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Koury
2010-11-16, 10:56 PM
I've been looking around for a halfway decent gaming computer and decided to ask a second hand computer shop the place I work for has been using. Here is what was offered:

Core 2 Duo 2.0 Ghz x2 CPU
250x2 sata HDD
2-3 gigs DDRZ Ram
DVD/R/RW
Custom case

$125-150.

I was told the video card is on the crappier side, but for what it costs, is this halfway decent for a gaming computer?

Gullara
2010-11-16, 11:01 PM
Not really. I'm not claiming to be all knowing about computers, but the dual core processor and only 2 or 3 gigs of ram strike me as less than good. Although your only paying $150, so you get what you pay for.

Winter_Wolf
2010-11-16, 11:14 PM
I'm suspicious. True, those are not exactly high end components these days, but even so, the raw parts new will probably add up to more than $150.

How much wear and tear on the parts? You don't want to spring for a computer and then something shorts or dies on you a week to a month later.

The graphics card is a make or break for you. You can cope with the other stuff being what it is. You can't just shrug when it comes to graphics cards if you're planning on gaming. If the brand is not ATI or NVidia, just don't even bother. I don't know what kind of gaming you plan to do, but if you're skating along with something that does not have dedicated RAM for the GPU (basically, if it's not ATI or NVidia), your gaming experience will suck.

Dispozition
2010-11-16, 11:16 PM
You can get a decent gaming computer for around a grand brand new. That CPU will struggle to run games newer than about...2 years, and if your graphics card isn't dedicated, you'll struggle to run games full stop.

Don Julio Anejo
2010-11-16, 11:21 PM
You can get a decent gaming computer for around a grand brand new. That CPU will struggle to run games newer than about...2 years, and if your graphics card isn't dedicated, you'll struggle to run games full stop.
+1. Make that $600-700 if you're in the US. Also, these days it doesn't make much sense to buy anything less than an i7 for games.

CPU actually doesn't matter much. I still play all of the new(ish) games that come out like Fallout NV or Civilization 5 on max settings on my E8400 (dual core 3.0Ghz Core 2 Duo). Granted I have a pretty good video card and I overclocked my CPU with the help of a giant heatsink.

Dispozition
2010-11-16, 11:28 PM
+1. Make that $600-700 if you're in the US. Also, these days it doesn't make much sense to buy anything less than an i7 for games.

CPU actually doesn't matter much. I still play all of the new(ish) games that come out like Fallout NV or Civilization 5 on max settings on my E8400 (dual core 3.0Ghz Core 2 Duo). Granted I have a pretty good video card and I overclocked my CPU with the help of a giant heatsink.

i5 is fine for gaming, it's what I run. But I don't think you're running NV on max settings, at least, not with max aa and whatnot. Not with that setup.

EDIT: Misread. Depends on your GPU yeah. I suppose if you're OCing that CPU it should run fine. My Q6600 still runs games like TF2 without any huge problems, but it's certainly not max settings.

OracleofWuffing
2010-11-16, 11:32 PM
For a gaming computer, at least one for modern-gaming, you probably don't want to skimp on the video card.

I think they meant to tell you that was DDR2 RAM (or possibly DDR3?). 3 Gigs is going to be more than enough if you stick to a 32-bit operating system. Core 2 Duo isn't a bad processor in and of itself, but typically entry-level Core 2 Duos are around the 3 GHz range on new computers. It'd also be nice to know the speed of the RAM (either PC-XY00, or XY00MHz).

We could use a bit more info on the custom case. Power supply stats would be awesome (wattage is most frequently used, but amperage is a much better benchmark). If possible, hear it in action- you can get some really cheap cases, but they'll do nothing for sound control and you'll have to put up with a loud computer.

If you plan on throwing in a newer video card, you might have to purchase a new power supply to support it.

Looks like a 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo ballparks around $150 US. RAM, I'd eyeball at $35 per gig, Hard drives at $45 each. I could very easily see you spending the cost of the computer all over again to get an average video card, and possibly $50-75 for a new power supply if needed.

Don't get me wrong, entry-level computers still aren't going to be very good for gaming, but you're really looking at where you can get a new computer that'd probably have a better processor for a similar price if you want to upgrade it, and the new computer would probably come with a better warranty plan.

If you're not looking to upgrade it, and games really aren't that important after all, yeah, I can see that being a good deal, but I wouldn't expect to resell it at any time down the road.

EDIT: While building a computer is an excellent way to save money, don't forget to figure in purchasing a new copy or license of Windows. Or, alternatively, use Linux, but seeing as how you were expecting a gaming machine...

thubby
2010-11-17, 12:58 AM
in the long run, it's worth it to spring for an awesome machine. it stays relevant longer and its cheaper to upgrade one a few times (new card here, more ram there) than to rebuy one so frequently.

that particular machine isn't very good, and more importantly it won't upgrade easily.
you don't usually need more than 3 or 4 ram for any gaming rig, mine runs perfectly fine on 3.

Dispozition
2010-11-17, 01:05 AM
in the long run, it's worth it to spring for an awesome machine. it stays relevant longer and its cheaper to upgrade one a few times (new card here, more ram there) than to rebuy one so frequently.

that particular machine isn't very good, and more importantly it won't upgrade easily.
you don't usually need more than 3 or 4 ram for any gaming rig, mine runs perfectly fine on 3.

I disagree, in the long run it;s worth it to shell on a decent machine ($600-1,000) and upgrade it gradually as new things come along.

Gullara
2010-11-17, 01:07 AM
in the long run, it's worth it to spring for an awesome machine. it stays relevant longer and its cheaper to upgrade one a few times (new card here, more ram there) than to rebuy one so frequently.


This is true. I myself bought the parts for a gaming rig. $1400 though. The joys of not having bills (at the time, aka last summer). It was well worth it.

RS14
2010-11-17, 01:09 AM
I disagree, in the long run it;s worth it to shell on a decent machine ($600-1,000) and upgrade it gradually as new things come along.

In the long long (http://xkcd.com/606/) run, it's worth it to shell out only for a mediocre machine and be patient enough that it doesn't matter. :smallbiggrin:

factotum
2010-11-17, 03:08 AM
Check if the machine has a PCI-Express slot to allow for graphics card upgrades. If it's got one, at that money I'd say go for it--Core 2 Duos are generally demon overclockers (I was running a 1.8GHz one at 2.7GHz for years, and many will go a lot further than that), and most games still don't take advantage of more than 2 cores anyway.

Don Julio Anejo
2010-11-17, 03:34 AM
i5 is fine for gaming, it's what I run. But I don't think you're running NV on max settings, at least, not with max aa and whatnot. Not with that setup.

EDIT: Misread. Depends on your GPU yeah. I suppose if you're OCing that CPU it should run fine. My Q6600 still runs games like TF2 without any huge problems, but it's certainly not max settings.
I have an HD4870 (also kinda OC'd, mostly the RAM, the GPU didn't OC much) and I'm running my CPU at 3.9 Ghz. Also, I can run Fallout at max AA but I honestly don't like how it looks and never run any game at more than 4x. Everything else like AF is maxed.

I disagree, in the long run it;s worth it to shell on a decent machine ($600-1,000) and upgrade it gradually as new things come along.
Seconded. My rig is 5 years old and counting now. Granted, the only thing left from back then is the case and DVD writer, but still.. 200-300 bucks spent every 2 years to upgrade isn't much compared to $1k on a new computer after 3 years.

Dispozition
2010-11-17, 05:45 AM
I have an HD4870 (also kinda OC'd, mostly the RAM, the GPU didn't OC much) and I'm running my CPU at 3.9 Ghz. Also, I can run Fallout at max AA but I honestly don't like how it looks and never run any game at more than 4x. Everything else like AF is maxed.

Ah, see, I'm running a 4770 with some pretty crazy RAM OCing, but not GPU. Can't put AA on most things since it just chugs the card. But at least it's still better than my 2900.


Seconded. My rig is 5 years old and counting now. Granted, the only thing left from back then is the case and DVD writer, but still.. 200-300 bucks spent every 2 years to upgrade isn't much compared to $1k on a new computer after 3 years.

(:

My HDDs and optical drives are coming on 4 years old now, Case and ram are 2 years, Graphics card, CPU, and Mobo are about a year old. Probably going to get a new graphics card and ram soon...And more HDDs, I always need more HDDs.

Erloas
2010-11-17, 10:32 AM
I would say if it has a retail motherboard (as seems likely) so you can OC the processor, a good 400-500W power supply (the good part is very important but hard to easily qualify in a short post), and a PCI-E slot (also fairly likely) then I would probably go for it. You will then have to spend about $100 on a new video card (something like the 4850), and probably $20-30 on a new heatsink so you can OC the processor and that should be a fairly capable gaming PC for $250-280 which is pretty good. Tack on another $50 if you need a new power supply.

It should be capable of playing all but the most demanding games at fairly high settings below 1920x1080 resolution, and most at medium settings at that resolution.

Of course some more detailed specs of the system would help. I'm going off what I would assume someone that builds their own computer would have put into a system built 3-4 years ago. If they didn't get DDR2-800Mhz RAM it would make it much less likely to be able to easily OC, but there was almost no point in not using that RAM for any custom built computer of that time.

valadil
2010-11-17, 11:15 AM
Check if the machine has a PCI-Express slot to allow for graphics card upgrades. If it's got one, at that money I'd say go for it-

Came in here to say that. A friend of mine got a used machine for cheap a couple years ago. Only after he bought it did he realize it used AGP for video.

Anyway, the specs listed look reasonable for $150. Depending on the video card, you should be able to run games like TF2 no problem. RAM is cheap, so don't worry about it not having much RAM.

The Valiant Turtle
2010-11-17, 10:27 PM
For the typical definition of a "gaming" computer that would not really make it, but the typical definition might not be what you are going for. It appears to be a solid option an a decent deal.

As others have said, as long as it has PCI-express you can upgrade the graphics card and have a pretty solid machine. One thing to be careful of here is the power draw of the graphics card. If the Power Supply is weak (or just doesn't have the right connections) this could cause problems. For that reason I wouldn't try to get a super-powerful card. Get one with low power draw and possibly even one that can run off the power supplied by the PCI-E slot - if they make those anymore.

Detrimentalist
2010-11-18, 08:57 AM
I can't really speak on Intel CPUs since I don't use them (my philosophy is that until I need an $800 i7 I'm not bothering with them), but everything else but the graphics card should be fine. I'm running a Radeon HD 5770 and I can play every game I have on max settings without a problem (granted I have a pretty small monitor). My CPU is a meek Athlon II X2 240 that I haven't even bothered to overclock and only bottlenecks with a couple games (actually the only one I've noticed is Black Ops but I only played that for the campaign, meaning multiplayer should be fine since there's no AI to slow you down). RAM is 2GB of factory-overclocked 1066MHz DDR2 RAM and I haven't had any problems regarding it, yet.

I'm no computer know-it-all having only built two, but I'd go for it. Just make absolutely sure you can put a new graphics card in first.

Tyndmyr
2010-11-18, 11:37 AM
I've been looking around for a halfway decent gaming computer and decided to ask a second hand computer shop the place I work for has been using. Here is what was offered:

Core 2 Duo 2.0 Ghz x2 CPU
250x2 sata HDD
2-3 gigs DDRZ Ram
DVD/R/RW
Custom case

$125-150.

I was told the video card is on the crappier side, but for what it costs, is this halfway decent for a gaming computer?

For $150 it is reasonable(Im presuming the ram is DDR 2, and the video card probably sucks). It's not gonna be awesome, but if you want to play WoW and such, it'll be fine. Make sure it has a network card, and ask about video card. Bonus points if it has a PCIE slot.

You'll likely be able to reuse the HDs in your next PC as well. I keep a stack of drives around, and have an external drive bay. I use em instead of CDs for media. So handy.

Other advice for buying is great. The HPE-400z series is currently quite affordable, if you don't mind upgrading the graphics card yourself to something respectable.