09-08-2016, 05:53 AM
Depends on how much above average that you want the specs. Plus if you are comfortable replacing things in used machines as they break or prefer new stuff only.
#1 question is laptop or desktop. Because laptops you find and buy in one piece but can't change much. Desktops you can change a lot and build up from pieces. Laptops get abused -- the only ones worth buying used are the toughest business ones you can find -- which suck for gaming.
Buying new: if a big retailer has exactly what you want, then usually it is cheaper to buy from them. This is because they get a much better deal than you do on the MS Windows license. Sometimes it is still cheaper to buy more than you want than to put together exactly what you want from pieces.
Recommended strategy #1 for buying used: buy name brand used business class equipment like Dell (Precision, Lattitude), Lenovo Thinkpad, HP (Elite). They are easier to find fiddly parts for (except the non-standard power supplies) and they hold their value when you go to resell. The big upgrades for you will be hard drives to SSD, maximize memory and a better video card(s). Because these machines are for business and not gamers, be very sure the high end graphics card or cards that you want will fit and can be powered and cooled adequately.
Recommended strategy #2 for a gamer on a budget -- non-brand name stuff -- piece together what you can by looking for people getting rid of broken machines. Buy someone's working 5 year old gamer's machine with a top end case and power supply (top end when they bought it) then replace the innards as you can afford to -- good cases and good power supplies tend to last longer than the innards. People get rid of machines with bad power supplies or a burnt motherboard or burnt CPU or burnt RAM all the time for very little money. Gamers with high end stuff know the value of their components so you can't find the really nice stuff very often -- other gamers will beat you to the deals. But you can piece together a good mid-range gamer system for little money. Generally, you may be forced to buy a video card, gamer case and power supply. Don't scrimp on power and airflow -- get the best case and power supply you can find.
Examples of what I just bought recently and expect to get 5 years from each -- I have business needs that require a bit more money than you need to spend:
Used 5 year old Lenovo Thinkpad X220 laptop with i5 dual core, no hard drive and 16GB of ram ($360 CAD). Added 256GB SSD ($110 CAD). Does not have discrete graphics and only Intel's HD 3000 built in graphics -- this is a work machine that can't even do minecraft very well. It is light, fits on an airplane seat table and runs 7 to 9 hours with the new battery in it.
Two used 5 year old Dell T3500 each with a mid-speed quad core Xeon, 12GB of ECC memory, a Quadro4000 graphics card and dual 1TB 7200rpm drives ($300 CAD each). Replaced the hard drives with a 256GB SSD($110 CAD) and replaced one graphics card with a NVidia GX 550ti that I had lying around because I wanted the Quadro in my T7500. Not the best gaming machine -- CPU is only around 3GHz and is 5 years old -- newer processors at the same speed are faster -- graphics card is middle to low end with 1GB of RAM. Power supply only has one power adapter for video cards -- the higher end cards need 2 or even 3 power plugs. As it is currently setup, it can run Minecraft on a 2560 x 1440 27" monitor full-screen and at the highest settings without slowing down. Reading Rocket League requirements -- should run that easily too.
Used 5 year old Dell T7500 with 2 times 6 core Xeons, 36GB of ECC memory (6 x 2GB and 6 x 4GB sticks), 2 x 320GB drives and a lower end Quadro ($760 CAD). Replaced graphics card with Quadro 4000. Bought used 6 x 4GB to replace the 2GB sticks to bring memory to 48GB ($150 CAD). Added a 4 port USB 3.0 PCI card for backups to external drives ($40 CAD). And the 2 big ticket items: added 256GB Samsung EVO 850 Pro 256GB for OS and 1TB Samsung EVO 850 Pro for data ($850 CAD). Has a 1100 watt power supply with 2 plugs for higher end graphics cards -- or for 2 card SLI setup. These 6 core processors don't have a good single-threading top speed needed by most games. I need many cores and ram for running virtual machines to test software on many versions of Windows -- works for my needs.
#1 question is laptop or desktop. Because laptops you find and buy in one piece but can't change much. Desktops you can change a lot and build up from pieces. Laptops get abused -- the only ones worth buying used are the toughest business ones you can find -- which suck for gaming.
Buying new: if a big retailer has exactly what you want, then usually it is cheaper to buy from them. This is because they get a much better deal than you do on the MS Windows license. Sometimes it is still cheaper to buy more than you want than to put together exactly what you want from pieces.
Recommended strategy #1 for buying used: buy name brand used business class equipment like Dell (Precision, Lattitude), Lenovo Thinkpad, HP (Elite). They are easier to find fiddly parts for (except the non-standard power supplies) and they hold their value when you go to resell. The big upgrades for you will be hard drives to SSD, maximize memory and a better video card(s). Because these machines are for business and not gamers, be very sure the high end graphics card or cards that you want will fit and can be powered and cooled adequately.
Recommended strategy #2 for a gamer on a budget -- non-brand name stuff -- piece together what you can by looking for people getting rid of broken machines. Buy someone's working 5 year old gamer's machine with a top end case and power supply (top end when they bought it) then replace the innards as you can afford to -- good cases and good power supplies tend to last longer than the innards. People get rid of machines with bad power supplies or a burnt motherboard or burnt CPU or burnt RAM all the time for very little money. Gamers with high end stuff know the value of their components so you can't find the really nice stuff very often -- other gamers will beat you to the deals. But you can piece together a good mid-range gamer system for little money. Generally, you may be forced to buy a video card, gamer case and power supply. Don't scrimp on power and airflow -- get the best case and power supply you can find.
Examples of what I just bought recently and expect to get 5 years from each -- I have business needs that require a bit more money than you need to spend:
Used 5 year old Lenovo Thinkpad X220 laptop with i5 dual core, no hard drive and 16GB of ram ($360 CAD). Added 256GB SSD ($110 CAD). Does not have discrete graphics and only Intel's HD 3000 built in graphics -- this is a work machine that can't even do minecraft very well. It is light, fits on an airplane seat table and runs 7 to 9 hours with the new battery in it.
Two used 5 year old Dell T3500 each with a mid-speed quad core Xeon, 12GB of ECC memory, a Quadro4000 graphics card and dual 1TB 7200rpm drives ($300 CAD each). Replaced the hard drives with a 256GB SSD($110 CAD) and replaced one graphics card with a NVidia GX 550ti that I had lying around because I wanted the Quadro in my T7500. Not the best gaming machine -- CPU is only around 3GHz and is 5 years old -- newer processors at the same speed are faster -- graphics card is middle to low end with 1GB of RAM. Power supply only has one power adapter for video cards -- the higher end cards need 2 or even 3 power plugs. As it is currently setup, it can run Minecraft on a 2560 x 1440 27" monitor full-screen and at the highest settings without slowing down. Reading Rocket League requirements -- should run that easily too.
Used 5 year old Dell T7500 with 2 times 6 core Xeons, 36GB of ECC memory (6 x 2GB and 6 x 4GB sticks), 2 x 320GB drives and a lower end Quadro ($760 CAD). Replaced graphics card with Quadro 4000. Bought used 6 x 4GB to replace the 2GB sticks to bring memory to 48GB ($150 CAD). Added a 4 port USB 3.0 PCI card for backups to external drives ($40 CAD). And the 2 big ticket items: added 256GB Samsung EVO 850 Pro 256GB for OS and 1TB Samsung EVO 850 Pro for data ($850 CAD). Has a 1100 watt power supply with 2 plugs for higher end graphics cards -- or for 2 card SLI setup. These 6 core processors don't have a good single-threading top speed needed by most games. I need many cores and ram for running virtual machines to test software on many versions of Windows -- works for my needs.
/Rowebot