Should I buy this computer?

[PiNK PiPER]

What do you wolfies think... should I buy this computer from a friend and can it play Skyrim? I think it can on medium levels.

Acer Aspire Tower
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4 ghz
4 gb ram ddr2
500 gb d.d sata
dvd rw
Windows 7 Pro SP1 64 bit (installed)
HD 2600 video card

$200.00 dollars... can I play Oblivion with this? I really want to play Skyrim one day. Is this a good deal? I have 2 hours to make up my mind.

[neildarkstar]

For $200 that's not a bad deal if it's in good condition. It should be capable of Skyrim or Oblivion if you're not looking for extreme FPS with good (high) settings. The hard drive is a little small by today's standards, but you can always pick up an external to go with it.

[PiNK PiPER]

medium settings for skyrim is good for me. Thanks. anyhoo I could always upgrade the video card later on

[neildarkstar]

I think that Vid card only has 512 of memory, so that could be a headache. You could probably replace it with something older but with a gig of memory and be quite happy. A major factor in upgrading vid cards is always the power supply, so you'll want to check that to be sure you CAN upgrade the card. If not, you can probably replace the power supply too. I kind of mistrust Acer in certain respects, and an adequate power supply is one thing you want to check.

[Jac]

The RAM is also about half of what you want for 64-bit Windows. But for $200, it ain't bad as long as everything's working properly.

[PiNK PiPER]

The PC was in great shape and I bought it for 180. I think I may use it for parts and just upgrade my current gaming rig. Yay a project I may need some other parts.

So I can buy 4 more ram right?

Going to test it right now with oblivion and see what happens.

[fleet]

Before buying more RAM, I'd suggest you check the specs on the motherboard to determine the maximum amount of RAM it can use.

very respectfully,
fleet

[Jac]

What Fleet said. If all of your RAM slots are full, you'll need to replace the sticks.

[PiNK PiPER]

Ok here are the specs, I installed waterfox and the PC is running very fast.

Operating System
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit SP1
CPU
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.40GHz 36 °C
Kentsfield 65nm Technology
RAM
4.00GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 332MHz (5-5-5-15)
Motherboard
ACER G33T-AM (Socket 775) 30 °C
Graphics
Generic Non-PnP Monitor (1024x768@60Hz)
256MB ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro (Microsoft Corporation WDDM 1.1) (ATI)
Hard Drives
466GB Seagate ST3500830AS (SATA) 43 °C
Optical Drives
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM_GSA-H60N
Audio
High Definition Audio Device

Here's something I found on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHaljW6-DbQ and here's the description the user wrote...

Fallout 3 - HD 2600 Pro Test
Okay, so finally, here it is . One of the greatest RPG's ever made. Some say it's to similair to Oblivion, but i loved Oblivion! Max details, but water on medium (why did it make the game lag so hard??), 1440*900, 0*AA, DX9.

My PC:
ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro (OC)
Intel Pentium dual core 1,8 Ghz (OC to 2 Ghz)
2*1024 mb ram

So if he was able to play Fallout with everything maxed out except for the water then I'll try and see what Oblivion looks like. What do you think?

EDIT: I found this video using these specs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lOGAt6j350

I had only small lags during recording, but none without recording. All setings are maxed up, except AA is off, cause HDR didn't lemme to use it, resolution 1440*900.

ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro (OC'd)
2048 mb RAM (2*1024)
Intel pentium dual core 1,8 Ghz

[neildarkstar]

According to the specs, that motherboard can handle up to 8 GB of RAM. Here's the specs for what appears to be the same machine, you may find this handy at some point:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6883103133

EDIT: I see the hard drive on the one I posted is a little bigger, but I suspect that will be the only difference. If that is true, the power supply is only 300 watts, which is light for the graphics card that's in it (ATI recommends 400 watt) but people haven't had many issues with that. Upgrading will be problematic though, most cards require 400 watts or better.