Hardware Your opinions about used PC parts?

The Real Jdbye · Aug 11, 2019

Sophie-bear said:
Parts I wouldn't buy used:
HDD/SSD
Power Supply
Motherboard

Anything else, I could see spending less and getting used. Especially avoid getting used a power supply, if nothing else.

I would say getting a used motherboard shouldn't be a problem, as they typically outlast the rest of the components anyway. HDDs are so cheap, you're not gonna save much so it's not worth getting used. SSDs on the other hand can still cost a fair bit depending on size and you can look at the SMART stats to see how much it has been used (power on hours, TB written) and get a good idea of how long it will last. SSDs these days have great endurance, so if you get a good deal on a used one, as long as it's a more recent model, it might be worth it.

Humanity · Aug 11, 2019

Duo8 said:
Why not just google it? "ryse 1080 60". See what people used to reach that.

Do not promote logging, search bubbling, govt. backdooring Google.

Everyone should know about DuckDuckGo. I am certain that they are not guilty of the first 2 things.

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The Real Jdbye said:
I would say getting a used motherboard shouldn't be a problem, as they typically outlast the rest of the components anyway. HDDs are so cheap, you're not gonna save much so it's not worth getting used. SSDs on the other hand can still cost a fair bit depending on size and you can look at the SMART stats to see how much it has been used (power on hours, TB written) and get a good idea of how long it will last. SSDs these days have great endurance, so if you get a good deal on a used one, as long as it's a more recent model, it might be worth it.

Thank you for the valuable info. I appreciate it.

Alexander1970 · Aug 11, 2019

Hello.

When I buy used PC parts (CPU´s/RAM/HDD´s/optical Drives) then only over Amazon´s 3rd party sellers.
If a Part is "out of order" within 6-12 months (depends on how long warranty the Seller "gives") then it goes back.
On Wish it its a 95% chance of getting your money back.But they usual selling not so much electronics.
On Aliexpress after the "Open a Dispute Time" you have very bad chances to get your money back.
On private buys I have simply "bad luck" when that happens.

Thank you.

The Real Jdbye · Aug 11, 2019

Humanity said:
Do not promote logging, search bubbling, govt. backdooring Google.

Everyone should know about DuckDuckGo. I am certain that they are not guilty of the first 2 things.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Thank you for the valuable info. I appreciate it.

But to answer the OP:
Getting at least the more expensive parts used is generally considered the way to go for budget builds by many people. You simply get way more bang for your buck, which is more important the smaller your budget is. GPUs especially drop in price quickly since they still see considerable improvements between generations. GPUs also don't tend to die prematurely.
You run the risk of buying a card that has been used for mining. Now, mining is a lot less popular than it was, so it's less of an issue now. Anyway, if they ran the cards with proper cooling this might not matter, but that's the kind of thing you just don't know. Running a card at maximum temperature (before it throttles) 24/7 will wear it out faster than normal use. And a lot of miners might simply not care if the card is pushed to its limits because for their purpose it becomes useless after a couple years anyway, and they've already made their money back by that point.
But I wouldn't worry too much about that specific thing. I expect a card that's been used for mining will still be good for years, since like I said, they become useless after a year or two as far as mining goes, and they usually last way longer than that.

Jokey_Carrot · Aug 11, 2019

Humanity said:
What is the lowest GPU, CPU & RAM combo I can get away with buying if I want to totally max out Ryse at 1080p native, more or less solid 60FPS?

For cpu i would say an i7 2600k would be fine. and for gpu i would say gtx 960 or 1050ti, the 960 only has 2gb vram so i would be fine for 1080p but might stuggle at higher resolutions but it's has 1024 cuda cores which may get you higher frame rates than a 1050ti at 1080p but because the 1050ti has more vram so can perform better at higher resolutions but it only has 768 cuda cores so would run worse than a 960 at 1080p. You might get by with a 1050 because it's about the same as the 960 except it only has 640 cuda cores.

Humanity · Aug 11, 2019

Jokey_Carrot said:
For cpu i would say an i7 2600k would be fine. and for gpu i would say gtx 960 or 1050ti, the 960 only has 2gb vram so i would be fine for 1080p but might stuggle at higher resolutions but it's has 1024 cuda cores which may get you higher frame rates than a 1050ti at 1080p but because the 1050ti has more vram so can perform better at higher resolutions but it only has 768 cuda cores so would run worse than a 960 at 1080p. You might get by with a 1050 because it's about the same as the 960 except it only has 640 cuda cores.

Are these unbranded things legit?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/GTX960-4GB...ispr=1&hash=item54719629e0:g:NQcAAOSwRFldCfOV

I dream of of it being so but I am guessing no..

Armadillo · Aug 11, 2019

Humanity said:
Are these unbranded things legit?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/GTX960-4GB-DDR5-128Bit-Gaming-Graphics-Card-PCI-HDMI-VGA-DVI-Video-Cards/362682919392?_trkparms=ispr=1&hash=item54719629e0:g:NQcAAOSwRFldCfOV

I dream of of it being so but I am guessing no..

It's fake.

It's a low end card flashed with an edited bios to make it report as a 960.

Humanity · Aug 11, 2019

Armadillo said:
It's fake.

It's a low end card flashed with an edited bios to make it report as a 960.

And the sad thing is that in my experience, even if you report items that violate eBay rules, they fail to take them down.

I have reported prescription medication that was on eBay a few times in the past, eBay never took them down.

Duo8 · Aug 12, 2019

The Real Jdbye said:
But to answer the OP:
Getting at least the more expensive parts used is generally considered the way to go for budget builds by many people. You simply get way more bang for your buck, which is more important the smaller your budget is. GPUs especially drop in price quickly since they still see considerable improvements between generations. GPUs also don't tend to die prematurely.
You run the risk of buying a card that has been used for mining. Now, mining is a lot less popular than it was, so it's less of an issue now. Anyway, if they ran the cards with proper cooling this might not matter, but that's the kind of thing you just don't know. Running a card at maximum temperature (before it throttles) 24/7 will wear it out faster than normal use. And a lot of miners might simply not care if the card is pushed to its limits because for their purpose it becomes useless after a couple years anyway, and they've already made their money back by that point.
But I wouldn't worry too much about that specific thing. I expect a card that's been used for mining will still be good for years, since like I said, they become useless after a year or two as far as mining goes, and they usually last way longer than that.

There has been arguments made for mining cards lately, not against them. The two most popular ones are how they've suffered less thermal cycles and how they're undervolted to run more efficiently, both compared to a card in normal conditions.
Personally after using one for a year I consider them no worse an option than any other used card, especially considering the price.

Gamemaster1379 · Aug 12, 2019

If you can get high capacities for cheap, you could always do used HDDs for a secondary drive for extra storage. Use for steam games or something you can afford to lose. Being non OS drives, they'll get far less read/write cycles overall and will be more likely to last.

The Real Jdbye · Aug 12, 2019

Duo8 said:
There has been arguments made for mining cards lately, not against them. The two most popular ones are how they've suffered less thermal cycles and how they're undervolted to run more efficiently, both compared to a card in normal conditions.
Personally after using one for a year I consider them no worse an option than any other used card, especially considering the price.

Huh, the more you know.

Humanity · Aug 12, 2019

Duo8 said:
There has been arguments made for mining cards lately, not against them. The two most popular ones are how they've suffered less thermal cycles and how they're undervolted to run more efficiently, both compared to a card in normal conditions.
Personally after using one for a year I consider them no worse an option than any other used card, especially considering the price.

Interesting

Viri · Aug 12, 2019

Duo8 said:
I buy used almost exclusively now.
Especially with things that almost never die like CPUs or memory, it's a no brainer.

I've actually had a ram stick die a few years ago. I kept getting BSODs every few hours, and the BSODs stopped when I removed the stick of ram. Lucky for me, the ram company had a life time warranty, and they honored it. I sent back the 4gb DDR3 stick, and they sent me back an 8gb DDR3 stick, was pretty nice of them. Never had a memory related BSOD ever since.

Humanity · Aug 12, 2019

Viri said:
I've actually had a ram stick die a few years ago. I kept getting BSODs every few hours, and the BSODs stopped when I removed the stick of ram. Lucky for me, the ram company had a life time warranty, and they honored it. I sent back the 4gb DDR3 stick, and they sent me back an 8gb DDR3 stick, was pretty nice of them. Never had a memory related BSOD ever since.

I wonder if that lifetime warranty transfers between owners. Rather likely no?

Duo8 · Aug 12, 2019

Humanity said:
I wonder if that lifetime warranty transfers between owners. Rather likely no?

You'll have to read their policies.

Unrelated but in my country you'll also have to ask the distributor for their policies too. During the mining craze they cut warranties on GPUs and PSUs by half, sometimes more.

Jokey_Carrot · Aug 12, 2019

Humanity said:
Are these unbranded things legit?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/GTX960-4GB-DDR5-128Bit-Gaming-Graphics-Card-PCI-HDMI-VGA-DVI-Video-Cards/362682919392?_trkparms=ispr=1&hash=item54719629e0:g:NQcAAOSwRFldCfOV

I dream of of it being so but I am guessing no..

That gpu is faker than kim kardashian's ass

Humanity · Aug 12, 2019

Jokey_Carrot said:
That gpu is faker than kim kardashian's ass

Hah

RattletraPM · Aug 12, 2019

You can feel safe buying stuff that degrades slowly over time, like CPUs, GPUs and RAM. Motherboards are also fine if you go with anything fairly modern. Heatsinks are okay, especially if you're getting top-tier stuff, but be prepared to replace the fans as they may get noisy very quickly depending on the bearings' conditions. Used SSDs can be a bit more dangerous, not nearly as a used HDD, but I wouldn't trust a random seller either (unless I have a warranty or I'm able to run some tests beforehand). The things I wouldn't ever buy used are HDDs and PSUs - liquid cooling equipment can also be bad depending on a series of factors, not all of which can be obviously seen from pictures alone (the type of coolant that had been used, residue, corrosion, possible leaks caused by wear and tear, etc).

Regarding other peripherals, used monitors can save you a good amount of money but be mindful of packaging, some sellers will try to save a penny in shipping materials and that might mean you'll end up with a broken panel. That aside, used keyboards/mice are fine: just keep some cleaning equipment ready

Alexander1970 · Aug 12, 2019

Humanity said:
Are these unbranded things legit?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/GTX960-4GB-DDR5-128Bit-Gaming-Graphics-Card-PCI-HDMI-VGA-DVI-Video-Cards/362682919392?_trkparms=ispr=1&hash=item54719629e0:g:NQcAAOSwRFldCfOV

I dream of of it being so but I am guessing no..

On Aliexpress you get it cheaper:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/329...chweb0_0,searchweb201602_5,searchweb201603_52

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/329...chweb0_0,searchweb201602_5,searchweb201603_52

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/329...chweb0_0,searchweb201602_5,searchweb201603_52

Humanity · Aug 12, 2019

alexander1970 said:
On Aliexpress you get it cheaper:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/329...chweb0_0,searchweb201602_5,searchweb201603_52

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/329...chweb0_0,searchweb201602_5,searchweb201603_52

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/329...chweb0_0,searchweb201602_5,searchweb201603_52

Already been established on here those are phonies.

Stop wasting our screen space.

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RattletraPM said:
You can feel safe buying stuff that degrades slowly over time, like CPUs, GPUs and RAM. Motherboards are also fine if you go with anything fairly modern. Heatsinks are okay, especially if you're getting top-tier stuff, but be prepared to replace the fans as they may get noisy very quickly depending on the bearings' conditions. Used SSDs can be a bit more dangerous, not nearly as a used HDD, but I wouldn't trust a random seller either (unless I have a warranty or I'm able to run some tests beforehand). The things I wouldn't ever buy used are HDDs and PSUs - liquid cooling equipment can also be bad depending on a series of factors, not all of which can be obviously seen from pictures alone (the type of coolant that had been used, residue, corrosion, possible leaks caused by wear and tear, etc).

Regarding other peripherals, used monitors can save you a good amount of money but be mindful of packaging, some sellers will try to save a penny in shipping materials and that might mean you'll end up with a broken panel. That aside, used keyboards/mice are fine: just keep some cleaning equipment ready

Thank you.

Hardware Your opinions about used PC parts?

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