Did I get a good deal?

I built an AMD FX 6200 system recently but am not all that happy with it's performance... I was on a very tight budget but still ended up spending about $350.00 on it. My 11 year old son wanted a gaming PC. I picked him up a Dell 790 with an I5 2400, it was cheaper than building a system and the performance is pretty darn good for the money.

His computer had to be taken apart and cleaned, it was really dirty and the thermal paste was completely dried up. It was the easiest thing I ever worked on! I actually liked the build quality! When it was finished it looked like brand new again!

Today I saw a Dell 990 with an I5 2500 for $99.00 plus $40.00 shipping. It's from a company that refurbishes computers and it was already well cleaned and tested with a 90 day warranty! It has 8 GB of DDR 3, 500 GB 7200 RPM hard drive with Windows 10 Pro installed.

I have more RAM to bring it up to 16 GB, a 1 TB 860 Evo and a GTX 1050 Ti I can install. With computer parts being so high priced I am thinking this will give me better performance for my money. What do you think? Maybe sell the FX system or save it for a backup PC? Do you think the I5 2500 will perform better than the FX 6200?

exploder said:

... Do you think the I5 2500 will perform better than the FX 6200?

Probably about the same, their Passmark benchmarks are near-identical.

Intel Core i5-2500 @ 3.30GHz vs AMD FX-6200 Six-Core [cpubenchmark.net] by PassMark Software

Oh well... I was hoping performance would be a little better than that but for the cost I guess I don't have anything to complain about. Maintaining it will be really easy, so that's a plus and it won't sound like a microwave. Thanks!

Do you think the I5 2500 will perform better than the FX 6200?

Yes, it should.

Something slightly newer with an ivybridge e.g. an i5 3xxx in an optiplex 7010/9010 will be better still and should also have usb3, it might cost more though not necessarily, always worth looking around..

UserBenchmark: AMD FX-6200 Six-Core vs Intel Core i5-2500

Just an update. I am really loving these inexpensive Optiplex systems! I ended up installing an RX 460 in my son's and my 1050 Ti that I was using in my FX 6200 machine in mine. These rigs run great! They are so quiet too!

The Optilex 390 ran noticeably better than the FX 6200 system I was using. I found an I7 2600 for cheap online so I am going to upgrade and move the I5 2500k over to my son's system. Parts are so easy to find for these systems for really great prices!

Thanks to forum members here I got a heatsink installed on the southbridge of the 390 for about $3.00! I upgraded the RAM to 16 GB and installed a 1 TB Samsung 860 Evo I was using in the FX system. I am finally happy with my system! I benchmarked both systems after tweaking out Windows 10 and they both out perform the system I was using!

My ex-wife picked my son up some great RGB bling for his Birthday too! She bought him a new keyboard, mouse, headset and it really makes it look sharp! I am totally blown away with the price, performance of these computers! My son can finally play all the games he likes and it didn't break the bank! I am even going to install some games on mine later today!

I had never considered the Dell Optiplex as an option before. They are quiet and really easy to work on though! If you should find yourself on a limited budget you might want to consider one of these as an option.