Author Topic: Is buying second hand pc worth it?  (Read 2176 times)

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Offline Nightmare798

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Is buying second hand pc worth it?
« on: April 25, 2014, 07:33:21 pm »
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So, I went to take a look on hardware in my local pc shop, and I found desktop with following specs for 392 dollars:

Dual core 3.4 GHZ
1 TB hard drive
1 gb graphics
windows 7
6gb of RAM

The pc boots normally and seems to have no problems whatsoever.
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Offline Molly

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Re: Is buying second hand pc worth it?
« Reply #1 on: April 25, 2014, 07:42:39 pm »
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Not enough details to make a proper assumption.

I bought a similar board/cpu/8GB ram from a friend of mine about 2 years ago for 130€. Bought a HD6870 for 150€ back then and I am still running current games at max settings and 1680x1050. Overclocked the cpu [email protected] easy with the board settings and stock cooling. Runs like a charm.

Oh, and maybe see if the price is negotiable. Flashing 320$ cash in front of them may make them sell it anyway. :wink:
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Offline cmp

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Re: Is buying second hand pc worth it?
« Reply #2 on: April 25, 2014, 07:42:48 pm »
+1
Those specs are not enough to judge. It could be worth much less or more depending on the CPU model (you only listed frequency) and the graphics card model (you only listed memory).

Offline Boerenlater

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Re: Is buying second hand pc worth it?
« Reply #3 on: April 25, 2014, 08:17:51 pm »
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2nd handed for that money and those specs
no
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Offline Nightmare798

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Re: Is buying second hand pc worth it?
« Reply #4 on: April 25, 2014, 08:32:39 pm »
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2nd handed for that money and those specs
no

Honestly though, I was looking at the prices of desktops and components on the internet and I cant find much better deals at this price tag.
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Offline Boerenlater

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Re: Is buying second hand pc worth it?
« Reply #5 on: April 25, 2014, 08:37:37 pm »
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Honestly though, I was looking at the prices of desktops and components on the internet and I cant find much better deals at this price tag.
Then save more money =)
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Offline Nightmare798

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Re: Is buying second hand pc worth it?
« Reply #6 on: April 25, 2014, 08:44:53 pm »
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Not enough details to make a proper assumption.

I bought a similar board/cpu/8GB ram from a friend of mine about 2 years ago for 130€. Bought a HD6870 for 150€ back then and I am still running current games at max settings and 1680x1050. Overclocked the cpu [email protected] easy with the board settings and stock cooling. Runs like a charm.

Oh, and maybe see if the price is negotiable. Flashing 320$ cash in front of them may make them sell it anyway. :wink:

Sorry to be rude, but your friend is either a really nice guy, or an imbecile. And no, I dont think the price is negotiable. Remember, I want to buy, but they dont necessarily have to sell it to me.
Tseng: Used to the bitter taste of refusal, this only serves to reinforce his greatest life lession yet.
Cloud: And that is?
Tseng: Bitches, man.

Offline Nightmare798

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Re: Is buying second hand pc worth it?
« Reply #7 on: April 25, 2014, 08:45:19 pm »
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Then save more money =)

Easier said than done.
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Tseng: Bitches, man.

Offline Leesin

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Re: Is buying second hand pc worth it?
« Reply #8 on: April 25, 2014, 09:08:01 pm »
+2
I wouldn't buy second hand parts for my main rig from anyone I didn't know and trust well. The parts may appear to be working fine and even look fine, but until you get to stress the PC over a longer period of time you will never know how well the parts are working and you will also never know the kind of wear and tear these parts have been put through before they ended up in your hands .

You can take the risk and spend all your dollars on it, but don't be surprised if they aren't working too well under stress or maybe some months down the line one of the components shits itself and dies. You could say I'm being pessimistic, of course these parts could be in great condition and work great for some years to come. But you will never truly know that and if they die on you, you have no warranty or anything of that kind to replace the parts you bought, leaving you with a non functioning PC and making you spend more money to replace the part.

IMO, you should be patient, save your $400 and keep saving that money until you can buy your own brand new rig somewhere inbetween low and high end, you can get some decent rigs for good prices that will run most brand new games on good enough settings to still look nice and run smoothly. The mistake some people make when it comes to PC's is that they aren't patient enough, they would rather blow their money on a rig to play stuff ASAP, when 6 months down the line they could have saved more money and bought a more far more powerful rig that will last a lot longer.

Offline Tiger

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Re: Is buying second hand pc worth it?
« Reply #9 on: April 25, 2014, 09:08:56 pm »
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You can get a desktop to use at home and a laptop to bring around.
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Offline Molly

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Re: Is buying second hand pc worth it?
« Reply #10 on: April 25, 2014, 09:26:20 pm »
+1
Sorry to be rude, but your friend is either a really nice guy, or an imbecile. And no, I dont think the price is negotiable. Remember, I want to buy, but they dont necessarily have to sell it to me.
He is my friend :wink:

In my experience, people will sell if you flap cash in front of their faces.
Even new stuff in big markets, for example when it's the last one they have, you can get a discount but you have to ask. Every shop has some kind of discount policy the salesmen can use on the fly. If you don't ask, you won't get it ofc. If he says "No.", no harm is done by asking.
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Offline Nightmare798

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Re: Is buying second hand pc worth it?
« Reply #11 on: April 25, 2014, 10:42:59 pm »
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I wouldn't buy second hand parts for my main rig from anyone I didn't know and trust well. The parts may appear to be working fine and even look fine, but until you get to stress the PC over a longer period of time you will never know how well the parts are working and you will also never know the kind of wear and tear these parts have been put through before they ended up in your hands .

You can take the risk and spend all your dollars on it, but don't be surprised if they aren't working too well under stress or maybe some months down the line one of the components shits itself and dies. You could say I'm being pessimistic, of course these parts could be in great condition and work great for some years to come. But you will never truly know that and if they die on you, you have no warranty or anything of that kind to replace the parts you bought, leaving you with a non functioning PC and making you spend more money to replace the part.

IMO, you should be patient, save your $400 and keep saving that money until you can buy your own brand new rig somewhere inbetween low and high end, you can get some decent rigs for good prices that will run most brand new games on good enough settings to still look nice and run smoothly. The mistake some people make when it comes to PC's is that they aren't patient enough, they would rather blow their money on a rig to play stuff ASAP, when 6 months down the line they could have saved more money and bought a more far more powerful rig that will last a lot longer.

I would like to get a new pc asap, before I get a new job. I can always buy brand new after getting the job, but I swear to god that if I have to put up with that P4 with 3600HD and 1.5gb ram I will kill myself.

The thing is that the rig we are talking about is the owners old pc he bought 2 years ago, and he added it to inventory because he bought a new better one, so I dont think it is worn down.

Tseng: Used to the bitter taste of refusal, this only serves to reinforce his greatest life lession yet.
Cloud: And that is?
Tseng: Bitches, man.

Offline cmp

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Re: Is buying second hand pc worth it?
« Reply #12 on: April 25, 2014, 11:40:31 pm »
+2
It's not about the components being worn out, it's about what they are. If the cpu and gpu are decent (not enough info to judge atm) it might be an ok-ish deal, if they are low end it's a complete ripoff.

Offline JasonPastman

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Re: Is buying second hand pc worth it?
« Reply #13 on: April 26, 2014, 12:04:45 am »
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Uhhhhhh just learn to build your own PC...  It's a skill that is SUPER valuable and really easy to learn.  Also once you do, you'll be able to answer that question for yourself.

Just open the cover of the one you have and start screwing around.  Most of the time you can replace parts and/or create/upgrade to something that costs hundreds if not thousands less then buying from a manufacturer.

But as far as your question goes, you need to research each part in order to determine the true value.
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Offline Sir_Hans

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Re: Is buying second hand pc worth it?
« Reply #14 on: April 26, 2014, 04:27:00 am »
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You should check out the DIY PC combo kits on newegg...

http://www.newegg.com/DIY-PC-Combos/PromotionStore/ID-33/Page-3

I would recommend forking out a few hundred dollars more and getting something for around 600-700$... It will really be worth it in the long run imo.

But if your budget is set at about 400$, I'm pretty sure you can build something better, as well as brand new, for the same sum of money.

Building a PC is easy... for me, the only pain in the ass is the software aspect... installing the OS, Drivers, and networking it. But its really not that hard... just annoying (imo)