I was asked by a friend whether this thing could be used as a gaming rig.

And I have no idea. It looks more like it's a server to me, but I just don't recognize the CPU or the Nvidia card (I didn't even know there was an "FX" series with Nvidia. LOL) He was wondering if it could be a decent (obviously not great) gaming rig for a very, very good price. (It is refurbished though, so there is a risk I guess).

Anyway, I have no idea what to tell him. I'm just not familiar with the hardware in this thing at all. Can anyone here help us out?

EDIT: Reading the info there, I guess it's not a server but a workstation instead. Whatever, I'm just not at all familiar with this. (Can you tell I was never the IT guy at any of the offices I worked? LOL) I don't think I would buy it even if it wee less, but hey, if he wants to try it and it does handle gaming, good luck to him.

Might be decent with a new video card. That video card is weaker than a 9800 GT. Might work for older games, but some may still have issues. It only a 512 MB card.

Might even make a decent gaming rig out of it. Might need a power supply upgrade but the processor is good. So add a graphics card and a power supply...

I'm not sure if designated workstations have any other deficiencies as a gaming computer, or whether that is just how its marketed...

Thank you very much, I think that answers the question very well (the part about it being weaker than a 9800GT). I don't think he would be happy with that at all.

Thanks again.

ADDED: Doh! So I called him and let him know, and he says "I knew that card wasn't great but thought maybe I could put a better card in it but wasn't sure about the other hardware (CPU, memory, and hard drive I guess he's talking about)." Should've just let him ask online somewhere. I have no idea what to tell him, and am going to just hope he finds some answers somewhere else. I've never heard of that GPU series, that CPU series, or the hard drive (helicopter or some word close to that). I have no friggin clue what any of that stuff is.

Even if you did get a more robust graphics card, would it fit? The picture shown makes it appear it's a very tight fit - especially with the HDD in the way.


EDIT: improved wording :)

It probably is, the Dell systems I used to work on back in the day were kind of interestingly put together.
Very tightly fitted and with all kinds of plastic bits to channel the flow of air.

In short no. Look at the interior shot. The problem with pre-built machines is that they're very often designed to not be easily upgraded outside their original remit. Meaning you might be able to upgrade an office PC to be a better office PC but turning it into a gaming machine isn't possible.

Many manufacturers like to slam a premium on gaming rigs and won't let you circumvent that by buying a cheaper system and upgrading it.

Simply put, you won't get a decent graphics card in there and there may be other restrictions on what you can do with it. You're looking at replacing the motherboard, possibly the case and who knows what else.

Haven't seen that one, but I tried some Dell workstation as a gaming machine at some point and gave up with it because the power source was too weak for a proper graphics card and not worth the trouble trying to replace. I think its physical size was such that a generic one wouldn't have fit in its place.

The cabling was also detachable and clipped on with a connector that I haven't seen elsewhere. It was fairly neatly arranged inside the case so would have been a shame to pull out..

The processor is from the Intel Xeon series, several generations old and designed for servers and workstations (it's from the same generation as the Core2 series, which was the desktop series from that generation). The GPU is also pretty bad, and if you look at the interior shots there's simply no space physically to fit a decent GPU in there. Tell your friend not to buy that if he wants to play any games from the last 5 years.

I looked up a few things and ran across a post where someone else tried the same thing. There is no room for any 2-slot cards and apparently that model has a BIOS issue preventing the use of the 960, 970, 980 cards.