Buying second-hand PC

thegills

Guys,

I'm viewing a second-hand PC tonight. How do I check that the specs he has quoted are actuals, i.e. hard-disk size, CPU speed, RAM, graphics card, CD-RW write speed etc.

Winters

Make sure you see it running!!
if you dont see it running ... it may not run. If you buy it make sure you have proof of purchase so if it doesnt run you can go back to the guy and tell him that you want your money back as he said it could run and it doesnt etc..

thegills

I saw the PC running last night and they guy keft me alone with the PC for a few minutes. I'm not sure how to check the CPU speed, RAM size etc. I think pressing F4 during start-up or something might work.

Saruman

Figure out how to access the bios by pressing F1/F2 or delete usually on boot... an easy way is in windows go to start - run and type dxdiag and it will give you all the info about cpu. ram etc... just beware the cpu "Could" be overclocked to a higher speed than it says so only way to tell that would be to check the chip or bios for any jumper changes etc... you could ask the guy some techie questions and see if he has any clue about computers.. if he is a techie then chances are he knows how to overclock.. if he is a muppet then your probably safe

thegills

Thanks Saruman.
I ran that on my PC in work and I could test the sound, graphics etc.
The full specs of the PC I'm looking at are;
1.8GHz AMD Athlon processor
512 RAM
40 GB Hdd
64Mb graphics card
56k modem
DVD drive
16xRead CD-RW drive
17" Monitor
Epson Inkjet printer

He's looking for 1000Euro - What do you think ??

zAbbo

Slightly expensive, i`d say you could get cheaper, if interested I`m selling my own here`s the specs:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?postid=492012#post492012

Saruman

Your chip is not as fast, video card might not be as good (dont know what one it is in the other system so dont know) And your cdrw might not be as fast... that is im assuming his is a 16x writer and not as it looks.. a 16x read..

Anyway on the other hand yours is probably a much better build quallity (raid) even if the hard disk space is not as much... So i take it you would sell it to him for a good deal less than the grand the other guy is looking for that other system?

zAbbo

Yeah sorry i forgot to mention that, I have some extras that i can add, pm me if more info is needed.

EG external zip,HDD.

If i was selling i may not sell that exact spec bu pretty close to it.

GFX card is a 32mb AGP Geforce 2mx, also my machine has nic and modem. I`m not here to advertise my machine really but i do think the grand for that machine is a tad 2 much.

thegills

Mr. PCIRL.com,

What PC/specs would you sell and what price. I'd be interested in the external Zip drive also.

A grand is reasonable for me as I would'nt know where to start building my own PC, unless your interested in doing it for me.

zAbbo

CPU: Pentium 4 1.4ghz
MOBO: Abit TH7 RAID intel i850
RAM: 512 Samsung RDRAM 800
GFX: GeForce 2mx 32mb AGP
OS: Win2k Sp2
SOUND: Creative Standard Sound Card
HDD: I`d replace my 2 15GB Drives with a bigger one for(prob 40gb to match the one you where looking at)

CDRW: Iomega Zip CD 8write 4 rewrite 32 read
DVD: Samsung DVD Drive
ZIP: Iomega Internal Zip 100 drive or External USB Iomega ZIP 100 (one or the other not both)
NIC: Realtek 10/100
Speakers: 800w Sub Woofer plus 2 Speakers
Monitor: 15" Sony Trintron CRT(suffers from dodgy monitor cable, only works when held upright so i`d consider chopping down price because of this)but works perfect other than that)
Mouse: Standard Mouse
Key: Gatewat Keyboard

Software:
Office 2000
and too many to list also couple of games + joypad
MP3`s etc.(1000+)

The catch is that i have no transport so you`d have to come to me(dundalk)

As for price i`s say around €900 ono.

What do ya think.

koneko

What kind of graphics are in the system that was offered to you, thegills? Did the guy specify what kind of card it was?

Personally, pcirl.com, I'm not so sure it's a bad offer. The 1800XP will be better than the 1.4 P4, and the GeForce 2 MX (32MB) is... well... pretty bad to honest.

We'd need more specs of the other system to make a final judgment

zAbbo

True,

The 64 mb graphics could be some card like a savage 4(ahhh).
tbh my card is ok and is capable of playing most games pretty well. Now don`t shoot me down i`m not saying it`s the best card going but i haven`t had any complaints with it.

Any other specs and stuff i can give you no problem there.

Hell i can even show you how i built it(visit website).

By all means if the spec is better on the other machine, i`ll not try any hard sell business with you.

Regards

Saruman

Yeah the other sys has a 64mb card so either a Radeon or maybe a Geforce 3 or even 4 and possibly (gills should hope) a TI and not an MX!!

If that ram is DDR and not SDRAM then he is laughing!

By the way Gills the Athlon is not a 1.8ghz, it would be as Koneko said and 1800+ XP which runs at 1.53 ghz which is still a LOT faster than maybe even a 1.8ghz or even 2 gig P4! Assuming its got a decent motherboard and especially with DDR ram!

koneko

Not to shoot you down PCirl, really, but when you come in dissing the other guys offer, and your offer isn't really better, it confuses poor thegills

For a comparison of CPUs check our this site:

http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/01q4/011031/index.html

The 1800 will outperform the 1.4Ghz and then some. It's not until the newer P4s that they started beating the XPs by a long shot. The 1800XP still beats the 2Ghz P4s that were out at the time of that review (though the newer 512k cache ones... that's a diff story).

A 64MB graphics card won't be a Savage 4.... Worst case scenario it's an MX card, but still a 64MB MX card. Sure with any luck it's a Ti4200 card Myom

Maybe consider building a PC yourself, if you're up for it. Komplett seem to do nice packages:

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?action=info&p=24463&t=1397&l=2&AvdID=1&CatID=44&GrpID=1&s=pl
(XP 1900, Ti4400, sweet case).

Aaanyways. Really though, don't take this the wrong way. I just think thegills should be well up on all the details before he gets a system, and get the best deal he can.

thegills

I'm not sure what make the graphics card is, but it hasn't got TV-out. The RAM is SDRAM. The guy in question buys parts from the North and build's his own PC's. Can either of you guys build a PC for me with similiar specs.
Dundalk is a bit out of the way, I live in Dublin but work in Limerick Monday to Friday.
PCIRL.com - weres the link to the website that shows you how built your PC.
He has Windows 98, MS works and Norton Anti-virus 2002 as well.

zAbbo

True

well if gills can get the full spec of the machine then advise is a little easier to give, now i didn`t diss the guys mchine so to speak and i am diffinetly not putting any hard sell on the guy. I was just saying that 1000 seems a lot in my opinion for a machine that the full specs aren`t given.

Would you spend 1000 on that machine without knowing the real story, i don`t think so.

Also poor thegills must be in total confusion.

hopefully it is a Ti4200 card

And to add more confusion koneko talks about building a machine.

So in short the full spec is need, then and only then can we help,

Sorry for any confusion :P

thegills

I'm not too confused guys. I'd love to build my own PC but I don't know how. I'm familiar with the hardware aspects of PC's but when the words BIOS and IRQ's are mentioned, forget about it!!.
Your comments are all welcomed. How can you check the type of graphics card installed without taking the PC apart.

zAbbo

ok

Start >> RUN >> then type "dxdiag"

Then click save all information and save it to a floppy disk and the n post that up here

Seems the handyiest way for us all to see what it is.

thegills

Thanks guys. I'm signing off now. I'll carry out that dxdiag and save to disk. Until tomorrow.
Bye

thegills

Lads,

I managed to run 'dxdiag' and save the info to disk. Based on your responses to date I was more clued in on my second viewing. I'll gladly email it to interested parties.
The RAM is 512 SD, with 64 set aside for the on-board graphics. The sound is on board as well. The monitor is third-hand 17", with a 220V to 110V regulator.
The CD-ROM makes a buzzing noise when reading music CD's.
I think it was bought from Computer Systems, Northern Ireland.

Saruman

under NO circumstances buy that PC!!! Its a lemon from what i can see... onboard graphics usually 90% of the time means no AGP slot so that means games are pretty much useless... also lemon in the sense it obviosuly has faults... you can have a much better one built for you. By the way you dont need to know about IRQ's to build a Pc... its basically like Lego.. if you have ver used lego then your well able for it.. there are less parts for a start!!!

thegills

Saruman - I think I'll take your advice.
Can you tell me what is the full list of parts I need for assembling a PC. My current understanding is;

Tower Case and Cooler / Fan
CD-RW
DVD / CD-Rom
Graphics Card
Sound Card + speakers
Hard Disk
Modem 56K
17" Monitor
Keyboard+Mouse
Motherboard
CPU
1.44" floppy drive

Is this overkill???

Saruman

You missed ram but thats the basic concept of it.. there is another thread going you should look at: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&postid=495780#post495780

I posted a link to: http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?action=info&AvdID=&CatID=&GrpID=&p=22768&s=fp

Basically its the barebones... you would still need a cdrw, keyboard & mouse... all in all would cost about the same as you were paying him for an infinatly superior spec!

Oh thats not including monitor so will cost you for that too.. €200 or so for a 17" probably get one cheaper from buy and sell or something.