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buying a used gaming computer

Mushroom247

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Posted December 19, 2012 at 6:35PM

my friend is looking to sell his pc, he wanting too trade his up and update it. ive asked him for details on everything on it and this is whats included:

2.6ghz i5 processor a 1gb 5770 radeon graphics card 4gb ram a corsair 550w power supply 1tb hard drive

hes also giving me: a hdmi monitor (at the time cost him £175) an empire keyboard and mouse (£?) 5.1 logitech surround sound speakers (£?)

all that for £400, now i know the thing cost him around £900, but it is 2 year old. i know he takes care of it (dusts it, air blasts components etc) but is it worth the risk or the money in the first place?

if any extra info is wanted then i can ask him, or go and ask to look myself :)

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johndrew

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Posted December 21, 2012 at 4:04PM

He will only get what someone is prepared to offer. Second hand PCs - even relatively new ones - command very little value. If you do a search in the PCA Forums this question has been asked many times before with the answer being similar to mine.

Whether he would do better by selling it in parts (monitor, HDDs, drives, RAM, etc.) is also questionable. In my opinion he would be better to think in terms far less than the £400 you mention regardless of what he paid.

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Mushroom247

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Posted December 21, 2012 at 6:04PM

so should i be asking a lower price? or should i just not bother, is that what your saying?

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Mushroom247

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Posted December 21, 2012 at 6:14PM

plus do you reckon i would be able to get/build and equivalent or better pc for that price, i know from playing on his computer that he can play what everyone compares up to, metro 2033, on fair settings. plus thanks for previous help :)

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johndrew

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Posted December 21, 2012 at 8:05PM

A lower price may be attractive to more potential buyers - no guarantee as many prefer a new machine.

Compare prices of new PCs from suppliers against a list of similar components from vendors. A ready build is around the same price as a home build but with a single source guarantee and some support.

Prices of older components drop with time as they are superseded by faster/upgraded items at a similar price. Hence if you want to build a cheap PC buy superseded components. I haven't costed the brief specification you outlined but you need to consider that prices for new items will contain 20% VAT which is not included in a second hand private sale.

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