Hardware So I just built up a new gaming PC for dirt-cheap...

Jayro · Sep 1, 2015

My old gaming PC's specs:

Gigabyte GA-M61PME-S2 motherboard (Specs page here)
Athlon 64 X2 6000+ (AM2+) @3.0GHz (Dual-Core, 64-bit)
2x 4GB ECC DDR2 sticks @ 800MHz (Motherboard would only POST 2GB per stick, capping me at 4GB dual-channeled total RAM)
GeForce GTS 450
a single 250GB SATA II Seagate harddrive
IDE LITE-ON DVD burner
"Fast Ethernet" (10/100) Nvidia Ethernet

My new gaming PC's specs:

Intel Core i5 650 @ 3.2GHz
2x 2GB DDR3 PC1333 sticks Kingston RAM
GeForce 750 GTX 1GB (slot-powered, very short card made by ZOTAC)
2x non-raided 320GB SATA II Seagate harddrives (One for Windows 10 and games, other for storage and scratch space)
SATA Blu-ray reader, DVD burner combo drive
Gigabit (10/100/1000) Intel Ethernet
Wireless N 150 PCI Wi-Fi card

The new specs in full:

Now get this... I bought this computer tower (minus the free harddrives and new GeForce 750 GTX) for just $65 USD. It was at a Goodwill store, completely clogged up with dust. I took it home, and cleaned it out with canned air, re-wired the power cables neatly and securely, updated the BIOS to the latest, and added the harddrives from a non-working tower. Then I bought the GeForce 750 GTX for an additional $74.99 USD on Newegg.com, bringing the total for this beast to a whopping $140 USD!

Not bad specs for the price, right? I plan on adding in a USB 3.0 PCI-e 1x card and an exhaust fan, but for the most-part, this thing runs like an absolute dream compared to the shit machine it replaced.

The Real Jdbye · Sep 1, 2015

Not bad at all but I would have gone with a better GPU

Jayro · Sep 1, 2015

The Real Jdbye said:
Not bad at all but I would have gone with a better GPU

It was all I could budget for. I really wanted the 960 GTX, but it was out of my price range. :/

raystriker · Sep 2, 2015

Why the Intel i5 650? :wtf:

oh wait, $140? Sweet :wacko:

JoostinOnline · Sep 2, 2015

How is that even possible? The processor alone should cost more than that.

Jayro · Sep 3, 2015

JoostinOnline said:
How is that even possible? The processor alone should cost more than that.

More often than not, Goodwill Industries sells things that they either know is junk, or sell items whole like PCs or consols for dirt-cheap. I just got lucky and scored a good deal on a PC. A few weeks back, they sold me a PS2 slim 75000x model with 3 controllers (2 of them wireless, one Sony Dualshock), 5 games (Tony Hawk 3 and GTA San Andreas being the only two of five worth mentioning), Two Sony branded 8MB memory cards, and all the cables for just $24. It all works flawlessly too. I even got a 3D Blu-ray player and an HD-DVD player for next to nothing. Even scored a 9600 GSO (768MB) nvidia card for $4!

migles · Sep 3, 2015

Jayro said:
More often than not, Goodwill Industries sells things that they either know is junk, or sell items whole like PCs or consols for dirt-cheap. I just got lucky and scored a good deal on a PC. A few weeks back, they sold me a PS2 slim 75000x model with 3 controllers (2 of them wireless, one Sony Dualshock), 5 games (Tony Hawk 3 and GTA San Andreas being the only two of five worth mentioning), Two Sony branded 8MB memory cards, and all the cables for just $24. It all works flawlessly too. I even got a 3D Blu-ray player and an HD-DVD player for next to nothing. Even scored a 9600 GSO (768MB) nvidia card for $4!

*complains about not living on america or a place where great deals like those are possible*

DarkFlare69 · Sep 3, 2015

Jayro said:
More often than not, Goodwill Industries sells things that they either know is junk, or sell items whole like PCs or consols for dirt-cheap. I just got lucky and scored a good deal on a PC. A few weeks back, they sold me a PS2 slim 75000x model with 3 controllers (2 of them wireless, one Sony Dualshock), 5 games (Tony Hawk 3 and GTA San Andreas being the only two of five worth mentioning), Two Sony branded 8MB memory cards, and all the cables for just $24. It all works flawlessly too. I even got a 3D Blu-ray player and an HD-DVD player for next to nothing. Even scored a 9600 GSO (768MB) nvidia card for $4!

I got the following for less than $10, I only had a $10 in my pocket but I know I was able to pay for all this:
PS2 Fat (Working W/ Cords) - $2.99
PS2 Controller - $1.99
GTA III - $.99
GTA Vice City - $.99
Wolfenstein The New Order - $.99

sarkwalvein · Sep 3, 2015

Hell... I wish there was some Goodwill Industries store in Germany.

JoostinOnline · Sep 4, 2015

Jayro said:
More often than not, Goodwill Industries sells things that they either know is junk, or sell items whole like PCs or consols for dirt-cheap. I just got lucky and scored a good deal on a PC. A few weeks back, they sold me a PS2 slim 75000x model with 3 controllers (2 of them wireless, one Sony Dualshock), 5 games (Tony Hawk 3 and GTA San Andreas being the only two of five worth mentioning), Two Sony branded 8MB memory cards, and all the cables for just $24. It all works flawlessly too. I even got a 3D Blu-ray player and an HD-DVD player for next to nothing. Even scored a 9600 GSO (768MB) nvidia card for $4!

You neglected to mention that parts were stripped from other computers.

Jayro · Sep 4, 2015

JoostinOnline said:
You neglected to mention that parts were stripped from other computers.

They sell computers without harddrives. Luckily I also got a 320GB harddrive out of a series 4 TiVo that same day.

jDSX · Sep 6, 2015

I wish my goodwill sold any electronics, must of been a super center.

Jayro · Sep 7, 2015

It was the kind you dig through the bins.

raystriker · Sep 9, 2015

Kinda off topic, but if they sell stuff at soooo dirty cheap prices, how do they acquire them at these low rates at first place? Do they not have a profit margin?

thorasgar · Sep 9, 2015

raystriker said:
Kinda off topic, but if they sell stuff at soooo dirty cheap prices, how do they acquire them at these low rates at first place? Do they not have a profit margin?

Goodwill is a nonprofit thrift shop and they use the proceedes for job training and charitable stuff like that. So everything is donated.

raystriker · Sep 9, 2015

Ooh i didn't know that. (sorry)

Jayro · Sep 10, 2015

raystriker said:
Kinda off topic, but if they sell stuff at soooo dirty cheap prices, how do they acquire them at these low rates at first place? Do they not have a profit margin?

People and companies donate the items.

Hardware So I just built up a new gaming PC for dirt-cheap...

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