardware. There may--probably will--be some lag, some processor issues with heavy requirement games, but you can lower the settings to reduce that. Some games will do that for you automatically, going to the best setting to run themselves on your hardware.

On every box (and website) there are minimum system requirements that game manufacturers suggest is the bare min to use their game. That means it'll work, but you won't enjoy the experience. It will be buggy, prone to crashing and often require you to spend considerable time shutting down other programs to make room for this giant process you are about to run. There are also, typically, a "recommended" version that will run the game stably with few problems. The closer you get to that recommend point, the fewer issues you will have during play and going over that reduces them even further (well...usually; if the game was built for ATI support, you may be plenty pissed off after you buy it). If you want to know whats required to run a game, that's the first place you want to look.

Honestly, the people who made the game you want to play can answer your question better than we can. They know what their game needs.

[hockey man]

Were did you find that system? It appears from what you said about the mouse that it is a dell. What model is it?

[George Hallam]

Processor:Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 2.80GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.8GHz

3 years old PENTIUM nooo

Memory:1022MB RAM

1Gb for gaming 2Gb min for now days

Video Card:NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS

If you play games on 800 x 600 on all low if that what you call gaming then ok but..

for today's standards i am sorry mate it just wont "cut it"

[52vincent]

nvida 512mb 8400 is bad? Oo

That's really not a good card for gaming.

[Hektik]

Were did you find that system? It appears from what you said about the mouse that it is a dell. What model is it?
it was a stock i got for cheap but jus sold the hardware and put my own in

[George Hallam]

dell and upgrade don't usually get used in the same sentence with out a negative in it ;)

What do you plan on upgrading ?

What motherboard does it have in ?

[Hektik]

dell and upgrade don't usually get used in the same sentence with out a negative in it ;)

What do you plan on upgrading ?

What motherboard does it have in ?

a stock intel.

[George Hallam]

What chipset?

there are many

[Hektik]

What chipset?

there are many

INTEL D945GCL

[George Hallam]

hmm that is an old 945G micro atx MOBO with very limited for for with... well anything if you really plan on gaming you need a new one...

Im 90% sure you will need a new PSU as well now

[mjc]

At this point, it doesn't qualify as an upgrade, any longer...you will basically be building an entirely new system from the ground up. You may be able to keep you drives...but in all likelihood, replacing them with modern SATA drives would be best.

New motherboard/CPU...for that you will also need a new PSU and new RAM. IF this was an OEM system, then you will need a new copy of Windows, as the OEM install is not transferable. I mentioned new drives...SATA drives are the way to go, both hard drives and optical. Probably will need a new case, too...and some cooling fans.

[George Hallam]

and most important of all in a gaming rig a graphics card,

so i think like MJC said you may have to start from scratch

[Hektik]

hmm that is an old 945G micro atx MOBO with very limited for for with... well anything if you really plan on gaming you need a new one...

Im 90% sure you will need a new PSU as well now

well. it has nothing to do with a dell, im just using the mouse that i got from school.
It's an Emachines T5224 i bought from bestbuy the day windows vista came out. juanuary 2007 or 2006. not entirely sure.
the PSU isnt emachine brand or any brand for that matter, its just grey.
the ram is samsung, so i dont see why i would need to replace it.
why exactly would i need a new cpu? this type of cpu runs for $180 (cheapest i found) so another is out of the question.
I just want to put a new case in...

This One...

http://www.xoxide.com/xoxide-alien-x-case.html

the site says that micro ATX fits every case. is this true?

[mjc]

Pentium D are 'old'...yes, you say you have a duel core (the two processor bit), but it is probably not as efficient (especially heat/power) as a newer processor would be.

1 GB of RAM is barely enough for Vista, let alone any games. So, unless your motherboard has two or more RAM slots, in order to up the amount you will need to replace what you have. If you have two slots is the current RAM 1 stick or 2 512 MB sticks?

The 'unbranded' PSU is even worse...well, emachines doesn't really have their own 'brand' of PSU, but that doesn't matter...emachines is notorious for using the barest minimum power supply that will let the machine turn on. So adding anything to it, other than more RAM, usually means replacing the power supply with something a little more 'robust'.

Yeah, that case will work...

[Hektik]

Pentium D are 'old'...yes, you say you have a duel core (the two processor bit), but it is probably not as efficient (especially heat/power) as a newer processor would be.

1 GB of RAM is barely enough for Vista, let alone any games. So, unless your motherboard has two or more RAM slots, in order to up the amount you will need to replace what you have. If you have two slots is the current RAM 1 stick or 2 512 MB sticks?

The 'unbranded' PSU is even worse...well, emachines doesn't really have their own 'brand' of PSU, but that doesn't matter...emachines is notorious for using the barest minimum power supply that will let the machine turn on. So adding anything to it, other than more RAM, usually means replacing the power supply with something a little more 'robust'.

Yeah, that case will work...

yea i bought a 2gb stick and used one of my 512mb
and thanks, deff buying that case now ^_^

[rond36]

You would have been better off buying two 1GB sticks to replace both 512MB sticks.

2 GB running in duel channel would be better then 2.5 GB in single channel.

[BatistaCC]

You be better off if you have allesat 4gb of RAM for the latest 3D games such as crysis andand better grapfhics such as nvidia gefroce 8600 gt 512mb and get a extra hard drive!!!
Here are my build

CPU: Intel Extreme Core 2 Extreme QX9775 3.2GHZ 12MB Cache
RAM: Consair Doinmator DDR3 4 GB
Thermaltake Kandalf Full Tower Case
Asus Maximus Formula Motherboard
2x Hitachi Deskstar 1TB Hard Drives Which Means (2TB) SATA2
ATI Readon HIS 4807X2 2GB GDDR5
Dell 2707WFP 27" Moniter
Optical Drive: Asus DRW 2014L1 (DVD-RW)
Blu-Ray Drive: Asus BC1205PT
Logitech MX Revoultion Wireless Mice and Keyboard

[Legolewinsky]

@BatistaCC-Is that even possible? I didn't know that that cpu/ram would work with the mobo, but I could be wrong. I'm no expert, but I don't think that the mobo can support DDR3. Am I correct?

[Lostatsea3]

No it does not work with that Mobo... Batista has been spamming this all over. It's really getting old... someone PLEASE ban him for the love of god.

Hektik what's your budget for upgrades/build?