Thoughts on low end gaming PC

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bunker

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#269914 14-Apr-2020 18:52

I've been thinking about putting together a cheap gaming rig for my girlfriend as a post-lockdown project. Doesn't need to do anything too demanding - mostly Sims 4. I've seen YouTube videos of people picking up old LGA1156 motherboards and CPUs from Aliexpress with some success. Has anyone tried going that route before? I'm trying to go as cheap as possible and I have an SSD, HDD, 8GB of DDR3 RAM, case and a power supply lying around that I can keep the price down with.

Asus P55 motherboard https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1000005902054.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.99cca611bcbCEe&algo_pvid=75066a61-7c96-47f0-8684-120ecfec3584&algo_expid=75066a61-7c96-47f0-8684-120ecfec3584-0&btsid=0ab50f0815868460743218853e056e&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_

Intel Xeon X3440 https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32691926686.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.f3fb7865FJfBNc&algo_pvid=f3fef6be-9693-45a3-8f21-6a1fbcc32321&algo_expid=f3fef6be-9693-45a3-8f21-6a1fbcc32321-2&btsid=0ab6d70515868460280371690e2a7d&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_

Cooler? https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32958609112.html?spm=a2g0s.8937460.0.0.1c4e2e0enIxj06

For the graphics card I'm thinking something like a second hand 750ti.

Any thoughts?

Jase2985

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#2461335 14-Apr-2020 19:39

just buy something of trademe, or get an ex lease PC and throw in a graphics card

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xpd

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#2461377 14-Apr-2020 20:27

ex-lease however can sometimes come with PSU issues with 3rd party cards though - ie: No power connectors or custom ones.

Also can be space limiting........

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KiwiSurfer

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#2461378 14-Apr-2020 20:29

I tried buying cheap parts off Trade Me and ended up with a machine that wasn't that great. I think one of the parts I got was a bit problematic so I had unexpected freezes etc and couldn't pinpoint the cluprit.

Ended up getting an HP ex-Lease for around the same amount I spent in the first place and got a much better machine which was much more reliable. The ex-lease also came with a Windows licence which is another cost saving consideration. I bought my ex-lease from PC Traders. Think I bought my on special so was a pretty good deal.

Only issue with the machine was the slow HDD it came with, so waited for a PB Tech sale and snapped up a cheap SSD. I ended up transferring the RAM from my first attempt (existing 4GB; added 4GB for total of 8GB) but that didn't really make much difference as my RAM usage is typically <4GB anyway. All up spent probably just shy of $300 for a pretty good machine which can play many of the older classic games e.g. Civ 5. Next step for me is to get a cheap fan-less/low-profile graphics card as there's a few games which needs a slightly better GPU.

I was also impressed with the case the HP came which was pretty easy to open up for upgrades etc. Almost tool-less IIRC.

I also found Win 10 was able to automatically apply the Win10 licence when I did a fresh install. I think it captures the OEM licence somehow?

Would recommend going down the ex-lease route if you want a good PC for older games at a good price. Just get the cheapest ex-lease and upgrade it with an SSD.

bunker

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#2461418 14-Apr-2020 21:23

I will keep an eye out for ex-lease machines. I've seen some upgraded Dell Optiplexes which seem quite good. Most of the ones I tend to see though are the small form factor computers which look like a nightmare to work with. Also, I'm a bit worried about the proprietary nature of some of the motherboards (although I heard some of the Asus prebuilts are pretty much just standard parts).

KiwiSurfer

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#2463319 16-Apr-2020 11:30

bunker:

I will keep an eye out for ex-lease machines. I've seen some upgraded Dell Optiplexes which seem quite good. Most of the ones I tend to see though are the small form factor computers which look like a nightmare to work with. Also, I'm a bit worried about the proprietary nature of some of the motherboards (although I heard some of the Asus prebuilts are pretty much just standard parts).

I had the same concern but found it wasn't a big deal in practice. Even though the motherboard may be proprietary, the HP I got still had the same standard interfaces for SATA ports, RAM slots, PCIe, etc so easy enough to upgrade all these other components. Although if you meant you wanted to be able to replace the motherboard itself at some point, that's something I'm not sure could be easily done as I think the motherboard, PSU and case are designed to fit each other with the minimum space required etc.