Good system for work and play?

[magneto786]

Hi, I'm a college student looking for a pc where I can both work and play on it. I'm becoming a digital artist and am heavily dependent on programs such as Autodesk Maya/Mudbox and Adobe AfterEffects/Photoshop. I also love playing the lastest and greatest PC games along with eye popping 3D mmorpgs. I've come across a pc in my budget and would like opinions to see if it has the hardware I need to work and play and also your recommendations for any upgrades or substitutions.
Here's the specs on a possible purchase.

# Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
# AMD Phenom X4 9550 Quad-Core 2.2 GHz processor
# 2000 MHz HyperTransport 1.0
# GeForce 6150SE nForce 430 chipset
# 6 GB DDR2 SDRAM (expandable up to 8 GB)
# 500 GB Serial ATA hard drive plus 230 GB external
# 16x DVD±RW DL LightScribe drive
# Integrated graphics
# High Definition 8-channel audio (ALC 888S chipset
# Integrated 10/100 Base-T networking interface
# Built-in 15-in-1 Memory Card Reader

I've also got my eye on a Sparkle GeForce 9500GT 1 GB PCIe video card that I could upgrade to. Is that a decent configuration or am I doing something totally wrong. I appreciate any feed back.

My budget is about 450. And this system is a reburbished hp at about 400.

 

[WR2]

It's acceptable for what you want to do.
Not knowing how much you're planning on spending for that system - or what your budget is - makes it hard to judge it's relative value.
Is this a refurbished or reconditioned HP system?

The 9500GT is at the shallow end of the pool in gaming video cards which you probably knew. It should play older games (the greatest) OK but will struggle with the more recent games (the latest).
To give you an idea where it stands in comparison check out the charts @ Guru3d
Here is THG's recent article: Best Graphics Cards For The Money: September '09

 

[magneto786]

Its a refurbished HP at about 400. My budget is 450.

 

[itadakimasu]

you'd likely need to add a newer video card for that system to play games.

 

[magneto786]

thanks guys, At least I know I'm not gonna get stuck with a low performance lagger and thanks for the Guru3D link, I'll use it to plan out my next video card purchase.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey