buying used gaming pc, worth it?

So I'm what you might call a "computer nerd". I've been building my own PC's since about the year 2000. Anything labeled "Celeron" is NOT for gaming. Period.

My current system:
i5-4670K @ 4.6GHz | Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H | Antec H20 620 |
MSI GTX 970 G4 | 8GB GSkill DDR3 1600 9-9-9-24 | OCZ Vertex II 60GB | 2 x WD Caviar Black 1TB | NZXT Phantom | Win 7 64bit | Antec TPQ-850

 

A Celeron processor is a budget CPU meant to check email and browse the internet. It's designed to get from point A to B... nothing more.

The HD6600 graphics is an older generation budget graphics card.

 

I wouldn't even buy that for $300. Also sounds like he mixed different types of ram based on the "10 gigs". But good choice passing on it.

 

this....

 

Any sites that will help a noob build a gaming rig under $1000?

 

I would suggest going to NewEgg and looking at their combos. And then if you see something that is in your price range than google each component and familiarize yourself with it.

 

I upgraded mine via NewEgg just recently op, new motherboard/processor/ram/graphics card, added a hybrid drive - to save money I went with the i5 4690 rather than an i7 and took the 100 extra bucks or so and dumped it into the graphics card. Look for a MB with expandability (lots of SATA ports, similar processor slots so easy move to i7 later, etc.) so you will be ready for future upgrades

 

I bought from newegg for my latest build, too.

OP, members in this thread can help you buy the right parts and if you're pretty good at following instructions (at minimum) you can put all the pieces together. Its really not hard.

 

The only thing I hated doing was applying the thermal paste. I always felt like I was going to screw it up. I recently picked up a closed loop system that had the paste pre-applied.

 

if you use the stock cooler (which would probably be ok for him), paste is usually preapplied

 

although If he's feeling outgoing I would change the cooler too. The one that came with my fx-8320 was stupid loud

 

My stock cooler on my 2500k was fine. I didn't need to change it but felt like adding to my build.



Don't mind the lack of cable management. This was right after I swapped my components over. I haven't completed the build yet.

 

Depends on the OS...

$500 doesn't sound bad for the parts that rig has, but it's $500 your spending on something that's kind of EOL for what you want it for.

 

Newegg.com or frys or any local run computer shop.

Check computeredge.com magazine or just google search your area.

Build it the way you want for a little more money and go AMD and ATI to save costs.

Asus, evga xfx for boards and vid card
amd 8350+ for cpu
Corsair ram 16gig
western digital 7200 HDD
antec, cooler master, thermaltake power supply 600+ watts
Any case you like.
windows 7 pro 64 OEM version
logitech mouse and keyboard
any quality air cooler cpu cooler is fine, water cooled in overkill and expensive, stock cooler is garbage.
any brand dvd drive is fine

Build slowly and enjoy.

Tons and tons of tutorials on youtube on how to build a PC.

I have build well over 200+ PC's in the 16 years I have been in the industry.

 

I had just picked up a 4790K, cheaper at Micro Center than Newegg. Saved some cash and supported a local store

 

Put a tiny amount on the CPU, spread it with a razor blade. Any excess can be cleaned with rubbing alcohol. If your cooler has a thermal pad, then adding thermal paste is bad.

Someone suggested an i7. Really, i7 procs are for swaggering and servers. A good i5 will do plenty.

If you do budget parts, you get budget results.
Get a good board by someone like ASUS, Gigabyte, or whatever gets a solid rating. You don't need stupid things like RAID, dual procs, and so on. You won't use it unless you like spending money.
These days, you don't need half as much expansion as you think you do. Most everything is built on-board. I'm happily playing on a mini-iTX board these days. I'd only go bigger if I decided I needed a fancy sound card, but the onboard 7.1 is fine for me.
Get an nVidia video card, even if it's not the top of the heap at the moment. They prove to have consistently solid manufacturing.

Get a fast SSD and that's it. Get a big external spindle drive only if you are a hoarder. Some people will try to tell you that SSDs are bad for storage or that they fail or some BS like that. It was true of first gen SSD drives, but the great thing about technology is that IT ADVANCES. My company uses fusion-io cards in our high-end servers, SSD SAN configurations in our slower servers, and we push those servers HARD. Our old nasty servers are the only things on spindles. By the time the SSDs are going to die, it's most likely the server is well past its prime. Granted, they have a better budget than I do, but if we can trust an entire company to SSDs, I can trust my piddly gameplay and web browsing to SSDs as well.
As a final argument, it's time you started a backup plan. I highly enjoy CrashPlan. I can torch my computer any time and everything is nicely backed up, ready for me to restore.

I hate fan noise. If you keep power consumption to a minimum by only buying necessary parts, you can keep to running just a minimal amount of very large, slow moving fans that are quiet.
Additionally, a minimalistic-yet-powerful approach allows you to get away with a fanless modular power supply, provided that it is a quality unit. SeaSonic makes some great high efficiency units that provide good clean power.
My CPU is cooled by a maintenance-free Corsair liquid-cooled setup. Granted, there is a fan, but it is virtually silent and needs to do very little work. There has been proof of air cooled setups that do better, but I don't push things to their limits, and my ears are much happier with silence.
My video card is maintenance-free liquid cooled as well, but it seems that the company has since dropped the ball on quality. I wish there was a simple solution I could suggest

Since specs are getting posted, here's my current setup. It's not the latest and greatest anymore (purchased 2013), but I'm still performing well for what I do, such as Wolfenstein New Order and stuff like that.

BitFenix Prodigy case
ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe motherboard
Intel Core i5-3570K processor
Corsair H60 liquid CPU cooler
G-SKILL Ares 16GB (2x8) DDR3 RAM
SeaSonic SS-520FL2 PSU
eVGA GeForce GTX 660 Ti video card
Arctic Accelero liquid/air VGA cooler
Samsung 850 Pro 256GB SSD

I ran without an optical drive up until just recently when I needed to burn some discs, and I could probably take it back out.
I also have an external 3TB HDD for storage of large stuff.

 

That's what I'm shopping for now. Too bad the closest MicroCenter is an hour in traffic away from home.

 

Not to stomp on anyone, but be VERY CAREFUL about local shops and Fry's. When I was young and dumb, my first home-assembled computer was bought straight from Fry's based on a bit of my own research and some advice from Fry's employees. It was the most expensive computer I've bought, mediocre performance, and I went through 3 motherboard failures before I bought from somewhere else. I had a ridiculous amount of poorly performing fans and the noise was awful.
A lot of employees from these types of stores are simply salespeople and not computer people. Also, there's some 'experts' you run into, that insist on terrible products because they THINK they know things or base their performance based on the amount of LEDs in their monstrously tall case.
Heck, I don't even consider myself a trustworthy source anymore, and I constantly go back to re-educate myself on my assumptions and to see if some company took a turn for the worse.

Do research. Lots of it. Read reviews.

 

good input Mike as always.

i save the junk credit cards to spread the thermal paste instead of using a razor

 

Thats cause you went in blind and was taken advantage of by Sales people who work on commission.

No one should ever ever ever ever ever do that anymore with the wealth of knowledge now at our fingertips from forums and internet sites about computer product reviews.

Hence how I not only mentioned where to buy but also what to buy to stay within budget and not buy absolute crap in the process.