Need help deciding on computers

alexanderstith · December 30, 2019

I’ve recently been looking into buying a pc, but don’t know a whole lot about them. Here are 2 computers I’ve been looking at, one is off eBay and the other is one that I could have built. I’m looking to play games like fortnite, Minecraft, and rust (I know rust is a challenging game to run). Mainly just want a pc that can run decent frames and can play AAA games. Which of the 2 would be a better decision? I’m also open to other options. Thanks.

Fasauceome · December 30, 2019

The 1060 6GB is roughly equal in performance to the RX 580. The ryzen CPU is probably a lot better than the "Xeon i7" which is likely a nehalem/westmere first gen 6 core, add to that the AMD motherboard has hella upgrade path.

Bombastinator · December 30, 2019

Neither of these machines have very complete descriptions. I mistrust prebuilt machines in general. They have a nasty habit of corner cutting and use of non standard parts. The prebuilt will at least be complete (in theory) upgrading anything in it may not even be possible though. I would avoid it on principle alone but there are other problems.

IMHO the home built option has the potential for a much longer life. The home built also has better storage. There might actually be savable money there. The 1600 can also be overclocked ok which can put it into 2600 territory. ryzen like fast ram though. A lot. I’ve heard it reported that overclocking ram on ryzen is actually more effective than overclocking the cpu itself. Ram prices may wind up being higher than you think.

YoyoConnor · December 30, 2019

22 minutes ago, alexanderstith said:

I’ve recently been looking into buying a pc, but don’t know a whole lot about them. Here are 2 computers I’ve been looking at, one is off eBay and the other is one that I could have built. I’m looking to play games like fortnite, Minecraft, and rust (I know rust is a challenging game to run). Mainly just want a pc that can run decent frames and can play AAA games. Which of the 2 would be a better decision? I’m also open to other options. Thanks.

1TB drive is lowkey sketch

Spotty · December 30, 2019

Quote

Plus some gas money since I gotta run into the cities for parts at Microcenter.

... What? Why the hell does the seller think you are responsible for their petrol costs?

$654.79 is way too high for a used system with a Ryzen 1600 + RX580. You could build it yourself with a Ryzen 2600 (better CPU) for more or less the same price.

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 2600 3.4 GHz 6-Core Processor	$120.98 @ Newegg
Motherboard	ASRock Fatal1ty B450 GAMING K4 ATX AM4 Motherboard	$94.99 @ Amazon
Memory	G.Skill Aegis 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory	$54.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Crucial P1 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive	$99.99 @ Newegg
Video Card	XFX Radeon RX 580 8 GB GTS XXX ED Video Card	$159.99 @ Best Buy
Case	NZXT H510 ATX Mid Tower Case	$69.98 @ Amazon
Power Supply	Corsair CX (2017) 550 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply	$64.99 @ Newegg
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$665.91
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-12-29 21:46 EST-0500

Considering it's such an exact figure of $654.79 and how close that is to the figure I got chucking random parts in to PCPP I must assume he's building it to sell? Is it a 2nd hand PC or does the seller just build custom PCs upon request?

But, if that is the case then $655 isn't a bad deal if they're assembling it for you and providing a Windows licence. Does the seller charge an assembly fee on top of the parts cost, if so how much? I know some people don't like building PCs and just want to buy it already made and ready to go. If that is what is happening ask if he can swap the 1600 for the 2600 since they're almost the same price but the 2600 would give better performance.

Edit: Woops, I just re-read the OP and saw that it was indeed one that you could have the seller build for you. In that case as above see if they can swap the 1600 for the 2600 since they're similarly priced. Also how much of a fee are they charging for the assembly of the PC for you?

Edited December 30, 2019 by Spotty