Second hand i7 PC or a New i5 PC

[londonraghu]

I want to buy a PC, can't able to decide to buy a old i7 2600 PC or go for a i5 7400.

Please help me, which one is better.
Second hand For £200

HP Pavilion HPE Series h8-1270ea
Intel i7 2600 3.4GHz CPU
8GB DDR3 RAM
240GB SSD
2TB Data drive
Blu-Ray/DVD drive
NVIDIA GT 545 graphics card (3gb)
LAN 10/100/1000
Wifi - Wireless N built in wireless card
4 x USB (front panel)
Integrated front panel card reader
TV/Aerial card
4 x USB (back)
1 x HDMI
1 x DVI
1 x VGA
1 x Optical Audio Out

New HP one for £630.

Processor Type Core i5
Processor Speed 3 GHz
Processor Count 4
RAM Size 8 GB
Computer Memory Type DDR4 SDRAM
Hard Drive Size 128 GB
Hard Disk Technology SDD
Graphics Card Description NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050
Graphics RAM Type GDDR5
Graphics Card Ram Size 2
Wireless Type 802.11.b, 802.11.g, 802.11.n
Number of USB 2.0 Ports 2
Number of USB 3.0 Ports 3
Number of HDMI Ports 1
Wattage 180 watts
Optical Drive Type DVD-Writer
Operating System Windows 10 Home

Please help me, Is worth to buy an old pc with high spec?

 

[Barty1884]

Hard to say for sure, you're comparing two drastically different systems.

The HP is more than capable of modern titles, 1080p, medium(ish) settings at 60FPS.

The older system makes no mention of a PSU. Given you'd need to upgrade that GPU for most relatively modern titles at reasonable settings, the PSU will play a big part.


Ultimately, older systems can be useful. Add a new GPU and an i7-2600 is pretty respectable even today - but there's no warranty, you've no way of knowing how hard it's been used over the years etc.


All that being said, the HP offers terrible value for money IMO.
If you're not opposed to building your own, then you could do something like this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i3-8100 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor (£98.39 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock - H310M-HDV Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£51.95 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Memory: Team - Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£68.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Storage: Kingston - A400 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£38.39 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Seagate - BarraCuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£29.99 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Video Card (£140.13 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Cooler Master - MasterBox Lite 3.1 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£34.98 @ Novatech)
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM (2015) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£47.99 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit (£45.00 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £555.81
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-08-30 11:06 BST+0100

Stronger gaming performance than either system, by substantial margins.... and saving ~100GBP vs the HP.

 

[cookiemania66]

Hard to say for sure, you're comparing two drastically different systems.

The HP is more than capable of modern titles, 1080p, medium(ish) settings at 60FPS.

The older system makes no mention of a PSU. Given you'd need to upgrade that GPU for most relatively modern titles at reasonable settings, the PSU will play a big part.


Ultimately, older systems can be useful. Add a new GPU and an i7-2600 is pretty respectable even today - but there's no warranty, you've no way of knowing how hard it's been used over the years etc.


All that being said, the HP offers terrible value for money IMO.
If you're not opposed to building your own, then you could do something like this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Core i3-8100 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor (£98.39 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock - H310M-HDV Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£51.95 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Memory: Team - Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory (£68.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Storage: Kingston - A400 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£38.39 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Seagate - BarraCuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£29.99 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Video Card (£140.13 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Cooler Master - MasterBox Lite 3.1 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£34.98 @ Novatech)
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM (2015) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£47.99 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit (£45.00 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £555.81
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-08-30 11:06 BST+0100

Stronger gaming performance than either system, by substantial margins.... and saving ~100GBP vs the HP.

i agree with that.
The i7 2600 is still pretty good in most games but the gpu in that pc isn´t. The PSU could be decent but since it isnt mentioned i guess that it is really cheap. Long story short: high risk high reward.
Could run a few years (my Core2Duo E8500 is still runnning after 10 years of usage and overclocking) or it could die after a few months. Same goes for every other component.

The HP computer is better in terms of processing power but it isnt a good "Price to Performance Value/ratio".

The Pc Barty mentioned is the best you can get for that amount of money and you will have warranty on every part for the next years.

 

[londonraghu]

I am going to use this old Hp PC i7 2600 for Adobe creative suite e.g. Photoshop, illustrator, Dreamweaver, Lightroom and Video edition and online browsing. Not for gaming at all.

I am on very tight financial situation, this my price breakdown
£200 for PC
£250 Dell Ultrasharp U2518D Monitor
£10 Second hand Keyboard
£25 Mice
etc.

So is okay to buy an old HP i7 2600 PC with high specs? Or new gen i5 PC better?

 

[failboat]

compare the passmark scores. single thread has more of an impact on gaming.

the new one is likely much better not to mention it's going to have plently of pcie 3.0 from chipset and usb 3.0.

the old one is also at the end of it's expected life. using it for something you depend on may not be the best.

 

[Barty1884]

....Depends what you consider "high specs", I guess.

The i7-2600 is hardly high spec by modern standards, and nothing about that (other than the i7) really jumps out as worthwhile.

So your budget is in the ~500 pound range, overall? If so, where does the new i5 HP come into it ? That should blow the budget entirely.


If you're not gaming, your money could certainly go alot further..... but the i7-2600 should do a pretty decent job for 200quid.

 

[g-unit1111]

compare the passmark scores. single thread has more of an impact on gaming.

the new one is likely much better not to mention it's going to have plently of pcie 3.0 from chipset and usb 3.0.

the old one is also at the end of it's expected life. using it for something you depend on may not be the best.

Passmark is a synthetic benchmark, it's not a real world stress test compared to some of the other benchmark programs out there like 3DMark.

The thing is an i7-2600 is several generations old now and outdated compared to some of the newer hex and octo core systems out there. Better would be to build your own and you can get a much better system than that HP.

 

[failboat]

compare the passmark scores. single thread has more of an impact on gaming.

the new one is likely much better not to mention it's going to have plently of pcie 3.0 from chipset and usb 3.0.

the old one is also at the end of it's expected life. using it for something you depend on may not be the best.

Passmark is a synthetic benchmark, it's not a real world stress test compared to some of the other benchmark programs out there like 3DMark.

The thing is an i7-2600 is several generations old now and outdated compared to some of the newer hex and octo core systems out there. Better would be to build your own and you can get a much better system than that HP.

passmark is going to be a decent guess part for part. he's likely going to want the best cpu he can get. maybe even igpu for his use.
lightroom has a dx12 or opengl 3.3 requirement. not sure how strong a gpu he needs, but that could be an issue on older stuff.

 

[g-unit1111]

passmark is going to be a decent guess part for part. he's likely going to want the best cpu he can get. maybe even igpu for his use.
lightroom has a dx12 or opengl 3.3 requirement. not sure how strong a gpu he needs, but that could be an issue on older stuff.

Yes but I wouldn't take their numbers too seriously is what I was getting at. I totally understand wanting to get the best CPU you can get though.

 

[Darkbreeze]

3Dmark IS a synthetic bench test. Passmark determines it's scoring through a combination of real world testing and synthetic bench marks. So in reality, the passmark scores you see are probably more indicative of actual performance than the 3DMark scores you see, which are based entirely on synthetics.

 

[g-unit1111]

3Dmark IS a synthetic bench test. Passmark determines it's scoring through a combination of real world testing and synthetic bench marks. So in reality, the passmark scores you see are probably more indicative of actual performance than the 3DMark scores you see, which are based entirely on synthetics.

So what's the best real world CPU benchmark testing methods then? Something like a combination of the two?

 

[Darkbreeze]

Realbench. However, anything that is a "bench" is going to be synthetic to some degree. You can't really have a "real world" benchmark test. If it's a benchmark it's not actually "real world" at all.

The best comparison is one where an actual review is done, and a variety of testing methods are used. If you look at any of the professional reviews they test performance in gaming, run synthetic tests and often a variety of productivity applications as well. Then points or scores are awarded for each phase and compared at the end.

I guess everybody has their preferences, but looking at a variety of scores and seeing where a given CPU performs better or worse, and then comparing those strengths to what you actually intend to use it for is probably the best way to determine what's going to work best for you.

IMO, the i5-7400 is easily the better choice for a variety of reasons that have already been mentioned, but primarily for the reasons that the IPC of the i5 is a bit better AND the fact that you can upgrade that i5 to an i7 at some point, which will further increase your potential. The older system with the i7 has nowhere to go from where it is, plus it is old, and the core hardware is a lot more likely to fail before the Kaby lake components do. And when it does, good luck finding replacement hardware that isn't just as hard ridden as what you bought, that just failed.