Buying a used Dell Dimension 9200 for $200

[AwesomeK]

Hi I'm thinking of buying a used Dell Dimension 9200 for $200. Here is the ad I saw for it

"Dell Dimension 9200, 2.4Ghz QUAD-CORE computer, 3GB RAM, 23" Monitor, with a fresh install of Windows 7. $200. Comes with keyboard, monitor and mouse. If you want just the tower, or just the monitor, I can do $150 for the tower, and $100 for the monitor. Which is a great deal on either. Would like to sell as a whole for $200. This is a great deal, and shouldn't last long."

This sounds like a good deal because I'll be getting a monitor, keyboard, and mouse with is all for 200. I'll probably be willing to upgrade the memory and graphics card to better satisfy my gaming needs (League of Legends + Some steam games)

Do you guys think this is a good deal for the price?
How do you think LoL will run on this PC?

 

[AwesomeK]

I'm going to take a look at the PC personally later today to make sure it is in okay shape as I realize this pc could be up to 7 years old.

 

[AwesomeK]

The monitor is also 1080P

 

[anthony8989]

I wouldn't buy it. It's DDR2 RAM , you're not going to have an easy time finding those sticks these days. Not to mention the hardware is heavily out dated. If you plan on spending a little more to upgrade it anyway, you might as well just save your $200 and buy a new build for another $100-200 down the road. You'll have something current and easily upgrade-able at that point.

 

[anthony8989]

You could do something like this:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD A8-6600K 3.9GHz Quad-Core Processor ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A55M-S1 Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard ($44.69 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($35.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Seagate Constellation.2 250GB 2.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($45.00 @ Amazon)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1000 USB 3.0 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($24.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 430W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($34.99 @ NCIX US)
Monitor: AOC e2251Swdn 60Hz 22.0" Monitor ($99.99 @ Micro Center)
Keyboard: Rosewill RK-101 Wired Standard Keyboard ($5.99 @ Amazon)
Mouse: Zalman ZM-M200 Wired Optical Mouse ($9.66 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $391.29
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-10-21 12:21 EDT-0400

That's keyboard mouse and monitor included. You could choose a different case I just picked the cheapest one.

That computer is going to be 10x more powerful than the one you're looking at. In addition to being all brand new and fully serviceable / upgrade-able it will have warranties on the individual components.

You could invest in a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo or equivalent CPU cooler and overclock the 6600k to 4.4 Ghz or more. And the CPU has the integrated HD 8570D graphics which is perfect for LoL and games like it.

I know it's double the price but money comes and goes your PC will be around for years.

 

[anthony8989]

Sorry to answer your question more directly, I don't think that Dell PC will be able to run LoL well. You'll be lucky if it can pull off 20 FPS and to play well in LoL you need at least 40 FPS. Well I do any way. May be if it was brand spanking new off the shelf it might be able to pull it off but after 5 years of use I doubt it can even run basic applications smoothly.

 

[delaro]

DDR2 is easy to get and not all that expensive check Ebay, $4gigs for under $20 8 gigs 2 sticks is not reasonable unless you can find them used on the classifieds.

The max cpu you can use is a
E6700 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Core-2-Duo-Processor-E6700-4M-Cache-2-66-GHz-1066-MHz-SL9ZF-/281448179459?pt=CPUs&hash=item41879e6703 $20
Q6700 Quad core 2.66ghz http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-Core-2-Quad-Q6700-2-66GHZ-8MB-1066MHZ-Socket-LGA775-SLACQ-Quad-Core-CPU-/231350248353?pt=CPUs&hash=item35dd8ca3a1 $48

You have a 375 watt power supply and a Pci-E so its not entirely dead on upgrades unlike other dells that age with AGP.

A 7700 you can pick up for around $50

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PowerColor-AX7770-1GBD5-HE-Radeon-HD-7770-GHz-Edition-1GB-128-Bit-GDDR5-/201195352303?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item2ed82d70ef Notice the "Make a Offer"


All in all it depends on what you want to do with it $200 isn't all that bad for a complete system, I remember those old Dell monitors being pretty good. LoL will run now but at the lowest settings, add the CPU and GPU you could bump the settings up a bit.

 

[hang-the-9]

That system will be decent for games, it may not run the latests stuff but LOL, WOW and such will be fine on it. Check the quality of the 23" $100 for a used monitor is not that big of a deal, you may get him to $160, 180 for the whole thing and check that Windows is activated and installed not using a crack. Almost all systems I see come with Winows 7 even old ones which is funny since a legal cheap license of Windows 7 is around $100 on it's own. So selling a P4 system for $60 with Windows 7 Ultimate should raise some flags to use an example.

Keep in mind that you are also going to need to buy a video card and likely upgrade the RAM which will at $100 or more to the cost. An alternative new build as in above posts may be a better pick in the long run.

 

[anthony8989]

Hmmm I'm pretty sure the Core 2 Quad Q6700 would be the highest he could go, but it's irrelevant. I don't see the point in investing another $100 into this PC. After 5+ years of ( who knows what kind of use ) the capacitors on the motherboard and PSU are probably on their last leg. I can't see investing $200 into hardware that's due to die in the next 1-2 years of use.

What's the longest a store bought computer lasted for you personally, delaro?

Awesomek ,if you do decide to purchase the $200 PC please follow up in this thread I'm genuinely curious to know how it all turns out!

 

[capt_taco]

I wouldn't even think about buying that piece of junk, especially not for that price. That's an 8-year old processor and RAM that's two generations behind current, not to mention probably mismatched.

The documentation for that machine says it's a dual-core, not a quad-core, although it looks like a few people have dropped in an old Q6600 and gotten them to work. In any case, that's still a fifth-rate CPU by today's standards.

The hard drive and/or power supply could give out at any time on a machine that age.

Basically, this machine is the equivalent of a 25-year-old car with 275,000 miles that someone is just driving until the wheels fall off. Don't be the sucker who pays money for it. For about $400 you can put together a new build that will be three times as good as that, and last longer.