Absolute Best for $150? Upgrading from 16 year old hardware :D

[Melted]

Hello! This is the most money I have ever had in my life, so I thought why not put it into something nice.

• Budget: $150 USD
• Country: USA
• Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Teardown, Blender, Davinci Resolve, ATS, ETS 2, Space Sim Toolkit, and streaming.

I currently have 3 computers. The "/" denominates each build. These below are my current specs.

• CPU: Xeon E5507 / Xeon E5507 / A8-3820 APU
• GPU: ATI Radeon HD 4850 / ATI Radeon HD 4850 / None
• RAM: 16 GB DDR3 1600 (All 3)
• Case: Dell T3500 / Dell T3500 / CM1740
• Mobo: Dell T3500 / Dell T3500 / Asus F1A75-M/CM1740/DP_MB
• Storage: 250 Gb HHD / 250 Gb HHD x2 / 500 Gb Sata SSD
• PSU: 525w / 525w / 350w (All proprietary)
• Displays: 0 / 1 / 2
  • NaN / EliteDisplay E190i / 2 Dell 19" 75hz
• Total Cost: $15.00

 

I will be reusing my current peripherals and am open to reusing anything I already have, such as case fans or optical drives. I plan to buy in the next month or two. I aim to play at a minimum of 480p 30 fps on low settings. I want to only buy used unless new is safer/cheaper, as a new house is quite pricey. I don't care if I have to go dig in dumpsters, whatever gets me the best for the price/free! I will not be using a case as that is wasted money. I do not care about noise. Thank you, and feel free to ask any further questions! 

[kaitlin4599]

the lga 1366 machine is the way to go if you have 6 dimm slots you should be able to go all the way up to either a W3690 or a W5690 and you can toss in 8 gig sticks for 48 gigs the 1366 lga socket can take 6 core cpus where as the amd can only take quad cores so the 1366 system is deff the way to go 

[Somerandomtechyboi]

If you can find a cheap w3680 w3690 i7 980x 990x (sub 20$) then the 1366 machines may be worth upgrading

 

Though i think you should resell all of em and jump to something better like an x99 based hp z workstation (e5 1650 v3 or 1660 v3 prefferably the latter) or maybe am4 with a used 3600 b450 depending on used pricing

[jaslion]

Sell it all, get a bit more money and for 250 buy a used 5 year old gaming machine. That would be the best course of action as none of these will properly do what you want in your budget no matter the upgrades they can handle.

[Melted]

9 hours ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

If you can find a cheap w3680 w3690 i7 980x 990x (sub 20$) then the 1366 machines may be worth upgrading

 

Though i think you should resell all of em and jump to something better like an x99 based hp z workstation (e5 1650 v3 or 1660 v3 prefferably the latter) or maybe am4 with a used 3600 b450 depending on used pricing

For buying the z workstation, they do look nice, but I would like to get away from proprietary parts. And as to the "am4 with a used 3600 b450", Im seeing ones for about $170 or higher. If I did sell my things, I could buy it, but then I wouldn't have any money left over after buying a PSU, and thats if I make good money off of selling them.

[Melted]

9 hours ago, jaslion said:

Sell it all, get a bit more money and for 250 buy a used 5 year old gaming machine. That would be the best course of action as none of these will properly do what you want in your budget no matter the upgrades they can handle.

If I do somehow get $100 for my stuff, Im seeing a few ok deals. I was considering buying in parts, getting a cpu mobo combo then a PSU, then saving up to get a good gpu? For $250 I could get a $90 1650 Super and a "A320M/ac AMD Ryzen 5 3600 DDR4 Motherboard" for $150.

[Somerandomtechyboi]

1 hour ago, Melted said:

For buying the z workstation, they do look nice, but I would like to get away from proprietary parts. And as to the "am4 with a used 3600 b450", Im seeing ones for about $170 or higher. If I did sell my things, I could buy it, but then I wouldn't have any money left over after buying a PSU, and thats if I make good money off of selling them.

B450s and 3600/5500s should be 50$ or less these days

 

Got my b450 a pro max for 40$ though due to my country not having a good used market for used ryzens 5500 tray new for about 68$ bundled with a little 2 heatpipe tower

[Melted]

10 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

B450s and 3600/5500s should be 50$ or less these days

 

Got my b450 a pro max for 40$ though due to my country not having a good used market for used ryzens 5500 tray new for about 68$ bundled with a little 2 heatpipe tower

The cheapest 5500 on eBay is $70 and the B450's are around $60+. Are you using USD?

[Somerandomtechyboi]

14 hours ago, Melted said:

The cheapest 5500 on eBay is $70 and the B450's are around $60+. Are you using USD?

usd and ebay has meh pricing most of the time look at fb marketplace instead

[Melted]

6 hours ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

usd and ebay has meh pricing most of the time look at fb marketplace instead

Will do! Thank you!