Help with a friend's build

Hardware Build a PC
1

Hi there, my friend was looking to buy a used pc and stumbled on two choices in terms of CPU, these CPU's are old but he wanted to buy a really cheap rig so i need some info to confirm :

1st CPU option is Intel core 2 quad q6600, a CPU that seems to run on 2.4 Ghz stock

2nd CPU is AMD Phenom II X4 965, a quad core CPU that runs on 3.4 Ghz stock, AM3 socket and reading through net found that is still somewhat decent CPU.

In terms of GPU I was thinking to recommend him going for 2gb Vram card, possibly newer card than the CPU, something in the lines of GTX 950's or some AMD R series equivalent.

Will there be some bottlenecking due to the older CPU? Or should he just try to find other 2nd hand configuration?

2

If only a choice between those two, take the AMD. It's faster:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/mid_range_cpus.html

It also has PCIe 2.0

But these are pretty old computers.

3

Definitely go with the Phenom II. Still an excellent processor.

I just retired my Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition in the middle to end of last year. It still ran everything I threw at it perfectly. It would probably still work fine if I had just upgraded the video card, but I wanted a new system entirely.

Edit: and by "retired' I don't mean I gutted it or anything. It is still a running, functional system in its original case. I will probably never get rid of that system just because it is so stable and reliable. Window 7 will always be installed on that system. At least until Microsoft pry it from my cold, dead hands.

4

Thx for the replies folks.

Yea, the hardware is pretty outdated, but then again he wanted something dirt cheap and had the option of those two.

So I guess you get what you pay for : /

5

I'd say Phenom II like the rest of them.

As far as GPU's are concerned... resolution and refresh rate would be good to know.
But for cheap I guess you could go with a 270x, 380 and 380x are going for pretty cheap (though I'm not sure what the budget is for the GPU). Used market you'd be able to get more bang for your buck though.

6

There is a guy selling GTX 770 for $100 including shipping here:

It's a pretty good card for $100

7

Thanks for the link!

8

I'd go for the Phenom II X4 as well here. If it turns out the board is an AM3+, rather than just AM3, that would make it even more worth it as he would have a pretty decent upgrade path for later on when he can afford it and the prices drop further on processors like the 8350 or higher.