Hardware Found laptop for sale, but worth it?

[VLinh]

I found a laptop on my "Used" site for my area and its a

MSI GT783R-679US 17" i7 GTX 580M


Which sounds very good in terms of quality and I've heard some good things about it.
But after reading his description of it:

This laptop is a total beast. New baby at home so selling the portable gaming rig as I just built a home PC. It had a few things clunk out on it in the last year or so, and I sent it away to MSI for warranty service. It took forever because they had to order in all brand new parts, including graphics card, RAM, motherboard, and blu ray drive. All brand new parts.
Played pretty much all the best titles at full specs for the last couple years. Only the newest and most expensive gaming rigs outshine this one now but you'd have to pay a lot more. This was $2500 in April 2012 from NCIX.
Specs:
Intel quad core i7 2670 2.2ghz
12gb ddr3 ram
2x500gb Western Digital Black HDDs in RAID
2gb GeForce GTX 580M graphics
 
other features that make this laptop a top high-end machine:
touch sensitive turbo fan, wifi, bluetooth, overclock buttons
customizable backlit SteelSeries keyboard
blu-ray player dvd multi drive
17" matte finish NON GLARE (very nice) 1080p monitor
2.1 Dynaudio speakers built in. These go VERY loud for a laptop and have really great sound.
touchpad with soft scroll
2x USB 3.0 slots, 3x USB 2.0 slots, multi card reader, various monitor outputs, a button that disables the touch pad for use with a gaming mouse, HD webcam built in with microphone.

I know by instinct that it is never a good thing buying used laptops as you will never know what they truly did with the laptop such as broken parts within but you can't tell, slow down problems, etc but it's just that my current one is turning into crap and I've been looking for a good replacement one to use.

Now what I'm here is to try to persuade him to lower his price a bit but need some feedback and advice on my approach for giving an offer.

1. Since its about 2 years old now, from his initial bought price, I kinda feel that his asking price is a bit too high due to the risk factor and the general rule of its current condition (possible fan noise, slow downs, etc). The overall look of it seems good, don't know about the screen though so I'll definitely keep that as a factor if my offer goes through

2. Since he mentioned that he sent it back to MSI for the warranty service, it would be crucial to ask for a receipt or some sort of indication that new parts have been added to replace the old parts, but depending on how long ago this occured, it'll play some key in the overall price I would guess.

Other than that, I've been debating over and over again of a fair price to offer him. Depending on how long those new parts have been in action, I was thinking along the lines of offering $800, which is half of his asking price but then again, this is just a number that seems right based on the condition and years of ownership.

What do you guys think?

 

[RchUncleSkeleton]

I personally wouldn't pay a cent over $800 for that. You can get a brand new lenovo with pretty close specs and a newer cpu and gpu for around $800. A 2 year old beast will probably get around the same performance as a current mid to high end laptop like the Lenovo Y510P.

 

[VLinh]

I personally wouldn't pay a cent over $800 for that. You can get a brand new lenovo with pretty close specs and a newer cpu and gpu for around $800. A 2 year old beast will probably get around the same performance as a current mid to high end laptop like the Lenovo Y510P.

Yeah I have been browsing the internets quite a bit searching for a good deal for a new laptop but haven't been too successful. Is the Lenovo Y510P the one you said that's close to the MSI one?

 

[xcrimsonstormx]

All honesty unless you are hellbent on a laptop I would say just build a PC or buy a new laptop with a warranty, and you can test it before you buy, plus you know what's been done to it as well as it having everything you want with no little "suprises", but if you do want to make an offer I would say that it's about $700 to $800, and like you said make sure he can back up all his claims with receipt and pictures. Good Luck to you!

 

[RchUncleSkeleton]

The GTX 580M in the MSI is a monster but the GT 755M in the Lenovo does well enough to keep pace with most of what the 580M can do. Here's a comparison of the 2 http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GTX-580M-vs-GeForce-GT-755M

The cpus are pretty evenly matched, here's a comparison of those http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/11...2670QM_vs_Intel_Core_i7_Mobile_i7-4700MQ.html

Unless he's willing to give you the MSI for $800 or less you're better off with the Lenovo even those the gpu is slightly weaker in some benchmarks.

 

[DinohScene]

Just want to say that you shouldn't judge a lappy about fan noise.
The louder the fan is, the more it's working to keep cool.

I'd rather have a cool and noisy lappy then a baking hot quiet one.

 

[Originality]

I would think that the 580M would run significantly hotter than the 755M. Top end vs mid range graphics. Too early in the morning to dig up the specific TDPs though.

 

[the_randomizer]

A laptop cooler is a must, my Lenovo Y510P gets pretty damn hot without it (never to the TJMax threshold, but close to 90 Celsius). With the cooler, not even past 80.