Worth Buying New Desktop?

[blinx77]

My parents have a computer from 2009 can have if I want. It is HP Pavillion s5280t with a Intel Core2 Quad Q9300 @ 2.50GHz processor, 6 GB of RAM and 500 GB of storage.

I was considering buying a desktop for myself before I got this offer. How much worse is this computer than what I could buy for myself for $500 today?

 

[Mr Kagouris]

Well, really depends on what you want to do with the computer. If it's just a regular home use PC (web browsing, office applications, that sort of thing) then a cheap older machine will work fine. If you want to do some gaming, you can add 100$ to that budget and get something that can run pretty much any modern game at decent framerates whereas the older machine would struggle with anything but light and older games.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($110.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI B150 Gaming M3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($94.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($33.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($47.49 @ OutletPC)
Case: BitFenix Nova ATX Mid Tower Case ($26.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($52.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($85.95 @ Amazon)
Other: Rx 470 ($149.99)
Total: $603.27

The listed Rx 470 hasn't been released yet, but you could still build the PC without the graphics card and use the integrated graphics of the CPU until it becomes available.

 

[blinx77]

Well, really depends on what you want to do with the computer. If it's just a regular home use PC (web browsing, office applications, that sort of thing) then a cheap older machine will work fine. If you want to do some gaming, you can add 100$ to that budget and get something that can run pretty much any modern game at decent framerates whereas the older machine would struggle with anything but light and older games.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($110.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: MSI B150 Gaming M3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($94.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($33.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($47.49 @ OutletPC)
Case: BitFenix Nova ATX Mid Tower Case ($26.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($52.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($85.95 @ Amazon)
Other: Rx 470 ($149.99)
Total: $603.27

The listed Rx 470 hasn't been released yet, but you could still build the PC without the graphics card and use the integrated graphics of the CPU until it becomes available.

I will only be using it for normal web browsing / office stuff with one exception. I will use it to work from home, which will mean logging in to a remote desktop server. My work computer has a fancy version of outlook that is also attached to a networked file sharing system (file site). Sometimes that system is slow, but I don't know whether that's my laptop or the remote server. I don't know if it would be better to get a newer, more powerful computer to get a smoother remote working experience.

Thanks!

 

[Mr Kagouris]

You can get a better working experience and future-proofing from this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor ($110.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B150M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($69.89 @ OutletPC)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($33.89 @ OutletPC)
Storage: OCZ TRION 150 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($62.98 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($47.49 @ OutletPC)
Case: Silverstone PS09B MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($38.99 @ Directron)
Power Supply: SeaSonic S12II 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($52.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($85.95 @ Amazon)
Total: $503.17