Is an Athlon 2500+ and Asus A7N8X completely hopeless?

[Nealoc187]

I've been kicking around the idea of building a new cheap system because my desktop is out of commission right now - no ram and no vid card and needing a new PSU.

My bare minimum goal is to be able to play BF2, BF2142, HL2, etc on 1024x768 with low settings and just have it run smoothly. I use to run the game on a borrowed computer which was a 3 year old Pentium 4 2.4ghz Dell, with a pos FX5600 vid card and 1gb of mismatched, cheapo ram - BF2 was almost unplayable and yet I still played it. I averaged probably 12-15FPS in it.

If I were to add an X850GTO vid card and 1GB of quality ram and a good PSU to my Athlon 2500+ and A7N8X system (at a total cost of probably $325) would I be able to play any of the games I wish to play on it with decent frame rates (by decent I mean significantly improved over my 15fps frame rates on the dell). I've never OCd but I'm wanting to try it, both the proc and vid card. Am I just throwing away $325 and still going to have an unplayable system for modern games, or can I get some more mileage out of this old system? suggestions welcome. I am on a budget obviously and I'd like to have the best bang for the buck.

 

[downer]

I think you could definetly get by with that setup. 1024x768 should be no problem. Any reason why you aren't putting that $325 into your main desktop rig instead?

 

[Clockwork_Apple]

Despite what some might say - Yes, you can play all those games at good FPS.

Look at my system in my sig, I'm using something similar to what you want to build, and I run most games at 1280x1024. I play CSS on high detail, 2xAA, 2xAF, and never drop below ~40.

I play Oblivion at 1024x768, low/medium settings with high distance draw and get 30 FPS outside, and about 45 FPS inside, although that is with some .ini tweaks.

I don't have BF2, but I can't imagine I'd have a problem playing it on medium/high. You're only concern is BF2142, you will have to play that on low settings to get a decent FPS.

My Barton is only mildly OC'd (190FSB is max ), and my graphics card is at stock. If you OC that Barton slightly, say up to 2200Mhz (3200+) then you should have no problems.

Socket A fo' life

 

[Nealoc187]

I think you could definetly get by with that setup. 1024x768 should be no problem. Any reason why you aren't putting that $325 into your main desktop rig instead?

The 2500+ and Asus A7N8X is my only desktop rig - that's why I'm asking if I can stretch it out a little longer with the addition of the vid card, ram, and PSU. I've been out of the gaming scene for a long time and I'm posting this from my laptop which can barely play Pong...

Just trying to gauge if I can get by in current games on minimum settings with decent frame rates if I got this 2500+ back up and running with a half decent vid card and ram, or if I'm just retarded for even trying. I could probably build a respectable system for what, $700ish, but I'm a bit low on cash being as the holidays are coming up, I'm finishing flight school, etc.