What can this machine do?

[jean 1990]

Hello,
my friend offers me a pc (without monitor) with these spec for 300$
- amdathlon 250 3ghz
- asus 790qx
- 2gb ram
- ati radeon 5750
- 500gb hadisrk

can this computer runs WoW, and starcraft 2?? can it run the latest game?? what is the "heaviest" game it can run?

and the most important... is it a good offer? well i know he is my friend, but i still need to do some crosscheck 😛

is it a big upgrade? currently im running a intel pentium 4 3.2 ghz, and it runs WoW with alot of stuttering 🙁... coz he said "it is a faaaar upgrade" and honestly it confuses me since this "athlon" processor have a lower speed (3ghz vs 3.2 ghz).

sorry for my bad english and thankss.

 

[Computerrock1]

For $300, prebuilt, that's a pretty good deal. You can get a better deal via a barebone kit and build it yourself. However, I am going to assume you don't know how to build a computer. The computer will be able to play WoW, as for Starcraft 2 it will but at low settings because the cpu is somewhat out of date.

 

[jean 1990]

I am going to assume you don't know how to build a computer. .

ouch you got me 😛... it scares me just to look at a computers inside rofl

The computer will be able to play WoW, as for Starcraft 2 it will but at low settings because the cpu is somewhat out of date

so it's true that it is slower than my current processor then? im gonna think twice then.... what is the heaviest game can it run??

 

[Computerrock1]

Whoa, hey i just looked back at this and noticed i made a mistake. Sorry, I was busy and needed to finish the post. The processor is actually pretty current, so let me give you a better analysis, this computer should be able to play most modern games at medium settings some even at high, just don't expect the ability to use AAx any time soon. I am really sorry about that. For the price he's giving you, that is an incredible deal.

 

[jj463rd]

Yes, A 3.0 Ghz Athlon II X2 250 is significantly more powerful than an old netburst 3.2 Ghz P4
You can go here to see a benchmark.The general benchmark won't however show its gaming performance (The Athlon II X2 250 would win at a much higher margin)
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

Old Pentium 4's were lame at gaming.
That Athlon II X2 250 although a budget dual core CPU is vastly better at gaming.

Ghz speed means very little compared to IPC and especially now that we are using multicore CPU's.

 

[sykozis]

That system will be able to play WoW at medium and low settings....but don't expect much at high settings.

 

[popatim]

Its not a bad deal at all.

 

[sykozis]

Considering the upgrade....it's a pretty decent deal overall. He can upgrade the graphics card later to get a bit more out of it as well.

 

[jean 1990]

already bought it, it can runs WoW at very high settings smoothly....
im suspicious because the price, because i bought that pentium 4 machine for 1700$ but here's something that miles better for 300 bux... technology going cheaper much isn't it?

before that, i did a bit googling and found this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megahertz_myth im so rage at you intel LOL....
back then they loudly promote megahertz as the parameter for a machine speed... which is the main reason i dont upgrade to a core 2 duo /rage

 

[Motopsychojdn]

I know this is late to the table but,
You picked up on the issue that the 'new' chip was slower than the old, but you didn't take into account that its a dual core proccessor, 2x procs at 3Ghz> one at 3.2Ghz,
other than that, enjoy your new pc, save up for another 2Gb of ram and maybe a nvidia 460 or an ati 5770, it'll breath a new lease of life into it for you
Moto

 

[jean 1990]

Best answer selected by jean 1990.

 

[enzo matrix]

Technology really does move that quickly. The 3.2GHz pentium based system you got for $1700 was a mid-high end system. The Athlon II system you have now, is a low end system. The processor used to be closer to a low-mid end processor when it first came out but now it is low-end. You can get The Athlon IIx2 processors for between $50-70 by themselves. That 3.2 pentium 4 you have was probably about $300 for just the processor at release in 2004.

You can compare the architectures here:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/92?vs=41

This is actually the older K8 architecture and a few improvements have been made since. The original "Athlon 64" processors were based on K8. The Athlon II and phenom II are based on the K10 architecture, which is more improved.

Even an Athlon II single core is faster at a lower clockspeed.

The core 2 line is faster per Hz than the Athlon II or Phenom II line. The icore xxx series are even faster per Hz and the icore xxxx series are even faster per Hz.