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Vessel of Hatred

OT: Used gaming PC - Good Price or Rip-Off?

Trim

Trim

Well-known member
Oct 28, 2007
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OT: Used gaming PC - Good Price or Rip-Off?

Hey, all. TRM here and I've got a question. My current computer is, to say the least, not a powerhouse machine. And there are lots of games, old and new, that I've missed over the years because I've never had a decent machine. While I don't have a real NEED for a new machine immediately, I will by the time D3 is released.

And while I don't exactly have the extra money to buy a machine now... I don't exactly NOT have the money either.
:scratchhead:
Confused? I just mean that if I'm going to spend, I want to be sure I'm getting something for a great value and will last me for a long while.

However, I have to admit that I know practically nothing about computer hardware. I can do research, I can click Internet links, I can compare and contrast numbers... but it doesn't do me any good. What I need is the opinions of people I can trust to tell me the truth.

Here's where you come in. I happened across an advertisement for a used gaming rig. The way the person describes it, it sounds like a real bargain for a great system. The question is: What do YOU think? Is this offer a steal, would I be flushing my money down the drain by buying it, or somewhere in between?

Asking Price: $400

I am selling my gaming computer that I built about a year ago. Everything inside is top of the line parts. If you know anything about computer parts you should know what I am talking about. Computer runs smoothly and has no problems whatsoever. Again I repeat HIGH END parts used throughout the machine. The parts used in the pre-built computers you would buy at best buy/office depot/office max are all pretty much garbage, compared to the parts used in this machine.

The reason I am selling it is because I have 2 computers, and I plan on using the money from this computer to upgrade my main computer.

You can come to my place to test the computer out and all that stuff if you want.

At the time when I built this computer the parts and software came out to be around $1200. So this is a great deal for the graphic designer, photoshop expert, or extreme gamer.

This machine comes with a Physx card which runs for about $80. The Physx card enhances the quality of all images. You will notice a big difference with and without it. Here is a link for the physx card. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PhysX

Of course there is the badass motherboard which cost me over $200 when I bought it. And the graphics card which cost me over $150.

Like I said you can simply google all the parts that I have listed and read all the reviews. Everything is HIGH END.

Antec P180 Advanced Super Mid Tower Case
http://www.3dnews.ru/documents/news5/20050628_antec_2.jpg

LITE-ON Black 24X DVD+R 24X DVD-R SATA Black 24X DVD Writer
http://www.itechnews.net/wp-content...as324-ihap424-and-ihas624-24x-dvd-burners.jpg

TWO (2 X 250 GB) = 500GB
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3250318AS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
http://ecompshop.co.za/catalog/images/seagate-barracuda-hard-drive.jpg

Antec True Power Trio TP3-650 650W ATX12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply with Three 12V Rails
http://www.tweaknews.net/reviews/truepowertrio/img/intro.jpg

BFG PhysX 128MB PCI
http://www.mydigitallife.info/wp-content/uploads/2006/07/bfg-physx.gif

BFG Tech NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS OC 512MB
http://xtreview.com/images/BFG-GeForce-8800GTS-OC-2-1.jpg

Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor
http://techgage.com/reviews/intel/e6750/intel_e6750_01_thumb.jpg

FOUR (4 X 1 GB) = 4 GB Ram
CORSAIR XMS2 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory
http://intrinsic-realities.com/crash-the-silence/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/xms2.jpg

ASUS Striker Extreme LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX The Ultimate Gaming Motherboard
http://images.dailytech.com/nimage/2957_large_Striker_Extreme_2D_L.jpg

Windows Vista Ultimate Installed
Microsoft Office 2007 Installed

I also have a 17 inch Samsung LCD monitor what I would like to sell as well. Perfect condition and no dead pixels. I will include it with the computer for $50 more if you would like.

END ADVERT

I'll just say that I don't need a crazy, super-powerful machine that can run Crysis at its highest settings... but if this computer can do it, that'd be frickin' sweet!

Make any and all comments you want to either persuade or dissuade me from making this person an offer. How does this stack up to some better machines? Will it run the games of today, and if so how well? More importantly, is it advanced enough where I won't have to worry about the system reqs for D3 in two years? Is there something totally awesome about this rig? What's the weakest component in the system, and why? What other questions should I ask the seller that haven't I thought about?

Tell me EVERYTHING! ...But quickly, because this is a public advertisement, and if I decide I have to have it I don't want it to disappear out from underneath me.

I appreciate your time, everyone. Thanks for reading and responding. :wave:
 
Re: OT: Used gaming PC - Good Price or Rip-Off?

I may not keep up-to-date of all new hardware, but I know computer hardware, particularly gaming staff.

The machine is at good price if everything is in good order.

Let me explain:

Physx card - this one doesn't matter, not many games support it and even those do, it is not worth it.

Case and power supply - sounds pretty decent, if the machine isn't too old or abused, they should be fine. Please note heat will destroy the power supply unit, so pay attention on the case cooling.

Graphics card - should be good. However, if the owner is an extreme overclocker, it may not last very long. This greatly depending on how this card was used/overclocked and what kind of cooling was used.

DVD drive - doesn't really matter, even it breaks, it is too cheap to replace it these days.

CPU & RAM - if they were not used under high heat environment (extreme overclock and/or poor cooling), they should be fine.

Motherboard - ASUS anit what they used to be (like 8 years ago), this could be the first part to fail, but it may not be. almost pure luck here. On top, if there was poor cooling and the owner is an overclocker, it will fail very soon.

Hard drive - I wouldn't bet my money on any hard drive these days.

In conclusion, you must see the machine yourself. Pay attention how it was build, what kind of cooling (you noticed I keep bring this point) because heat kills everything inside computer case.
 
Re: OT: Used gaming PC - Good Price or Rip-Off?

I forgot to mention that I sent the person an email telling them I'm getting some opinions of other gamers so I could get a better idea of what he was offering. I did end up asking a couple questions. I think the very first one was something like "Have you ever put the system into an overclock mode?" I also asked how much he used/abused the system if he's got a second one and this one is [supposedly] only a year old. What I forgot to ask, though, was about its cooling system. Oops.

Thanks for your input, DM!
 
Re: OT: Used gaming PC - Good Price or Rip-Off?

This pc has about the same specs as mine. I can tell you that it is a nice setup and you should not hit too big problems. You can run crysis on medium - high settings. You can run Diablo2 8 times simultaniously. You can run WoW and another game like Counterstrike in the background and switch.

I play on XP though. Vista leeches much more off the system, so i dont know how well this would work on vista.


So, it is a allround PC which does the trick for now. However you will NOT get "something for a great value and will last me for a long while". The system is outdated. Most components are allready 2 years old ( the model, i dont know the pc and how long he had it ^^). The new stuff coming out is a different generation of hardware. You will not be able to upgrade easily.

While most modern games run more or less decent on it, i dont know how this will develop in the next 2 years. Since it is quite a long time till Diablo3 is released, this PC will definitly be out of date by then. Hell, it is out of date now.

I would suggest buying it if you have a realy old pc and want a cheap thing to give you a feeling of how fast a real pc would run. But it is not a long time investment. As i said i have around the same PC, and i plan to buy a new one when D3 hits.
 
Re: OT: Used gaming PC - Good Price or Rip-Off?

Does this come with an operating system? Or will you have to go out and buy one yourself?

I don't think you could build your own system that is comparable for that price, so that is good. If you were to build one instead, the cost breakdown would be:
$100 4 gb RAM (yeah, price of this crap is so high for some reason)
$100 motherboard
$100 CPU (if you go AMD, his intel would have been double this)
$100 graphics card (would perform the about the same as his, just less heat)
$100 Case and power supply (he has an expensive, quality power supply)
$100 Windows 7
$75 Hdd and DVD drive

So I consider this a good deal for what you get.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115029 95% of 1000 people thought the cpu was 5-star, I would say that is good.
 
Re: OT: Used gaming PC - Good Price or Rip-Off?

Lol. PhysX :crazyeyes:

Yeah, that's a good price, should handle new games beautifully (for the moment, I wouldn't care to speculate on new releases in a years time...)

However, I would say a 17'' monitor is just too small. I wouldn't use anything smaller than a 22'', but that's just me.
 
Re: OT: Used gaming PC - Good Price or Rip-Off?

I haven't looked too much at the hardware you listed but I do have this to throw in the mix - I would never buy second hand hardware. There are too many unknown factors in doing that.
There's no way to tell if the goods have been damaged. The overclocking / lack of proper cooling issue that's already been brought up is a prime example of just that.

Not to mention you're not getting your full moneys worth of the warranty.

The short version - Don't buy it.
 
Re: OT: Used gaming PC - Good Price or Rip-Off?

http://www.purediablo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=747821

A thread I created not so long ago - I also have a pretty ancient PC and I want to upgrade and make sure I spend my money well as I want the new machine to last quite for some time (my current one is close to 7 years old).
Maybe some of the advices from our folks are useful for you too.

Just like you I don't know much about hardware, but I've spent quite some time (probably more than you have right now) researching and now I almost feel like I know what PCs consist of :)

I never considered buying a used PC - I like to take good care about PC (maybe thats why mine lasts so long without any problems, but I might just be lucky) and just don't trust people I don't know.

I'm spending quite a bit more than 400$ (trying not to blow the price too high though), but here are the most important parts I've ordered:
AMD Phenom II 550 3.1 G
Radeon 4890
A well priced/reviewed gigabyte motherboard
A fast seagate 500 G hard drive
Coarsair 550w PSU
Crucial 2x2 Gb ddr3 ram
And a super-sexy-looking 24" LG wide-screen (anyone has tried playing D2 full-screen on something like that? I imagine its gonna be a real giant pixel fest o.0)

Edit: testing my new knowledge by looking at the listed parts:
I know that the lga 775 socket on motherboard/processor means you'll have no upgrade options. This is one more reason I leaned towards AMD as they are going to base their processors on the AM3 socket even in the future (although the processor doesn't seem like its going to be the limiting part in this setup anyway). Same thing about the RAM - newer systems use ddr3 which is faster and cheaper.
The graphics card is decent but I've heared many many times the advice about looking at least at radeon 4870.
 
Last edited:
Re: OT: Used gaming PC - Good Price or Rip-Off?

I regularly play in fullscreen mode on my 22" monitor. It takes some getting used to, but it's not too bad.

I've tried a couple of times (when I've seen some blu-ray movies, and already have a comp plugged in) to play on my 42" tv. That's... different to say the least. It's perfectly fine when I play CS or something, but not D2.
 
Re: OT: Used gaming PC - Good Price or Rip-Off?

nermind said:
Same thing about the RAM - newer systems use ddr3 which is faster and cheaper.
Click to expand...

I have yet to see ddr-3 ram cheaper tahn ddr-2 ram.

I also have yet to see someone who can explain me why i need DDR3 ram. From what i heared, most hardware and software does not even use it, so you won't feel a difference.

But i would be happy if you can correct me :)



 
Re: OT: Used gaming PC - Good Price or Rip-Off?

Ram speed isn't the only factor. The timings on that ddr3 RAM are shocking - 7-7-7-24? Seriously? That's stupidly bad.
(For RAM timings, the lower the better)

DDR2 RAM is still currently cheaper than DDR3, but DDR3 will slowly start to take over, but until i7 becomes the standard, I wouldn't bother.

PC technology is meant to evolve every 6 months into a new tier, so I wouldn't bother trying to keep up with it unless you're really fanatical about it; just buy the best you can when you need a new PC, and don't upgrade until things start to stop working.
 
Re: OT: Used gaming PC - Good Price or Rip-Off?

I wouldn't buy secondhand hard drives or processors.

That said, I think it is a solid system for a decent price. ::shrug::
 
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