It’s got a PCI-E x16 slot, so I’d say that’s a definite yes. Though, from what I’ve seen, the power supply is only 280W, so it’d behoove you to upgrade that at the same time.
Just curious…do we have the SAME in-laws? Cause I’m thinking the exact same thing for mine…seriously.
With the side panel off, it looks like another optical drive can be installed, but there’s no opening in the face for it…
CPU isn’t so great, looks like it’s not a core2* or better, which would be minimum for me on a beater machine these days.
Most of the newer graphics cards will consume 95 or more watts of power. So, I think a minimum power supply wattage would be 350 watts. However, the bigger the better, as it will allow for future add ons.
Looks like a good deal for the price (and windows 7). Factor in another 200$ if you want to play computer games on it for a video card and maybe power supply. Still not a bad price!
Actually, the Pentium Dual-Core is basically a low-end Core 2 Duo. Same cores, just lower clocks and less L2 cache. But make no mistake, this is a Core 2 machine, not a Netburst machine.
I’m sure it’d be fine with a pcie card without an extra power connector, like a Radeon HD4650 or maybe a Geforce GT 240, both fine for bd-rom and light gaming.
Define midrange… better to list price restrictions as there are many good VGA cards for around 100-125$. Also, a good PSU to power those would be about 70-100$. The PSU listed here would not power much more than what’s already in the machine.
Is the assumption that the version of Vista Home Premium is 32-bit? I’ve read the description a couple of times, but couldn’t see where it was specified. I’m guessing it is 32-bit, thus the 3gb of memory…
any opinions on using this for a home server? Am thinking of getting a copy of windows home server and using for music library/printer sharing, Tivo - ipod desktop conversions, etc. Might run an apache and/or tomcat server on it for web publishing.
Would this system be able to support that? This is home only - 3-5 users.
May be this has a graphic card which support 3D.
Does that really matter? Can’t ya 64-bit Win7 almost out of the box?, however you can not >4G the memory. so the application is?
I have the same query.
Pretty good deal for a basic HTPC or basic web browser, light duty rig. Has respectable base ram and hard drive space, the processor is a solid entry level dual core as well.
The motherboard should have 1x PCI-16X slot and 2 PCI-E 1x slots.
So you can add 1 good PCI-E 16X video card to this to make it a medium duty gamer, maybe up to 1680 x 1050 with a decent video card, but don’t spend too much on the video card, because this thing only has a 280 watt power supply as far as i know, so if you want to throw something like an ATI HD 4850 you would HAVE to upgrade the power supply to even get it to run anything 3D.
I would recommend something like a Corsair CX/VX 400/450 or higher for an ATI 4850/4870 or lower, or maybe a 5770. If your going to spend more than $200 on a video card, don’t buy this thing, its a waste; just build custom. Remember this CPU will limit your FPS at lower resolutions.
If your going to use the stock power supply and upgrade the video card the highest video card you could probably run on this thing would be a 4650 that has a TDP below 60 watts, which would leave no room for overclocking the video card.
If you want this as is to browse the web, play mp3s, stream videos, play flash based games this will be a great computer. The onboard intel X3100 graphics with the dual core processor CAN run full 1080P without a video upgrade; incase anyone is wondering.
I am so close to pulling the trigger, the CPU is keeping me at bay. Did some quick research; you can do strategy games with it, casual games for sure - with a video upgrade of course.
Some benchmarks:
Intel Pentium Dual E2220 @ 2.40GHz (this machine)
Passmark CPU Mark 1390
Rank 230
Intel Core Duo T2500 @ 2.00GHz (my gaming laptop that does well with CIV4)
Passmark CPU Mark 912
Rank 376
For a reference:
Intel Pentium 4 3.80GHz
Passmark CPU Mark 633
Rank 453
Intel Core2 Duo E7400 @ 2.80GHz
Passmark CPU Mark 1864
Rank 148
Intel Core2 Quad Q9650 @ 3.00GHz
Passmark CPU Mark 4456
Rank 30
This computer has onboard intel integrated graphics, which is basically a video card built directly into the motherboard. Its not as fast as most cards you can buy for $75 these days, but with technology advancing these days its good enough to run 1080P on an HTPC or play any basic games Direct X 8 or prior.
It runs great 3D but if you want better graphics you will need a power supply and video card upgrade; see my previous post for more info on that.
While this does come with a 64 bit (32 bit compatible) processor.
Does this come with 32 bit Windows or 64 bit Windows?
My applications are NOT 64 bit compatible due to 64 bit PatchGuard.
A little incorrect info for basic video card upgrade. Spending closer to $100 would be ideal, but if your spending that much on a power supply plus the cost of the base computer, i would recommend custom.
For something like an ATI 4870 or under a quality power supply can be had these days for around $50
The Silverstone ST-400 is a solid power supply with 29 amps available on the single 12 volt rail for only $50 and has plenty enough to run a “midrange video card” , being anything you can buy for around $100-175
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817256032
The Silverstone Strider 400 is a great inexpensive power supply that doesn’t skimp on the quality, and i have used 2 myself that were powerful enough to run various setups including an Nvidia 9600GT massively overclocked, a Nvidia 7900GTX, and also ran an ATI HD 3850 perfectly. All of these with an overclocked 3 ghz Core 2 Duo.
And there really are many of us that thought Vista was a vast improvement over XP. But yeah, 7 is the way to go, no more getting into arguments with folks about Vista.
The chip shows no VT support, so you can’t run the free copy of XP that virtualizes under Windows 7 for legacy support, nor have fun with other newer virtualization features that require VT. Why buy a new computer that won’t run new features?