Hardware Your opinions about used PC parts?

[Humanity]

What are your opinions about used PC parts?

I want to build a new computer and use as many cheap but powerful parts as possible.

I want to spend as very little money as possible.

What should I be aware of, careful of?

 

[AkikoKumagara]

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.

 

[Humanity]

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.

HDD/SSD I already believed not to buy used.

I will take your advice on the other two but.. please provide me some reasoning behind naming them?

 

[AkikoKumagara]

HDD/SSD I already believed not to buy used.

I will take your advice on the other two but.. please provide me some reasoning behind naming them?

Both of the other parts tend to degrade over time, often even with typical use. Both contain things like capacitors that can blow or leak and cause problems, and the longer they've been used, the more likely this is to happen.

Basically this: You don't know the use history of the item you're buying. Unless you're comfortable with having to clean and possibly solder on new capacitors and buy a new battery for the motherboard, it's probably not worth it to buy one used. You won't save a lot of money on those parts used anyway.

Your biggest savings will be on CPU/GPU, which also happen to generally be the most expensive parts anyway.

 

[Humanity]

Both of the other parts tend to degrade over time, often even with typical use. Both contain things like capacitors that can blow or leak and cause problems, and the longer they've been used, the more likely this is to happen.

Basically this: You don't know the use history of the item you're buying. Unless you're comfortable with having to clean and possibly solder on new capacitors and buy a new battery for the motherboard, it's probably not worth it to buy one used. You won't save a lot of money on those parts used anyway.

Your biggest savings will be on CPU/GPU, which also happen to generally be the most expensive parts anyway.

Ok, thank you for the advice.

 

[Humanity]

The most graphically advanced games I want to run are Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 and Ryse.

I want to run both games absolutely maxed out on every setting and at 1080p native 16:9 resolution, without V-sync. Rock solid 60FPS.

What is the lowest CPU, GPU and RAM combo you people think will make this work for me?

Also, if I have a 60Hz monitor, will there be visual issues if the game runs above 60FPS?

 

[Duo8]

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

 

[Humanity]

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

Would you say that GPUs are that durable, too?

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

Also, please give me good tips on how to avoid dodgy sellers who will try to sell me faulty used parts.. I am afraid about that.

 

[CMDreamer]

Myself, I wouldn't buy used parts, unless they have some kind of written warranty from the seller, and even then, I would never buy used in order of importance:

-HDD/SSD
-Power Supply
-DVD/BR drives
-GPU (tend to last for long but they're also one of the most abused components on a system).

 

[Duo8]

Would you say that GPUs are that durable, too?

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Also, please give me good tips on how to avoid dodgy sellers who will try to sell me faulty used parts.. I am afraid about that.

For GPUs it heavily depends on the model of the card. But IMO unless the card is known to be prone to failure it's mostly down to luck. A card is a combination of many non-modular parts and if any of them fail you're screwed.
I had a Palit 1060 3GB, the low end Dual version, that was used to mine crypto for ~8 months. It ran perfectly fine for a year until I sold it last month.

IMO nothing beats testing a card in person. I didn't test mine but only because it had over a year of warranty left.

 

[FAST6191]

I will happily buy an old PSU if it is a good one. Can't see why I wouldn't. They don't much care if they get dropped, they don't age off a cliff or anything, don't tend to get driven too hard...

Won't do high end graphics of any particular type unless it is for £5 or something similar.

Won't do hard drives unless I know their provenance, which is short for I know it because I installed it and have now taken it out.

Anything else is fair game really.

 

[Duo8]

hardocp did a test on an almost decade old Seasonic X 750W a few months ago and found it performed almost identical to when it was new.
So good PSUs will last and keep their performance up for ages.

 

[chrisrlink]

i bout hdd's before for my PS3 the only reason they got trashed is because i have a hardwood floor + butter fingers = cracked platter but the ones i bought that i didn't break last a while my desktop drive didn't though as for gfx i bought a nvidia GT 730 for my dell no issues so far (I know it's a low end card but we're talking about a dell with a shitty 240w psu

 

[Deleted User]

Would you say that GPUs are that durable, too?

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Also, please give me good tips on how to avoid dodgy sellers who will try to sell me faulty used parts.. I am afraid about that.

Well, make sure if it's on Amazon or Ebay that they have really good reviews. Honestly though, if it's Ebay, it's really easy to get your money back through Paypal and Amazon is really good about keeping folks from getting scammed.

 

[AkikoKumagara]

hardocp did a test on an almost decade old Seasonic X 750W a few months ago and found it performed almost identical to when it was new.
So good PSUs will last and keep their performance up for ages.

I don't disagree with this, that's why most PSUs come with 5-10 year warranty...
however, if something does go wrong with a power supply, it can actually damage other components in the system, and the more a power supply has been used (or abused), the more likely it is for something to go wrong with it.

I wouldn't cheap out on a power supply. I did it before and multiple leads (SATA power, namely) on the cheapo power supply simply stopped working. I'm lucky that's the worst that happened. I wouldn't skimp on one, even buying used isn't something I would do at this point for such a component.

 

[Jokey_Carrot]

I'm still rocking a crap oem hp mobo from 7 years ago. The only time i've had caps go bad is on an amd duron motherboard and it still worked fine.i do agree with the whole not buying used psus and hdd.

 

[Humanity]

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?

 

[Kwyjor]

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?

You know they publish recommended system requirements for games on Steam, right?
https://store.steampowered.com/app/302510/Ryse_Son_of_Rome/

Considering the game is five years old at this point, as long as you follow those guidelines you'll probably be fine.

 

[Humanity]

You know they publish recommended system requirements for games on Steam, right?
https://store.steampowered.com/app/302510/Ryse_Son_of_Rome/

Considering the game is five years old at this point, as long as you follow those guidelines you'll probably be fine.

You know the FPS-lock option in that game locks the game to 30FPS, right?

The standard info they provided is likely not of use to me. I am needing info about maxing the game out at 1080p native at more or less a solid 60FPS+.


Edit: So I just went on that link.. "DirectX 11 graphics card with 2 GB video RAM"
LOL.

Most of the cards that match that description will get me nowhere near 60FPS in that game, when maxed out at native 1080p.

 

[Duo8]

You know the FPS-lock option in that game locks the game to 30FPS, right?

The standard info they provided is likely not of use to me. I am needing info about maxing the game out at 1080p native at more or less a solid 60FPS+.


Edit: So I just went on that link.. "DirectX 11 graphics card with 2 GB video RAM"
LOL.

Most of the cards that match that description will get me nowhere near 60FPS in that game, when maxed out at native 1080p.

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