is buying a used desktop a bad idea?

[JacksonWinters]

hi all,

 

i'm pretty sure my desktop is about to be on its death bed (still trying to figure it out but its either my power supply or my GPU) and its several years old anyway so i began looking for a replacement. problem is any computer worth buying is going to cost me thousands of dollars if i buy new. out of curiosity i began looking on my local craigslist for used desktops and i found some decent ones for a good price.

 

I've looked around a little bit and many agree that if nothing else i'll need to buy a new hard drive, and if i were to buy one used i would insist on opening it up and looking at the components as well as running some benchmarks to make sure everything is square. so what do you guys think? is this a decent idea or should i just hope my desktop doesn't die for a little while longer while i save up for a new pc?

[phongle123]

It's not a bad idea. For a lot of people it's costs that matter and not the component. 

 

If a prebuilt had a bronze PSU, founders edition GPU, a stock manufacturers case, and stock 2400 speed ram being the only differences.

 

And a build it yourself with a gold PSU, 3rd party GPU, a tempered glass case, and 3000Mhz ram for 100$ more they might opt for the prebuilt, especially if the prebuilt costs anywhere from 500-800$. As there 100$ would be 12.5-20% difference.

 

If your computer is good and just slow on boot and loading up applications. Consider buying an SSD (even a low capacity one) which will dramatically increase your computer speed as well as buy another hard drive to transfer stuff over from your old hard drive before it craps out.

 

However, if your computer isn't able to handle applications that you are using then it would be time to consider upgrading.

[AresKrieger]

So really whether used is a good idea comes down to price and how shady the seller is, if they let you run a couple programs to see if its working should be fine on that front however used hardware inherently has a greater risk for failure and no real warranty so it depends on what you're buying ultimately.

 

I personally don't buy used components generally though GPUs don't usually cost 2x msrp, basically if you find a great deal that checks out go for it otherwise just save up imo.