Overpriced Used Gaming PC?

[Atra1n2]

1 minute ago, Slayer3032 said:

I'd suggest just grabbing some sort of prebuilt off ebay, tossing a power supply and a video card into it and calling it a day over pretty much all the overpriced junk on your craigslist. There's a lot of people out there who seem to think people will pay more than they did when it was new after all the fans start to die and it's been drug down a flight of rough concrete stairs by a power cord or something.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-OptiPlex-9010-MT-Core-i7-3770-3-4-GHz-8-GB-RAM-500-HD-Win-7-PRO-64-bit/113326104688

 

Don't take that as a definite suggestion, just grabbed an example off ebay. Some pre-builts also switch around wires and plugs so you can't just stick generic parts into them, something to be aware of before you go that route.

This paired with a GTX 1050 ti, or a PSU and better video card with an SSD would make a great e-sports machine and fine for medium setting Triple A titles.

[Slayer3032]

4 minutes ago, Atra1n2 said:

This paired with a GTX 1050 ti, or a PSU and better video card with an SSD would make a great e-sports machine and fine for medium setting Triple A titles.

https://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Radeon-GDDR5-DVI-D-Graphics/dp/B07MCDNQX2 -- $100

https://www.amazon.com/Kingston-240GB-Solid-SA400S37-240G/dp/B01N5IB20Q/ -- $30

https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=100-BR-0450-RX -- $25

 

These I posted on the last page would work really well provided those Optiplex's use standard ATX power supplies!

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

Listing got removed. That was fast. Just knowing that this entire Xeon build is being powered by the all mighty Best Buy inhouse Insignia branded PSU just puts my mind at ease. That build just screams quality. 

[Andrizzle]

What if i wanted to go with something like this? https://ebay.to/2SI9ljB

 

I have it spec'd to win 7, integrated graphics, 8gb ram, professional for $150.

 

I really like the smaller form factor, I think it looks a lot nicer than the larger.

 

Is going with the smaller machine just asking for a headache?

[Atra1n2]

Just now, Andrizzle said:

What if i wanted to go with something like this? https://ebay.to/2SI9ljB

 

I have it spec'd to win 7, integrated graphics, 8gb ram, professional for $150.

 

I really like the smaller form factor, I think it looks a lot nicer than the larger.

 

Is going with the smaller machine just asking for a headache?

Similar spec to what I purchased a while back. The only thing you'll have to keep in mind is the smaller form factor PCs don't use traditional ATX power supplies and can only accept half-width video cards. You can get a GTX 1050 ti low profile that will fit in this and NOT require a power supply upgrade. Something like the Gigabyte Geforce GTX 1050 Ti OC Low Profile will work great.

[Slayer3032]

Small form factor machines require small form factor video cards and power supplies, I'd personally avoid it unless you need the small form factor and are willing to compromise performance for size.

 

I know there's certain upsides and downsides to Dell, HP, Lenovo, ect. prebuilts, I've seen people do all sorts of interesting things with these like hacking a massive slot in the side of one of those small form factors and using an Xbox 360 power supply to power it. Maybe someone with more knowledge of them can chime in, I found these though that look like okay deals.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Optiplex-9020-Tower-Intel-Core-i7-4th-Gen-8GB-500GB-Window-10-Pro/332958700755

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Optiplex-9010-MT-4-Core-3-40GHz-i7-3770-8GB-RAM-No-HDD-No-OS/173663435752

[Andrizzle]

1 minute ago, Atra1n2 said:

Similar spec to what I purchased a while back. The only thing you'll have to keep in mind is the smaller form factor PCs don't use traditional ATX power supplies and can only accept half-width video cards. You can get a GTX 1050 ti low profile that will fit in this and NOT require a power supply upgrade. Something like the Gigabyte Geforce GTX 1050 Ti OC Low Profile will work great.

So what I'm hearing is that it'll be a lot better to just go with the uglier one, get it working well, and get a better case down the road

[Andrizzle]

And this is probably going to be a pretty dumb question, but do i NEED to upgrade the power supply?

[Atra1n2]

1 minute ago, Andrizzle said:

So what I'm hearing is that it'll be a lot better to just go with the uglier one, get it working well, and get a better case down the road

In terms of compatibility and upgrade-ability the larger ATX cases are better because you can fit traditional size PSUs and full width video cards, but this is an aging platform and there's probably no reason to go past a GTX 1060 or 1070 with these third gen Intel CPUs. Also one important note is that Dell is notorious for non-standard front panel headers (power, reset buttons, HDD LED) on their boards, and sometimes non-standard board configurations that can make it more difficult to install in a traditional ATX or mATX case. Thats the risk you take with the used pre-built market. There are good deals to be had on very capable hardware, you just may not always get a solid upgrade path for years in the future, or the nicest aesthetics.

[mxk]

53 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Ahhh foolish me thinking AMD would have made sense when naming their products...assumed the 5 would have 6 cores.

Yeah, I thought so too until iLostMyXbox told me that the 2400g is 4/8

[Slayer3032]

7 minutes ago, Andrizzle said:

So what I'm hearing is that it'll be a lot better to just go with the uglier one, get it working well, and get a better case down the road

Most pre-builts don't have standard ATX motherboards so you generally can't just toss them into a standard ATX case. I know some HP's will use ATX but Dell generally has a like for BTX.

 

Seems like they aren't ATX and require a fairly common 24pin to 8pin connector to use a standard PSU, so no case swaps but you can just toss in another power supply.

https://www.amazon.com/24pin-Power-Supply-Cable-Optiplex/dp/B01H5C0N7A/

https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/upgrading-dell-optiplex-9020-psu.3348115/

https://www.dell.com/community/Desktops-General-Read-Only/Optiplex-9020-MT-mobo-to-new-case/td-p/5128997

[Atra1n2]

1 minute ago, Andrizzle said:

And this is probably going to be a pretty dumb question, but do i NEED to upgrade the power supply?

Depends on your video card. GTX 1050ti and below do not require an extra power cable plugged in, while GTX 1060 and up do. I'm not sure which AMD cards require extra PCIe power.

[LogicWeasel]

12 hours ago, Andrizzle said:

So what I'm hearing is that it'll be a lot better to just go with the uglier one, get it working well, and get a better case down the road

If you get a Dell/HP case your case will NOT be ATX standard.  Dell typically uses BTX which are harder to get on the open market (without buying another retired Dell case).  This means you cannot just take a dell motherboard and drop it in an Antec 500 (random case example).  If you wanna change cases you may end up changing motherboard and PSU along with it unless you start getting real creative with the PSU mounting.

You pay a price for not buying off-the-shelf hardware, you lose some or all universal compatibility.

[dizmo]

13 hours ago, LogicWeasel said:

Call me crazy but in 2019 if I'm going to spend (or mock-up a build) over $140 on a CPU, I'd want it to either have 6 cores / 12 threads (thanks AMD), or in a case where you're after pure high base clock, I guess that means an Intel i3-8100 is likely better value if you don't need to use the GPU on the 2400G.

Guess you didn't bother reading the post I made literally 3 down from that, eh?

[LogicWeasel]

2 hours ago, dizmo said:

Guess you didn't bother reading the post I made literally 3 down from that, eh?

You're going to be smarmy at my quote because you didn't edit your build after making a large assumption?  I may have skimmed what you said but it doesn't make what I typed wrong, I still typed it to make a point; and not to dump on you for a CPU choice, more an open thought. 

But hey, that was over 18 hours ago, I've moved on.

[dizmo]

Just now, LogicWeasel said:

You're going to be smarmy at my quote because you didn't edit your build after making a large assumption?  I may have skimmed what you said but it doesn't make what I typed wrong, I still typed it to make a point; and not to dump on you for a CPU choice, more an open thought. 

But hey, that was over 18 hours ago, I've moved on.

[Andrizzle]

Please don't fight. You're tearing this family apart