Gaming Worth $55?

[Lanlan]

A coworker is offering me a computer. He's quite computer illiterate, but according to him it's a custom built gaming computer built in 2008 with Nvidia onboard graphics and a Core 2 Duo and it has 4 slots for memory. . Obviously this is no gaming computer, but is it worth the asking price? Any guess as to what socket it might be? I know C2Ds have different socket types, so it may just be all guessing. Since it's pretty recent it would most likely have a PCI-e slot, right?

 

[Lanlan]

So I asked him to take off the heatsink and tell me what it said on the CPU, and he told me it said e8500. It seems like an okay CPU, especially for the price

 

[Scorpei]

A computer for 55 bucks with a c2d e8500 including ram, board, etc. is a fair price IMHO. I wouldn't let my e4500 go for that money by a long shot. Proc alone is worth about 35-40€. The machine, when paired with a decent grafics card can run most of anything on high settings full HD, though prepare to set future stuff on medium.

Also C2D have only been released on the socket 775 socket (and 771 and M and P, but that doesn't count). It will probably have a PCI-E slot, however keep in mind that motherboards (which is the component that actually matters for this one) without extra (full length) PCI-E are out there. If you want to know if it has it, ask for the specifications of the machine.

Third:
If

He's quite computer illiterate

and you asked

him to take off the heatsink

You're gonna have a bad time .

 

[Originality]

The E8xxx CPUs are fairly good overclockers. I had my E8400 always clocked at around 3.2Ghz, and sometimes pushed it to 3.5Ghz for gaming. Coupled with a HD 4870 and I was able to max out all games for a long while.

Fair price I'd say, at least so long as you don't need a quad core.

 

[ouch123]

Wow, that's not bad at all actually. Slap a dedicated graphics card on that sucker and you've got a budget gaming computer. Heck, even if you plan on chucking most of the parts (which I wouldn't recommend by the way), chances are pretty good that what you'd have left would still be worth $55, so I would say definitely make the purchase if you have any use for it beyond as a doorstop or uncomfortable chair.

 

[Lanlan]

Here's a pic of it. Looks like 3 PCIe slots, one full sized. Can't tell what kinda memory though.

 

[raulpica]

Most certainly DDR2, considering the CPU.

Go for it, it's a good deal. Here the CPU alone goes for that price.

 

[Lanlan]

I read intel's page for the e8500 and it says it can use ddr2 or ddr3 memory. It looks like DDR2, but the picture's not the best so it's hard to tell

 

[Law]

If it was built in 2008 it is most likely going to be DDR2.

 

[Originality]

I'll just add that my LGA 775 motherboard had DDR3. However this looks like a budget motherboard so I wouldn't be surprised if it's DDR2. Can't say for sure without you taking out a DIMM and looking for any writing/stickers on it to tell you what it is or what speed it's rated for.

 

[Lanlan]

Any idea of what a good card would be for this to avoid bottlenecks? It's gonna be for my little brother so it doesn't have to be like a 670 or something

 

[Originality]

To define a "good card", answer 3 simple questions. What games is he going to play? How much are you willing to spend? Will the Power Supply be strong enough for a modern mid-range graphics card?

EDIT: To add, I get the feeling (before you telling me) that a $50-80 would be ideal for him.
EDIT2: "He thinks the Xbox 360 is the greatest thing ever"... get him a PS3

 

[Lanlan]

I'm thinking spending around $100 maybe. Something a little more potent than a 6670. He thinks the Xbox 360 is the greatest thing ever, and I plan on changing that.

 

[Rydian]

My current LGA 775 motherboard is using DDR3 RAM as I type, to confirm again.

I've got an HD 5770 in this rig and it runs most things I throw at it, so yeah something more powerful than a 6670 would be better for really showing what computers are capable of.

 

[Lanlan]

So I bought it, it has a Core 2 Duo E8500 like I said before, two low profile Kingston 2 gig DDR2 ramming sticks, and 320 gig hard drive. Now I need a card, preferably better than a 6670 like I said before. So I'm wondering if any of you have a card lying around that you wouldn't mind selling in two weeks when I get paid again (it's rent week). It's a birthday present for my brother, he's turning sixteen, so if you guys can find it in your hearts to give me a bitchin' deal, that'd be awesome.

 

[Lanlan]

http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/motherboards/dg45id/dg45id-overview.htm
oh and here's the mobo

 

[Kioku]

A 6670 wouldn't be a bad option.. I have that paired with an AMD Athlon64 x2 (Yes, I know.. It was a free computer though) and it blows the 360 away. I use a 39" tv as my screen, though.

 

[VashTS]

buy it, its well worth the cost. of course it depends on if you have a need for it.

 

[Psionic Roshambo]

One thing I did notice, that mother board you linked supports dual channel memory but the picture your posted looks as if it only has 3 out of the 4 slots populated.... This means that your memory is operating in single channel mode.

I would say remove/add one stick but that depends on how much RAM is there and also what speed it is and if you do decide to add a stick get ready for some sticker shock DDR2 is now way more expensive per GB than DDR3.

Just something to keep in mind.

I run an OCed E8500 myself with 8GB's of dual channel DDR2 800 that pairs up nicely with my 1600Mhz FSB lol

 

[raulpica]

So I bought it, it has a Core 2 Duo E8500 like I said before, two low profile Kingston 2 gig DDR2 ramming sticks, and 320 gig hard drive. Now I need a card, preferably better than a 6670 like I said before. So I'm wondering if any of you have a card lying around that you wouldn't mind selling in two weeks when I get paid again (it's rent week). It's a birthday present for my brother, he's turning sixteen, so if you guys can find it in your hearts to give me a bitchin' deal, that'd be awesome.

Get a used GTX260, it's a great card, and perfect for this system (even if it's not DX11, it will still max out almost everything which was out in the last year, except the games released in the last 6 months).