Is it worth to buy or not?

[gearism]

My friend is selling his company's complete pc for 220usd

Model pc Hp elite 8200 elite convertible
Cpu intel core i5-2400 processor
Ram 4gb ddr3
Gpu gtx 750(on my current pc)
Hard disk 250gb/500gb sata
Monitor hp compaq Le2002x

I have a budget around 400usd and i only like to play game..is it worth to buy one or should i just build a new one?

 

[ashencloud]

i suggest building a new one

 

[gearism]

Even the cpu not worth it?

 

[bboiprfsr]

suggest buying a new one. used ones are prone to being replaced sooner or later, right?

 

[gearism]

I guess you are right..more satisfying that way..and the cpu seem kind a outdated

 

[apk24]

For 220USD, it's not bad. It's definitely better than anything you could get new at that price. But, if you're buying used, you could definitely do better.

For example, for $180 Buy it Now on ebay:
DELL Optiplex 990 MT Desktop Quad Core i5-2500 3.30 Ghz 8 Gb RAM 1 TB HDD

Toss in a $70ish used monitor, and you have a much better tower for similar price.

Even then, this was the second result after me running a single search. Imagine what you could find if you actually hunted around for a bit.

Edit: I did not realize that you had a budget of $400 and could be buying a new GPU as well. I haven't looked at the manual for the Optiplex I have linked above, but having owned an HP microtower of that era, the PSU in that is completely proprietary. There's no way for you to hook up a decent modern GPU that requires more than 75W. Basically, you'd be limited to the 750Ti or lower by the power connectors alone. You might have to go even lower than that depending on what the PSU wattage actually is.

 

[bboiprfsr]

i5-2400 was released in 2011. Can you tell the difference between a 2011 cell phone vs a 2016 cell phone... 5 years in technology at low-end specs are distinct like night and day.

 

[apk24]

i5-2400 was released in 2011. Can you tell the difference between a 2011 cell phone vs a 2016 cell phone... 5 years in technology at low-end specs are distinct like night and day.

At a $200 price point, the 2nd gen i5 still beats a modern Pentium or i3 in a lot of multi threaded or multitasking workloads. It is definitely slower on single threaded loads though and does have a lack of other tech/features.
Overall, I wouldn't criticize that the processor is obsolete, more that the price is too high for the overall tower.

 

[bboiprfsr]

i'm making a remark on a $400 investment towards accepting or declining an outdated minitower pc that the OP is considering on buying with the intention on gaming.

-1 on airflow
-1 on power supply
-1 on upgradability
-1 on HP (lol) (jk) (jk on the jk) (lol again)
-1 on gaming on current titles, like Witcher 3 or GTA V
-1 on keeping up-to-date to minimum specs on certain titles

about i wouldn't criticize that the processor is obsolete - ya, web-browsing, youtube and moba / free-to-play games / WOW are totally fine xD

and hey let's not call it a tower. it's a minitower (derp)
http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-c02779501

 

[apk24]

i'm making a remark on a $400 investment towards accepting or declining an outdated minitower pc that the OP is considering on buying with the intention on gaming.

Missed the $400 budget. There are probably better options than this. Especially considering he's going to need a new PSU anyway, and the whole system has proprietary connectors.

Buying a Sandy Bridge used Optiplex full tower may not be a bad idea though. It costs under 200 bucks, and the psus in those are pretty decent for the most part, 400-500W devices, enough to run a budget GPU. Would definitely check before buying though.

A sandy bridge i5 is roughly 20%-25% slower than a haswell i5, but considering that the cost for a used sandy bridge i5 is half the cost of a haswell i5, the price performance ratio is hard to argue against.

The thing is, that at sub 600 for new and sub 400 for used, prebuilts are noticeably cheaper. Occasionally to the point where buying a prebuilt and is cheaper than building yourself. Of course, this neccessitates that you do the research both ways and figure out the best deal for you. When you build your own PC, you know what grade of components are going in. When buying prebuilt, you have to dig hard for this info.

 

[gearism]

Thank you guys...based on all the recommendation and my own search its better for me to built a new one..budget may be tight but i'll make a better gaming pc