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Upgrading a Used PC

Go to solution Solved by byalexandr,

Figured I'd update the thread from my new PC.

 

I went with the $289.99 Optiplex 7010 with an i7-3770, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. I also bought a Gigabyte GTX 1650 (low profile) for $159.99, and I have to say it's a pretty good little card. It plays Smite great lol, currently installing more games now that I have access to my Steam library again. It gets a little loud when gaming, but I haven't removed the drive cage yet which apparently frees up a lot of airflow. The low profile card fits like a glove, with pretty close clearance to the PSU and the 24-pin power cable.

 

Overall great buy, the PC is super fast with the Kingston SSD it came with and the 1650 is adequate for the games I play. The 3770 is starting to show it's age just a little bit but it's plenty fast still. I was thrown off by the size a little bit, I remembered them being larger back in high school but it's pretty small.

Budget (including currency): As little as possible

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Intuit Quickbooks, Chrome, light CAD (Inventor, Fusion 360), Photoshop, Excel, occasional gaming (PUBG, Rainbow Six Siege, Smite, Minecraft).

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

 

To save some money, I'd like to purchase a used Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc. slim desktop tower and just upgrade the GPU to a half height GTX 1650. I think the 1650 will be plenty for gaming at 1080p on the games I want to play, and I'd like to keep the system small and out of the way. It's main purpose is to keep all my accounting for my business organized but I would also like to keep my CAD projects and Excel spreadsheets on there and occasionally game if I'm not using my Xbox. I made a decently spec'd system in PCPartPicker but it's just too expensive for what I need the PC to do; gaming is just a plus with the GPU which is why I'm keeping it low cost with the 1650.

 

It's been a few years now that I've been into PCs so I'm not sure what a "new enough" processor would be to use, if I want Ryzen or just an i5 or something. I think 8GB of memory would be enough, and I do want a slim desktop that has the half height PCI slots. My current plan is to just buy the GPU and probably an SSD since most of those desktops come with HDDs, I'm just not sure which one to buy.

 

Thanks in advance

 

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If you want to be doing CAD and a lot of productivity stuff I'd recommend getting 16GB of RAM, it's pretty cheap now and if you're buying used it'll probably be using DDR3 which is even cheaper.

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I was thinking something along these lines:

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Optiplex-7010-SFF-Slim-Desktop-I5-3470-3-2GHz-16GB-3TB-DVD-RW-WIN-10-PRO/223776263367?hash=item341a1accc7:g:-bcAAOSwcrJdzy5b

 

I know the i5-3470 is a really old processor but I don't think it'll be a bottleneck to a GTX 1650. The one in the link also has 16GB already and a 3TB HDD so I can just add a small 500GB SSD and the GPU to make a decent system.

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1 minute ago, byalexandr said:

I was thinking something along these lines:

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Optiplex-7010-SFF-Slim-Desktop-I5-3470-3-2GHz-16GB-3TB-DVD-RW-WIN-10-PRO/223776263367?hash=item341a1accc7:g:-bcAAOSwcrJdzy5b

 

I know the i5-3470 is a really old processor but I don't think it'll be a bottleneck to a GTX 1650. The one in the link also has 16GB already and a 3TB HDD so I can just add a small 500GB SSD and the GPU to make a decent system.

try to find a 3rd gen i7, it will make a big difference. I would not recommend a 3rd gen i5, it will feel slow and sluggish even in excel and browsing and it would definitely bottleneck a 1650.

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1 minute ago, Darpyface said:

If you want to be doing CAD and a lot of productivity stuff I'd recommend getting 16GB of RAM, it's pretty cheap now and if you're buying used it'll probably be using DDR3 which is even cheaper.

Any CAD that I will be doing is just for designing custom car parts like small brackets or panels that would be laser cut, nothing too intensive. Most use for this PC would just be browsing the web, handling accounts and invoices in Quickbooks and Excel, and the occasional game. I'm keeping the PC in my bedroom and leaving the Xbox in the living room so most of my gaming is on the Xbox anyways.

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Just now, boggy77 said:

try to find a 3rd gen i7, it will make a big difference. I would not recommend a 3rd gen i5, it will feel slow and sluggish even in excel and browsing and it would definitely bottleneck a 1650.

Gotcha. Does Dell make the Optiplex with those 3rd gen i7s?

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1 minute ago, BlueScope819 said:

Yeah same model just a different config, but I would go with 4th gen just in general

This one looks pretty good:

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Optiplex-7010-SFF-Intel-Core-i7-3-40GHz-16GB-New-256GB-SSD-Win-10-Pro/174350040680?hash=item2898127e68:g:Hw4AAOSw2xBfDx5d

 

Has a 3rd gen i7-3770 and 16GB of RAM along with a 256GB SSD. All I would need to buy is the 1650 at that point, 256 is plenty for Windows 10 and a few programs and one or two games I think. If not SSDs are cheap and I can add another one.

 

Not really looking to upgrade this PC for at least a couple years, hence why I'm spending so little. I just need a solid desktop for now that I can manage my business with; I just like the slim towers and the 1650 comes in half height.

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That seems like a pretty good option to me.

BabyBlu (Primary): 

  • CPU: Intel Core i9 9900K @ up to 5.3GHz, 5.0GHz all-core, delidded
  • Motherboard: Asus Maximus XI Hero
  • RAM: G.Skill Trident Z RGB 4x8GB DDR4-3200 @ 4000MHz 16-18-18-34
  • GPU: MSI RTX 2080 Sea Hawk EK X, 2070MHz core, 8000MHz mem
  • Case: Phanteks Evolv X
  • Storage: XPG SX8200 Pro 2TB, 3x ADATASU800 1TB (RAID 0), Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB
  • PSU: Corsair HX1000i
  • Display: MSI MPG341CQR 34" 3440x1440 144Hz Freesync, Dell S2417DG 24" 2560x1440 165Hz Gsync
  • Cooling: Custom water loop (CPU & GPU), Radiators: 1x140mm(Back), 1x280mm(Top), 1x420mm(Front)
  • Keyboard: Corsair Strafe RGB (Cherry MX Brown)
  • Mouse: MasterMouse MM710
  • Headset: Corsair Void Pro RGB
  • OS: Windows 10 Pro

Roxanne (Wife Build):

  • CPU: Intel Core i7 4790K @ up to 5.0GHz, 4.8Ghz all-core, relidded w/ LM
  • Motherboard: Asus Z97A
  • RAM: G.Skill Sniper 4x8GB DDR3-2400 @ 10-12-12-24
  • GPU: EVGA GTX 1080 FTW2 w/ LM
  • Case: Corsair Vengeance C70, w/ Custom Side-Panel Window
  • Storage: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB, Samsung 860 EVO 1TB, Silicon Power A80 2TB NVME
  • PSU: Corsair AX760
  • Display: Samsung C27JG56 27" 2560x1440 144Hz Freesync
  • Cooling: Corsair H115i RGB
  • Keyboard: GMMK TKL(Kailh Box White)
  • Mouse: Glorious Model O-
  • Headset: SteelSeries Arctis 7
  • OS: Windows 10 Pro

BigBox (HTPC):

  • CPU: Ryzen 5800X3D
  • Motherboard: Gigabyte B550i Aorus Pro AX
  • RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 2x8GB DDR4-3600 @ 3600MHz 14-14-14-28
  • GPU: MSI RTX 3080 Ventus 3X Plus OC, de-shrouded, LM TIM, replaced mem therm pads
  • Case: Fractal Design Node 202
  • Storage: SP A80 1TB, WD Black SN770 2TB
  • PSU: Corsair SF600 Gold w/ NF-A9x14
  • Display: Samsung QN90A 65" (QLED, 4K, 120Hz, HDR, VRR)
  • Cooling: Thermalright AXP-100 Copper w/ NF-A12x15
  • Keyboard/Mouse: Rii i4
  • Controllers: 4X Xbox One & 2X N64 (with USB)
  • Sound: Denon AVR S760H with 5.1.2 Atmos setup.
  • OS: Windows 10 Pro

Harmonic (NAS/Game/Plex/Other Server):

  • CPU: Intel Core i7 6700
  • Motherboard: ASRock FATAL1TY H270M
  • RAM: 64GB DDR4-2133
  • GPU: Intel HD Graphics 530
  • Case: Fractal Design Define 7
  • HDD: 3X Seagate Exos X16 14TB in RAID 5
  • SSD: Inland Premium 512GB NVME, Sabrent 1TB NVME
  • Optical: BDXL WH14NS40 flashed to WH16NS60
  • PSU: Corsair CX450
  • Display: None
  • Cooling: Noctua NH-U14S
  • Keyboard/Mouse: None
  • OS: Windows 10 Pro

NAS:

  • Synology DS216J
  • 2x8TB WD Red NAS HDDs in RAID 1. 8TB usable space
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8 minutes ago, Darpyface said:

If you want to be doing CAD and a lot of productivity stuff I'd recommend getting 16GB of RAM, it's pretty cheap now and if you're buying used it'll probably be using DDR3 which is even cheaper.

True 16gb of ram can be 60 dollars cheap for DDR4 on Amazon, and even cheaper if you don’t want the heat spreader.

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If you do go with an Optiplex SFF (and I love the 7010, fwiw), keep in mind that anything past the -10 generation will not work with your GPU. Dell changed the motherboard layout starting with Haswell, and the PCIe x16 slot was moved down one to sit directly on top of the processor. Nothing thicker than single slot will work, and the 1650 is a dual-slot card.

 

But seriously, the Opti 7010 SFF is like the godmode of SFF PCs for quick-and-dirty upgrades.

Aerocool DS are the best fans you've never tried.

 

Hypnotoad's RAM is dying, his motherboard is acting like the 6-year-old AsRock it is, a couple of SATA ports have just stopped working, but the RGB remains. The RGB always remains. Hypnotoad lives. All glory to the Hypnotoad.

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  • 2 months later...

Figured I'd update the thread from my new PC.

 

I went with the $289.99 Optiplex 7010 with an i7-3770, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. I also bought a Gigabyte GTX 1650 (low profile) for $159.99, and I have to say it's a pretty good little card. It plays Smite great lol, currently installing more games now that I have access to my Steam library again. It gets a little loud when gaming, but I haven't removed the drive cage yet which apparently frees up a lot of airflow. The low profile card fits like a glove, with pretty close clearance to the PSU and the 24-pin power cable.

 

Overall great buy, the PC is super fast with the Kingston SSD it came with and the 1650 is adequate for the games I play. The 3770 is starting to show it's age just a little bit but it's plenty fast still. I was thrown off by the size a little bit, I remembered them being larger back in high school but it's pretty small.

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