Can u tell me how this stacks up plllzzzz?

[Yuriman]

Sounds like a 1st Gen i7 (makes it about 6 years old). Honestly, you could do worse in that price bracket. A GTX470 is old, but is still a lot faster than anything else you've linked so far.

A quick eBay search shows:
Nehalem i7 - ~$40-50
Decent socket 1366 motherboard - ~$60
12GB DDR3 - ~$70
GTX470 - ~$70ish

That comes out to $240. Add in a cheap case and power supply, and you're up to about $300, with everything but a hard drive and a copy of Windows.

I would *consider* $350 for a machine with roughly those specs, but it's arguably a bit overpriced for its age. You'd actually be doing him a favor by buying for $300, as you'd save him the trouble of parting it out.

~

Although an i7 is faster than even a new Haswell i3, I'd be somewhat concerned about investing in 6 year old parts with an unknown history. I'd probably rather buy something like this, and then replace the power supply and add a video card and cheap hard drive:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-Thin...624?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item565c0d9d88

Within a $400 budget, you might be able to score something like a used HD7870 or GTX660, which would both be significantly faster than a GTX470.

EDIT: I'm forgetting a copy of Windows with that. In this price-range, spending $100 on Windows really throws a wrench in your budget.

 

[Ride125]

Sorry about that price checking thing, I didn't know. He says he's playing gta 5 on high with no problems. Ud say that's pushing the limits of this machine?

 

[Yuriman]

A 470 is relatively low-end by today's standards, and a non-overclocked Nehalem i7 isn't exactly a speed demon. I'd bet he's playing GTA5 on lowish settings.

 

[Ride125]

He said running 100 clear on high quality

 

[Ride125]

Ok that fell through, I've been on eBay and Craigslist and I still can't tell good from bad. My budget is now 450, can u guys help me find something good for that price? If it's a lil more maybe I can talk them down some

 

[XavierMace]

He said running 100 clear on high quality

I'd say he's full of it. I've got a nearly identical system as a guest PC. While it still plays everything at 1080p, it's starting to struggle with the newer games.

 

[mfenn]

Ok that fell through, I've been on eBay and Craigslist and I still can't tell good from bad. My budget is now 450, can u guys help me find something good for that price? If it's a lil more maybe I can talk them down some

We're not really running a service for doing price checks on tons of Craigslist and Ebay machines. If you find machines similar to the ones which have already been voted up, then you are probably getting a decent deal.

Otherwise, let us know what all you need and your budget and we'll try to find you the best PC parts in that price range, or tell you that it's not possible as the case may be.

mfenn
General Hardware Moderator

 

[Ride125]

Breaking the law breaking the law breaking the law breaking the law. Sorry j/k

 

[Ride125]

So this is what I got, brand new 3 yr warranty!!!
CPU: Athlon X4 760K 3.8GHZ FM2 Processor

Graphics Card: Nvidia GTX 750 1GB DDR5 PCI Express 3.0 CrossFireX Support Video Card


8gb DDR 3 1600 MHZ Memory

1TB Hard Drive 7200 RPM

HDMI Port- two DVI ports

6 USB Ports

DVD RW Drive- SATA

WIFI CARD

800 Watt PSU
Case: NZXT 921RB-001-BL Black Steel GUARDIAN 921 RB ATX Mid Tower 3/2/(4) Bay USB eSATA Blue LED Computer Case

Motherboard:

AMD A55 FM2+ socket MATX Motherboard w/Video, Audio, GbLAN & RAID

 

[Ride125]

I went a lil over budget but not sure if I can post the price

 

[Ride125]

Well what do u guys think?

 

[Yuriman]

Did you assemble it yourself?

Processor - 760K - $78
Motherboard - MSI A55M-E35 (?) - $36
GTX 750 - $120
Case - $60
8GB DDR3 - $50
1TB HDD - $50
800w PSU - ?? (maybe $50?)

Total value of parts (excluding Windows, if it came with that) comes out to around $450, so you can compare how much you paid and see how well you did. The 760K is a fine entry-level processor. An i3 is more expensive (wouldn't fit in that budget), and I'd take a 760K over a similarly-priced Pentium for most tasks. A 760K is a good match for a GTX 750, which is a decent entry-level card too. You didn't state what the brand of your motherboard, power supply, RAM or hard drive is, but the only one of those items that's really important is the power supply.

What brand is the power supply? Brand tends to be more important than wattage. Companies like Raidmax tend to produce garbage that is likely to die soon and destroy other system components when it goes, while Corsair, Antec, etc. produce reliable low priced units.

800w is massive overkill for that level of system. Guru3d measured your GPU to draw around 65w under full load, and I believe the 760K's TDP is 100w. The rest of the system likely comes out to under 20w of additional power draw, giving you a total peak power consumption of about 20% of your PSU's rated wattage. Having a really big power supply isn't an issue in itself, it won't run poorly or anything from what, but power supplies are most efficient at 50-75% load so since your system will always be running outside of its peak efficiency, it's going to waste a bit of electricity and make a bit of extra heat compared with a smaller unit. This may not be a big deal for you, as it'll probably only cost you a few tens of dollars over the life of the PC. It probably also cost a bit more than a more appropriately sized 350-420w unit though. Ideally, I'd have put a Corsair 420w or Antec 380 in your system.

 

[mfenn]

I went a lil over budget but not sure if I can post the price

It's fine to post the price of something you've bought.

mfenn
General Hardware Moderator

 

[Ride125]

It's fine to post the price of something you've bought.

mfenn
General Hardware Moderator

Ok Ty

 

[Ride125]

Did you assemble it yourself?

Processor - 760K - $78
Motherboard - MSI A55M-E35 (?) - $36
GTX 750 - $120
Case - $60
8GB DDR3 - $50
1TB HDD - $50
800w PSU - ?? (maybe $50?)

Total value of parts (excluding Windows, if it came with that) comes out to around $450, so you can compare how much you paid and see how well you did. The 760K is a fine entry-level processor. An i3 is more expensive (wouldn't fit in that budget), and I'd take a 760K over a similarly-priced Pentium for most tasks. A 760K is a good match for a GTX 750, which is a decent entry-level card too. You didn't state what the brand of your motherboard, power supply, RAM or hard drive is, but the only one of those items that's really important is the power supply.

What brand is the power supply? Brand tends to be more important than wattage. Companies like Raidmax tend to produce garbage that is likely to die soon and destroy other system components when it goes, while Corsair, Antec, etc. produce reliable low priced units.

800w is massive overkill for that level of system. Guru3d measured your GPU to draw around 65w under full load, and I believe the 760K's TDP is 100w. The rest of the system likely comes out to under 20w of additional power draw, giving you a total peak power consumption of about 20% of your PSU's rated wattage. Having a really big power supply isn't an issue in itself, it won't run poorly or anything from what, but power supplies are most efficient at 50-75% load so since your system will always be running outside of its peak efficiency, it's going to waste a bit of electricity and make a bit of extra heat compared with a smaller unit. This may not be a big deal for you, as it'll probably only cost you a few tens of dollars over the life of the PC. It probably also cost a bit more than a more appropriately sized 350-420w unit though. Ideally, I'd have put a Corsair 420w or Antec 380 in your system.

Wow that's a lot of info. Unfortunately I don't know the brand names I bought it built and it hasn't arrived yet. I paid 525 with windows 7 64. I'd like to make some improvements to it in the next 6 months or so. Where would u start so I could get the most bang for my buck?

 

[Yuriman]

Wow that's a lot of info. Unfortunately I don't know the brand names I bought it built and it hasn't arrived yet. I paid 525 with windows 7 64. I'd like to make some improvements to it in the next 6 months or so. Where would u start so I could get the most bang for my buck?

Depends on your priorities. A SSD would considerably improve how fast your system "feels" in day to day use, without improving framerate in games. Other than that, you might try overclocking. It wouldn't be too difficult to get an extra 10-20% performance out of your chosen parts.

As far as upgrades you can buy, the only two items that will really affect your gaming performance are your CPU and video card, so you'd have to sell what you have.

The video card will have a much larger impact on your gaming performance, in most cases. A Radeon 270 would provide something like a 1.5x (ballpark) performance boost in games and allow for higher graphical settings for about $125 (from Newegg). A Radeon 280 would be closer to 2.25x faster at $175, and a R290 would be around 3x faster at $250.

Once you get up to chips like the Radeon 280 and 290, you'll probably start to feel the limitations of your CPU in some games. Battlefield, for instance, will have framerate dips that wouldn't occur on a faster CPU (Intel i3, i5, i7, perhaps AMD FX-8350 though it doesn't get much love around here) regardless of how low you set your graphics. Diablo III will run significantly better on higher-end CPUs. It's really a case-to-case basis, and I recommend hitting up review sites for particular games, to see what would benefit you.

Socket FM2+ has some great value for low-budget, but unfortunately there really isn't a faster CPU you can buy for it, so if you wanted more CPU performance you'd have to sell both your motherboard and processor, which would maybe require a new Windows license. Microsoft is generally fine with allowing you to reactivate on a new motherboard if you give them a call, but you'll still need to wipe your PC. Still, the 760K is probably a better all-around chip than the comparably-priced Pentium, though a Pentium would've had excellent drop-in upgrade options (i3, i5, i7).