Craigslist Gaming PC Help

[NickEvans]

So im think about buying a gaming pc from craiglist and I'm only lookin in my remote area
AD 1:Specs: custom built pc with a thermaltake tower, processor amd fx 6core 3.5GHz, ram 4GBs, intel solid state drive (harddrive) 180gig, graphics nvidia gforce gtx650ti 3 gb, bluray dvd that can read and write bluray discs also ram and hd can be added to.

AD 2
- In-Win Mana 136 Mid Tower Gaming Case

- CD/DVD Drive

- AMD FX-4300 3.8GHz Quad Core CPU

- 120M Liquid Cooling System

- 2TB Hard Drive

- SATA-III 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM HDD

- 5 USB 2.0 Ports/ 2 USB 3.0 Ports

- 8GB DDR3/1600MHz Dual Chanel Memory

- MSI 970A-G43 Motherboard + ATX Mainboard

- LAN Network

- Windows 8

- 600 Watt Power Supply

- 7.1 HD Audio

- 120 Watt Stereo Speakers

- AMD Raedon HD 6450 Video Card

Comes with an Azza Wired Gaming Keyboard KME381U, and an Azza Levetron GM-2000 Mouse

 

[gizzard1987]

Well the build from ad 1 seems generically solid. A price would help make a better judgement call, and brands are generally a good thing to look into. This build appears to have the better hardware, but you will need to invest in a regular hard drive quite soon as 180 GB will fill quickly, and installing and uninstalling to make space will substantially reduce the life of a SSD. The ram is meh, 4 gigs will get you by in most stuff, though 8 gigs seems to be the sweet spot these days. Does it come with any software preinstalled? OS maybe?

Ad 2 seems to be quite overkill for the included hardware. Liquid cooling on an fx-4300 is kinda silly considering its a low end 100 dollar processor with little potential in performance, even with overclocks. The graphics card is horribly weak and out dated. You'd be lucky to play on low settings in current games.

All in all both builds are quite low end and I would not consider buying them for much over a few hundred bucks, as you can build them for that. If I had to choose one, I'd go with Ad 1, but you would probably like to add ram, and NEED to add a hard drive for storage.

Both builds are could be decent for low end gaming, but there's a lot of factors coming into play. There are no given brands for anything except the motherboard in build 2 and the cases in both builds. I prefer name brand PSUs as a bad cheap PSU can wreck the best and worst systems out there.

Prices would give us an idea of what you could be getting yourself into and maybe a little better taste of whether it's worth it or not.

 

[NickEvans]

AD 1 is about 300 and AD 2 is about 350

 

[NickEvans]

Well the build from ad 1 seems generically solid. A price would help make a better judgement call, and brands are generally a good thing to look into. This build appears to have the better hardware, but you will need to invest in a regular hard drive quite soon as 180 GB will fill quickly, and installing and uninstalling to make space will substantially reduce the life of a SSD. The ram is meh, 4 gigs will get you by in most stuff, though 8 gigs seems to be the sweet spot these days. Does it come with any software preinstalled? OS maybe?

Ad 2 seems to be quite overkill for the included hardware. Liquid cooling on an fx-4300 is kinda silly considering its a low end 100 dollar processor with little potential in performance, even with overclocks. The graphics card is horribly weak and out dated. You'd be lucky to play on low settings in current games.

All in all both builds are quite low end and I would not consider buying them for much over a few hundred bucks, as you can build them for that. If I had to choose one, I'd go with Ad 1, but you would probably like to add ram, and NEED to add a hard drive for storage.

Both builds are could be decent for low end gaming, but there's a lot of factors coming into play. There are no given brands for anything except the motherboard in build 2 and the cases in both builds. I prefer name brand PSUs as a bad cheap PSU can wreck the best and worst systems out there.

Prices would give us an idea of what you could be getting yourself into and maybe a little better taste of whether it's worth it or not.

AD 1 is 300 ad 2 is 350

 

[gizzard1987]

Ad 1 will most likely be the best bet as it offers more for a better price imo. Do you have anymore information about the contents of Ad 1? Are they used or new? Maybe we could set you up on something you could build yourself if you have a slightly larger budget window than the listed PCs? Just a suggestion. Also, depending on your plans for either of these, they might not cut it. What would they be used for or what might you expect to get out of them?

 

[NickEvans]

Ad 1 will most likely be the best bet as it offers more for a better price imo. Do you have anymore information about the contents of Ad 1? Are they used or new? Maybe we could set you up on something you could build yourself if you have a slightly larger budget window than the listed PCs? Just a suggestion. Also, depending on your plans for either of these, they might not cut it. What would they be used for or what might you expect to get out of them?

Well first The games I wanna play are Swtor,Leauge of legends and Battlefield 4 I'm all for building a pc but I feel like getting a starter pc would be easier as I Could just replace simple stuff like Graphics card or add more RAM I'm looking for a job currently as I am only 16 and my parents said they will help me pay for it as I have 150 For myself she said she would pay for the other half obviously not to expensive. BTW AD 2 is basically a Cyberpower PC and thats why it comes with the keyboard and Mouse

 

[gizzard1987]

gotcha, some people like the cyberpower and iBuyPowers and all that, but sometimes they lead to more of a headache, and if you buy them, are they coming with some sort of parts warranty?

I understand the budget bit, I've been there and I finally worked up to my i7 build that I'm currently running. I've always been the go big or go home type. TBH, for the money, neither one is really a bad choice, let me see what I can come up with real quick to see if maybe we can offer something that is on par with your likings. Do you have a monitor already? What about Windows?

 

[NickEvans]

gotcha, some people like the cyberpower and iBuyPowers and all that, but sometimes they lead to more of a headache, and if you buy them, are they coming with some sort of parts warranty?

I understand the budget bit, I've been there and I finally worked up to my i7 build that I'm currently running. I've always been the go big or go home type. TBH, for the money, neither one is really a bad choice, let me see what I can come up with real quick to see if maybe we can offer something that is on par with your likings. Do you have a monitor already? What about Windows?

I have a monitor and OS Already So I'm good on that end Also both PCS come with an OS I believe

 

[gizzard1987]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($69.29 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Biostar B85MG Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($56.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Kingston XMP Blu Red Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($75.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R7 260X 2GB DirectCU II Video Card ($114.99 @ Micro Center)
Case: Rosewill Galaxy-03 ATX Mid Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($19.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $439.20
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-20 01:30 EDT-0400

This is the cheapest build I could possibly come up with, without sacrificing anything and including Windows.

The builds you provided have their pros and cons.
Ad 1 has a lot of potential. The graphics card will provide great performance as well as the fx 6300 processor being quite capable doing most anything, with a decent overclock on it (which may mean you need to upgrade the CPU cooler soon). I'm assuming the build comes with an OS which is a definite pro, as I cannot provide a copy of Windows without a 100 dollar surplus on the price. The RAM at 4 gb, won't be a huge problem except in battlefield 4, which is kind of demanding in multiplayer. The SSD is a definite perk as they add a lot of performance to bootups and access times to common files that you would store on the PC. The only problem with a SSD is the more you write to them the shorter their life gets. This being said, you will need another HDD, sooner rather than later. The graphics card and processor combo should allow you to play swtor on medium/high settings, as well as BF4 on low/medium settings. League of Legends doesn't require much to run.

Ad 2 provides water cooling, but on a 4300, that's pretty much a waste, even with an overclock you're going to struggle getting solid performance in games, causing a huge bottleneck. The large HDD is a nice perk as well as the 8 GB of RAM. The main down side to this build is the processor and the graphics card, if you could even consider a 6450 a graphics card with it's barely existent performance. The gaming keyboard and mouse are also added perks to this build. The motherboard and AIO liquid cooler does allow for future processor upgrades as well as support for new graphics cards, providing the 600w PSU is of decent quality. For this build, you will certainly need a better graphics card if you expect BF4 to even load. You will be able to play swtor, but most likely on the absolute lowest settings. League of Legends is a fairly lightweight game, so that is of no concern.

My build is quite a bit over what I assume is your budget, right at around 300-350 dollars. The main thing I'd like to point out about my build is, well everything. Everything is an upgrade path. The motherboard allows for use of all the newest processors in the haswell refresh lineup. The HDD is a quality 1 TB drive and for 50 bucks, you can't beat it. The graphics card is going to allow you to play at 1080p on just about high settings on BF4, as well as capping swtor and LoL. The PSU is no tier 1 power supply, but it will keep all of your hardware powered clean and efficiently. The processor is a dual core, but with a little overclocking, there should be plenty of leg room as these processor overclock extremely well.

All in all, if I had to choose a best case scenario for you, Ad 1 would be the best choice. I feel that it offers the best bang for your buck, and you'll only need to add a 50 dollar hard drive and possibly some RAM down the road. One word of advice, I have not personally dealt with AMDs coolers, but everyone always says they're junk, so you might want to invest in an aftermarket cooler as well. The Cooler Master Hyper 212 is a 25 dollar cooler right now, and it's got amazing performance. However, if you're able to convince the parents to spend a little more money on you, then the build I threw together will offer a nice upgrade path, and you could jump up to an i5, which is what most people rave over for gaming nowadays. (I quite enjoy my i7 =D) On top of that, you'd have all brand new parts with warranties and a little piece of mind if anything would happen to go wrong, rather than trying to chase some craiglister down because your rig died a year down the road.

I hope this helps, sorry for the lengthy post.

EDIT: Sorry I just got done proof reading my post and realized you said you had a monitor and OS. Fixed the build list.

 

[NickEvans]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($69.29 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Biostar B85MG Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($56.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Kingston XMP Blu Red Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($75.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($51.98 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Asus Radeon R7 260X 2GB DirectCU II Video Card ($114.99 @ Micro Center)
Case: Rosewill Galaxy-03 ATX Mid Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)

Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($19.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $439.20
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-20 01:30 EDT-0400

This is the cheapest build I could possibly come up with, without sacrificing anything and including Windows.

The builds you provided have their pros and cons.
Ad 1 has a lot of potential. The graphics card will provide great performance as well as the fx 6300 processor being quite capable doing most anything, with a decent overclock on it (which may mean you need to upgrade the CPU cooler soon). I'm assuming the build comes with an OS which is a definite pro, as I cannot provide a copy of Windows without a 100 dollar surplus on the price. The RAM at 4 gb, won't be a huge problem except in battlefield 4, which is kind of demanding in multiplayer. The SSD is a definite perk as they add a lot of performance to bootups and access times to common files that you would store on the PC. The only problem with a SSD is the more you write to them the shorter their life gets. This being said, you will need another HDD, sooner rather than later. The graphics card and processor combo should allow you to play swtor on medium/high settings, as well as BF4 on low/medium settings. League of Legends doesn't require much to run.

Ad 2 provides water cooling, but on a 4300, that's pretty much a waste, even with an overclock you're going to struggle getting solid performance in games, causing a huge bottleneck. The large HDD is a nice perk as well as the 8 GB of RAM. The main down side to this build is the processor and the graphics card, if you could even consider a 6450 a graphics card with it's barely existent performance. The gaming keyboard and mouse are also added perks to this build. The motherboard and AIO liquid cooler does allow for future processor upgrades as well as support for new graphics cards, providing the 600w PSU is of decent quality. For this build, you will certainly need a better graphics card if you expect BF4 to even load. You will be able to play swtor, but most likely on the absolute lowest settings. League of Legends is a fairly lightweight game, so that is of no concern.

My build is quite a bit over what I assume is your budget, right at around 300-350 dollars. The main thing I'd like to point out about my build is, well everything. Everything is an upgrade path. The motherboard allows for use of all the newest processors in the haswell refresh lineup. The HDD is a quality 1 TB drive and for 50 bucks, you can't beat it. The graphics card is going to allow you to play at 1080p on just about high settings on BF4, as well as capping swtor and LoL. The PSU is no tier 1 power supply, but it will keep all of your hardware powered clean and efficiently. The processor is a dual core, but with a little overclocking, there should be plenty of leg room as these processor overclock extremely well.

All in all, if I had to choose a best case scenario for you, Ad 1 would be the best choice. I feel that it offers the best bang for your buck, and you'll only need to add a 50 dollar hard drive and possibly some RAM down the road. One word of advice, I have not personally dealt with AMDs coolers, but everyone always says they're junk, so you might want to invest in an aftermarket cooler as well. The Cooler Master Hyper 212 is a 25 dollar cooler right now, and it's got amazing performance. However, if you're able to convince the parents to spend a little more money on you, then the build I threw together will offer a nice upgrade path, and you could jump up to an i5, which is what most people rave over for gaming nowadays. (I quite enjoy my i7 =D) On top of that, you'd have all brand new parts with warranties and a little piece of mind if anything would happen to go wrong, rather than trying to chase some craiglister down because your rig died a year down the road.

I hope this helps, sorry for the lengthy post.

EDIT: Sorry I just got done proof reading my post and realized you said you had a monitor and OS. Fixed the build list.

Since your here before i Go i found this EBay post http://www.ebay.com/itm/Custom-Built-Budget-PC-Gaming-/331289497451?pt=Desktop_PCs&hash=item4d22648f6b you think its a good starter better then the AD on Craiglist?

 

[gizzard1987]

that is a very very old processor. The graphics card is also already well outdated, as well as having a small hard drive. And it looks well used, and without a good dusting like you should with a high end machine. I'd really try to stay away from used if you can. It's hard to get your money back if something goes wrong.

 

[NickEvans]

that is a very very old processor. The graphics card is also already well outdated, as well as having a small hard drive. And it looks well used, and without a good dusting like you should with a high end machine. I'd really try to stay away from used if you can. It's hard to get your money back if something goes wrong.

I found this on craiglist for 300
CPU -- AMD Phenon II X4 @3.0Ghz
-- MoBo -- GIGABYTE GA-990XA-UD3
-- GPU -- EVGA Geforce FTX 550 Ti -
- RAM -- Corsair Vengeance 8GB -
-- Power -- OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W Modular High Performance Power Supply
-- HD -- Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB
- Case -- Cooler Master Storm Scout

is it good

 

[hang-the-9]

The first build is the best one, the last one with the Phenom X4 is not bad either. Both should be 300 or less, you can probably get them for $250 which will last you a few years easily.

 

[gizzard1987]

that last build is pretty good. The 550 ti is not a bad graphics card, just a bit older. That rig should last you a few years. I think I'd buy the rig from Ad1 though, and just add a hard drive to it for 50 bucks. You will be able to play plenty of games with 4 GB of RAM. It's a solid build.