Buy a prebuilt, sell the graphics card?

M

Morlock

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 8, 2012
Messages
508
Okay, what am I missing here?

https://www.amazon.com/CYBERPOWERPC-GXIVR8020A4-Desktop-i5-7400-7200RPM/dp/B0747W15QL

CYBERPOWERPC Gamer Xtreme GXIVR8020A4
$719 & Free Shipping
This thing comes with an AMD RX 580 4GB GPU.
Quick and dirty web search says RX 580s are selling for no less than $500.

If I can even get $400 for the RX 580, that's an i5-7400, 2x 4gb DDR4, and ASUS Prime B250M-A for $320, and that's before I sell the 1tb HD. Gotta be able to get at least $50 for the case, PSU, and a 1tb HD, right? Meaning mobo/CPU/RAM for like $275, $250 if I get lucky. Buy a GTX 1050 for $133 and I've got my whole rig for under $400. I'm looking at paying $435 for a G4560, an 8gb DDR4, a $140 board, and a GTX 1050 if I part it out from Amazon. I may not be getting the best mobo, but I'd be getting like $100 more worth of CPU. And the RAM CPU and heat sink are already installed in the mobo.

Am I being too optimistic on some part of this?
 
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That was what I saw in the summaries Google was showing of a search of PCPartsPicker. I assume I got that wrong? What is it actually selling for?
 
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=580+4gb&_in_kw=1&_ex_kw=&_sacat=0&LH_Sold=1&_udlo=&_udhi=&_samilow=&_samihi=&_sadis=15&_stpos=02919-3322&_sargn=-1&saslc=1&_salic=1&_sop=12&_dmd=1&_ipg=50&LH_Complete=1

Average sale price for the past week is $421 on ebay. Take away the 10% fees and you are at $379. If it is worth your trouble and you consider the rest of the parts worth $341, then by all means go ahead, but I've been down that road before and it isn't as great as it seems.

they may go for $500 online, but good luck trying to resell one without a box for that much.
 
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Yeah I'm definitely looking to be talked out of it. If I can't resell the parts I'm stuck overpaying.
 
I have plenty of time - that isn't worth a whole lot at the moment. What I don't have a lot of is cash, so if I can trade the former for the latter (and better hardware in the bargain) I'm happy.

One of my main questions about that particular rig is the mobo. I didn't get much info with a quick google. Didn't find the specs. Guess I need to hunt more info on the mobo first.
 
I'd say it's a decent deal if you plan to buy the system & use it with the video card that is in it.

However if you are looking to put something together, it's going to be a bit of a harder slog to sell the video card as a bare card without a box for full price.

If you are trying to just put a cheap gaming system together, there is lots of basic MSI motherboards on the market for $50 and up, put in a cheap 7th gen or 6th gen i5 or i7, find some cheap memory, a decent SSD, a basic case & then spend the rest of the money on a decent video card and you are set to go.
 
James, I would love advice on how to build something on the cheap. I don't game (if I do it's old stuff like Arkham City) - my most resource-intensive task is Daz Studio, which eats lots of RAM (I had 24gb of DDR3 in my old system, and DS often took as much as 18gb of it in bigger scenes; most people on the Daz forum say you need at least 16gb of RAM, and recommend 32, but I can't afford $350 worth of RAM right now, not even close). I already have a case and a Corsair CX600 PSU, monitors, all the peripherals. All I need is motherboard/CPU/RAM/GPU. At the moment I'm leaning toward a GTX 1050 on Amazon for $131 (assuming my GTX 760 really is dead as the computer guy insists).

That leaves motherboard/CPU/RAM. I'm thinking I want to buy a cheap CPU like a G4560, one stick of 8gb and a mobo and see how well it performs (apparently DS doesn't take good advantage of multiple threads anyway, so the Pentium may be an especially good value for my needs). That leaves the mobo; I want something relatively future-proof, with an eye toward replacing the Pentium down the road, and putting more RAM in. From what I'm reading, Z270 boards are the last gen that will play nicely with the Pentium.

As I said, advice is welcome.

Edit: based on advice I got from another thread, I'm hoping to get like $110 or so for my old DDR3 RAM, which would be a big help.

Edit2: I'd like an SSD, but I don't think it's in the budget right now. I already have a ton of magnetic hard drives laying around.

Edit3: Also I'd like a mobo with lots of SATA slots, and like 6 or more USB ports (tons of internal and external drives).

Oh, and I need a heat sink with real mounting hardware, screws or something, not those crappy plastic plugs. Done with those plugs.
 
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Okay, first draft:

ASRock - B250 Pro4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard [77.48 shipped from Newegg]
Pentium G4560 [72 shipped from Amazon]
Ballistix Sport LT 8GB Single DDR4 2666 MT/s (PC4-21300) [88.34 shipped from Amazon]
GTX 1050 (131 shipped from Amazon)

$368.82

I'm trying for a hard limit of $500, and considering that I can probably get a hundred or so for my old RAM, my budget is effectively $600. That leaves plenty for another stick of RAM, for a total of $458.

Thoughts?
 
If you are willing to get some used parts in the mix, you could get a pretty decent gaming build fairly cheaply with everything.
If you are willing to be a bit creative, you can be even better.

Here is an example (no affiliation, and I'm not vouching for it):
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Preci...925241?hash=item3d581745b9:g:nYEAAOSwZvRac0XG

3.6ghz Quad Core CPU, 32gb memory (check that it has the big power supply), all for $314 shipped (the down side is it will only use standard height video cards).

Or for build it yourself:
For example, a cheap widely available basic motherboard: MSI H110M PRO-VD Plus LGA 1151 Costs $45 or less brand new
(Not the greatest, but if you are building a basic gaming rig it or something like it will work just fine).
i7-6700 will game great, price with a bit of hunting for it or a 7700 would be $200, or go down to the i5-6500 and be in the $120 range.
Grab 2x 8gb memory modules used and hunt for the best deal online
Pick the case & PSU that you want, no need to go overboard, even a 550W PS would be fine.
Then look for a good deal on a lightly used SSD, probably can come in under $100 for a 512gb one

You can also see if on eBay or Craigslist you can find a decent deal on a used complete system with all the basics you need such as a Dell XPS 8700 or XPS 8900 etc. Then budget in if you need more memory & possibly a bigger power supply & SSD.

I build up these kind of systems all the time for friends and family, usually I grab a basic shell like the Dell XPS 8700 / 8900 or Precision workstations and then put in all the parts and am good to go really cheaply and the systems work well for a long time.

Not the fanciest components with all the bells and whistles, but if you have a decent amount of memory, a decent CPU, a decent SSD and then throw the rest of the money into a video card, you can come out cheaply with a great gaming system.
 
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Morlock said:
Okay, first draft:

ASRock - B250 Pro4 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard [77.48 shipped from Newegg]
Pentium G4560 [72 shipped from Amazon]
Ballistix Sport LT 8GB Single DDR4 2666 MT/s (PC4-21300) [88.34 shipped from Amazon]
GTX 1050 (131 shipped from Amazon)

$368.82

I'm trying for a hard limit of $500, and considering that I can probably get a hundred or so for my old RAM, my budget is effectively $600. That leaves plenty for another stick of RAM, for a total of $458.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Don't waste the money on the Pentium G4560 CPU. Look on eBay for a decent deal on an i5 or i7 CPU in the 6th or 7th generation. You could probably get an i5 in the $100 to $120 range.
 
Thanks James. I like the price of the MSI board you mention, but I need at least 6 SATA ports and 4 RAM slots so I think I need an ATX board. I am looking at i5s on ebay, though.
 
Now I'm looking at AMD processors. I can get a new Ryzen 3 1300x for $125 shipped from Amazon. It seems to be pretty close to an i5-6500, which are going for like $130 used on eBay ("buy it now" anyway). I'm looking at MSI B350 PC Mate, which is around $75 but Newegg has an offer for $20 rebate bringing it down to $56. That's mobo and CPU for $181 and it has 6 SATA and 6 USB and 4 RAM slots so I might just pull the trigger on that if nobody can give me a reason not to.
 
Ah, I see that the rebate is a prepaid card. Not as good as cash or check but I guess it'll spend okay. Offer good through the 15th so no need to rush. Need to check to make sure the CPU and the board are fully compatible (read a complaint about the 1200).
 
3 days ago Newegg shell shocker

$194.98 for i3-8100 and z370 board

Intel Core i3-8100 Coffee Lake Quad-Core 3.6 GHz LGA 1151 (300 Series) 65W BX80684I38100 Desktop Processor Intel UHD Graphics 630,

GIGABYTE Z370P D3 (rev. 1.0) LGA 1151 (300 Series) Intel Z370 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 ATX Intel Motherboard
 
Is there any way I can get text alerts on my phone, or an RSS feed, or something, to tell me about good deals? 'Cause that's what I need to do, just watch for a couple weeks to find a really good deal on a mobo/cpu combo.

Really I wish I could find something that I could plug my 20-24 gigs of DDR3 into. That would save me like 200-250 bucks, but the DDR3 ship seems to have sailed. I guess it's not that big of a deal, since I can still sell it and get like a hundred back.
 
Morlock said:
Is there any way I can get text alerts on my phone, or an RSS feed, or something, to tell me about good deals? 'Cause that's what I need to do, just watch for a couple weeks to find a really good deal on a mobo/cpu combo.

Really I wish I could find something that I could plug my 20-24 gigs of DDR3 into. That would save me like 200-250 bucks, but the DDR3 ship seems to have sailed. I guess it's not that big of a deal, since I can still sell it and get like a hundred back.
Click to expand...
There is buildapcsales sub on Reddit, and some get posted to slickdeals(can set deal alerts for keywords)

When looking for a deal, it's best to have time on your side
 
If your DDR3 memory is DDR3L then you could get a motherboard that would use it and still support an i7-6700k, but if it's standard DDR-3 memory 1.5V, then pretty much if you want any newer generation it's new memory.
 
2nd Draft:

$110 Ryzen 3 1300x
$65 MSI Tomahawk Plus
$160 G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16gb
$20 Cooler Master - Hyper 212 EVO

$355 total. Even if I have to buy a 1050, it will all total out to $486. If I get $100 for my RAM the total drops down to $386. Not too bad.

Only downside so far is that the Tomahawk only has 4 SATA ports and I'd much rather have at least 6. That and I haven't researched the board at all, I did check the 1300x for compatibility and it's on MSI's list.

Speed: yeah I just discovered Slickdeals.

James, yeah it's 1.5v memory. AFAIK tell the only thing I could get for DDR3 isn't just "not new," it's "pretty old." I checked partpicker and the only sub-$100 mobos (otherwise what's the point?) were AT3+ or worse. All the comments were from 2 and 3 years ago, lol.
 
Look on eBay off lease pro workstations. They will be about the same price of the system you’re looking at, but that Pentium G4560 system is a toy compared to those Xeon based Pro systems -- and you can find really nice ones starting at $300-$400 range.

To get you started look up a Dell precision T7500.

Something like this.

https://m.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Precisi...810275?hash=item466c20f663:g:IrcAAOSw4DJaZm-l

Too pricey?

Pick your poison.

https://m.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=dell+t7500&_sop=15

You can get more modern systems off-lease - if that's your preference, but for what you are doing - and the large amounts of RAM you want - that generation would be a pleaser! Xeon CPU's are Intel's professional workstation/Server level CPUs. They have extra cache, and typically more cores. They cost a premium over consumer grade chips, and work like a mule.

use search terms

"xeon + 32GB + SSD" on ebay to further expand your search.


PS -- They'll game just fine too.


It's a high performance option on a shoestring budget.
 
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Haha, you had to go and complicate things Arch. Now I'm gonna hafta read up on the subject. I see Xeon this and ES that and have no idea WTF they're talking about.
 
Yeah 625 is too pricey. I can deal with $400 all in though, if I'm getting something with tons of RAM.
 
Morlock said:
Haha, you had to go and complicate things Arch. Now I'm gonna hafta read up on the subject. I see Xeon this and ES that and have no idea WTF they're talking about.
Click to expand...


That $600 Dell Precision Dual CPU Xeon Hex Core System with 32GB of RAM is like this dump truck, - if the Pentium G4560 system were a Ford Ranger. ;)

5490934979_b216174e90_b.jpg
 
The Dell is competing with a Ryzen 3 1300x now, not a G4560. In any event, it loses on price. One part of the problem is that I don't need a case, PSU, hdd, or ssd, and the refurbished systems have at least 1 or 2, often 3 or 4 of those things. Definitely not ruling your suggestion out, just saying I haven't seen anything that blows my skirt up yet. Possibility of lots of RAM is inviting, though.
 
 
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Yeah I'm grateful for the suggestion, don't get me wrong. Still looking in the $350 price range where my 2nd draft lives, but not seeing anything I like yet. Every CPU I compare to the 1300x falls short. One came close but it was too old to take even my DDR3 1600 RAM, which I think I'm gonna want from a system if it's gonna be DDR3.
 
Yeah that z600 is more interesting than the t7500s I was seeing. I wish they would put more detailed specs on the pages so I didn't have to hunt them down myself.
 
Wait, so a GTX 1050 is actually a step SIDEWAYS from my GTX 760? WTF? I assumed it would be a few steps UP. I bought my 760 like 5 years ago FFS. I sure hope it will still run 2 monitors.
 
I just found out that 3Delight is CPU-only, doesn't even use a GPU. I never switched over to iRay, despite the much better-looking renders, because it was just too slow on my GTX 760.

This is interesting, because my plan was to build a cheap system now, and add a big card when I can afford it. But if I stick to 3Delight, which will be MUCH easier, because all my saved content uses 3Delight, then I don't need a big card, and don't really give a shit if prices come down. I can easily wait a year or more for prices to straighten out.

It also suggests that I can get a lot more bang for the buck right now from a beefier CPU than I could from a beefier GPU.
 
I went ahead and pulled the trigger on that combo. All four of the interesting "deals" I saw on slickdeals were dead (and in 2 days of watching nothing new of interest popped up), so I lost interest in watching for more "deals." The combo was only $12 more than I was trying to pay for an Asrock Killer X370 and a Ryzen 5 1600 anyway, and this has integrated video in case my old GPU won't run 2 monitors. And God knows how long I would've been waiting on the mobo rebate, anyway.

It's kinda weird how I couldn't find any reviews of the board on the first couple of pages of google search results, though. Every other board I've searched for (a couple dozen at least) have given me multiple hits on the first page). Here's hoping that's not a bad sign...

Now all I need is a good deal on 16gb of RAM.
 
I'm jealous, didnt realize they Gigabyte now has this feature

Fan Stop

Achieve fan silence. With Fan Stop, you can set any fan to stop completely when temperatures drop below a specified threshold. Which fan stops, based on readings from which sensor, and at what temperature — all of it can be customized to your liking
2.jpg
 
Speedeu4ia said:
I'm jealous, didnt realize they Gigabyte now has this feature

Fan Stop

Achieve fan silence. With Fan Stop, you can set any fan to stop completely when temperatures drop below a specified threshold. Which fan stops, based on readings from which sensor, and at what temperature — all of it can be customized to your liking
2.jpg
Click to expand...
powercolor and sapphire both have it too on some of the AMD products.
 
If you guys want to suggest some good hardware protection software, I'm all ears. Stuff to monitor heat and prevent damage, over and above what the hardware already does on its own I mean.

I've got 16gb of RAM and a CPU cooler in my Amazon cart, just need to pull the trigger.
 
I'm glad I checked Newegg's promo page. I got 2x8gb (Team T-Force) and an H7 for $195 shipped.

It was going to be $222 shipped from Amazon (Crucial RAM), $16 of it tax. I remember when Amazon usually had better prices than Newegg.

Thanks for all the help everybody, it's much appreciated. Wish me luck plugging everything in. :)
 
Need urgent help with this I have update on the "blueing" referred to earlier in the thread. I licked my fingertip and rubbed on some of the "blueing" and the "blueing" came right off, leaving the metal underneath shiny and clean. I have developed a possible theoretical explanation for this theory that is consistent with the well-known scientific fact that "blueing" is indicative of irreparable heat damage:

MY SALIVA CURES HEAT DAMAGE EVEN CATASTROPHIC HEAT DAMAGE AND MAY BE WORTH BILLIONS IF WE CAN FIND A WAY TO REPRODUCE IT IN THE LAB AND BRING A PRODUCT TO MARKET

Venture capitalists plz respond quickly, this may be my shot at oligarch status need confirmation ASAP.
 
Oh wait, stepped on my own meat. The blueing thing was in the other thread. Dagnabbit.
 
Looks like meat's back on the menu, boys!

https://hardforum.com/threads/new-system-wont-post.1954685/#post-1043490534

Starting shopping for a new system tomorrow! Edit: I lie, I already started shopping, lol. FUCK.

I'm seeing much better deals on AM4 mobos, but I really like the benchmarks on the i5-8400, for the price. It's too bad I have to send it back (I assume; it's part of a combo deal), I'd like to use it, especially if I could find one of those really good deals on an Intel board (ASRock AB350 Pro4 is $55 right now FFS).
 
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