Help Evaluating A Used PC

[Hqns]

Hey guys, 

 

Basically I've been watching the channel for years now and am finally looking at getting my own PC. I've done some research and it seems to me that the idea of getting at least a few used pc parts but when I was starting off looking at Craigslist I came across this pc that a guy was selling used for $900. I don't know too much about the specific parts here so I'm looking for some guidance from all of you who probably know a whole lot more than I do. My main questions are 1. Is the price worth it? 2. What questions should I be asking the seller? 

 

I'm hoping to game either high refresh rate 1080 or 1440 and he claims that it can do both of those. I also do some photoshop/illustrator work. Also if this PC sounds like overkill for what I'm describing let me know that as well.

 

I read the rules and didn't see anything here indicating what I'm doing is against the rules but if it is I'm very sorry. 

 

Thanks!

 

Edit: Thank you all for your replies, lots of great insights found throughout! I think it's safe to say that I'll stay clear of this one.

[Entropy.]

4 minutes ago, Hqns said:

Hey guys, 

 

Basically I've been watching the channel for years now and am finally looking at getting my own PC. I've done some research and it seems to me that the idea of getting at least a few used pc parts but when I was starting off looking at Craigslist I came across this pc that a guy was selling used for $900. I don't know too much about the specific parts here so I'm looking for some guidance from all of you who probably know a whole lot more than I do. My main questions are 1. Is the price worth it? 2. What questions should I be asking the seller? 

 

I'm hoping to game either high refresh rate 1080 or 1440 and he claims that it can do both of those. I also do some photoshop/illustrator work. Also if this PC sounds like overkill for what I'm describing let me know that as well.

 

I read the rules and didn't see anything here indicating what I'm doing is against the rules but if it is I'm very sorry. 

 

Thanks!

 

 

TL;DR: Probably not a good deal, you could get something similar for ~$900, but you can try to negotiate it down.

 

 

 

 

 

This... Actually seems decent. I'm by no means qualified to judge this, but $900 It's... Well, you could probably build one yourself for the same price, but If you want to negotiate for it, try targeting $800 and see what you get. Why not get this pc? There's more or less no upgrade path for the cpu,  The Motherboard seems a little cheap, and well, this is used. The system should be able to do 1080p 144hz on most games, Probably not 1440p, and defiantly not 4k. Don't expect the seller to be honest about every, so double-check the components when you guys meet up.

 

In the way of questions, ask him this: 

-Why selling? 

-Any problems? 

- How long was it used

- How heavily was the pc used

And anything else that concerns/interests you. 

 

 

[jaslion]

900$ is too much. The cpu and gpu are quite mismatched. For 900$ you can easily buy a more balanced build that will perform similar in most games and even better in a fair few new games where a quad core will struggle a lot. Also a 6600k is not a high refresh rate gaming pc part from older games for sure not new ones.

 

[TetraSky]

Want to know if the price of a used PC is worth it?

Visit Ebay, look up each parts by Sold Listings. Add everything up and it should give you a relatively accurate representation of the value of the PC.

 

That PC, for $900, honestly, a little under half of that is the GPU alone, since that's a new card and retails for about $400. But the rest? CPU is about $100 used on ebay.

That's $500. Now you have $400 to buy 16GB and what not... Which is more than doable with money to spare, even more so if you don't pointlessly waste money on an expensive case.

 

Yeah it's not that great of a price. I'm not sure where he got his $1100 used parts price on ebay, because it simply isn't true. Unless he's counting things like his cable sleevings, win10 license and specifically looked up exactly the same parts instead of equivalents... But still, not worth it. 750 to 800 might be a better price. Because the price of parts and the price of a whole system, not the same. Whole used systems usually sell for LESS than the cost of parts, not MORE. (Yeah it's strange like that)

[Jurrunio]

Bad deal.

 

Non-negative / objective points

- XFX Thicc II was criticized for its performance and high price among 5700XT but 5700XT itself can indeed game at 1080p 144fps and 1440p 60fps very well.

- 750W on a 80+ bronze PSU is kinda pointless (80+ rating refers to only the efficiency) but that certainly will power the system without problems (can hold more upgrades even)

- Decent memory kit (though Ryzen may require you to run it at slightly lower frequencies)

- Case is kinda choking on airflow, do not use power hungry CPUs in it with an air cooler

 

Negative stuff

- 6600k, that's a quad core CPU with only 4 threads. Not enough for games and will fall over for multitasking with PS/illustrator in mind

- 6600k's platform, a dead socket that doesnt offer more cores than 4. Upgrade means getting a new board along with CPU as a result

- 860 QVO (QLC NAND), Samsung stuff are overpriced so while PCPP reports the 1TB QVO at $130, it's only bringing about $90 worth of performance on the table. In comparison the TLC NAND equipped WD Blue 1TB SSD is $110. QLC means less durability than TLC, and these SSDs are up to the point where the controller is not guaranteed to die before the NAND flash modules do which is a problem for QLC.

 

Similar build on new platform (with case and GPU that I would not have chosen otherwise)

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor	$174.99 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler	Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB Black Edition 57.3 CFM CPU Cooler	$34.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard	MSI B450-A PRO MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard	$99.97 @ Amazon
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	$76.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Western Digital Blue 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$106.66 @ Amazon
Video Card	XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB THICC II Video Card	$389.99 @ Best Buy
Case	NZXT H510 ATX Mid Tower Case	$69.99 @ Best Buy
Power Supply	be quiet! Pure Power 11 CM 600 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	$89.90 @ B&H
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1053.48
	Mail-in rebates	-$10.00
	Total	$1043.48
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-04-09 19:44 EDT-0400

50% more CPU performance (which PS and illustrator care more than GPU) for one sixth more money, I dont see the point to get yourself trapped in CPU upgrade hell.

[jaslion]

1 minute ago, Jurrunio said:

Bad deal.

 

Non-negative / objective points

- XFX Thicc II was criticized for its performance and high price among 5700XT but 5700XT itself can indeed game at 1080p 144fps and 1440p 60fps very well.

- 750W on a 80+ bronze PSU is kinda pointless (80+ rating refers to only the efficiency) but that certainly will power the system without problems (can hold more upgrades even)

- Decent memory kit (though Ryzen may require you to run it at slightly lower frequencies)

- Case is kinda choking on airflow, do not use power hungry CPUs in it with an air cooler

 

Negative stuff

- 6600k, that's a quad core CPU with only 4 threads. Not enough for games and will fall over for multitasking with PS/illustrator in mind

- 6600k's platform, a dead socket that doesnt offer more cores than 4. Upgrade means getting a new board along with CPU as a result

- 860 QVO (QLC NAND), Samsung stuff are overpriced so while PCPP reports the 1TB QVO at $130, it's only bringing about $90 worth of performance on the table. In comparison the TLC NAND equipped WD Blue 1TB SSD is $110. QLC means less durability than TLC, and these SSDs are up to the point where the controller is not guaranteed to die before the NAND flash modules do which is a problem for QLC.

 

Similar build on new platform (with case and GPU that I would not have chosen otherwise)

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor	$174.99 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler	Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB Black Edition 57.3 CFM CPU Cooler	$34.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard	MSI B450-A PRO MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard	$99.97 @ Amazon
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	$76.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Western Digital Blue 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$106.66 @ Amazon
Video Card	XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB THICC II Video Card	$389.99 @ Best Buy
Case	NZXT H510 ATX Mid Tower Case	$69.99 @ Best Buy
Power Supply	be quiet! Pure Power 11 CM 600 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	$89.90 @ B&H
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1053.48
	Mail-in rebates	-$10.00
	Total	$1043.48
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-04-09 19:44 EDT-0400

50% more CPU performance (which PS and illustrator care more than GPU) for one sixth more money, I dont see the point to get yourself trapped in CPU upgrade hell.

You can get the gigabyte gaming oc 5700xt for 10$ more and it has a far better cooler.

[Jurrunio]

1 minute ago, jaslion said:

You can get the gigabyte gaming oc 5700xt for 10$ more and it has a far better cooler.

I would have picked the RTX 2070 for PS and illustrator, Adobe stuff prefer Nvidia anyway and the MSI TriFrozr model sells at I think $350 now.

[Entropy.]

2 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

Bad deal.

 

Non-negative / objective points

- XFX Thicc II was criticized for its performance and high price among 5700XT but 5700XT itself can indeed game at 1080p 144fps and 1440p 60fps very well.

- 750W on a 80+ bronze PSU is kinda pointless (80+ rating refers to only the efficiency) but that certainly will power the system without problems (can hold more upgrades even)

- Decent memory kit (though Ryzen may require you to run it at slightly lower frequencies)

- Case is kinda choking on airflow, do not use power hungry CPUs in it with an air cooler

 

Negative stuff

- 6600k, that's a quad core CPU with only 4 threads. Not enough for games and will fall over for multitasking with PS/illustrator in mind

- 6600k's platform, a dead socket that doesnt offer more cores than 4. Upgrade means getting a new board along with CPU as a result

- 860 QVO (QLC NAND), Samsung stuff are overpriced so while PCPP reports the 1TB QVO at $130, it's only bringing about $90 worth of performance on the table. In comparison the TLC NAND equipped WD Blue 1TB SSD is $110. QLC means less durability than TLC, and these SSDs are up to the point where the controller is not guaranteed to die before the NAND flash modules do which is a problem for QLC.

 

Similar build on new platform (with case and GPU that I would not have chosen otherwise)

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor	$174.99 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler	Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB Black Edition 57.3 CFM CPU Cooler	$34.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard	MSI B450-A PRO MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard	$99.97 @ Amazon
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	$76.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Western Digital Blue 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$106.66 @ Amazon
Video Card	XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB THICC II Video Card	$389.99 @ Best Buy
Case	NZXT H510 ATX Mid Tower Case	$69.99 @ Best Buy
Power Supply	be quiet! Pure Power 11 CM 600 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	$89.90 @ B&H
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1053.48
	Mail-in rebates	-$10.00
	Total	$1043.48
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-04-09 19:44 EDT-0400

50% more CPU performance (which PS and illustrator care more than GPU) for one sixth more money, I dont see the point to get yourself trapped in CPU upgrade hell.

Why the 212 hyper? Stock should be fine without an overclock, and you can just flash the bios on the 5700 to perform similarly to the xt. 

[Entropy.]

2 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

Bad deal.

 

Non-negative / objective points

- XFX Thicc II was criticized for its performance and high price among 5700XT but 5700XT itself can indeed game at 1080p 144fps and 1440p 60fps very well.

- 750W on a 80+ bronze PSU is kinda pointless (80+ rating refers to only the efficiency) but that certainly will power the system without problems (can hold more upgrades even)

- Decent memory kit (though Ryzen may require you to run it at slightly lower frequencies)

- Case is kinda choking on airflow, do not use power hungry CPUs in it with an air cooler

 

Negative stuff

- 6600k, that's a quad core CPU with only 4 threads. Not enough for games and will fall over for multitasking with PS/illustrator in mind

- 6600k's platform, a dead socket that doesnt offer more cores than 4. Upgrade means getting a new board along with CPU as a result

- 860 QVO (QLC NAND), Samsung stuff are overpriced so while PCPP reports the 1TB QVO at $130, it's only bringing about $90 worth of performance on the table. In comparison the TLC NAND equipped WD Blue 1TB SSD is $110. QLC means less durability than TLC, and these SSDs are up to the point where the controller is not guaranteed to die before the NAND flash modules do which is a problem for QLC.

 

Similar build on new platform (with case and GPU that I would not have chosen otherwise)

PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor	$174.99 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler	Cooler Master Hyper 212 RGB Black Edition 57.3 CFM CPU Cooler	$34.99 @ Newegg
Motherboard	MSI B450-A PRO MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard	$99.97 @ Amazon
Memory	G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 Memory	$76.99 @ Newegg
Storage	Western Digital Blue 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive	$106.66 @ Amazon
Video Card	XFX Radeon RX 5700 XT 8 GB THICC II Video Card	$389.99 @ Best Buy
Case	NZXT H510 ATX Mid Tower Case	$69.99 @ Best Buy
Power Supply	be quiet! Pure Power 11 CM 600 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply	$89.90 @ B&H
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total (before mail-in rebates)	$1053.48
	Mail-in rebates	-$10.00
	Total	$1043.48
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-04-09 19:44 EDT-0400

50% more CPU performance (which PS and illustrator care more than GPU) for one sixth more money, I dont see the point to get yourself trapped in CPU upgrade hell.

Why the 212 hyper? Stock should be fine without an overclock, and you can just flash the bios on the 5700 to perform similarly to the xt. 

[Jurrunio]

2 minutes ago, InnerBeast Gaming said:

Why the 212 hyper? Stock should be fine without an overclock, and you can just flash the bios on the 5700 to perform similarly to the xt. 

Because the build he's buying has the Hyper 212 Black. Stock cooler's scoustics is still not comparable to that.

 

Not everyone bothers/willing to risk doing things like tweaking the bios. The same way you shouldnt recommend a Quadro for everyone just because it has full double precision float performance.

[Ravendarat]

The build that was recommended for you in here is a FAR better path. As was mentioned you dont HAVE to do the aftermarket cooler if you dont want to and it will save you a bit, as well as you can pick a better performing GPU at the same price point.