Dell Inspiron Gaming Compter Question?

[MSdemocrat]

If you had to buy a Dell computer to use for gaming and general business use would this fit the bill:

INSPIRON 660
2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i5-2320 processor (6M Cache, 3.0 GHz)
8GB Dual Channel DDR3 1600MHz - 2 DIMMs
1TB Hard Drive, 3.5", 7200rpm, SATA
DVD+/-RW Tray Load Drive, 16X, SATA
Intel® HD Integrated Graphics

I would be able to get his computer for less than $500 with all of the discounts.

Obviously a new graphics card would be a requirment but i am really not sure what to go with; it would need to be in the $150ish range. I know powersupply maybe an issue and I have a never used thermaltake TR2 600W that could be installed.

Should this computer be able to play Skyrim, Rift, and Eve Online at high settings with relative ease from a processing standpoint? What video card would work best in the $150ish range?

 

[jay2tall]

All I have to say is, you get what you pay for. If you are trying to get a gamer on the super cheap and do not want to build, I guess you could go with this. I just have a few items.
- ensure it is a standard form factor and not a small form factor. Otherwise you won't be able to fit a card in there unless it is too a small form factor card.
- ensure it has a PCI-E slot on the motherboard. Some low cost machines skip a PCI-E x16 slot entirely to cheap out.
- The Thermaltake would work well.
- at $150 your best bet will be a GTX 650Ti http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130838

 

[deadlockedworld]

Hey there,

+1 to above feedback. Are you really committed to Dell? There are much better options if you want a cheap pre-built gaming PC.

 

[lchrisk]

You won't play any of those games on high with that computer.

You could build one, which is substantially cheaper, and also is a good learning experience.

If not, there are many other websites other than overpriced dell to get pre-builts from.

http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/AMD_FM2_A-Series_APU

upgrade the cpu to the a10-5800k and add an extra 4gb of ram and it's still under $500.

 

[MSdemocrat]

Thanks for the info everyone.

I am not locked into a Dell and would actually prefer to build from scratch but my parents want to buy the computer for me and they get a "discount" through Dell.

I ran into the PCI slot problem with my just recently dead HP computer and the Dell does have PCI-E.

Assuming I have to stick with Dell, would a top of the line i3 series processor get better performance than the i5-2320?

 

[deadlockedworld]

Hah. I was going to suggest ibuypower/cyberpower too. That way it comes as a single purchase, but you can choose better quality parts.

Power supply should be the biggest hurdle you face in upgrading. Everything else should be pretty straightforward. For your purposes of upgrading, its probably better to get a stripped down higher end model rather than a loaded low end model.

Tom's CPU hierarchy should be of some help: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106.html