Clueless single mom questions about the Dell 1710 XPS 1710

[gena snead]

My son who's 11, wants to be able to play games on Steam, Minecraft, and Roblox.
He uses my laptop now, which works decent, until steam comes along, then its horrible slow, and causes a whiny kid....lol
Ran across this Dell for a decent price of 160 bucks, and wanted some straghtforward answers:
1. will it run steam smoothly?
Roblox?
Minecraft?
Any help would be much appreciated

The Specs
Pricing
Part Number M1710B2
Inventory Number 25098
Processor
Processor type Intel Core Duo T2600
Processor speed 2160.0 MHz
Display
Display size 17.0 inches
Resolution 1920 x 1200 pixels
Vertical Resolution 1200
External Monitor Interface Discrete
Graphics
Graphics Type Discrete
Primary Graphics Chipset nVidia GeForce Go 7900 GTX
Storage
Drive size 100.0 GB
Floppy Drive No
Other storage

• Express Card Slot
• xD-Picture Card
• SD Card
• Memory Stick

Battery
Battery Type Lithium ion
Vendor Rated Battery life 233.0 hours
Standard Number of Batteries 1.0
Number of Included Batteries 1.0
Ports and Connections
Microphone input Yes
Firewire 1
Available Interfaces

• Audio - Headphone Out (1/8" Mini)
• Audio - Microphone In (1/8" Mini)
• FireWire Port
• Mini PCI Port
• USB - Universal Serial Bus Port (x6)
• Video - S-Video

Ethernet Type 10/100/1000 Mbps
Headphone Jack Yes
Wireless connection 802.11 a/b/g
Bluetooth Yes
Slots

• Express Card Slot
• xD-Picture Card
• SD Card
• Memory Stick

Memory
Memory size 1024.0 MB
Memory type DDR2 SDRAM
Memory speed 667.0 MHz
Dimensions
Width 15.5 inches
Depth 11.3 inches
Height 1.7 inches
Weight 10.6 pounds
Weight with Accessories 10.6 pounds
Sound
Speakers Stereo
Storage Media
XD picture card 1
SD card Yes
Memory stick Memory Stick
Included Software
Included Software

• Paintshop Photo Album
• Paint Shop Pro

Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition
Other Features
Docking Station Port Yes
Devices AC Adapter
Input devices Touchpad
Hardware List

• Notebook
• battery

Other Hardware Adapter for S/PDIF digital audio out Component Video
Pointing Device Touchpad
Case
Multipurpose Bay None
Performance
Battery
Battery Life (Office Applications) 2:33 (hh:mm)
Gaming
Far Cry, 1024 by 768, 32-Bit 127.48 Frames per second (higher is better)
Doom 3, 1024 by 768, 32-Bit 105.5 Frames per second (high

 

[johnb35]

That is way too old. If he wants to game, he'll need a desktop pc with a dedicated video card.

 

[beers]

You get a lot more performance per dollar on a desktop system.

That being said the laptop you listed is really old. For reference the T2600 was released in early 2006.

 

[Agent Smith]

If you can come up with a budget we can pick parts here and you can have a computer shop build it. Or you can head on over to newegg.com (You are in the U.S?) and find a bare bones desktop.