5 quick questions?

B

Barbourman

New Member
Hi! First post for me!

Can someone please answer these 5 questions for me? I don't want to "impulse buy"! Thanks.

With 1GB of memory, a dual-core AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ processor, and a 250GB hard drive, the HP Pavilion Slimline S3020n PC is fully loaded yet the tower itself is merely one-third the size of a traditional tower PC.

Specs--

AMD Athlon 64X2 3800+ 2.0GHz, socket AM2, GeForce 6150 LE chipset, 1MB L2 cache
1GB DDR2 PC2-4200 SDRAM, 2GB max in 2 slots
250GB SATA HD, 16X DVD(+/-)R/RW RAM (+/-)R DL LightScribe drive
Nvidia GeForce 6150LE graphics with up to 319MB of shared video memory; 7.1 channel audio

1- Will the 1/3rd size of the tower make difficult to find upgrades?

2- Is the "shared video memory" bad for gaming? Easy to add a new vid card?

3- Does "dual core" mean that it actually is a 4.0Ghz processor?

4- Can I stick a 512M DDR RAM stick into the 2nd port? Is it compatible with SDRAM? Is it any good?

5- Can this be a good gaming computer as-is?
 
1. yes video card wise
2. yeah is is kinda bad for gaming, with the small footprint you will need to find a low profile card
3. no
4. yea you could as long as there are the same amout of pins
5. the CPU is pretty good, RAM good, HDD good, video card isn't good for gaming
 
1 - Yeah, I think a mid-tower's the way to go unless you really need the smaller size. Besides being more difficult to upgrade/work in, their cooling typically isn't quite as good as larger cases.

2 - Don't plan on gaming with onboard video. Under most cases, motherboards that have onboard video cards will also have some type of graphics port(PCI Express for current boards)

3- No

4- Typically SD-RAM refers to older style RAM, such as PC100. Be sure the standards match. Otherwise it plain won't fit due to differences in pins or keys.

5- Throw in a decent GPU and it should do pretty well. The processor is a bit slow with regards to today's standards, but not all too bad.
 
Barbourman said:
Hi! First post for me!

Can someone please answer these 5 questions for me? I don't want to "impulse buy"! Thanks.

With 1GB of memory, a dual-core AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ processor, and a 250GB hard drive, the HP Pavilion Slimline S3020n PC is fully loaded yet the tower itself is merely one-third the size of a traditional tower PC.

Specs--

AMD Athlon 64X2 3800+ 2.0GHz, socket AM2, GeForce 6150 LE chipset, 1MB L2 cache
1GB DDR2 PC2-4200 SDRAM, 2GB max in 2 slots
250GB SATA HD, 16X DVD(+/-)R/RW RAM (+/-)R DL LightScribe drive
Nvidia GeForce 6150LE graphics with up to 319MB of shared video memory; 7.1 channel audio

1- Will the 1/3rd size of the tower make difficult to find upgrades?

2- Is the "shared video memory" bad for gaming? Easy to add a new vid card?

3- Does "dual core" mean that it actually is a 4.0Ghz processor?

4- Can I stick a 512M DDR RAM stick into the 2nd port? Is it compatible with SDRAM? Is it any good?

5- Can this be a good gaming computer as-is?
Click to expand...

1) Extremely. Especially an better GFX which might mean an bigger and better PSU

2) Yes and no... Yes it is easy to add an GFX. If you need help just ask..

3) No. You do not add the GHz. Like two engines running at 200HP, you cannot say it's 400HP.

4) No. Your's is either DDR or DDR2.

5) No. GFX probably sucks, and if upgraded then the PSU goes with it. 1GB is low, and if you have vista, it's even worse.
 
on-board video cards don't have TnL, which is pretty much essential to recent 3d games. Meaning, it won't just have low performance, but games will simply not load.

It'll be next to if not completely impossible to upgrade at all, especially your video card.

Those little things are novelty toys. They're all the inconveniences of a laptop, without the portability.

Get a real box, don't waste your money.
 
fortyways said:
on-board video cards don't have TnL, which is pretty much essential to recent 3d games. Meaning, it won't just have low performance, but games will simply not load.

It'll be next to if not completely impossible to upgrade at all, especially your video card.

Those little things are novelty toys. They're all the inconveniences of a laptop, without the portability.

Get a real box, don't waste your money.
Click to expand...

Really? My onboard (S3 unichrome integrated) can acutally get Need For Speed Underground 2 up playing at 1/4 of setings increased!
 
Hey how do you get NFSU2 to work on your S3 Unichrome because i have the same VIA/S3 Unichrome integrated graphic( My friend does) and NFS looks terrible on the computer you can barely see any writting... wati you can't see any writting all you can see is the car and everything else it like dull..
 
Barbourman said:
Hi! First post for me!

Can someone please answer these 5 questions for me? I don't want to "impulse buy"! Thanks.

With 1GB of memory, a dual-core AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ processor, and a 250GB hard drive, the HP Pavilion Slimline S3020n PC is fully loaded yet the tower itself is merely one-third the size of a traditional tower PC.

Specs--

AMD Athlon 64X2 3800+ 2.0GHz, socket AM2, GeForce 6150 LE chipset, 1MB L2 cache
1GB DDR2 PC2-4200 SDRAM, 2GB max in 2 slots
250GB SATA HD, 16X DVD(+/-)R/RW RAM (+/-)R DL LightScribe drive
Nvidia GeForce 6150LE graphics with up to 319MB of shared video memory; 7.1 channel audio

1- Will the 1/3rd size of the tower make difficult to find upgrades?

2- Is the "shared video memory" bad for gaming? Easy to add a new vid card?

3- Does "dual core" mean that it actually is a 4.0Ghz processor?

4- Can I stick a 512M DDR RAM stick into the 2nd port? Is it compatible with SDRAM? Is it any good?

5- Can this be a good gaming computer as-is?
Click to expand...

Yes - You'll never get a 8800 for sure...
Yes - Yes. Onboard is horrible enough. But the case side is... bad... And it sucks your RAM out.
No - No. Most like 2 processors @ 2GHz working side by side.
No - You mean DDRSDRAM. Just a fancy name for DDR. If it's DDR it's fine.
Maybe - For Halo and BF2 and RS or MS it's fine at low settings. No COD4 or Crysis for you though.
 
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