Broken pc repair/ upgrade parts request.

[Nodiggidy123]

A friend of mines sons of has broken which I believe the motherboard has given up the ghost.

Its currently got a Xeon CPU a 1050ti and 8gb of ram but aside from that I'm not sure until I strip it.

Anyway she'd like to get it fixed for him for Christmas.

I'm thinking best thing to is replace the CPU, motherboard and ramAs a minimum. Apparently he wants to play Gary's mod and stuff like that?

She's obviously on a budget and would like to do it as cheap as possible.

I've no idea on low end stuff so any ideas?

 

[LuckyBenski]

Firstly I'd set ay least a ballpark idea of budget. £50 for a mobo/CPU versus £150 for mobo/CPU/graphics versus £300 for the same, will vary a lot.

As a chronic second hand buyer and upgrader I've found knowing the market is invaluable - generally better value parts will see more demand and ultimately prices will sort of settle. Meaning you get what you pay for. And knowing when a deal pops up is then really handy to grab it.

1050 Ti is a decent card and I'd say the next step up is typically £80 (GTX 970) to £100-110 (GTX 1060 6GB). So unless budget is over £300 all-in, keep that graphics card. It's also one of the most energy efficient cards so win-win.

In terms of CPU/mobo/RAM, obviously what Xeon and chipset he's on is pertinent. I'd suggest you can find a midrange Ryzen 2000 series like a 2600 for under £100 used, RAM for £50, board for £50. That'd keep things pretty powerful with room for future GPU upgrades. These prices might even bag you new components if you catch a deal, especially on RAM.

If that's too expensive I'd say aim for either 3rd or 4th gen i5/i7 - the most recent DDR3 platforms. Then you can skip buying RAM and reuse. If not needing to overclock, an Ivy Bridge i5 and H series board could be had for close to £50. The bay is your friend as it simply has such a wide net in terms of sellers.

Edit: and of course check the MM and place a wanted ad for your budget

Edit edit: sorry if this counts as price checking mods, please delete if so

 

[Nodiggidy123]

Would a I5 2400 at 3.1ghz be a decent CPU for the 1060ti?

I've been out of pc building for a while and previously had a 2500k @4.8 and crossfire rig etc but these days even with windows 10 I don't know what I'm talking about.


The pc he currently has was second hand and his mum is worried about getting another due to the problems she's had with this. He hasn't had it long. (6months)

There's a couple of cheap systems on another site for sub 200 and 12 months warranty with the above mentioned CPU and 8gb ram. Plan would be to take out gpu and replace with the 1060ti

He just wants a working pc which he can play some games on really.

 

[LuckyBenski]

My concern would be that this other system doesn't have a very good power supply or might be made from OEM parts with limited options for upgrades. But then I am someone who will happily tinker and diagnose faults. A warranty is useful if he's less confident.

The i5-2400 is still reasonable, I'd say it's at the point where it's usable but may start to show its age soon as core counts go up and clock speeds have moved on. It might be a good base, and some cost could be reclaimed selling the old bits