Good Gaming Comp?

[Little Grey]

Hey i was wondering if this would be a good setup for gaming. Not nessesarily hardcore, but i would like to play half life 2 with decent results

NIB Custom 3.0GHZ Pentium 4 LGGA processor PC
- Black Enlight mid-tower case with Antec 500W Power supply.
- Intel D915PBBL motherboard (built-on LAN and audio.
- 3.0GHZ Pentium 4 LGGA 630 Processor.
- 2GB Kingston DDR2 533mhz memory.
- (2x) Western Digital 80GB SATA hard drive.
- ATi Radeon x300se 128MB PCI-express video card.
- SONY DVD-RW drive.
- 16x DVD-rom drive.
- 3.5" floppy drive.

The guy is looking for 500 shipped. Would that be a good deal, or should i pass it up?

[Little Grey]

Anyone? I need the info fast. The guy wont hold it forever.

[hoov100]

dont buy a used computer. and dont forget about cooling.

[Little Grey]

Well, its not really used. Its brand new in box. I'll ask him about cooling, thanks for the tip.
And it also comes with software backups of: Windows XP Pro, Office XP Pro, Symantec Anti-virus, Adobe Photo suite (photoshop, premiere, after effects, Illustrator). and a ghost image DVD-rom set in case you need to bring your system back to original configuration

[hoov100]

and also what OS is he using? and you may want to invest in an open air cooled case. ans possibly a couple of 56k cd drives.

[Little Grey]

xp pro i guess. But I could get XP home edition (im more used to it)

[hoov100]

xp pro is fine, im currently trying to play HL2 on an off the shelf computer. but if you do buy it, get a 56k disk drive.

[penguinrusty]

Everything else is pretty good except for that gfx card. I would go with a radeon 9600XT or 9800 instead.

[Little Grey]

But would that graphics card handle HL2, Battlfield 2 etc. I dont need a hardcore card, just something that will handle those games. Also, how much will a 56k disk drive cost, and what does it do?

[hoov100]

a 56k disk drive will spin a disk faster, wich will give you better performance. they cost somewhere around $25 for a good one, i think that gfx card is fine for HL2 hell, im not using a graphics card for it and it still looks damn good, not a sighn of lag.

[Little Grey]

So as long as i get that drive, you think that is a good deal?

[hoov100]

it will play HL2 at a good rate. youll also love HL2

[Little Grey]

I just heard from the guy. Its got 2 80mm fans. Any Good?

[penguinrusty]

Get a case with more fans. Also, that graphics card will play half life 2, but prolly not bf2, as my friends' 9600xt can't even play it on medium w/ an amd athlon 64. Get a new gfx card! Oh, and why do you have two DVD drives?

[Little Grey]

Ok, so i need a straight up, no bs answer. Should i get it? Or should i just pass it up?

[hoov100]

sure, just get that upgraded disk drive on the way home and it will work fine.

[penguinrusty]

Yes. Get it. I think you'll find that you want a better gfx card, but otherwise it's very good.

[hoov100]

even without the help of a gfx card, HL2 is stunning.

[Little Grey]

alright thanks very much for all the help. I really appreciate it. I guess i'll get it.

[penguinrusty]

i think, even without a gfx card, that game is unbelievably detailed.
That made no sense...