Recommend me a CPU!

Curious Pineapple · June 17, 2020

I'm having some issues with my Z800 workstation now, power supply failed on me last night. Think it cooked itself as the machine kept powering off randomly and the PSU itself was too hot to touch.

I'm looking for something new (but older and used) to replace it for gaming while I work on jamming it into a Power Mac G5 case with an ATX PSU. Ideally something with DDR3 ECC support as I have a lot of it, but I have non EEC memory too. Not too bothered about getting the best performing machine as it may get sold on again or just go in a box. If it matches an 11 year old Xeon than I'm happy.

I have an FX machine but buying an 8350 for it is not going to happen, they cost way too much for what they are.

What should I look out for to get a cheap setup going that won't be a pile of utter crap? Just going for a new Ryzen build isn't an option, and used isn't much better either.

Light-Yagami · June 17, 2020

Look up what's compatible. When buying second hand, make sure the product works before buying it.

Nicnac · June 17, 2020

i got a ryzen 2600 used for 90 euros which is pretty good value imo. but yea you will have to get a cheap mobo and ddr4 is going to be expensive still i think its the best value you can get these days.

Depends on how much juice you need rly, i've been using a second gen i5 from a used office pc with a 1050ti and it ran everything just fine. I would look for used office pcs if you want something really cheap.

Curious Pineapple · June 17, 2020

I have found a cheap HP Z400 which will take my existing RAM and one of my X5570's. Close enough that I can just swap the drives into it and nothing major will happen, practically the same machine just with one less CPU socket.