To buy or not to buy

Looking to buy a new PC, advertised as a 'gamer' on Ebay. It has old
technology. Intel 755 socket mobo with Core i3 2nd gen Processor. 8MB DD3
RAM. USB2. Included is a GPU card - 1 GB Geforce 710, DVD RW and keyboard
w. mouse. PSU is 300 Watts. Windows 7 Pro is preloaded, but no other
software included. So a basic PC, which is good enough for my general
purposes.

Alternatively for about the same price is a 2nd hand Dell Vostro 470. But
this has an Intel core i5 3rd gen, but no GPU card - just Intel onboard
graphics. It also has a USB3 port. Again, Win 7 Pro is preloaded.

One of my main activities will be watching and streaming HD movies on my
Asus monitor which has a native resolution of 1920 x 1080.

I'm tempted to go with the Dell as I currently have an old Dimension which
has kept me going for years and is reliable, whereas the new PC is
unbranded, but has a 12 month warranty. I'm faily confident the Dell Vostro
would cope with that, but not so sure about the new PC.

Frank Booth wrote:
Looking to buy a new PC, advertised as a 'gamer' on Ebay. It has old
technology. Intel 755 socket mobo with Core i3 2nd gen Processor. 8MB DD3
RAM. USB2. Included is a GPU card - 1 GB Geforce 710, DVD RW and keyboard
w. mouse. PSU is 300 Watts. Windows 7 Pro is preloaded, but no other
software included. So a basic PC, which is good enough for my general
purposes.

Alternatively for about the same price is a 2nd hand Dell Vostro 470. But
this has an Intel core i5 3rd gen, but no GPU card - just Intel onboard
graphics. It also has a USB3 port. Again, Win 7 Pro is preloaded.

One of my main activities will be watching and streaming HD movies on my
Asus monitor which has a native resolution of 1920 x 1080.

I'm tempted to go with the Dell as I currently have an old Dimension which
has kept me going for years and is reliable, whereas the new PC is
unbranded, but has a 12 month warranty. I'm faily confident the Dell Vostro
would cope with that, but not so sure about the new PC.

What you should know, is there is a giant refurbisher
company, that accepts machines from large companies
as "off-lease", and prepares them for resale.

Such units are even sold at popular large
companies. You do not need to go to Ebay, when
you can get better deals on the refurbished
equipment at Walmart or Staples. One of the people
in another group, got a Dell 780 with a dual core
processor from Staples, and it seems to work. It
came with Windows 7 Pro (refurbisher version).

One problem for the refurbisher company, is it
may not have the legal right to distribute
Win7 Pro refurbisher OSes for much longer. And it's
not a certainty that Windows 10 runs perfectly
on the boxes.

But at least for the existing stock, you
don't have to take a risk on Ebay, when "stores
with a return policy" also carry these good.

The best I've seen, is a Lenovo with quad core
processor, with an ugly computer case, as a refurb.
Many of the others are just dual core LGA775
machines from off-lease stock.

*******

With Dells, you need to watch for any of the
models with "leaking capacitor" problems. As
long as you're not buying one of those,
you should be fine. There was at least one
model of Dell, with a pretty close to 100%
motherboard failure rate. You couldn't even
take a chance buying a used motherboard on
Ebay as a replacement, as it may have the same
defect. The only safe ones, were "re-capped"
motherboards for that model.

For many other models, there are no concerns
at all. Just the usual risks of cosmetic damage
(kick marks on PC).

*******

This particular one is discontinued, but it's an example
of Walmart carrying the refurb stuff.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Dell-Refu...4-Bit/42465901

You can see the refurbisher who releases these,
has been forced to ship Win10 Pro on them. And you
should be spotting the same trend on the Ebay
sales of this stuff. The legal right to ship Win7 Pro
stopped a few weeks ago. Causing indigestion at the
refurbisher.

http://www.staples.com/Refurbished-D...ids=4214939794

Paul

On 11/16/2016 12:44 PM, Frank Booth wrote:
Looking to buy a new PC, advertised as a 'gamer' on Ebay. It has old
technology. Intel 755 socket mobo with Core i3 2nd gen Processor. 8MB DD3
RAM. USB2. Included is a GPU card - 1 GB Geforce 710, DVD RW and keyboard
w. mouse. PSU is 300 Watts. Windows 7 Pro is preloaded, but no other
software included. So a basic PC, which is good enough for my general
purposes.

Alternatively for about the same price is a 2nd hand Dell Vostro 470. But
this has an Intel core i5 3rd gen, but no GPU card - just Intel onboard
graphics. It also has a USB3 port. Again, Win 7 Pro is preloaded.

One of my main activities will be watching and streaming HD movies on my
Asus monitor which has a native resolution of 1920 x 1080.

I'm tempted to go with the Dell as I currently have an old Dimension which
has kept me going for years and is reliable, whereas the new PC is
unbranded, but has a 12 month warranty. I'm faily confident the Dell Vostro
would cope with that, but not so sure about the new PC.

I've had good luck buying machines on craigslist, installing enough RAM
to have 4-8GB (depending on needs), an SSD, and a 1-2GB video card (of
course you'd get a card appropriate to your needs). If you are on a
budget this approach makes it fun because you buy an inexpensive
system, optimize it for your uses, and over time you look for deals on
each of the pieces you want to upgrade. Every time you do your system
gets that much faster and is that much more fun to use. And you learn a
lot in the process.