ATI Radeon 2400 pro

Hi guys,

Just wanted a quick opinion. I m buying a desktop on very cheap price with following specs:

Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E4500

2.2GHz, 800MHz FSB, 2MB Cache

3GB Memory

320GB Hard Drive

ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO Graphics

Now i know these r not extra ordinary specs but i m getting that machine for around 200 pounds (last one from display). My main concern is ati radeon.
I was curious if it can play new games on reasonable settings. I m not expecting it to play games at higher settings but still i was curious if it can run games like company of heroes, bioshock, half life orange box at playable fps. Also i m planning to change the graphics card after few months to geforce 9600. Do i have to change my power supply as above mentioned desktp has power supply of 300 watts. Thanks in advance.

 

How new are these games you're thinking of playing? If they are really new games, such as Crysis, the HD2400Pro will struggle. If you're only thinking of games such as the ones you've listed, the HD2400Pro will be able to play them, although not all at maximum settings (games such as Bioshock will struggle at maximum, while HL2 will be fine as it's well written and the engine is quite old).

A Geforce 9600 should be fine with a 300W PSU, given that it has a spare 6 pin power connector. Although nVidia recommends a 400W PSU for the 9600, the graphics card itself has a peak power consumption of 96W. Unless you are also planning on running 3-4HDs in RAID, or upgrading your CPU to a Quad Core, should be fine for your 300W PSU.

 

Yeah the HD2400Pro will actually play all the current games, you just need to be sure to optimize the settings.

For the price it will do fine until you get a replacement.

IMO Geforce 9600 will likely not be fine with a 300W PSU, I'm surprised they put a 300W PSU in the rig you have, but then again it's probably towards the limit of the PSU without much thought to that being an upgrade rig.

The GF9600GT draws 60W of actual power (not the rating actual draw at the pins), the HD2400 is less than half of that closer to 20W. So I would say you might want to consider a new PSU if you do go to a new upgrade. Try it without (because why waste money?), but don't be surprised if that significant power draw causes you a little instability and such where you find an upgrade is in order.

The 300W PSU is likely better quality than generic PSUs, but I doubt that with such an entry-low end PC that they built much overhead into the power evnelope.