Building A Gaming PC For My Girlfriend on the Cheap

[Mr.McMister]

I'm looking to build a new pc for my girlfirend as a christmas present to upgrade her old PC which is an Dell Precision 390 tower with a c2d e6600, a GTS 250 1GB, 4GB DDR2 and a 375watt PSU. I currently have a GTX 750ti that I picked up for $70 and have $230 left in the budget to spend on the rest. I'm currently looking at this or this. Keep in mind That this will probably get more upgrades in the future like more ram and a better cpu. I'm currently leaning towards the ivy bridge i3 as its cheaper andand will have usb 3. Also Thinking upgrades on ebay like a xeon E3 v2 and 8GB of DDR3 ECC in about 4 months when her birthday comes up.

 

Looking for comments and better suggestions. I live in ontario near ottawa, so options in used hardware are very limited and expensive.

[Frankenburger]

Personally, I would go for the 2400. i3's don't start becoming comparable to quad cores until you reach Kaby Lake. Also, the 2400 and 3220 both use the same socket, so they're both equally expandable. Though, LGA1155 is a dead socket, and there won't be much you can upgrade to if you wanted something more recent in the future.

[sambarr]

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/HP-Compaq-8200-Elite-Small-Form-Factor-i5-2400-3-1Ghz-8GB-500GB-Hdd-DVD-Rom/202118424370?hash=item2f0f326732:g:1jYAAOSwE2tZck9t

 

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Lenovo-ThinkCentre-M82-2756-D7U-SFF-i5-3550-3-3GHz-4Gb-250gb-Win-10-Free-Ship/263267289960?hash=item3d4bf40b68:g:-o8AAOSwb3lZ5g~C

 

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Dell-Optiplex-9020-SFF-Desktop-Intel-Core-i5-4570-3-20GhZ-8GB-RAM-500GB-HDD/322898416815?hash=item4b2e3ed4af:g:lXYAAOSwq9NZvZSo

 

Just saw you needed space for that 750ti.... :~(

 

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Lenovo-ThinkCentre-M91p-MT-i5-2400-3-10-GHZ-4GB-RAM-500GB-Win-10-Free-Shipping/252941867515?hash=item3ae48299fb:g:blAAAOSwYvFZGzSp

[Stevoisboss]

Have you looked at craigslist to see if anyone is selling a somewhat decent system without a gpu? 

[Mr.McMister]

4 minutes ago, Frankenburger said:

Personally, I would go for the 2400. i3's don't start becoming comparable to quad cores until you reach Kaby Lake. Also, the 2400 and 3220 both use the same socket, so they're both equally expandable. Though, LGA1155 is a dead socket, and there won't be much you can upgrade to if you wanted something more recent in the future.

I was only thinking about upgrades with used components. So would you say the i5 2400 is worth the $50 extra or would it be better to buy a xeon later, possibly with 4 cores and HT?

[sambarr]

2 minutes ago, Mr.McMister said:

I was only thinking about upgrades with used components. So would you say the i5 2400 is worth the $50 extra or would it be better to buy a xeon later, possibly with 4 cores and HT?

You might want to recycle an old case and power supply, and go for a Ryzen 3 1200 + A320 + 4GB ddr4 for 240-250 dollars.

 

If you save a hard drive somewhere, then you'll have much better value for money.

[Frankenburger]

Just now, Mr.McMister said:

I was only thinking about upgrades with used components. So would you say the i5 2400 is worth the $50 extra or would it be better to buy a xeon later, possibly with 4 cores and HT?

I wouldn't consider an LGA 1155 Xeon honestly. They have the same IPC as their consumer grade counterparts, but lack overclocking. HT doesn't really do much for gaming, so try not to worry about it too much. Also, most older Xeons have a lower clock than their consumer grade brethren, which ultimately makes them worse for gaming. So, ultimately, I'd say the i5 2400 is certainly worth the extra $50.

[sambarr]

G4400 / ga-h110m-a / 4gb 2133 / fbm-01 matx case / 1tb caviar blue goes for 255 dollars.

 

It will be miles better than her c2d, with warranty, brand new.

[Mr.McMister]

I ended up finding a dell optiplex 7010 with a core i5 3570 and 16GB of ram for $195 with shipping. Thanks everyone for the suggestions.