2nd Hand PCs?

[Friggs]

Thought this would be the best place to seek advice.

I've got a new, almost-top of the range, machine but my brother is sitting with a p1!! I was thinking of buying him a 2nd hand P3 or even P4 depending on price.
What do you guys think? how risky is buying a used pc, i.e virusus, corrupt software, etc. And if i do decide to buy one for him, what should i look for? what tell tale signs are there that the pc is totally stuffed?

Any suggestions and/or advice would be most appreciated!!

[ty_47]

What are u looking to spend??

Overall age is always a tell tale sign. Older than 4 or 5 years and u r wasting your cash. It becomes more tricky at the 2 - 3 year level. My advice, use the machine in front of the seller for apps that your brother would be using the machine for, like office, games etc. Also boot the machine from scratch to see if everything is kosher. Easy to have the machine already running when u check it out. Also try running scandisk on the hard drives, open the optical drives (listen to tray noises, CD reading noises etc.). Other than that, hope u buying from honest Joe.

p.s. Consider yourself a really nice brother!!

[amdretard]

dont buy a second hand hdd the worst investment ever always 1 year down theline the crash and crtash

[ty_47]

I agree, but I assume that the guy is buying a running 2nd hand system for his brother. This comes with the headache of 2nd hand HDD's.

I've never had HDD failure, touch wood, but I trust WD with my life!!! Literally!

[amdretard]

my dad lost his tax files of other peoples business i nearly lost my head but the guy at my local pc store told him the hdd failure was not because of games

[Thrall]

I've never had HDD failure, touch wood, but I trust WD with my life!!! Literally!

I do data-recovery amongst other things for customers, and one thing I've learned - any brand of HD will wear-out and break at some point. In tested-backups we trust

[ty_47]

I totally agree!!

Show me a man who doesn't believe in backups and I will show u a very sad man!!!

[Dom]

Hey Friggs

Well, one of the first, quite important things to check with a second-hand PC is that the HDD isn't all riddled with bad sectors... the only problem, is that you would need to boot off a boot stiffy, and then run scandisk, doing a full thorough surface analysis.

As far as corrupted software goes, the guy can't actually legally sell you the PC with Windows 98 or whatever on it, unless he provides you with the OS installation disc/disks. A lot of guys will just fdisk and maybe format the drive before they sell it, so you would possibly have to source your own OS. If the PC does come with an OS, and no disc/disks, you would be wise to format and then source your own OS. The PC would have to obviously come with relevant driver discs for the mobo (depending on the vintage of the PC of course), as well as other devices in the system.

To check whether the RAM is lekker, you would need to get hold of something like Memtest, that'll let you run tests straight off a boot stiffy (should needs be).

If the HDD makes funny clicking noises, or the PC takes suspiciously long to start up (POST), I would give it a miss.

[Friggs]

Much obliged ty
Looking at btwn 2 & 3000K Nothing to hectic but decent. Yep, i suppose in the end it all comes down to honest joe... or not so honest joe.
I'll use your advice though, thanx!

[Friggs]

Thanx dom!

[OnlyOneKenobi]

You can probably get a new Celeron or Duron for between 2k and 3k, which would probably be in the same class as any second hand PC you buy now anyway.

[Scarlet_Spider]

check the mileage, look at the engine, ask the owner about his service intervals etc etc...

oh, err...
:

[bb_matt]

Thought this would be the best place to seek advice.

I've got a new, almost-top of the range, machine but my brother is sitting with a p1!! I was thinking of buying him a 2nd hand P3 or even P4 depending on price.
What do you guys think? how risky is buying a used pc, i.e virusus, corrupt software, etc. And if i do decide to buy one for him, what should i look for? what tell tale signs are there that the pc is totally stuffed?

Any suggestions and/or advice would be most appreciated!!

I find it unbelievable he's using a P1, but there we go

That means there really isn't a single part he can re-use (or would want to) for a modern PC, aside from maybe the monitor.

So, I reckon buy new - don't even bother with second hand unless you can get a bargain, which are hard to come by.

Unfortunately, most people are under the silly impression they can get 1/2 the original price for old comptuer hardware (by old, we're talking 8 months and older) - so they don't end up selling them and keep them or give them to buddies etc.

Bottom line, buy a new PC for your brother.

If he keeps the monitor, it's possible to get him something useable for 2k - I just got a mobo+256ram+2400chip for about R1500 - got everything onboard. Whap in a keyboard+mouse+case(with PSU) for R450 and he's good to go.

BTW, don't throw out that P1 - use it as a firewall and run smoothwall on it ! - http://smoothwall.org/

[Narkath]

Don't buy second hand if you can avoid it.
I found this site a few months back and I am obsessed with these little pcs (i.e. I spend a lot of time drooling at the pics). http://www.mini-itx.com/.
The specs are pretty decent for what they are and they're relatively cheap.
Shuttle pcs might also be an option. Don't know too much about them though.

[Dom]

Geez,

ITX form factor motherboards are microscopic little things! 8O

It's pretty impressive what they manage to cram onto those tiny little boards...

Needless to say, they're not exactly for gaming, but for a tiny form factor PC for use in your living room, they're ideal!

[Narkath]

I was thinking about one day getting one and, since some of them are completely silent (you can use a dc converter for the PSU), turning it into an internet machine...ya know, leaving it on at night for those big downloads.
Yeah, they are damn tiny. The mini-itx is 14cmx14cm. And the nano-itx http://www.viaembedded.com/product/epia ... oardId=221 , coming out soon, is 12x12, only it has no pci slot and uses SODIMM RAM.
The reason I thought some of these might be a cheap solution is that with some of the boards you can use your old PC-133 ram and your old HDD and monitor and your set. Although, I would try and get a new HDD.
I especially like the VIA EPIA 5000 board next to the coke pic: http://www.mini-itx.com/store/default.asp?c=2#p1601 ^.^

Edit: although, as you say, it's no gaming pc. You can get the 1.4ghz board but I think it was more expensive and uses SODIMM memory...which defeats the purpose.

[Azgard]

I've bought parts seconds hand and had no problems but I must admit I've never bought a whole PC second hand.

But I'm sure there are guys out there who are selling their PCs which are still in good condition and for good prices.

For example in a few months I "might" be selling my PC, but not because anything wrong with it. Just because I need and cash to add to other cash I'm saving up to get a better PC... I'm sure there are a lot of guys like this out there also.

Anyway I do think new is better

[Firestar]

Well, I am one of those guys.

I bought me a new PC and gave me wife the old one, and now she does not use it. So half the PC is still standing there.

I have a 2500+ XP (barton, I think), with 256 MB ram, a gigabyte mobo, lan card, 5.1 sound card and a geforce 4 ti 4200. So basically what you still need is a case, PSU and HDD. Still working perfectly.

Make me an offer. I got an offer of R800 from another bloke, so it's yours if you can beat it