Old Workstation Build

[jhlws]

Budget (including currency): 200-250 GBP (£)

 

Country: UK

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Sims 2, retro games

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): 

 

Partners Acer Aspire N19C3 laptop has died. She only really plays the Sims 2, and the original Tomb Raider games or similar.

 

Would like to pick up an old enterprise workstation, something bulletproof.

Ideally from bargainhardware.co.uk, need want some guidance on which xeon sku will get the most life. I have 

 

Willing to build something cheap, i.e older Ryzen, but I'm skeptical I'd get something that would last at this budget.

[jaslion]

Just get an older used ryzen gaming pc? Worst case upgrade the psu as thats usually cheaped out on. 250 pounds is enough to get the box.

 

No point in getting some ancient xeon really.

 

Bit janky because they broke their power button but also like it was 30 seconds of looking around

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/176467988728?itmmeta=01J3CW4CEQ4REWZVSJ0FW0XVZY&hash=item29164fd0f8:g:ewgAAOSwaipmWaor&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAAwNYJ97RHp4hQU9qV8KY%2FpoIdk5oUTvOPkVDqe2PtQwFJTHjoa1ghMDNr4qV2jnNfCLoAebzwE30qAHwjZEjIWgZLLoiaSCHFuZNF8wqyM3lv49MZgnUugqwirWjWykUZiJK20Fso2YnG8Q6SvIMydMSBLz8KDjjdU0TZNxu8BY9d5t7JUQl%2FE%2BpdAZeiBMrRz8a2wCBq1G3aVzL99cuE9sdOn1%2BZHpJvJlASArpPSj%2FpaGVm9sUxC8nwJAlqG8wQqw%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR7jHkZybZA

 

Plenty like these exist.

 

A ryzen igpu build will even do plenty

[Blue4130]

47 minutes ago, jhlws said:

Budget (including currency): 200-250 GBP (£)

 

Country: UK

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Sims 2, retro games

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): 

 

Partners Acer Aspire N19C3 laptop has died. She only really plays the Sims 2, and the original Tomb Raider games or similar.

 

Would like to pick up an old enterprise workstation, something bulletproof.

Ideally from bargainhardware.co.uk, need want some guidance on which xeon sku will get the most life. I have 

 

Willing to build something cheap, i.e older Ryzen, but I'm skeptical I'd get something that would last at this budget.

Old workstations are no more reliable than any other PC really. Xeons and many intel core chips are really the same.

 

I'd get something newish, that is how you will get the most longevity out of it, not by choosing a ten year old xeon system.

[venomtail]

1 hour ago, jhlws said:

Would like to pick up an old enterprise workstation

1 hour ago, jhlws said:

something bulletproof.

Contradicting statements. Things are usually cheap for the main reason of being old thus unreliable.

 

1 hour ago, jhlws said:

200-250 GBP (£)

If I wanted reliable, I'd get a new budget PC for about £500-800 depending if you're willing to sacrifice looks and space to get one for as cheap as possible. Otherwise look for the used market on Ebay but you also risk spending £250 for an unreliable dud that fries itself a week after buying or doesn't. Gamble.

[podkall]

1 hour ago, jaslion said:

Just get an older used ryzen gaming pc? Worst case upgrade the psu as thats usually cheaped out on. 250 pounds is enough to get the box.

 

No point in getting some ancient xeon really.

 

Bit janky because they broke their power button but also like it was 30 seconds of looking around

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/176467988728?itmmeta=01J3CW4CEQ4REWZVSJ0FW0XVZY&hash=item29164fd0f8:g:ewgAAOSwaipmWaor&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAAwNYJ97RHp4hQU9qV8KY%2FpoIdk5oUTvOPkVDqe2PtQwFJTHjoa1ghMDNr4qV2jnNfCLoAebzwE30qAHwjZEjIWgZLLoiaSCHFuZNF8wqyM3lv49MZgnUugqwirWjWykUZiJK20Fso2YnG8Q6SvIMydMSBLz8KDjjdU0TZNxu8BY9d5t7JUQl%2FE%2BpdAZeiBMrRz8a2wCBq1G3aVzL99cuE9sdOn1%2BZHpJvJlASArpPSj%2FpaGVm9sUxC8nwJAlqG8wQqw%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR7jHkZybZA

 

Plenty like these exist.

 

A ryzen igpu build will even do plenty

That's honestly a nice find,

 

you can physically see 2 sticks of RAM, it has dedicated GPU with 6GB of VRAM,

 

the MB has VRM coolers,

 

the owner claims it can run Apex,

 

although the PC only has 5 1500X CPU, it's a hyperthreaded quad core that boosts slightly above 3.5Ghz,

 

so unless there's a similar build with 3 3600, this is a decent PC already.

 

14 minutes ago, venomtail said:

Contradicting statements. Things are usually cheap for the main reason of being old thus unreliable.

Or very slow, the only upside, is sometimes but only sometimes, these builds are cheap because they are really slow compared to what they own (upgraded to) now.

[mariushm]

You can make a new system with around 220 pounds:

 

https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/NThR7R

 

CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 3200G 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£59.00 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: ASRock B450M-HDV R4.0 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  (£50.65 @ NeoComputers)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  (£33.97 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: TEAMGROUP MS30 256 GB M.2-2280 SATA Solid State Drive  (£21.07 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Aerocool CS-106 MicroATX Mini Tower Case  (£19.99 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: MSI MAG A650BN 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  (£44.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £229.67

 

Integrated graphics would be good enough for Sims 2 .   Add a RX 570 or a 1060 if you want beefier graphics.

 

You could go for a lenovo / dell / hp refurbished , but you have to be careful about power supplies, a lot of these come with 180-270w power supplies, often proprietary connectors, so you'd have a hard time adding dedicated video cards.

 

 

If you don't care about adding dedicated graphics, there's also the option of those small volume computers with minimal upgrade options.

 

For example, for 130 pounds you can get 

 

Lenovo ThinkCentre M720q i5-9400T, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD Win 11 Pro : https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/176245479497

 

Maybe you could upgrade the ram to 16 GB and the SSD could also be upgraded but other than that not much you could do. The CPU is more powerful than a 3200g in theory and has integrated graphics which should be reasonably good for old games.

 

Similar models with AMD processors exist, if you think the integrated graphics from Ryzen would be more compatible with old games.

 

[jaslion]

12 minutes ago, podkall said:

so unless there's a similar build with 3 3600, this is a decent PC already.

And whilst I cant quite read the psu its at least a fsp unit so it MAY be good enough as is.

 

 

[podkall]

2 minutes ago, jaslion said:

And whilst I cant quite read the psu its at least a fsp unit so it MAY be good enough as is.

 

 

It's 500W, looks decent based on what pdf file you find after googling it's code,

 

the system won't draw more than 200-300W anyways,

 

[jaslion]

26 minutes ago, podkall said:

It's 500W, looks decent based on what pdf file you find after googling it's code,

 

the system won't draw more than 200-300W anyways,

 

Ah that one! Yeah it'll do alright. Not great but inoffensive really

[jhlws]

Cheers all, put an offer in on the eBay machine.

[jhlws]

Got it for £250, so bang on budget