How would my PC hold up to gaming?

[Adam Stryker]

http://i.imgur.com/I8W6N.png

 

I know on board graphics cards are junk and that's what is on the system.

 

But would I be wasting money by upgrading this thing graphics wise?

[Obsidian]

I don't think it'd be a waste of money to upgrade your rig with a graphics card. The AMD Athlon II x4 was introduced in mid 2011, so it's only a little over a year old. Personally, I'd also upgrade the CPU cooler, or at the very least replace the thermal compound since HP probably went with a low quality compound that may make things difficult for the processor sooner than they should. You'll just want to make sure your power supply has the connections necessary to power whatever graphics card you choose.

 

Edit: You may also want to check HP's policy on user-upgrades and how that may affect the warranty (if you still have one). I'm not sure if HP is one of those companies that will void your warranty for adding a graphics card.

[Ross Scott]

I'd say that system is fine, it just needs a dedicated graphics card if you want to do real gaming on it. Also find out what power supply you have, since it may not be designed to handle the load a GPU would add.

[Adam Stryker]

Thank you Ross.

 

@Obsidian HP does not care about user upgrades I have already contacted them about it.

 

I will keep you all posted on this endeavor.

[sheridanm962]

All you need is a dedicated graphics card and my recommendation to you is save up for another one in five years after the purchase of the first so that you can experience new gaming technology (like how new engines are in the light). You should be fine from there... I'd say research and compare before you buy one though and make sure you worry about what cooling it has.

[Adam Stryker]

Here is the insides on this POS looks like I do not have enough room for a good PSU

[Obsidian]

So strange to see green PCB after all the custom rigs I've seen. Anyway, what makes you say you don't have room for a decent PSU? I'm assuming your current one is a standard ATX size, so you should be able to swap it out for another ATX PSU. If you have the dimensions of the current PSU, I might be able to recommend a make/model for you to check out.

[sheridanm962]

Yeah, at least with a new PSU you can manage the Cables better than HP did

[BTGBullseye]

I know of a few nice PSUs that'd fit that...