[SOLVED] Is this used system worth 250$

My buddy is selling a used gaming rig.

It looks pretty dusty on the outside so im sure its dusty inside as well.

He got it from someone and dont know how long it was used for.

** SPECS **

MOBO- Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3
CPU- AMD FX-8320 Vishera 8-core
GPU- Zotac GTX 1060 mini 3gb DDR5 Vr Ready
RAM- G SKILL Sniper Gaming Series 16gb 2x8gb DDR3 240 pin DDr3 SDRAM 1600
CASE- NZXT Guardian 921
SOTRAGE- 500gb hdd and 128gb ssd
COOLER- Coolermaster (doesnt know model)
WIN- Fresh windows 10 installed
 
Solution
This is about the best I can do at that price range, without dropping on the quality of components any further as these others have done to fit under the cap, unless you want to drop the CPU down to a Ryzen 5 2600 instead of the 2600x, which is an option but probably results in an inferior piece of silicon but maybe not enough so to make it a deal breaker.

As for the prices you see, IDK. I have rebates turned off in PCPP, so those should be the actual prices not counting any tax (Despite it saying it includes tax. It never does). I have changed it to use only Newegg and Amazon though, as some of the other vendors try to get around the exclusion in PCPP for rebates by calling them promos when in fact they are actual MIR. Shouldn't be...

mgallo848

Commendable
THAT CPU DOES NOT RUN PROPERLY WITH THAT MOTHERBOARD. Trust me, I've built serveral PC's over the years for others (non-gamers) using that motherboard.

I also built one for my niece several years ago. I tried upgrading her's with an FX 8320e and another person with an FX 8320. Both machines will not run even at stock speeds. I'm giving her my Gigabyte 990FX-UD3 with my FX 8320. (sitting atop of the box)

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ozUfmzjLTs0_OSBRSbMG8QX6MOlXJ9A5

I actually had to disable 2 of the cores in BIOS and even then it will still fail Prime95 @4.0 x 6 cores.


 


can anybody verify this guys comment? I can now get this PC for 200$.
 


would you suggest not buying it? my current system is worse I believe.

 

Dark Lord of Tech

Retired Moderator
The motherboard can't handle the 8320 , it has a poor power phase setup and a sub-par thermal design. Will run hot.
DDR3 is outdated , PSU is most likely a poor older designed Cooler Master. 1060 3GB is entry level card and storage may or may not be decent , no manufacturers given. It's not a Gaming machine. In another year it's a web browsing setup.
 
Are we talking US dollars? For $200 USD I'd say it's not bad. A graphics card with similar performance would still cost around $150-$200 if bought new (For an RX 570 or GTX 1060 3GB), or $100-$150 if bought used. Even if shopping on the used market I think it would be hard to build a system with better performance for that much.

As for downsides, the FX processors are an old design with per-core performance that doesn't hold up well to current models from AMD or Intel. In some games, that FX-8320 will cause performance drops and not let the 1060 3GB live up to its full potential. And there are no other CPUs available for that motherboard that would be substantially better. So, if you wanted to upgrade the CPU to something faster down the line, you would need to replace both the CPU and motherboard, as well as replacing the RAM with DDR4 if you wanted any CPU from the last couple years.

The amount of RAM for that system is good though. And there's an SSD boot drive, even though the hard drive is probably somewhat old and relatively low in capacity. The graphics card is decent enough for current 1080p gaming at reasonably high settings, though the 1060 has been on the market for a couple years already, and faster cards should be coming to its price range later this year. That's not to say you would be able to build a new system with that kind of performance for $200-$250 though. Overall, it seems like it could be an alright system for the money, if you don't mind the CPU preventing some games from staying near 60fps.

What kind of hardware does your current system have? I'm just wondering in case you could upgrade it to similar performance for less.
 
I have one of those boards AND an FX-8320 sitting on my bench among piles of other stuff. I can tell you for certain that what is being said here is 100% accurate. That CPU won't run worth squat on that motherboard, the quality is ok but the thermal design is not sufficient for the demands of an 8 core FX processor.

The fact that it's so old just makes matters worse. It would be a waste of money MUCH better used by stashing it away and putting a little more with it at some point to get yourself a much newer platform. You could get a Ryzen CPU and B450 motherboard plus some DDR4 memory for not much more than you want to spend on that.

Of course, it wouldn't include a case, power supply, graphics card or storage, but honestly putting 250 dollars towards that, or even 200, would be throwing good money right in the toilet.
 

While I kind of agree that saving up for a better system could be better, you would need to save up quite a bit more, at least to buy new. Something like a Ryzen 1200, motherboard and 16GB of DDR4 RAM alone would currently run around $250. Add an equivalent graphics card, and you're now at $400. Storage and a PSU brings that to around $500, or close to $550 with a case. You might be able to keep it under $500 by cutting the RAM to 8GB, but you would likely want to upgrade that to 16GB within the next couple years anyway, and we're still talking about paying more than twice as much for the system to get new components along with that better CPU performance. And of course, in the time spent "stashing money away" for the new system, he could have already been using that one for a while, even if it's not as fast.

And I'm not sure it would be considered "throwing money away" assuming the graphics card works, since even on the used market, a pre-owned GTX 1060 3GB alone would currently be priced over $100. Even if you ended up gutting out the CPU, motherboard and RAM to replace with something newer and faster, the rest of the components would likely be worth nearly that $200 USD asking price (though they didn't list what specific power supply or storage components the system has).

I can certainly see why someone might pass on it, but it would likely be hard to get much better gaming performance for the money. This is assuming the system is in proper working order, or course.
 
Any gaming performance is better than none, which is exactly what you'd have using that CPU on that motherboard. You'd spend more time trying to figure out why the CPU is throttling down to 2.5Ghz every five minutes than you ever would playing anything. And that's assuming the board is not already completely shot. I'm talking that board, new, with that CPU.

If it's been in use with it for a while, there is likely significant damage to the power delivery system already. Plus, it's old, so the caps have already seen the majority of their useful life pass by.

Obviously, there is no reasonably acceptable way to upgrade that later, because you'll already have a CPU that itself is more than you'd ever see any knowledgeable builder use on that motherboard, so no upgrades there, and you wouldn't want to pair a higher end GPU card with that platform even if you COULD get it working halfway normally, because then you'd be spending money on something that is probably just going to make things worse. So you're already at "this sucks" and you can't even make it "not suck", unless you spend money on a different motherboard and now you are adding cost to the initial investment when all of these funds could have been put towards something much better.

Even a used Haswell system, or hell, even a used Ivy bridge system, would have better performance. I have these parts and have worked with plenty of FX systems. So I know they have a place and are useful for some things, but this is almost a worst case scenario. If it came with a good board, it wouldn't be so bad, but it would STILL not be a good investment.

The system can't possibly be in good working order because it already has a motherboard that cannot handle the thermal design power of that CPU in it's stock configuration if you're doing anything more demanding than running browser games or light office applications without choking.
 

But again, we come to the point that you're probably not going to find a used system with an Intel Ivy Bridge or Haswell i5 and comparable graphics hardware for anywhere close to $200. You'll probably be spending nearly double that, at which point you might as well just spend a little more to build new. Or to replace the CPU/MOBO/RAM on this system, while keeping the graphics card, case, storage and PSU, if it's any good. So, I really don't think it would be as bad of a purchase as you are making it sound.

Also, while I don't have any first-hand experience with that motherboard, the user reviews on sites like Newegg and Amazon make it sound alright, with no widespread complaints that I can see. In fact, I noticed at least a couple specifically mention it running well with an FX-8320, although one notes that a downward-firing CPU cooler should be used to keep the motherboard's VRMs cool. Perhaps you just experienced problems with improper cooling for that board.
 

mgallo848

Commendable
You don't have any first-hand experience with it yet there are people on this post that do and you don't seem to take that as advice. I have two of these motherboards sitting 5 feet away from me as I'm typing this. Trust me, they do not work well with the 8320 at all. It will not run at normal speeds and it will Throttle Down.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13-1FF5SQSAlWpXZyPvP05fWs_TciQBKV/view?usp=drivesdk
 
The GA-78LMT-USB3 is FINE for use with a 6 core FX processor. With an 8 core FX processor you WILL ABSOLUTELY have problems as the VRMs cannot handle the thermal design power of those processors. That is simply a fact. Hundreds and maybe thousands of threads on this across the web. I'm not going to spend time linking them all for you, but you can find them yourself if you wish to know more about it.

like I said, if you don't mind replacing the motherboard, it's an option, it's just not a good one.
 

DSzymborski

Titan
Moderator
Yeah, this motherboard pops up a *lot* around here with throttling issues; it was a very popular budget AM3+ motherboard back in the day and we always had a number of threads from people confused why their FX-8350/8320 CPUs were throttling at load despite not overclocking.

You can alleviate the heat somewhat with a top-down cooler, but you're not going to change the fundamental issue that pretty all these budget AM3+ motherboards are poorly provisioned with voltage regulator modules.

Given the things you have to make purchases to use the build properly and squeeze life out of the components (motherboard, probably a better power supply), it's not *really* available at $250. If I *had* to run a 125W AM3+ CPU, I'd want a 990fx or a higher-end 970 motherboard, which would cost me $100-$150 on the secondary market and unless that's one of the higher-end Cooler Masters, a minimum of a CX450 which would cost me $30-$40 depending on sales.

Now, my $250 used purchase is more like a $400-$450 purchase and in that range, I much rather be getting onto an AM4 platform.
 
One of these, or not at all.

(Be sure to check when looking for a motherboard that any of the models shown below are either 990fx, 990 or 970 chipsets. A Z170 Extreme6 for example, is not going to work with your FX processor, so, in this example, you want to look for the 990/990fx Extreme6.)

GA-990FXA-UD7
Extreme6
Extreme9
Fatal1ty 990FX Professional
Crosshair V Formula-Z
Sabertooth 990FX R2.0
GA-99FXA-UD5
MSI GD80V2
M5A99FX PRO R2.0
GA-99FXA-UD3
MSI GD65V2
990FX Killer
Extreme4
M5A99X EVO (R2.0 as well)
GA-990XA-UD3
990XA-GD55
GA-970A-UD3P
M5A97 or EVO or PRO (R.2 as well)
GA-970A-UD3
970 GAMING
970A SLI Krait (USB 3.1 supported)

 

You seem to be ignoring my main point, that even if the motherboard and CPU didn't work well together, or didn't perform to expectations, the rest of the components should still be worth $200. If CPU performance is found to be inadequate, one could pick up a used 3rd-gen i5 processor and B75 motherboard on ebay for not much more than $100 that should work with the existing 16GB of DDR3, upgrading the system to be more capable at gaming for around $300 total. The i5-3570, for example, is under $50 used, and isn't all that far behind a stock Ryzen 2200G in terms of CPU performance.

And you could likely even make another $50 or more back by selling that FX-8320 and motherboard. The going rate for a pre-owned FX-8320 on ebay is around $50 shipped, and the same goes for that board. Even after figuring in shipping and other fees, there could still be upward of $50 to recover from those components. That could bring the total for the system with an upgraded CPU and motherboard to around $250 for someone willing to put in a bit of effort.

I can see how someone might not want to mess with upgrading such a system, but you people seem to be pushing the notion that there is nothing salvageable in this $200 system, but that's far from the truth. The video card alone would be worth more than half that amount. With an upgrade of the motherboard and processor with some relatively inexpensive used components, performance could be nearly on par with a new system costing hundreds of dollars more.

Also, what point is that image supposed to prove? That's not the same motherboard, or even the same brand of motherboard. They might use the same chipset, but obviously not all motherboards of a given chipset are created equal. Doing a quick visual comparison of the two, that Asus board appears to lack heatsinks on the VRMs, unlike the Gigabyte board listed in this system's specs.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Bottom line:
Is it "worth $250?"
That is something only you can determine.

An outdated system, that may or may not run properly, of unknown vintage, and unknown parts.
It may work OK, it may trigger your homeowners insurance.

The vast majority of people here would pass that right by.
I certainly wouldn't buy it.

However...the OS (if it includes an actual valid license), the RAM, and the GPU, are 'worth' about that amount of money.
The rest is a freebie.

It is your $250. Is it worth it to you?
 
^^^Exactly.

Because for SOME people, the useful components in the system would be worth it as a beginning of another system or to resell separately.

To others, not so much, because the money spent is ONLY worth spending if the result is a system that can do what you expect it to be ABLE to do, which in THIS case probably isn't accurate.