Helping friend ascend

Necromonger · January 27, 2019

Not sure how to start this...

I have this really close friend 15+ years. Every time I've run into a pickle, this dude has been there to bail me out. Whenever I'd run out of gas in the middle of the street (I had a car in highschool with a broken gas guage) he'd go to me with a gas tank and get me out. The couple of times I've had flat tires / blown out a tire on the freeway or road he'd go and help me change my tire. The last and only accident I was involved in (about 4 years ago), he got me towed and paid for my towing. Then he helped me sell and scrap my totalled car. That was after we hadn't spoken in over a year!!!!

This dude is one of the truest friends I've ever had. Recently he began asking me for help about building a PC or helping him set up a streaming PC. Unfortunately at that time, he had his car stolen and his wife's car broken into. He works at an autoparts store and is a car mechanic on the side. Over $1000 worth of tools were stolen from his and his wife's car. Talks of a gaming PC died out and now he's been really busy working OT to pay for the new car that he needed and have had much time to kick it.

In kind gesture, I started wondering about possibly hooking him up. I've been looking online for how to go about this and this is what I've found/options:

Used Gaming PC 1

Intel Core i5 3570K

8GB DDR3

MSI GTX 780 3GB

256GB SSD

750 W 80+ Gold PSU

Price: $260

Used Gaming PC 2

AMD FX-6300

8 GB DDR3

AMD RX 580 4GB

1TB HDD

650 W PSU

Price: $300

Used Gaming PC 3

AMD Ryzen 3 1200

8 GB DDR4

AMD RX 570

250GB SSD + 1 TB HDD

500 W PSU

Price: $300

Dell Optiplex Budget

Intel Core i5 2400 / 3570 (+$20) / 4560 (+$40)

8 GB DDR3

500 GB HDD

300W PSU

Price: $100

GPU: GTX 1050

Total Price: $230-$270

Dell Optiplex Higher-End

Intel Core i7 3770

8GB DDR3

500 GB HHD

300 W PSU

Price: $140-$160

GPU GTX 1050

Total Price: $270-$300

I've actually gone with the latter two builds in the past. My streaming PC is actually an Optiplex i7, modified with a capture card, SSDs, and GTX 1050 ti. My niece's PC is another Optiplex i5 + GTX 1050.

I played online with this dude since back in the days. We always played Socom and Halo 2, later Gears of War, Forza, and other Halo games. Would really love it if he joined me in PC gaming, but I don't know how receptive he will be or if he will be like my last friend, whom I helped fix his PC and gifted him my old GPU (set up his PC with that GPU and tested it with games). He literally just treated PC gaming as some cool gimmick, but then ultimately defaulted back to PS4. Maybe I'm just too ambitious idk...

What do you guys think? Should I proceed or just drop it? I've talked to this particular friend. I actually let him know of my intention, but he kinda ignored me.

Anyone have any positive experience(s) with similar situations? Thanks!

SansVarnic · January 27, 2019

I would say get from your friend the what his best use case is going to be and build based on that and a budget your feel is sufficient.

Go from there.

Good luck and hopefully he enjoys your gift.

suchamoneypit · January 27, 2019

I think Used gaming PC 3 gives the most flexibility for future upgrades while providing a good experience as-is. No matter what you do make sure it has an SSD for the boot drive. Any other option and if he's looking for any real upgrade hes gonna have to replace pretty much everything (CPU, RAM, Mobo).

Necromonger · January 29, 2019

On 1/27/2019 at 12:33 AM, suchamoneypit said:

I think Used gaming PC 3 gives the most flexibility for future upgrades while providing a good experience as-is. No matter what you do make sure it has an SSD for the boot drive. Any other option and if he's looking for any real upgrade hes gonna have to replace pretty much everything (CPU, RAM, Mobo).

I should have updated this thread..

Well after negotiating with people over the weekend, I lost a bunch of these offers. Either seller wouldn't go down on price of they sold the PC before I could go look at it. I was busy Saturday and Sunday was only free in the evening.

I ended up finding this:

NZXT H440

i5 2500K

Asus Sabertooth Z77

8GB 1866MHz DDR3

480GB SSD + 120GB SSD (Main Drive)

EVGA 780ti SC

EVGA 750W 80+ Gold PSU

Sound Card (forgot the name)

Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

Total: $300

The guy who sold it to us had it in near mint condition. PCB on motherboard and GPU looked fresh out of the box not a spec of dust and case looked clean too. He said he worked for an IT company and that he never really used it since his company basically gave him a better computer.

My friend ended up loving the PC. The 2500K was able to overclock to 4.4GHz stable. Only thing was the RAM which had trouble overclocking, but that was above my friend's needs, so we kept everything to factory settings (for now).

Honestly, I think I was more excited than my friend, but in the end both him and his wife ended up thanking me. He's now hoping to be able to play with his wife with Xbox Play Anywhere titles. I honestly cannot wait to play other games with them. I'll post pictures later or another day when I can, but for now I welcome another member into the PC gaming scene.