400 usd budget gaming pc!

[Puffing]

This is for another friend of mine and want to know what the community would do with the budget of 400 usd. If you are up for a challenge here  ya are  

[Zando_]

What country are you in and what's your local market like? That budget could maaaaybe get you a 2200G system new, possibly a 2400G. Whereas used you can probably get a decent i5 or 1st gen Ryzen setup with something like an RX570 or 580 (or 470/480 if they're cheaper). 

[Puffing]

7 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

What country are you in and what's your local market like? That budget could maaaaybe get you a 2200G system new, possibly a 2400G. Whereas used you can probably get a decent i5 or 1st gen Ryzen setup with something like an RX570 or 580 (or 470/480 if they're cheaper). 

Usd... United States non active local market I’d be looking at eBay for used parts

[Zando_]

Just now, Puffing said:

Usd... United States non active local market I’d be looking at eBay for used parts

Then like @Genwyn said, an older prebuilt with a budget GPU slapped in it is a solid combo. 

Or you check out r/hardwareswap and hunt down a deal on something like first gen Ryzen with board, and an older RX card. 

[Zando_]

1 minute ago, Genwyn said:

You can get a 790MT with an i7 2600 and 8gb of ram for like 100 bucks on eBay these days. Get a decent psu, SSD and dump the rest into a gpu like an RX 580.
But if you go super cheap a pcie power only gpu works fine like a 750ti or 1050ti, then you don’t need a psu swap.

Would still recommend the PSU swap, something like the RX570 is usually cheaper than a 1050 Ti while performing much, much better (I've had both, the 570 4GB is a good chunk faster). 

[LauriHimself]

11 minutes ago, Puffing said:

what the community would do with the budget of 400 usd

are we talking 400 for the system only, no display, no preipherals etc?

if so:

 

1. id go used for sure
2. look for prebuilt "office" computers or old gaming rigs with a somewhat decent PSUs (just looked up my local market and found a system with a -CPU i 7 4770, -8gb ddr3 ram, -128gb ssd, -1tb hdd, 500W BeQuite PSU, and a gtx 560ti for 200€)
3. for the remaining money get the best GPU you can get (looked that up too and the, in my case, remaining 200 bucks would get me something like a rx580, 1070, 980ti...)

that what i would do.

 

maybe you could even get a decent gaming rig used for 400. with all the new graphicscards and processors hitting the market lately there should be a bunch of deals.

[Evolution.]

get a 7010 over the 790 if you can it has usb 3.0 and standard PSU connections 

[Puffing]

22 minutes ago, Genwyn said:

You can get a 790MT with an i7 2600 and 8gb of ram for like 100 bucks on eBay these days. Get a decent psu, SSD and dump the rest into a gpu like an RX 580.
But if you go super cheap a pcie power only gpu works fine like a 750ti or 1050ti, then you don’t need a psu swap.

 

11 minutes ago, VenomZ_ said:

get a 7010 over the 790 if you can it has usb 3.0 and standard PSU connections 

 

19 minutes ago, LauriHimself said:

maybe you could even get a decent gaming rig used for 400. with all the new graphicscards and processors hitting the market lately there should be a bunch of deals.

From what you all have said it seems that used pc upgrade is the best bang for buck type of deal... as I said my local market for computers is very small and not the best but I’ll have a look ad find out if there is one of them golden deals... my friend wants the experience of building one from scratch though so this will not really give him that experience. But at the same time the new market is very difficult for this budget. I’ll talk to him and see what he is thinking etc. As for what desktops to look for it’s the 790mt or 7010... or a older custom gaming rig? And if I were to look for other used desktops what do I look for when doing a conversion like you have explained. A good psu (what do I look for to know it’s a decent or good psu) standard power acceptors (does the pc say something on it for this). Thanks for all of the replies!

[Zando_]

9 minutes ago, Puffing said:

my friend wants the experience of building one from scratch though so this will not really give him that experience. 

Take the whole thing apart, clean it real good (see Tech Yes City's vids on how he gets all his flip rigs looking clean as the day they came from the factory), and take the box of parts over to his house. Then you can just build it from the ground up as per normal. 

[Puffing]

7 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

Take the whole thing apart, clean it real good (see Tech Yes City's vids on how he gets all his flip rigs looking clean as the day they came from the factory), then take the box of parts over to his house. Then you can just build it from the ground up as per normal. 

Yes good idea

[LauriHimself]

16 minutes ago, Puffing said:

what do I look for to know it’s a decent or good psu

i'd first and foremost look for a reputable known brand.

if you find one, double check here:

 

 

maybe you can even find a used replacement PSU.

i know the comparison is a bit off there, but i got my PSU used for 80 bucks, and thats like a 175€ part new.

i'm sure you'll be doing great tho

 

also: like @Zando Bob said:

just disasemble the rig, give it a decent clean, and there is your pc building expirience

 

 

EDIT: just checked used market over here again and found a BeQuiet system Power 9 500W PSU for 35€ that's considered a "tier B" psu by our tier list. would be a good option for example

[Zando_]

Just now, Puffing said:

Yes good idea

 Yee, you can have a lot of fun just rebuilding old rigs. I used to dissect laptops and put them back together (with a worrying amount of screws left over ) when I was younger. Did the same with my desktop rigs, but I actually put all the screws back so those turned out better. Had an old Core 2 Quad machine running Windows Vista, I took that apart a few times and reassembled it just for fun and to mess around with the case and any compatible hardware I scrounged up. 

[Puffing]

Is this what you guys would recommend?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Optiplex-7010-Core-i5-3470-3-2ghz-8GB-DVDRW-500GB-HD-MT-Tower-Computer/254189282350?hash=item3b2edca42e:g:3f4AAOSwdvxdncl-

50 minutes ago, LauriHimself said:

i'd first and foremost look for a reputable known brand.

if you find one, double check here:

 

 

maybe you can even find a used replacement PSU.

i know the comparison is a bit off there, but i got my PSU used for 80 bucks, and thats like a 175€ part new.

i'm sure you'll be doing great tho

 

also: like @Zando Bob said:

just disasemble the rig, give it a decent clean, and there is your pc building expirience

 

[LauriHimself]

8 minutes ago, Puffing said:

Is this what you guys would recommend?

seems pretty good for the price. 

i am always scared away a little when there are no real pictures of the hardware, especially from the inside, but thats just me.

i mean you'll get a CPU, cooler, motherboard, case and hdd for 95 dollars. that would leave you with 300 squid for a PSU, GPU, and maybe even a used ssd for your OS and an aftermarket cpu cooler depending on your location and offerings.

 

honestly, not too shabby

 

 

 

here is what the performance could look like if paired with a GTX 1050ti

[trevb0t]

4 hours ago, Puffing said:

as I said my local market for computers is very small and not the best but I’ll have a look ad find out if there is one of them golden deals

Check out mercari. You can make offers, and there are deals to be had. 

[BigRom]

You can go new, however you'd still need a used GPU (RX570 8GB can be had for $100 used) as there really isn't a $100 brand new GPU worth buying for gaming

 

So yeah, used market for some old Dells/prebuilts and slap in a GPU is still the best bet.

 

Spoiler

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 2200G 3.5 GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($78.99 @ Walmart) 
Motherboard: ASRock B450M-HDV R4.0 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($59.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: Patriot Viper 4 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($37.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: TCSunBow X3 240 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($28.99 @ Amazon) 
Case: Cougar MX330 ATX Mid Tower Case  ($44.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Corsair CX (2017) 450 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($53.98 @ Newegg) 
Total: $304.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-10-17 20:43 EDT-0400