I recently built myself a new computer and am considering selling the old one. It is four years old, and the basic specs that most people care about are:
3 GB of RAM (upgradable to 8 GB max)
320 GB 7200 RPM HDD
2.4 GHz QuadCore CPU
1 GB video card (PCI-E x16), with HDMI, DVI, and VGA outputs
Wireless card included
Monitor, keyboard, and mouse not included
Four years ago I bought the refurbished HP then swapped out the (weak) power supply with the one linked above and the graphics card with (this). It all worked great until last month when the graphics card died. I replaced the card with the one in the third link above but realized it may be time to build a new computer entirely, so I did. I took one of the 320 GB harddrives out of the HP to put in my new machine to supplement the main drive, a SSD.
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I spent roughly $1000 total on the old system, but that was four years ago - an eon in computer technology. Is $500 - $600 too much to ask for this system?
Computers depreciate at roughly the same rate as bananas. That doesn’t mean you won’t find some suckers but $150 - $175 is a fair price to ask and expect speaking as an IT professional especially since you aren’t including some key parts. I am sure it is a fine computer that will still serve some uses quite well but it is used and the hard drive is quite small by today’s standards.
You are competing against brand new computers in the $350 range with roughly the same specs. Your big plus is that you have a dedicated video card that is still decent for most uses and that is the only reason I say it is worth that much.
If you give a student or hobbyist a price in that range, you will both get a fair deal.
My laptop was $800 a few short years ago…apparently my phone from the same time is worth more than that now trade in value. I saved em both for a back up. :rolleyes:
I gave it a higher price because the specs are perfectly serviceable especially including a video card that was once higher end and still can get the job done for most uses. Even though computer prices depreciate fast, the bottom part of the price curve flattens out too. The OP’s computer is worth more than a $50 junker that someone wants to use for a Linux experiment. Someone could easily get $150 worth of current use out of it and make it last for a few more years because it isn’t truly obsolete. My home computer has roughly the same specs and still works great for everything I put it through (and that is a lot).
Wow - I hadn’t realized how much quadcores have come down in price! I had thought that was a relatively significant selling point, but I stand corrected. I probably over-value having a higher-wattage power supply as well, since most people don’t worry much about expandability. In addition, I realize that I probably value harddrive space less than most people. (I don’t think I’ve ever used more than about 200 GB at any one time, tops.)
Shagnasty, I admit I’m skeptical about the brand new $350 computer with similar specs. (After looking around online a bit I could definitely believe $450 or a little less.) Do you have a link?
The GeForce GT 610 was never higher-end. It’s just a GT 520 rebadge and is pretty much the worst discrete GPU you can buy. Even the Ivy Bridge integrated GPU will wipe the floor with it.
I would shoot for $200-250 and be willing to negotiate/trade (hey you do yards, how about I knock off $100 and you do my yard ) . Alot of folks looking for refurbs/used dont care about exact spec, just that its cheaper than a new machine even if the new machine that is $150 more is superior in every way. Having a discrete vga card and a good PSU will make for a better overall machine than many other boxes of the same era.
I buy it (if I was in the market which I’m not) for $100-$150. It looks suitable for standard home utility use and tooling around the internet but the video card is garbage by any modern gaming standard. The PSU is decent but the only ones who’d care about that are people who’d want to upgrade the video card which means they’re sinking another $100+ minimum into the box.
From the number of computers in that age range that I have picked up off the curb (not to use, just to strip the electronic components out of them), a lot of people think they aren’t worth anything, not that it isn’t hopelessly outdated (as somebody else said, my computer is similar in specs, actually even a bit lower for the memory, 2 GB and hard drive, 200 GB (of which I use less than 1 GB for personal files), and suits my needs without any problem; I previously used a Pentium 4 system with integrated graphics until 2010, only replacing it when it failed); for many needs, there isn’t really any reason to have the latest and fastest CPU or graphics card, or GBs of memory or TBs of drive space (e.g. a YouTube video won’t run any faster once your computer can render its (fixed) frame rate, and in games, going much over 60 fps won’t make a difference; of course, there are games that will basically “crash” even the latest computers on max settings).
There’s a zero percent chance that that card will run any recently released game at 60 fps or anything approaching it. It’s below minimum spec for any recent game I can think of excepting retro-indie stuff. It’s just not remotely a good card for games. It’s fine for virtually any non-game related application (baring obvious things like video editing) though.
The only issue with it being a good internet/e-mail box is that it’s competing with all the other internet/e-mail boxes. My 2005 Dell with Win XP is a good internet/e-mail box but isn’t worth more than $50 so why would I pay over $150 for a computer that doesn’t really do much more? It’s overqualified to be a “grandma computer” and underqualified with too many “end of life” components to be even a mediocre a gaming rig.
) . Alot of folks looking for refurbs/used dont care about exact spec, just that its cheaper than a new machine even if the new machine that is $150 more is superior in every way. Having a discrete vga card and a good PSU will make for a better overall machine than many other boxes of the same era.