Dell Vostro 200 upgrade advice for casual gaming on a budget (Core 2 Duo 7200, 2GB DDR2)

[johnmcg92]

I've recently been given an old Vostro 200 and I'd like to give it a few upgrades to see if I can do some casual gaming on it. Things like older Steam games, MMOs and eSports like LoL, CSGO and Fortnite.

The specs currently are:
Intel Core 2 Duo 7200
2GB DDR2 800MHz
500GB HDD
750w PSU

I'm hoping to upgrade the memory to 8GB DDR2. I reckon I can pick up a 4x2GB kit for under €30. Is there any particular pitfalls to be aware of doing this?

I have been offered an nVidia 650 Ti Boost for €25. Would this be a good pairing with the system? Would I run into considerable bottlenecks? Are there better alternatives at this price?

Would it be worth picking up a Core 2 Duo 8600 for the faster base clock (2.6GHz vs 3.3GHz)? I can easily find one for under €30. Unfortunately I can't put a Core 2 Quad into the system as the motherboard (G33M02) doesn't support them.

Finally, I'm thinking of pairing this with a 1680x1050 monitor, as they're cheaper (about €40 used) and hopefully I'll have better performance at this resolution than at 1080p. Is this a realistic expectation?

Is there a chance I would run into issues with Windows 10 or nVidia drivers?

For the ~€125 spent, could I expect a decent gaming experience at 30fps on Low-Medium settings?

 

[imsqam]

Mini-tower or Slim Tower version?

 

[imsqam]

We need to determine which mobo you have to see what CPU's can be used. Supply it if you know it or use either HWinfo64 or CPU-Z to get your system info.

 

[johnmcg92]

Specs edited for 750w PSU. Someone must have upgraded this from the stock one.

It's the mini-tower version with a G33M02 motherboard (so I'm limited to 2 cores unfortunately).

 

[imsqam]

Okay, thanks. First, bad news, it appears that the max RAM supported is 4GB DDR2 800 MHz. See page 169 of the owner's manual.
http://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_desktop/esuprt_vostro_desktop/vostro-200_owner%27s%20manual_en-us.pdf

As far as CPU upgrades it is a bit of mixed bag. The E8600 is a significant upgrade from the E7200 but as you state you are limited to dual core CPU's.
http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core2-Duo-E7200-vs-Intel-Core2-Duo-E8600/m1876vsm124

The E8600 will cause a small amount of bottlenecking with the 650 Ti boost but I would still go for it, its close enough and this will maximize your CPU usage.

As far as 1050 vs 1080 you would have to watch out for issues such as driver support, connector types, etc.
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3009084/1680x1050-1920x1080-resolution.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Display_resolution

As far as what performance you will achieve it really depends on the game. MMO's likely will be an issue as they chew up CPU resources.