Older PC for Part Harvest (and playing Rust). Worth it?

[ChadPhillips]

I have found an old PC for low cost, mainly to harvest the i7 CPU for a later build, but to also after giving it some thought, to potentially play Rust in the meantime before I get enough capital for a PC build.I know is a fairly demanding game due to it being a work in progress itself (BETA) and would most likely need to be run on lower setting for a playable FPS on this machine, if playable at all.

I am new to PC gaming and the spec, compatibility, performance etc. nuances that come with that, so I thought I'd check in here with people more knowledgeable than me to see if they thought it was a good buy;

a) as a PC itself
b) as a harvest for the i7 proccessor (which I believe to be good)
and/or
c) potentially up-gradable itself

It's a HP Elite HPE 375a model running:

Intel i7-870 2.93ghz
8gb RAM
1tb HDD
nVidia GeForce GTX 260

Believe the model has an MS-7613 (Iona-GL8E) MoBo, but that is based on researching the manufacturers website rather than the buyers info.

I'm in Australia and can get the PC with a newish, 22" LCD monitor for $200AU.

Looking forward to some advice, ideas and thoughts; anything would be much appreciated!

 

[MrN1ce9uy]

$200au comes out to about $135usd, I'd say that's a decent price for a working 1st-gen i7 system with 8gb of ram and a 22" monitor. You might could play Rust with the GTX 260, but I'd want to add a new GPU such as a GTX 1050 Ti.

 

[ChadPhillips]

$200au comes out to about $135usd, I'd say that's a decent price for a working 1st-gen i7 system with 8gb of ram and a 22" monitor. You might could play Rust with the GTX 260, but I'd want to add a new GPU such as a GTX 1050 Ti.

Can I just say that I really appreciate the response.

I have considered the problem of buying a PC with parts that are close to a decade old, especially the GPU which can only run DirectX 10. Have also wondered if newer parts like the one you suggested would be workable in the PC given the age and potential compatibility issues of the MoBo...

If I was able to get and use a newer and better GPU, do you think that particular CPU and the new GPU is a good start, with an eye on placing them in a new build, in the medium term future or will it be better to just wait until I have the money to put one together at once? I was thinking that the $200 was potentially a good price just for the CPU?!

 

[MrN1ce9uy]

Well you can buy those CPUs for about $75+ on eBay. They are the 1st-gen (8yr old) Core i series, which are about on par with AMD's FX-8xxx series, which are much slower than newer Core i7 processors but still decent for gaming due to having 8 threads.

Some old motherboards have compatibility issues, some don't. I don't really know how you would determine that unless you tried it.

 

[ChadPhillips]

Well you can buy those CPUs for about $75+ on eBay. They are the 1st-gen (8yr old) Core i series, which are about on par with AMD's FX-8xxx series, which are much slower than newer Core i7 processors but still decent for gaming due to having 8 threads.

Some old motherboards have compatibility issues, some don't. I don't really know how you would determine that unless you tried it.

Starting to lean towards it not being worth it I think. Perhaps a newer i5 model around the same price would serve me just as well because I'm only going to be gaming rather than editing/streaming or using the PC for anything else.

In my heart of hearts I know that as PC hardware and technology is advancing all the time, anything as old as this rig is going to be severely limited and come with obstacles; especially with a game as demanding as Rust. I guess it's just an impatience thing as well as trying to get it done as budget as possible but have the best of both world's with good/decent hardware.

This seemed like it could be a decent way to have something right away that wouldn't be a waste of money due to being able to harvest the CPU as well as gaining a monitor.

I might be back posting another question here with a potential build and/or asking for suggestion in the near future I think...

Again, appreciate you taking the time to respond to such a n00b with so many questions. I can feel myself getting right into this kind of thing...

 

[MrN1ce9uy]

Newer hardware would definitely be the better way to go. But the i7-870 could still play the game. Here's a video with an i7-870 + GTX 1060 playing Rust, too bad it doesn't show the hardware monitoring stats or the framerate on the screen.

But a new 7th-gen i5 would be much faster than the 1st-gen i7 no doubt.

 

[ChadPhillips]

Newer hardware would definitely be the better way to go. But the i7-870 could still play the game. Here's a video with an i7-870 + GTX 1060 playing Rust, too bad it doesn't show the hardware monitoring stats or the framerate on the screen.

But a new 7th-gen i5 would be much faster than the 1st-gen i7 no doubt.

Yeah and there is no way to tell how much work has already gone into the CPU over it's 8 year life either. Risky buy I think, was hoping to be told 'Yep, that's a good deal!" haha.

I'm really excited about doing a build and playing some Rust and thought this could be a good step in the right direction. I know the game is demanding as I've said but my budget is probably going to be $600-700AU so I'm exploring all the ways to max it out by using some second hand parts in some areas (CPU - perhaps middle generation i5, monitor and maybe a GPU from someone who has upgraded) and new parts in others (HDD, Case, PSU) to get a little bit of the best of both world's.

As I said, i'm pretty raw in terms of a PC build so I've got some researching ahead of me I think...