Looking at used low budget PC/CPU - comments?

[techwanabe]

I'm looking at a few used PC's cause I'm on tight budget and considering some used PC's.

Basics:

-Dell Opt 745 w/ Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 @ 1866 Mhz cpu

-Dell Opt 755 w/ Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 @ 2.33 Ghz cpu

- emachines ET1331G 071G 23666 w/ AMD Athlon II X2 250u 1600 Mhz cpu

- Acer Aspire AX3400G-U4802 AMD Athlon II X2 255 3100 Mhz cpu

The above are four basic PC's I'm looking at, and plan on adding a video card such as a ATI Radeon HD 4650 or possibly somthing recommended that is in similar price range.


We plan on using the PC with dual monitors, internet, email and light gaming, mainly to run an older MMO - nothing demanding. The current PC is a 9 year old Dell Dimension 8400 XP and 1 Gb ram and a Radeon X800SE - basically on it's last legs. I bought an ATI Radeon HD 4650 thats in a Dell Dimension 9100 can run the game with two instances but with 1 Gb it does lag switching back and forth on the other PC. So any thing significantly better will be an improvement. Comments on the above?

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Everything else being equal, for maximum performance I'd go with the E6550 based one. It should be a bit faster then the X2 based ones, but the X2's may have a slightly newer platform. So it depends on what you find important.

 

[techwanabe]

I have Dell Optiplex 745 and 755's at work, and just from an every day stand point, the 755's are noticably faster, but as long as I can put 4 gb memory and a decent video card for some light gaming. Newer platform...

This is to get us a better PC for every day internet, email and light mmo gaming to get us down the road a couple more years.

 

[Torn Mind]

Prices? Which vendor are you buying from?

 

[techwanabe]

These are in the $100-140 price range - local vendor where I live sells used PC's.

 

[Cerb]

Dell Opt 755 w/ Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 @ 2.33 Ghz cpu

Better computer, could be a big desktop down to an SFF case that can fit behind a monitor on a stand. Takes DDR2.

Acer Aspire AX3400G-U4802 AMD Athlon II X2 255 3100 Mhz cpu

Low-profile slots, only 2 of them, but should be around 20% faster, and takes common DDR3. Any video card that doesn't have its own extra power connector should be fine.

If the Optiplex is the full tower or minitower, with full-height slots, and a standard(ish) power supply, and 3GB or more of RAM, it would be an overall better computer. If you'd have to buy RAM for it, and/or if it were an SFF that might be hard to get cheap good parts for, the Acer might be as good to buy, for the money.

The eMachines might be OK, but only if significantly cheaper than the 755 or Aspire, and if it comes with 3GB+ RAM. I mean, it's crap, but it's standard MicroATX crap.

 

[techwanabe]

http://www.cedarpc.com/store_cedarp...f3yGHi-qflyStDi4jVLBD-xdkw1wi7G5_bDZYvAHGIVoJ

Above link is to the local store that I'm looking at.

There are a number of Dell 755's, full tower it looks like and only $105 with Win 7. Yes, small hard drive but we don't have much on our computers right now and we could add a slave later if need be. As long as basic platform is decent we can get a few years out of it and it can handle light mmo gaming. The old Dell Dim 8400 at 9 years old with XP and 1gb is basically EOL now and we need something with a little better performance, Win 7 and 4 gb memory to move us down the road a few more years.

So the Athlon II X2 is a bit faster than the Intel Core 2 Duo E6550?

Basically I plan on adding in a video card as most of the used PC's have onboard video, and I have a wireless PCI card I'll toss in.

 

[Cerb]

So the Athlon II X2 is a bit faster than the Intel Core 2 Duo E6550?

Yes. It's not quite as good per clock, but is clocked much faster.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2923/6
^ Nothing comparable directly to an E6550, but you should be able to get the idea. The E6550 should be somewhere below the minimums of the charts. Due to age differences (2007 v. 2010), a direct comparison with relevant benchmarks is hard to find.

Having the link, I dunno...the Acer is more expensive, has an nVidia chipset, and low profile slots, but has 4GB RAM, and a faster CPU. OTOH, the CPU itself isn't likely to be much of an issue, for you, between the two PCs. But, the Dell can take larger and more power-hungry video cards, replacement PSUs and mobos are readily available on eBay, there's room for multiple drives inside, and it's a sturdy case, not to be put in the way of toes in the wee morning hours.

If you can, have them open the Dell up. If it has, by some strange luck, 1x2GB (read: the sysadmin or tech took the RAM when they were being decommissioned), or 2x1GB, then upgrading it to 4GB would be cheaper than buying the Acer, at which point it would be a slam-dunk for the Dell, IMO. 2GB is just awfully tight with newer RAM-hogging software (silly programmers! RAM got cheap, and now they want to use more of it! ).

 

[techwanabe]

Agree about the Dell 755. BTW, I have the full tower Dell 745/755/760's at work and open them up all the time, change the RAM etc. They all have 4 slots. Some have 4x512 in them for 2 total, so I don't know how the ones at the vendor are populated. But being that they have 7 to choose from, as long as there are 2 slots free it should be easy to upgrade from 2 gb to 4 gb. I would consider 4 gb my minimum. At work we try to shoot for 4 gb for the users, but a few in the call center have 745's with 2 gb and they just use web apps mainly.

I work with the Dell Optiplex 745/755/760's - those are our bread and butter computers. The 745's seem a bit slow for the booting up than the 755's and they seem fine for business use. But I'm looking at the 755 or the Acer for light gaming with a decent video card.

 

[piasabird]

According to Intel Specs the E6300 does have 2 cores but it is a Pentium Processor. It is not Core 2 Duo. This usually indicates it does not have 1 or more feature of a core 2 duo processor. It has a 2 Meg L2 Cache, and an FSB of 1066

E6550 is full Core 2 Duo with 4 Meg L2 Cache and an FSB of 1333. Looks like it would be faster.

I am using a socket 775 E7200 with a 3 Meg Cache and a FSB OF 1066. Still runs great.

You should also look at the Lithography? (How thick the layers are of the silicone). The thinner the better and more efficiently it runs. This may not be related to the actual wattage.

Just my suggestions. Go to www.intel.com and put the processor model into the search bar and look at the specs:

http://ark.intel.com/products/41493...00-2M-Cache-2_80-GHz-1066-MHz-FSB?wapkw=e6300

http://ark.intel.com/products/30783...ache-2_33-GHz-1333-MHz-FSB?ui=BIG&wapkw=e6550

My processor
http://ark.intel.com/products/35348...00-3M-Cache-2_53-GHz-1066-MHz-FSB?wapkw=e7200

 

[Insert_Nickname]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2923/6
^ Nothing comparable directly to an E6550, but you should be able to get the idea. The E6550 should be somewhere below the minimums of the charts. Due to age differences (2007 v. 2010), a direct comparison with relevant benchmarks is hard to find.

Damn, misread Anandtech own benchmark section. You are correct, the 255 should be a bit faster...

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/121?vs=61

Though you'll be limited to low-profile cards.

Newer platform...

As in, takes standard DDR3 RAM rather then expensive DDR2. 4GB+ DDR2 get really expensive and kind of defeats the purpose of getting a cheap PC...

 

[Cerb]

Damn, misread Anandtech own benchmark section.

You gotta watch what's tested. I was going to just link that, but there was only one relevant game test. So, 3.1GHz Athlon II ~= 2.9GHz C2D was as good as I could do, given a ~3 year release spread. AT bench is a useful tool, but it would take a long time to test all components with all the same benches, keeping other aspects controlled.

 

[techwanabe]

Thanks for the reminder on the memory costs, that does factor in.

I'll check the low profile system to see if the video adaptor is an issue. There should be low profile cards available that I can use, as long as I can use the 2nd monitor plug.

 

[Hubb1e]

Get this one: http://www.cedarpc.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=29194

Athlon X2 at 3ghz with DDR3 2GB of RAM in one stick and a full width mATX case. 2GB of RAM may be enough for you and when it isn't DDR3 is an inexpensive upgrade since it has a free slot. It will also likely accept a quad core Athlon II X4 if you feel the need for more cores for newer games, though the PhII 965 is likely too much for this machine to handle because of its 125W power requirement. This machine is also cheaper than the others.

Then get this video card for $50 and you're all set. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102988

[Edit] Upon going back through the details of that Dell I see it has 1 defective RAM slot limiting you to 1 slot only. That's not the end of the world since 4GB DDR3 sticks are plentiful, but it does limit expansion later on.

 

[mfenn]

According to Intel Specs the E6300 does have 2 cores but it is a Pentium Processor. It is not Core 2 Duo. This usually indicates it does not have 1 or more feature of a core 2 duo processor. It has a 2 Meg L2 Cache, and an FSB of 1066

E6550 is full Core 2 Duo with 4 Meg L2 Cache and an FSB of 1333. Looks like it would be faster.

The original Conroe E6300 is actually a Core 2 branded part. Rest of your points are valid though.

 

[techwanabe]

I went with the Dell Opt 755 w/ Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 @ 2.33 Ghz cpu. The shop had 2 1gb DDR2 sticks for $16 I put in to bring it up to 4 gb ($121 total) and added an inexpensive ATI Radion HD vidio card for light gaming and dual monitors ($31).

Did get blue screen while installing the video card drivers, but since had updated with latest from ATI and so far stable and runs much better than the old clunker, Dell Dimension 8400, which the hard drive just failed yesterday morning.


I saw the last two replies this morning but the bad memory slot would limit expansion. The Dell has a nice big case with 1 PCIe, 2 PCI and 1 PCImini lost, and four good memory slots. At work we have put as much as 8 gb in them but for us, 4 gb seems to be a good happy medium. This PC is to help us get through a couple 2 or 3 more years hopefully.

 

[mfenn]

Glad you found something that you like. And super-cheap too!

 

[techwanabe]

Thanks, and we picked up a 2nd Dell 19" monitor for $29 at a different nearby used dealer and he threw in a DVI cable for us.