Best Low Spec Steam Games

The first two Max Payne games or Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines, perhaps?

Any Source game.

Why does he have an SSD? And which processor does he has (AMD or Intel)?

Legacy of Kain series for example.

Thief games! You're welcome! Go buy! Gogogo!

Beat Hazard

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars

Dota 2

Faerie Solitaire

Grand Theft Auto

Grand Theft Auto 2

Grand Theft Auto Classics

Grand Theft Auto Complete Pack

Grand Theft Auto III

Grand Theft Auto IV

Grand Theft Auto IV: Complete Edition

Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Half-Life 2

Half-Life 2: Episode One

Half-Life 2: Episode Two

Half-Life 2: Lost Coast

Hitman: Blood Money

Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead 2

Left 4 Dead Bundle

Portal

Portal 2

Portal Bundle

Shadowgrounds

Sid Meier's Civilization V

SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition

Swords and Soldiers HD

Team Fortress 2

Test Drive Unlimited 2

The Orange Box

The Ship

The Ship Single Player

The Ship Complete

Torchlight

Trine

Company of Heroes

Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts

Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor

Test Setup:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.3 GHz

nVIDIA G92 9800 GT 512 MB

6 GB DIMM DDR2 800 MHz

Everything works pretty well, got this setup for 4 years now and its paying off.

Games not running at maxed settings at 1920x1200 at 60 fps:

Call of Duty: Modern Warefare 2 need to turn Shadows off

Grand Theft Auto IV plays on medium setting

Sid Meir's Civilization V plays on medium setting

Test Drive Unlimited 2 plays on medium setting

Hitman Collection:
Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, Hitman: Blood Money, Hitman: Codename 47

Unreal Tournament FTW! The early valve games (cs 1.6, Half Life etc.). Original Just cause (personal favorite). Midnight Club 2. Diablo 2.

Civ 3 or 4

Cave Story +. Or you should try going to GOG.com. It's a great site and there're a lot of old games available right there.

• The Orange Box & Portal 2
• Trine Complete Collection
• Sam and Max Complete Pack
• Monkey Island: Special Edition Bundle
• Tales of Monkey Island Complete Pack
• Puzzle Agent & Puzzle Agent 2
• Unreal Deal Pack
• Bastion
• Sid Meier's Civilization IV: The Complete Edition
• Sid Meier's Civilization III Complete
• The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Game of the Year Edition
• Spiderweb Software Complete Pack
• Dungeons of Dredmor Complete
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game of the Year Edition Deluxe
• Eschalon: Book I & Eschalon: Book II

Left 4 Dead 2. My bro had a blast with it and he's about 18.

Jedi Knight Collection. I heard Dark Forces II and Mysteries of the Sith may problems with Win7, though some managed to run them. The rest definitely work.
If he hasn't played it yet and is an RTS fan, Dawn of War with expansions is a good choice.

Anno 2070, Crysis, Max Payne 3 :P

Seriously though, I'd recommend F.E.A.R (wide range of settings and whatnot to optimize it. Also, old), Far Cry (worked fairly well on my old GMA 965 -.-), Tomb Raider Anniversary. Old stuff + Indie stuff was what I played on my old craptop, and that laptop is far better than my old one. Also, ADVENTURE GAMES (Sam+Max, Monkey Island, etc)!

BioShock 1
Borderlands 1
Deus Ex 1
Fallout 3
Fallout: New Vegas
Half-Life series
Killing Floor
Left 4 Dead series
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

I have a 4200 if you're wondering.

VVVVVV
Doesn't matter if you don't like indie games. That one is goddamn awesome

Age of Empires 3 (RTS)

Company of Heroes (RTS)

Morrowind (RPG) Get the overhaul as well (though the site seems to be done now so moddb link)

Knights of the Old Republic (1 and 2, and the mod for 2)

Endless Space (TBS) (I played this on my 5 year old laptop with intel graphics)

FTL (RTS/Rogue) (it's on sale now!)

Dungeons of Dredmor (Rogue) (Cheap and well worth the money)

Galactic Civs 2 (TBS)

Multiwinia (RTS)

Civ 3 4 or 5 (TBS)

Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI (TBS)

SPAZ (RTS)

Sword of the Stars Compelte (TBS)

Don't Starve (RTs.. sorta?)

Legend of Grimrock (TBS classic style game)

Most I've listed I've played on a very low end laptop. And played them fine, so I assume they'll run find on this laptop. Unless it somehow has worse graphics card than intel.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is a nice RPG that should run nicely.

Plenty of mods and endless hours of fun to be had.

Tetris and minesweeper

Killing Floor.

Gothic.

Clive Barker's Jericho

There is demo so you can try before you buy :)

Saints Row: The Third and the whole Humble THQ Bundle, but he won't be able to utilize maximum settings

Take a look in my game library, all games I have you should be able to run at low-mid settings =]

Some games I can recommend:
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Knights of the Old Republic 1&2
Far Cry 1&2
Borderlands
Medieval: Total War
Rome: Total War
Mirror's Edge
Psychonauts (great platform game)