Would This Work As A Gaming PC?

Hi,

My uncle is an artist / graphics designer (for mainly console games), but has now switched to iOS App Designing so obviously he is working on a mac now. He said he is going to give me his PC. It's a custom build that he made 3 years ago, that cost him £2600!

Here are some vague specs:

2.4Ghz Quad Core processor 8Gb Ram 1x 512gb HDD 1x 256gb HDD (with 6 slots free for hardrives) 1x geforce 8800 gtx (768mb) (1 more slot free for graphics card)

I Just want to know if it's still any good now and if it would work as a gaming pc? Furthermore if it would be able to run new releases (e.g. skyrim) and how well it would (like min, med, max settings).

Thanks in advance Louis

gaming artist specification ios custom pc mac graphics

asked Nov 12 '11 at 16:05

Louis
186●11●12●17

4 Answers:

oldest newest most voted

i had a very simular PC that i made, Quad core Q6600, and a 8800GTX, and it was fantastic. I could play GTAIV on Highest textures with some tweaking. every game i threw at it i could play at full or almost full settings at a decent frame rate.

obviously some games now are very demanding on the memory, the only drawback on the 8800GTX is the 756mb memory (depending on model) but it should be able to play most games still at a decent rate if you tweak the graphics settings.

sadly my 8800GTX died!

answered Nov 12 '11 at 22:25

roguekiller23231
4.2k●72●104●142

back in the days of the 8800GTX, many of the cards came with a life time warranty. if yours has one then get it replaced. The 8800 series can have their quadro functions easily unlocked, great for programs like maya 3D, and if your board can do 2 cards at x15 speeds instead of splitting the bandwidth and running at x8, you can put both cards in the PC and use the 8800 for quadro functions as well as physx.

the 8800 was a good card at the time but now for some of the higher end titles, it generally falls below the minimum requirements.

(Nov 12 '11 at 22:57) Razor512

For the CPU, we need the model, For example if it is a Phenom 1 CPU at 2.4GHz, then you wont have the CPU power needed to run a game smoothly such as metro2033

But if it is a Core 2 quad, then it will handle the newer games.

The videocard will need to be replaced.

unless the system is using a 512GB SSD, there is no way a 3 year old PC with those specs can cost even $800

A good upgrade if the CPU model is good will be getting a GTX 460.

With the stock overclocking controls, you can generally hit around 875-900MHz on the GPU (From the stock 675-720MHz), and with a bios mod to unlock the voltage limits, you can hit around 930-950MHz

(Hitting the 900MHz range puts the gtx 460 into the performance range of the gtx 560ti or better)

answered Nov 12 '11 at 18:04

Razor512
15.6k●34●80●242

i've already stated that its a quad core. And the graphics card alone cost £500 3 years ago. It has 8 HDD slots and 2 graphics slots? How can you find that for less than £500!?!?

(Nov 12 '11 at 19:14) Louis

The quad core does not mean much unless you have it's model. Eg is it a Phenom 1 or Phenom 2 Or Core 2 quad. This is important as it will determine if you need to upgrade the CPU or not.

For example, If you were to upgrade to a GTX 460 and your current CPU was a Phenom 1 quad core, then a game that would need a fast videocard, eg metro 2033 or battlefield 3 would run like crap on high settings. (An alternative in that case would be to have you make due with the 8800 until the end of the year when hopefully that flood will be fixed and prices can come back down to normal, then you can by a new Motherboard, CPU, Memory (if not DDR3) and videocard.

In 2009, I did that very thing and got a GTS 250 for around $129 at newegg (faster than a 8800GTX) Asus m4a78 plus for around $70 at newegg 4GB ddr2 1066 for about $60 at newegg Phenom II x2 555 unlocked to quad core and overclocked to 3.8GHz for $125 at newegg)

In your case, either you bought a overpriced prebuilt system or the prices in the European region are significantly higher than in the US

The system as it is not will work as a gaming PC, it just wont run newer more demanding games, and for the current less demanding games, you will be stuck using very low settings (eg elder scrolls skyrim, modern warfare 3)

(Nov 12 '11 at 21:39) Razor512

0	You can always use that as a gaming rig.. for maybe 2 years more? but on low graphic settings. It all depends on how you get satisfied with what you are playing. even the best specs out there can't satisfy some gamers. answered Nov 12 '11 at 23:03 xedric14 941●72●77●90

0	if it was a core 2 duo, and it was a 2600k or 2700k that will work for like 3 years answered Jul 22 '12 at 19:42 Owned Yeah 0●1●1●2

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Asked: Nov 12 '11 at 16:05

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Last updated: Jul 22 '12 at 19:42

Would This Work As A Gaming PC?

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