Buying a new computer.

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McAvoy
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Buying a new computer.

Post by McAvoy »

My laptop has seen better days. Battery is dying, the disc drive hasn't worked in two years, the screen is shutting down by itself. I think it has been getting slower too no matter what I do.

Its almost five years old and has been used constantly.

At this point, the laptop became a desktop. So that is what I am planning on.

Anyone know of any good sites where you can buy surplus computers cheap? Specifically I am thinking I can save a lot of money by just buying surplus Windows 7 computers.

I don't need a super computer. All I want is a computer equal or better than the one I have now. Just newer and without Vista.
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Re: Buying a new computer.

Post by Tyyr »

What's your budget? I'm betting you can build a new computer that will fit your budget as cheap as an old surplus machine.

For example, this is under $500, Win 7 Premium 64 bit included, after $25 of mail in rebates. 3.2 Ghz quad core AMD processore, 8GB of RAM, 1TB hard drive, Blu-Ray reader/DVD writer, 1 GB GeForce 610 graphics card (not that great but better than stock), and back panel USB 3.0 slots. The mother board also has a SATA 6 Gb/s header so you can install an SSD if you want later. There's definitely overhead here. You can push things even lower if you're willing to drop the SATA 6, go with a lower powered CPU even a dual core one, and maybe, though I'm hesitant to recommend it, got to 4GB of RAM and onboard graphics. You can probably push this down to $400 w/ Windows 7. All brand new, right out of the box.
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Re: Buying a new computer.

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That is roughly around my budget. That seems like a good deal right there and exactly what I want.

I barely play any computer games anymore. The most advanced game I play is the heavily modded Star Trek Legacy.
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Re: Buying a new computer.

Post by Tyyr »

It's up to you. A graphics card like that isn't going to run anything brand new now very well but for me some graphics card is better than onboard graphics. You can tweak some things to get it lower but that's a good starting point to work from. I would caution you though, you're gonna pretty quickly start taking big hits in performance to save just a few dollars.
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Re: Buying a new computer.

Post by Teaos »

Just turn the settings on any modern game down, you probably wont even notice.
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Re: Buying a new computer.

Post by McAvoy »

Tyyr wrote:It's up to you. A graphics card like that isn't going to run anything brand new now very well but for me some graphics card is better than onboard graphics. You can tweak some things to get it lower but that's a good starting point to work from. I would caution you though, you're gonna pretty quickly start taking big hits in performance to save just a few dollars.
Actually I am liking the idea to build a computer now. I like the idea of spreading out paying for parts over a few months.
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Re: Buying a new computer.

Post by Tyyr »

Just turn the settings on any modern game down, you probably wont even notice.
On a 1GB 610? Maybe, but you're gonna have to turn the texture settings WAY down to get a playable framerate. With only a gig textures are gonna be a bitch. If you want to game on this rig for just a little under another $100 I'd got with this. Pretty much everything else on the rig I posted is good to go except the older generation PCI-Express 2.0 slot. Not a deal killer but you might not get quite as good performance out of the card if you like to play with your texture quality set to OMGWTF!
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Re: Buying a new computer.

Post by McAvoy »

Well like I said I don't play games. I play Diablo II and Empire Earth and Age of empires II. If that computer can do that then I will be happy.

Oh and Civilization II too. Vista hates that game.
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Re: Buying a new computer.

Post by Tyyr »

The onboard graphics could likely handle any of those.

Do you want Windows 7 specifically or did you want 8?

You can do this before the OS,

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 760K 3.8GHz Quad-Core Processor ($77.00 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI FM2-A75MA-P33 Micro ATX FM2 Motherboard ($54.98 @ Outlet PC)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport XT 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($71.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.96 @ Outlet PC)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 7750 1GB Video Card ($53.98 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT Source 210 Elite (White) ATX Mid Tower Case ($42.98 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $390.88
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-10-17 09:42 EDT-0400)

And that's before $50 in rebates which get your final total down to $340.88. A copy of Windows 7 will run you about $90 so you can get this and 7 for about $431 if you run down the rebates. Aw shit, forgot an optical drive. Well a Blu-Ray reader/DVD writer drive will set you back about $25 so the final total is $456.
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Re: Buying a new computer.

Post by McAvoy »

Sounds good to me.

I like the idea of buying a few parts a month as opposed to buying a whole computer in one big lump sum in a month.

So does the case come with USB ports or is that a part I have to buy too?
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Re: Buying a new computer.

Post by Tyyr »

The case comes with receptacles. You need a motherboard with an onboard USB 3.0 header to connect them to so they work. The last case linked has a USB 3.0 header and the case listed has receptacles meaning you will be able to have USB 3.0 plugs on the front of the case. The motherboard also has two USB 3.0 receptacles on the rear as well as 4 2.0 receptacles.

The only thing you're going to need to buy to finish that build is going to be a pair of SATA II cables to connect the hard drive and optical drive to the motherboard.
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Re: Buying a new computer.

Post by McAvoy »

Hmm... interesting. Thanks.
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