Gaming PC upgrade dilemma

[Hubb1e]

Ok, so I just upgraded my gaming PC to a 2500K and I have a left over Q6600, motherboard, and 8GB of DDR2 memory.

My brother wants a computer to play Diablo 3 and Civ 5 and any other future games he may play. I'd consider him a casual gamer.

My dilemma is whether I build him a PC based off my discarded Q6600, or I sell the Q6600 and ram (the motherboard is probably not worth much) and then buy another cheap system with the cash. $50 here and there won't make much difference, but I feel like giving him a S775 system now is dooming him for the future.

Some options are to get an H67 board for $60 and an i3 for $99, get the $100 FX4200 plus free board deal at microcenter, or another cheap deal I could find with upgrade potential.

The case HD and graphics card will be bought new. Should I just give him the quad core and ram, or go dual core with upgrade potential?

 

[mfenn]

I'd give him the Q6600 based on the following logic:
- A Q6600 and i3 2100 are maybe 30% apart in terms of raw performance, with the i3 being faster, less if you overclock the Q6600.
- An i3 system would cost probably $60 for an H61 mobo, $100 for an i3 2100, and $40 for 8GB of DDR3 RAM. That's $200 total. You could probably get $70 or so for your existing hardware. That means the i3 2100 system is roughly $130 more expensive.
- A casual gamer is not likely to upgrade within a generation, so it won't matter what his current chip is, he'll need a new mobo anyway.
- The Q6600 is sufficient for the types of games that you mention.

 

[Hubb1e]

I run the Q6600 at 3ghz. I can get about $70 - $80 out of the Q6600 and about $60 - $80 for the ram totaling $130 - $160

I can get an AMD Fx-4100 for $99 with a free motherboard plus 8GB of DDR3 memory for $35 for a total of $135. Piledriver would be the upgrade in the future.

I can get an i3 for $99 and an H61 mobo for $50 and 8GB of ram for $35 totaling $185. An Ivy quad would be the upgrade in the future.

On the price I come out about even. But it would be dropping a quad for a dual. With most games only using a dual wouldn't it be best to get the modern platform?

 

[BrightCandle]

Right now the dual core might be better in many circumstances, but not all and not by a lot. Whereas the quad core when using all 4 cores will outperform the dual. Seeing as how chances are he'll be using it for a while its more likely the quad will serve better over its lifetime.

 

[RaistlinZ]

If he's going to keeping this rig for the next couple of years I'd build him something new. That DDR2 just makes me want to cry.

 

[fatwalletuser]

Something new if keeping for next few years. Maybe go with the AMD fushion CPU/GPU line

 

[Hubb1e]

Something new if keeping for next few years. Maybe go with the AMD fushion CPU/GPU line

I've never seen an analysis where the AMD fusion made any sense over an Intel Celeron with a graphics card. Maybe Trinity will change that, but for now the CPU performance isn't great, and the GPU performance isn't high enough to play modern games at anything but low settings.

BTW, the gpu I'm planning on dropping in is a 6870 or a 7770.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Q6600 @ 3.0 has a lot of "grunt" still. I would keep that rig, and drop in a 6870 or similar card like you planned. It would still be a pretty powerful gaming rig.

 

[mfenn]

Q6600 @ 3.0 has a lot of "grunt" still. I would keep that rig, and drop in a 6870 or similar card like you planned. It would still be a pretty powerful gaming rig.

My thoughts exactly. With a 33% overclock to 3.0GHz, a lot of the performance advantage that you get with an i3 evaporates. To significantly better that, you need to go with a quad core i5.