Budget PC's on ebay?

[Tech4Dogs]

I'm looking to buy a 3 computers for various areas around my house to function essentially as media pcs for youtube and web searching.  These don't need to be powerful, have large amounts of storage or have a display. 

 

I would like to purchase these computers on ebay.  I just don't know enough about the hardware to make a educated buy. 

 

I don't really know what to expect to in terms of price range. I don't have a limit but would guess that a computer like this might start around $50?

 

Can anyone recommend an inexpensive system that would meet my needs?

 

 

Thanks for the help,

Mike

[bmichaels556]

Hmm... You could probably be looking at something like a few Dell Optiplex compact models with i3's for example. If just a basic media PC for YouTube, watching some movies in 1080p (can't attest to 4K video performance), they'll be very adequate. I'm currently rocking one as a simple file server and it works just fine! 

 

Check out Optiplex 3020's on Ebay, especially the small form factor "SFF" ones. 4GB of RAM on a lot of those... Hm.. I mean I think if you're literally just looking to open a handful of tabs in chrome, do some basic office-type tasks, watch movies or whatever the case may be, it should be fairly adequate, even with 4GB of RAM and the integrated graphics.

 

Would love to hear what others have to think. And yeah, these can be had for WELL under $100 each. In fact, you can often find them with hard drive, Windows already installed, the 4GB of RAM installed, and you're basically off to the races for $75, maybe even less. MAYBE upgrade to some cheap 128GB SSD's for added speed? Trust me, it'll help A TON if you're hitting that 4GB RAM limit and start going into the page file. On a HDD, that will slow your system to a CRAWL. On an SSD, it'll still be adequate generally.

[bellabichon]

First off, I can pretty much assure you that it's going to be more than $50 each. Ebay is an okay place to search, but I would also recommend searching Craigslist (if you live in a large enough area). The other question I would ask is, do the PCs need to run Windows 10? If so, you're most likely going to end up spending a bit more. 

 

Here are some decent options I've found in a quick Ebay search:

-HP Pavilion Media Center m8307c

-Dell Optiplex 990

 

[SpookyCitrus]

9 minutes ago, bellabichon said:

The other question I would ask is, do the PCs need to run Windows 10? 

Every computer that is purchased or built at this point in time should be Windows 10, unless absolutely necessary Windows 7 or older is a no go, with support for it ending in January. Also anyone that cares about fixes and security updates should also upgrade to 10 if still on 7 or older.

[bellabichon]

1 minute ago, SpookyCitrus said:

Every computer that is purchased or built at this point in time should be Windows 10, unless absolutely necessary Windows 7 or older is a no go, with support for it ending in January. Also anyone that cares about fixes and security updates should also upgrade to 10 if still on 7 or older.

Yeah, I definitely prefer Windows 10. I was just asking in case OP really wanted to stick to a sub-$50 budget for each machine. I would seriously doubt you could find something that cheap that runs Windows 10 with any degree of usability. 

[Tech4Dogs]

Thanks for the replies guys. 

 

The Optiplex looks like it would work great. I'm currently looking at a few on ebay now. 

 

I'm good with spending more than $50. It seems they are all around the $100 mark which is still good.

 

I didn't think of the OS before. No,it doesn't need to run windows 10 but preferably newer than windows XP. 

 

I'm also in the Seattle area. Depending on shipping the Optiplex listing looks promising. I would like to get all three from the same seller if possible. 

 

 

Mike

 

[SpookyCitrus]

1 minute ago, bellabichon said:

Yeah, I definitely prefer Windows 10. I was just asking in case OP really wanted to stick to a sub-$50 budget for each machine. I would seriously doubt you could find something that cheap that runs Windows 10 with any degree of usability. 

Yeah I don't think anything running 10 will be that cheap, hell even Windows 7 gen computers on ebay for a decent one that will do that as well as be compatible with 10 are at least $80. The stuff Windows 10's that are cheaper than like $100 are usually pretty meh. The average price for a decent prebuilt with Windows 10 pro and still modern enough to last awhile and be worth spending money on is about $145.

[SpookyCitrus]

6 minutes ago, Tech4Dogs said:

I didn't think of the OS before. No,it doesn't need to run windows 10 but preferably newer than windows XP.

It's not that you have to run it or not, anything below Windows 10 is no longer supported(besides 8.1 which is literal trash). Vista? Nope. Windows 7? Nope-ish. They're cutting support for 7 in just a few months, and pretty soon programs and browsers won't support it, Windows 7 already has problems with new devices like printers and phones, as well as most software is starting to not even include support for it. It's not that you can't run it if you want, it's that you wouldn't want too. Pay the extra money for a Windows 10 Pro computer, you're literally getting the computer with activated Windows 10 Pro for how much Microsoft would charge just for the Windows.

[TrainFan475]

Just make sure it's windows 10.

 

There's still 3 of these dell optiplexes available:

 https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Optiplex-780-SFF-Computer-2-93Ghz-4GB-Ram-160GB-Windows-10-S780-9/174068537224?epid=127585617&hash=item28874b1788:g:j6sAAOSwZ~pdqMrR

[Tech4Dogs]

I would like Windows 10 on them I just didn't think it would matter much as these wouldn't be my main pc. 

 

Currently looking at these listings and they all have Windows 10 installed...

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Optiplex-3020-SFF-Intel-Core-i3-4130-3-4GHz-8GB-500GB-HDD-Windows-10-Pro/184001102925?hash=item2ad752044d%3Ag%3A8lkAAOSwUF1dVcTI&LH_BIN=1

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-OptiPlex-390-Computer-4-Core-i5-2400-3-1Ghz-4GB-1TB-HDMI-Windows-10-M390-7/184012481358?epid=170425897&hash=item2ad7ffa34e%3Ag%3A8GsAAOSw93xdtzkj&LH_BIN=1

 

This one is $54 but may need to install more RAM.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Optiplex-3020-MT-Pentium-G3220-3-00GHz-2GB-RAM-500GB-HDD-WIN-10-DVD-RW/273792234567?hash=item3fbf49f447%3Ag%3AllMAAOSw6Ghco9EN&LH_BIN=1

[bellabichon]

5 hours ago, Tech4Dogs said:

-Snip-

Of those three you've linked, I would definitely go for the first or second one, not the third one. You're definitely going to need to upgrade the RAM (even if you're only going to use it for YouTube and web browsing), and the Pentium probably isn't going to be a good time. 

 

If I had to recommend a machine between the first two, I would probably go for the second one (OptiPlex 390). The i5 has twice the threads and cache of the i3, and the integrated graphics will be quite a bit better (helps with video decoding, etc). The 1TB hard drive will give you some space for archival storage (if that's your thing), and I don't foresee that only having 4GB of RAM will pose major problems if you're almost exclusively using YouTube or Netflix. It also seems to be $50 off, which is nice. 

 

Hope this helps, and good luck to you!

[Tech4Dogs]

Thanks I went with the second listing and this one below 

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-OptiPlex-7010-Desktop-i5-3470-3-2Ghz-CPU-8-GB-320-GB-HDD-Windows-10-Pro/143420754779?hash=item21648b0b5b:g:hJ0AAOSwA~Nc3wAB

 

I'm gonna try out just these two for now and see how they work out. I'll get the third one after these are set up. 

[Tech4Dogs]

I been playing with the Optiplex 7010 the last few days. This thing is really cool considering how inexpensive it was. My only upgrade has been a wifi card. The computer is going in a small wood working shop without ethernet. 

 

Tonight it occurred to me that I have an extra GTX 980 in my closet. I researched installing more modern GTX cards in Optiplex systems and it appears the only thing I would need is an upgraded PSU. The stock PSU is only 270w and the GTX 980 suggest at least 500w. 

 

Because this machine is just for general web browsing and not gaming will the 270w stock psu work with the 980?

 

Assuming I do need to upgrade the PSU it seems that a standard size PSU will not fit in the case. Would something like these 450w SFX be compatible on Newegg?

https://www.newegg.com/p/1HU-0095-000G9?Item=9SIABP99DB9668&Description=sfx osu&cm_re=sfx_osu-_-9SIABP99DB9668-_-Product

 

A new SFX PSU is the same price as the computer at $70 but I figure it would be worth the added performance of the 980. 

 

Optiplex 701 ($70)

 i5-3470

8gb ram

270w psu

500GB HDD