What games than this system run?

Been gifted a friends old PC because they freaked out when it had a virus and immediately bought a new one from PC world and did not want the old one anymore.

Its quite old, I Intend to set this PC up in work to use in staff lounge while I'm off duty for a an hour or two.

I had a few spare parts myself that I fitted to the computer when I got it, so here are its specs.

In bold are parts I had lying round I added to the computer.

Intel Core Duo E4400 (2ghz)

Cooler master hyper 103

2.5 GB DDR2 Ram

Nvidia GT210

550 Winpower PSU

Samsung 150gb 7600rpm Sata drive

Optical drive is a DVD re-writer of some sort, didn't really look don't use it

Its running Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit, I'm not going to spend any money on it, I have my main build I spend money on. Its good enough to use for presentations and old emulators anything is a bonus so I'm curious what it could run.

The tower is pretty small, so even if I did get a better GPU if its worth it I'd be limited by space, below is what the tower looks like

For some reason this computer throws a bitch fit when I try to run system requirements lab tests to check what games I can run, so could someone let me know what games to expect this to handle at playable frames, any resolution.

GT210?????

GPU Engine Specs

CUDA Cores 16

Graphics Clock (MHz) 589MHz

Processor Clock (MHz) 1402MHz

Memory Specs

Memory Clock 500MHz

Standard Memory Config 512MB

Memory Interface GDDR2

Memory Interface Width 64-bit

Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec) 8.0

I am sure that even some browser games should have problems running on this GPU xD.

On a serious note, this reminds me a bit M8600GT models on laptops, which can even play skyrim on low details.

Expect some gaming from PS3/X360 era with 720p and low details.

ps: I don't really know how this happened...

edit: I found a little more info, it seems that its slightly less powerful than HD2000 on Intel CPUs.

I think this will help a lot on which games it can play.

well you can add a low profile $60-70 r7 240 . Its cheap it does not need a new power supply and you can play less demanding games such as grid 2 or Bioshock infinite at 1080p albet low/medium settings and 30-40fps

Found a 6570 for £30, think thats worth while, its about the most im willing to spend on this, its gotta be better than the 210

Since 6570 is actually a 5570, look at the difference between GF 210:

I think you should buy it :)

@Coseniath:

The 6570 might be overkill, it only has a Core Duo and from memory the E4400 isn't great. I could be completely wrong.

@thehig1 said:

Been gifted a friends old PC because they freaked out when it had a virus and immediately bought a new one from PC world and did not want the old one anymore.

Its quite old, I Intend to set this PC up in work to use in staff lounge while I'm off duty for a an hour or two, at the very least I can emulate snes, nes, genesis games etc.

I had a few spare parts myself that I fitted to the computer when I got it, so here are its specs.

In bold are parts I had lying round I added to the computer.

Intel Core Duo E4400 (2ghz)

Cooler master hyper 103

2.5 GB DDR2 Ram

Nvidia GT210

550 Winpower PSU

Samsung 150gb 7600rpm Sata drive

Optical drive is a DVD re-writer of some sort, didn't really look don't use it

Its running Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit, I'm not going to spend any money on it, I have my main build I spend money on. Its good enough to use for presentations and old emulators anything is a bonus so I'm curious what it could run.

The tower is pretty small, so even if I did get a better GPU if its worth it I'd be limited by space, below is what the tower looks like

For some reason this computer throws a bitch fit when I try to run system requirements lab tests to check what games I can run, so could someone let me know what games to expect this to handle at playable frames, any resolution.

Upgrade RAM to 4Gb unless you're going to play some really old games (aside from upgrading GPU of course)

Also don't install anything above XP so it'll save some RAM for games (just a tip)

Nah, these days, people were combining dual cores with top end cards like 9800GT or even a GTX280.

There is nothing wrong to place a GPU like 6570.

I am concern a little bit about memory too but in the end, 2GB was normal at 2008/2009.

RAM is the biggest issue, its also 64bit (which recommends 1GB for W7/8), the 32bit was fine with 512MB.

Well, I don't know about 2,5GB RAM but I had a traumatic experience with Q6600 and 2GB RAM with win7 :P. (I had an issue with my other 2GB, I was using 4GB normally).

I was playing one of the lightest games out there (League of Legends) and after a game I was waiting like a min or two in order to return to windows mode :S.

Anyway maybe grabbin an other 2GB (for a total of 4GB) is required :P.

IIRC the GT210 is a rebadged 9400GT which was a rebadged 8500GT, in other words it was low end at release in 2007, 7 years ago.

That said, basic indy games and maybe source games on low settings would be ok. You can always enjoy classics like Age of Empires, Half Life and Red Alert 2.

So here is my plan,

2gb DDR2 ram to bring its total to 4gb (There was 2gb in a disused PC in my work I took, although its a slightly slower speed than the other stick I have installed in the PC) still total ram is 4gb now.

I'll get that 6570 for £30, or see if what else they have in my local CEX around that standard, should be able to enjoy some half decent games then. :)

@Coseniath: holy moly cex shop in my town do a 4890 for £30 one reserved that to pick up Saturday.

could you tell me were you get those relative performance charts from There really good

Sapphire Radeon HD 5570 1 GB review from TechpowerUp.

Total 22 benchmarks games and synthetic :).

Its the most accurate site cause It has the largest benchmark pool.

mind you 4890 is quite power hungry GPU and i highly doubt that 550W no name power supply will cut it for that GPU. Let alone there is a chance the case if its small it wont fit the GPU

@adamosmaki: dan I really like the look of the 4850, I'll measure up the space see if it will fit and I might take a chance on the psu.

I won't be heart broken if it blows

Well if you didnt bought the card you can always try ebay UK and get a 7750 used. I 've seen them as low as 25-30 pounds. Performance wise probably the same if not better will consume alot less power and you can actually play dx11 games ( 4850 only supports dx10 )

Half-Life 2 will probably run decent on it. That is very old hardware and you would be wise to buy a new PC.

dont need a new PC, my rig is an FX 8350/7850 Crossfire, its a second PC made of old parts I had a desktop that was given to me. Only going to use it in work for presentations and some gaming while off duty(often 2 hours per day) out of 14 hours per day I spend at work

Ahh... OK. As long as you have a regular gaming PC, that is fine. I wouldn't want you to be suffering with that old thing. hehe :)

got the 4890, lucky enough it fits in the case fine, a little cramped but fits.

used a corsair cx 500 so the psu is up to the job.

how ever I don't get any video?

funny enough I first tried a 5450 in this pc and that didn't work either, is it possible the motherboard only accepts nvidia cards.

Damn those fanboi mobos! :P

Hmmm it might have a problem, have you tried to make a bios update?

it won't boot now I don't even get any POST beeps so I can't see the bios anymore.

it won't show video with onboard, or a gt210, a 5450 or my new 4890.

any idea?

I think the motherboard is fucked, eliminated other possibilities, and the SATA connector on the motherboard is now broken anyway so it wont accept a SATA drive now even if it wasn't already fucked.

It wasn't the PSU, that was a CX500 which is more than enough to run that set up

It wasn't the RAM, wouldn't show video or boot to bios even when it was removed

It wasn't the 4890 itself, the 4890 works in my main PC, and the onboard wouldn't even show video anyway

Everything was plugged in, motherboard power, CPU, drives etc, fans spun but no POST beeps

Simple course of elimination its the motherboard.

So I'm left with the following

CPU - Intel Core Duo E4400

GPU - XFX ATI 4890 1GB

PSU - Corsair CX500(500W)

RAM - 4 GB DDR2 PC6400

Hard Drive - 150GB 7600rpm SATA

Case - Micro ATX case as displayed in above post

Motherboard - None

So is it worth finding an LG 775 motherboard for these components, or give it up and start selling the parts or keep as back up for my main build.

I bought a new LGA775 Gigabyte mobo last year for $50. (for a Q6600 with 4GB RAM and GTX275)

If you find 1 for a similar price then why not?

edit: I bought this one. GA-G41M-Combo (rev. 2.0)

got DQ965GF, the board you posted looked good but was expensive in uk.

Well, we have similar prices, it seems its price went up. :P

4890 is a great card for that money. I still have my GTX275 that I want to sell but this has made me realise it's worth essentially nothing - I may as well keep it around as a backup card.

yeah I tested it in my main PC and its not bad, could play all my games and some on high settings, if this project fails its a very good back up.

Ok, so with new motherboard still have the same problem, I cannot get the dam thing to show any video using the onboard or the g210, not gonna try the 4890 until I fix this first.

Dont get any post beeps on start up, same symptoms before I replaced the motherboard.

I would like to do the power cable trick, its worked before but my power button does not work, its not connected properly I cant figure out were the jumper goes to connect it.

When I turn on the power supply the system just boots automatically.

Below is a picture of my motherboard, could someone point out were the power jumper, and other jumpers would go.

EDIT : Got the thing working, had to use an ASUS motherboard with a AMD 64 x 2 6000 CPU it had with it.

Good system now