- Oct 6, 2009
- 18
- 0
- 18,510
I am torn between being cheap and going with a deal on found on craigslist, listed shortly, or going with a completely new build. I have a case that may work, but I am going to assume for the new build that I need the complete tower. No OS, kb, mouse, speakers needed.
The craigslist deal is a broken computer, the guy said the video cart fryed, but that he thinks the components are fine, but it needs a new gpu and maybe psu. I am a little skeptical and dont want to waste money on an older rig that needs a lot of work to not have it be savings in the long run. Also, it is an Earthwatts 500 PSU, pretty reliable. Any ideas what else could have caused this? He says it no longer powers up, but the whole thing will be no more than 200 bucks. Figure a hundred for a new gpu and maybe 75 if I have to replace something else, still looking at a sub 400 dollar gaming rig, albeit DDR2, everything else is pretty good.
His Rig
-HD 640G|WD 7K 16M WD6400AAKS
-MEM 2GX2|A-DATA ADQVE1B16K R
-(10007757) GIGABYTE GA-EP35C-DS3R Intel P35 Core 2 Quad Socket 775 1600 MHz PC3-10600 (DDR3-1333) ATX Motherboard
-(10007603) INTEL Core 2 Duo E8400 3.00 GHz 1333 MHz 775 6MB Desktop Processor
-CASE ANTEC|SONATA III 500 BK RT (came with power supply)
If I build completely new, I would like to stick between 400-500, but it seems tough without cutting quality and longevity significantly. Going up to 600 seems reasonable, but a bit pricey. I would probably be going with an Athlon IIx4, getting me a quad core CPU, and I would upgrade to DDR3 RAM, but much of the rest of the build would be similar. Any advice?
Forgot to mention, this will be mostly for gaming, video download + conversion, web, office, possibly to be used as a HTPC eventually. Looking to play MW2, WOW, various other FPS and RTS, Star Craft II and D3 when they release.
The craigslist deal is a broken computer, the guy said the video cart fryed, but that he thinks the components are fine, but it needs a new gpu and maybe psu. I am a little skeptical and dont want to waste money on an older rig that needs a lot of work to not have it be savings in the long run. Also, it is an Earthwatts 500 PSU, pretty reliable. Any ideas what else could have caused this? He says it no longer powers up, but the whole thing will be no more than 200 bucks. Figure a hundred for a new gpu and maybe 75 if I have to replace something else, still looking at a sub 400 dollar gaming rig, albeit DDR2, everything else is pretty good.
His Rig
-HD 640G|WD 7K 16M WD6400AAKS
-MEM 2GX2|A-DATA ADQVE1B16K R
-(10007757) GIGABYTE GA-EP35C-DS3R Intel P35 Core 2 Quad Socket 775 1600 MHz PC3-10600 (DDR3-1333) ATX Motherboard
-(10007603) INTEL Core 2 Duo E8400 3.00 GHz 1333 MHz 775 6MB Desktop Processor
-CASE ANTEC|SONATA III 500 BK RT (came with power supply)
If I build completely new, I would like to stick between 400-500, but it seems tough without cutting quality and longevity significantly. Going up to 600 seems reasonable, but a bit pricey. I would probably be going with an Athlon IIx4, getting me a quad core CPU, and I would upgrade to DDR3 RAM, but much of the rest of the build would be similar. Any advice?
Forgot to mention, this will be mostly for gaming, video download + conversion, web, office, possibly to be used as a HTPC eventually. Looking to play MW2, WOW, various other FPS and RTS, Star Craft II and D3 when they release.
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