Budget build is it worth it?

[Aknoon]

Hello all,
I'v been looking to build a computer to play a few games. My laptop is fried from gaming on it.
My friend offered me his old gaming PC. I want to be able to play games like LoL, SWTOR, and steam games.
I don't mind playing on med or high +30 fps would be ideal. Heres the build he's asking $350.

• Windows 7 Home 64bit
• 320GB+220GB Hard drive
• 4 gb RAM
• GeForce GTS 250 1GB
• Intel Duo Core E8400 3Ghz
• Asus P5Q Pro Turbo board
• 550W Coolermaster power supply
• CD DVD Burner
• Antec case

 

[fralexandr]

it's an ok gaming pc, the gts 250 is a pretty old gpu though, on par with a mildly overclocked 8800gt (about 20-50% slower than the 5770 on average http://www.hwcompare.com/1158/geforce-gts-250-1gb-vs-radeon-hd-5770/)
for $350 it's an ok deal since it includes windows 7 (is it a legal copy? if not then bleh)

do you have a monitor? what resolution do you plan on gaming at?
unless you specify what steam games you play, i'm going to assume TF2/source engine, in which case SWTOR is the most demanding game listed.
if you're playing at 1280x1024, 1366x768, or 720p it should be fine for barely scraping 30fps at medium-high settings

swtor performance
cpu wise the core 2 duo 8400 will perform similarly to the phenom II x2 in the cpu comparison so you'll be cpu limited to ~30 fps

if you have ~$700, or plan to make any upgrades on his computer (don't), you should just build an i3 gaming rig.
if you're gaming at 1680x1050 or 1920x1080 though you should build your own rig as well
discussion on a $600 budget build
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2222338

personally i wouldn't consider your friends rig SWTOR capable at medium settings (low settings would be fine though)

if you want to buy your friends rig, you could try these optimizations for swtor and see if they help :\
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=114264

 

[Danimal1209]

You can build a nice i3 gaming rig for a bit more than $350 if you have a microcenter around.

i3 $100
motherboard $20 with i3
case $30
power supply $40
RAM $30
Hard drive $80

That comes out to $300 and then get any video card you want.

I went from an e8400@3.4ghz to an i3-2100 and the difference in overall speed AND gaming capability is IMMENSE.

 

[General Kenobi]

You can run the GTS 250 with an AMD Athlon X2 4600+ CPU and not get bottlenecked that much, so yeah, it's not that much of a gaming GPU these days. It's more on par with the higher end dual-core and some of the earlier quad-core CPUs.

In summary, Danimal1209 presented you with a pretty nice option - there's no need to buy dated tech when you can get new lower end stuff that outperforms it for the same price.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Sounds like a friend of mine that wanted to upgrade his dual-core rig for SWTOR. I was going to sell him an AMD X4 630 2.8Ghz + HD4850 rig, but he ended up buying an older rig from a different friend.

He got:
Q6600 (stock speed)
DFI P45 mATX board LanParty DK or something like that. Supports CF.
NV 8800GTS 640MB
4GB DDR2
unknown HD
Windows 7

I don't know how much he paid for it, but I think it was around $350.

He plays SWTOR on it, although he has expressed interest to me in upgrading the video card. Unfortunately, he never has money to do it though.

I've been trying to sell him a heatsink so he can OC that puppy.

 

[fralexandr]

heh i dunno if canada has microcenter

 

[General Kenobi]

Sounds like a friend of mine that wanted to upgrade his dual-core rig for SWTOR. I was going to sell him an AMD X4 630 2.8Ghz + HD4850 rig, but he ended up buying an older rig from a different friend.

He got:
Q6600 (stock speed)
DFI P45 mATX board LanParty DK or something like that. Supports CF.
NV 8800GTS 640MB
4GB DDR2
unknown HD
Windows 7

I don't know how much he paid for it, but I think it was around $350.

He plays SWTOR on it, although he has expressed interest to me in upgrading the video card. Unfortunately, he never has money to do it though.

I've been trying to sell him a heatsink so he can OC that puppy.

Just out of curiosity, how much more would your old rig have cost him? SWTOR could use a bit more power.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Just out of curiosity, how much more would your old rig have cost him? SWTOR could use a bit more power.

A lot less, I was going to sell him mine for $250 - $40 credit for his old 9600GSO 96SP card, that I wanted for my quad-GPU crunching rig.

And that AMD rig was brand-new, and came with Win7 HP 64-bit.

 

[General Kenobi]

A lot less, I was going to sell him mine for $250 - $40 credit for his old 9600GSO 96SP card, that I wanted for my quad-GPU crunching rig.

And that AMD rig was brand-new, and came with Win7 HP 64-bit.

Ah, that's a shame for him. Did he prefer NVIDIA, or why would he pay more for essentially less?

 

[Aknoon]

A lot less, I was going to sell him mine for $250 - $40 credit for his old 9600GSO 96SP card, that I wanted for my quad-GPU crunching rig.

And that AMD rig was brand-new, and came with Win7 HP 64-bit.

Do yyou still have the amd,machine?

 

[fralexandr]

http://slickdeals.net/f/3934348-Tig...ebones-Computer-Bundle-249-99AR-Use-Visa-card

that should be an okay build to throw in a video card, something like the 6850