Second-hand parts

What kind of things should I look out for when buying second-hand computer parts? I've got a build in mind but it's overstepping my budget a bit and I figure I could save money with a good deal on a used GPU and/or CPU, but I'm worried about buying a hunk of junk that'll self-destruct in a couple months' time. How do I best avoid this?

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Use your local sales sites.
Buy from respectable sellers. Specially ones who have their ID tied to their account.

There isn't much else then, if they seem to know their shit, aren't a literar nobody on the site and say it's good, it's usually good. You always at least get a "guaranty of working" warranty too.
Otherwise if you buy from shady ad's and literar nobodies, it's a gamble and there's not much to favor your odds.

Depends on what your building gaming parts from gamers is a bad idear if you ask just check the return policy and read all negative reviews

Thanks for the advice. What about prior usage? How much is too much, and does it matter what kind?

Buy from communities of enthusiasts , notably those using heatware dot com. Heatware is an old school, free site for reviews that was developed as a way to be able to buy/sell/trade among enthusiast hardware forums and communities.

I wouldn't know how to check maybe a benchmark but yah you can find a CPU that has been worked to death but it's not common.

Stress test it after you get it. If it doesn't pass, return it.
Otherwise, there's no real way to tell.

IDK what your budget is but if the $250 1660 Ti is out of budget, then the entire budget must be around $500. In that case a used CPU, and GPU are pretty much necessary.

i work in an RMA dept for a small company that puts together high-end systems.

the most common component failures, in order are:

GPU
Power Supply
Motherboard

i suggest staying away from those if there are no warranties attached

Huh? The picture wasn't related to anything, I just googled a random graphics card so that I could post the thread. I'm after an RX 570. I'm a bong but my budget would be around $650 I think
So a CPU would be relatively low-risk, then?

Make sure that it works correctly.

>So a CPU would be relatively low-risk, then?
they do fail sometimes.
especially if they've been mishandled.
a lot of people seem to ignore ESD and the damage isn't always immediately apparent.

i think there's going to be some risk involved in any used components.
you might want to keep this in mind and plan for a future failure. keep putting some money aside if you can and hold onto it to replace parts as needed.

Lots of sites offer refurbished cards with pretty good warranties, i bought my rx580 4gb refurbished at an inflated price (it was during that mining phase), it broke after a couple months, with the refund I was able to buy a new 8gb 580

You'll always take some risk buying second hand parts. I built my all 3 of my computers over the last 10 years with second hand parts. He best thing to do is to ask questions.

>Why are you selling it?
>What was it used for?
>Did you overclock it?

People are spooked by mining cards but most the time if the miner knows what hes doing he under volts the cards for optimal power to performance. Worst that can fuck up in that one of the fan fucks out on you, but still look into getting one. Make sure to ask if the person that was mining it under-volted it.

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What if the seller just lies?
Asking questions doesn't give you any guarantee.

A dead giveaway is if they provide as little information as possible

The last time I built a budget-station was back in 2011. The entire build including Windows 7 was $600.

I bought only new, the most expensive component was the Radeon 6850 at $169, the OS cost $99 give or take, the micro-atx biostar mobo was only $45, the rockwell case was a mere $20-25, the diablo PSU was only $25-30, it had 2x2GB DDR2 which was cheap then when DDR3 was popular. The HDD was around $60, it was a basic 500GB single platter drive.

Maybe you just need to adjust your priorities. I don't think you know much.

Later I took that same build and replaced piece by piece, keeping only the original GPU and OS.

You also need a DVD-RW drive and a wireless card, I used a PCI type.

Youre always gonna face that risk when buying second hand and a lot the time it basically just comes down to life experience and your risk tolerance. If you talk to the dude and he dosent seem like hes knows what hes talking about then thats someone i would avoid. This isnt even really a tech thing as its more of a life thing. Buying a car second hand? Same rules apply. Eating at a restaurant and the kitchen staff look like shit? They probably dont give a shit about your food. Gather as much info as you can. Try and catch him lying.

You're right that I don't know much lol. But I figure it wouldn't be great to just dump my build and ask people to make me a better one. I'm going to skip out on the wireless card because I don't think I'll be using wi-fi. The router's right on the other side of my wall, so I'm planning on just running a flat ethernet cable under my door.

A lot of new mobos have that built right-in

One thing I'd consider is an APU build and save for the 1660 Ti later.

Since you're in bongland you might be getting jipped on value

Where I live I mostly deal with asian dudes and some whites. Asians are honorable. People who allow pickup at their homes are obviously not gonna scam you if you know where they live.

I'm just talking about the import rates.

buy cards from mining rigs with warranty left

experienced miners undervolt the cards and take good care of them

>experienced
yeah and most other retard miners destroy them.

>Asians are honorable
top. fucking. kek.
maybe japs, but no other brand of yellow devil is honorable.
especially in regard to what they perceive as a white person
jesus. you fucking sheltered idiot

Umm, no sweaty. I've met filipinos, chinese, vietnamese, japanese, and they were all hard working and respectful