Comparing used machines, either worth buying?

[zebazga]

The system I built more than 5 years ago is overheating badly. To be honest, I don't particularly want to build again, and it's been a long while since I've been monitoring components. Are either of these worth buying at the price?

Option 1:
Alienware Aurora Desktop + Monitor + Keyboard/mouse - $650
Included in the sale is an Alienware Aurora gaming desktop
i7-960 processor
6gb ram
gtx 480 video card
500gb 7200rpm HDD

Option 2:
Seller-built PC 3.1GHz, 8GB DDR3, 2x 500GB HDs, Windows 7 - $600
Cooler Master Silencio 550
AMD FX 8-Core Black Edition FX-8120
Cooler Master Hyper T4
AS Rocks 970 Extreme 3
NVIDIA GTX 260
Blue ray drive: ASUS BW-12B1ST
Western Digital Blue WD5000AAKX - 2, WD 500 GB SATA 3 hard drives. 7200 RPM in Raid 1

Option 3:
I go ahead and buy the following components (based on the $750 build) and worry that my cooling is insufficient $677
ASUS H81M-K LGA 1150 Intel H81 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core i3-4130 Haswell 3.4GHz
HIS iPower IceQ X² Boost Clock H280XQM3G2M Radeon R9 280X
ADATA XPG V2 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600

Thanks for your advice and time.

 

[numanator]

No to option 1- that gpu is 4 generations old

No to option 2- the FX-81xxs are no good, you need a fx-83xx if you are looking for an AMD cpu

Option 3 is kind of unbalanced (alot of gpu, very little cpu).

Let me see if I can put something together.

 

[numanator]

This is an AMD build for about 680, it should be more gpu/cpu balanced than option 3. Are there any parts that you could salvage from your old build? Also if you have another $50 to throw at this (which is probably over what you wanted to spend) then you can swap the fx 6300 for an fx 8320

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($89.79 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($57.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card ($229.20 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Best Buy)
Power Supply: XFX 550W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($19.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $681.91
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-08 18:45 EDT-0400)

 

[zebazga]

Thanks for the info. I can use my case, HD, and optical drive for sure, for $127.95 savings. I have an Enermax Pro+ which is 525W for my power supply. That should be fine, right? If so, another $60 savings. Does the cpu come with cooling or do I need to add that?

I'm curious though. The cpu/gpu came from TH's $750 build (admittedly the graphic was last month). Why do you think they are so out of balance?

Thanks again!

 

[zebazga]

Just for grins, my current build:

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Brisbane 2.6GHz Socket AM2
Motherboard: MSI MS-7376.1.0 (K9A2-Platinum)
Memory: 8GB max, DDR2 (either Corsairs Dominator or GSkill, I don't remember any more)
Storage: SAMSUNG HD103UJ 1000.20 GB
Video Card: PowerColor AX4850 512MD3-H Radeon HD 4850 (over heating son of a gun)
Optical Drive: Blu Ray LG BH12LS38
Power Supply: ENERMAX EPR525AWT pro82+ 525w
Case: Lian Li tower

 

[numanator]

I think the build was trying to get the absolute best GPU into it for maximum performace but the i3 is going to have trouble with cpu intensive games (like battlefield 4) mainly because it only has 2 cores. However the i3 (due to intel having stronger performance per core) will on average give you similar performance to the 6300 but it costs more than the 6300 by $50.

Basically performance wise i would say it is: i3-> fx 6300 -> fx 8320 -> i5
Price wise it goes like this: fx 6300 ($110)-> i3 ($150) = fx 8320 ($150) -> i5 ($220)

Honestly I will have to take another look at the TH $750 build since I can only seem to build a 280x into an $850 build or so.

As for that power supply, it might be smart to replace it since PSUs tend to lose output power as they grow older but if it works, then it shouldn't be a problem.

The best option for your price range is definately the Fx- 8320 and for cooling you can get a cooler master 212 evo for $30 which combined would be about $80 more. I will update the build to reflect what you already have.

 

[numanator]

Here is a build updated to reuse what you have:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($151.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($89.79 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card ($229.20 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($19.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $585.93
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-08 19:29 EDT-0400)

Now with this, if you have $700 you could fit a 280x into the build which would look like this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($151.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($89.79 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI Radeon R9 280X 3GB Video Card ($335.00 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($19.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $691.73
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-08 19:32 EDT-0400)

But this would not leave room for a new PSU if you needed one.

 

[zebazga]

Here is a build updated to reuse what you have:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks
Total: $585.93
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-08 19:29 EDT-0400)

Now with this, if you have $700 you could fit a 280x into the build which would look like this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks
Total: $691.73
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-08 19:32 EDT-0400)

But this would not leave room for a new PSU if you needed one.

You've given me a lot to think about. I'm a bit disappointed not to buy a ready machine, but just a bit excited to update mine too. Thanks for doing so much work for me. I really appreciate it.

 

[numanator]

So I looked at the TH $750 build and it seems they cut costs on the mobo + at this time they changed to the gtx 770 since the 280x is overpriced atm. They also use the bare minimum for the power supply (450w) which is fine but doesn't leave room for the psu to age imo. The fx 6300 build I made was actually closer to a previous $650 build and definitely more doable (plus the fx-6300 can be overclocked for better performance whereas the i3 cannot).

 

[numanator]

You've given me a lot to think about. I'm a bit disappointed not to buy a ready machine, but just a bit excited to update mine too. Thanks for doing so much work for me. I really appreciate it.

Haha, also if you are interested in the 280x build look at the gtx 770 as an option as well, due to the bitmining craze, the 280x has gotten rather expensive and will probably cost the same amount as the 280x but the 770 has slightly better performance in some games.

The biggest problem with pre-built machines is that they will cut corners where you don't look (mobo, psu, cooling, ram speed) or they try to sell non gaming graphics cards as gaming etc.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

 

[zebazga]

Let me know if you have any more questions.

Numanator, if you're still around. What would you change to drop the price to $500 - 550?

BTW, the video card on my desktop died last night, so this has become just a tad more pressing

Thanks!

 

[numanator]

This gets pretty close to $550, you are in luck because the fx 8320 is on sale right now:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($129.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock 970 Extreme3 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 760 2GB DirectCU II Video Card ($249.99 @ Micro Center)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $566.94
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-04-23 19:31 EDT-0400)

If you absolutely need it to be under $550, then don't get the CPU cooler and use the stock cooler until you decide to overclock. Also, you could drop the optical drive and load windows off of a flash drive

If you need it any lower than this then we would need to drop the gpu to a r9 270x or r9 270. Normally, we could cut the 8320 to the fx 6300 but right now there is only a $15 difference so it would be a waste not to get the fx 8320.

Edit: there is a compatibility notice for the motherboard and the cpu but don't worry about that since the Extreme 3 R2 supports the fx 8320.

 

[zebazga]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Total: $566.94

If you absolutely need it to be under $550, then don't get the CPU cooler and use the stock cooler until you decide to overclock. Also, you could drop the optical drive and load windows off of a flash drive

You rock. And I don't need the optical drive so that helps. Thanks so much!

 

[numanator]

No Problem, just glad I got some free time form work to check Tom's hardware today haha

 

[zebazga]

No Problem, just glad I got some free time form work to check Tom's hardware today haha

Hey Numanator. You saved me so much hassle putting together my machine. I ended up with this:

CPU: AMD FX-8320 3.5GHz 8-Core Processor ($151.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($89.79 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 760 2GB Video Card ($229.20 @ Newegg)

My boot drive got corrupted and I ended up with a new hard drive too. Now, my monitor went on the fritz. For years I've had an HP 24" that's been fine. I think it was the ZR24.

I'd like to stay closer to $150 than $200. Any suggestions for a couple of monitors to look at? I started looking and my brain went into overload with all the options! I was mainly looking at BenQ and Asus, but I'm open to whatever.

If you don't have any monitor ideas, that's fine too. I wanted to let you know I got my system built.

 

[numanator]

I know in general what to look for in monitors but haven't kept up too much on whats the best for them.

Looking around a bit, this one looked like a great deal and good quality:
Monitor: BenQ GL2460HM 60Hz 24.0" Monitor ($129.99 @ Amazon)