If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Opinions on Used PC
I am looking to purchase a used , but decent quality PC with Windows XP.
On Ebay, I came across this offer from a "top-rated seller": Dell Optiplex GX520 SFF 3.2 GHz Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2 GB RAM 250 GB hard drive CD-RW/DVD combo drive keyboard, mouse, network card Windows XP Pro Price is $199.00 USD, shipping included Seeme like a very good deal to me. I know that there have been issues with problematic capacitors on motherboards from GX270s, but this one's a GX520. What do you think, folks? And any recommended sites (other than Ebay)? TIA! |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Opinions on Used PC
it is a solid machine but ebay buying is always risky. overstock.com sell
older off lease refurbished dells. your ebay deal seems a little better priced but it would have to be to make me even consider buying from a stranger vs an established and reputable seller like overstock. note that the pentium 4 is several generations old now... there was penitum d, dual cores, core 2 duo, quad cores, and i5/i7... but if your target is just spending $200 there isn't a whole lot of choice in the matter. for $310 overstock has a full sized Dell GX620 Pentium D 2G 400GB DVDRW which seems like a good value. new from dell you can buy a vostros 220s with core 2 duo e7500, 4gb ram, dvdrw, 250gb hard disk, windows 7, 1 yr warranty, 15 mo antivirus, and 18.5" lcd display. this is twice the price of what you are asking about but will likely have a longer useable life. "Daave" wrote in message .. . I am looking to purchase a used , but decent quality PC with Windows XP. On Ebay, I came across this offer from a "top-rated seller": Dell Optiplex GX520 SFF 3.2 GHz Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2 GB RAM 250 GB hard drive CD-RW/DVD combo drive keyboard, mouse, network card Windows XP Pro Price is $199.00 USD, shipping included Seeme like a very good deal to me. I know that there have been issues with problematic capacitors on motherboards from GX270s, but this one's a GX520. What do you think, folks? And any recommended sites (other than Ebay)? TIA! |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Opinions on Used PC
On Nov 16, 11:14*pm, "Christopher Muto" wrote:
it is a solid machine but ebay buying is always risky. *overstock.com sell older off lease refurbished dells. *your ebay deal seems a little better priced but it would have to be to make me even consider buying from a stranger vs an established and reputable seller like overstock. *note that the pentium 4 is several generations old now... *there was penitum d, dual cores, core 2 duo, quad cores, and i5/i7... *but if your target is just spending $200 there isn't a whole lot of choice in the matter. *for $310 overstock has a full sized Dell GX620 Pentium D 2G 400GB DVDRW which seems like a good value. *new from dell you can buy a vostros 220s with core 2 duo e7500, 4gb ram, dvdrw, 250gb hard disk, windows 7, 1 yr warranty, 15 mo antivirus, and 18.5" lcd display. *this is twice the price of what you are asking about but will likely have a longer useable life. "Daave" wrote in message .. . I am looking to purchase a used , but decent quality PC with Windows XP. On Ebay, I came across this offer from a "top-rated seller": Dell Optiplex GX520 SFF 3.2 GHz Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2 GB RAM 250 GB hard drive CD-RW/DVD combo drive keyboard, mouse, network card Windows XP Pro Price is $199.00 USD, shipping included Seeme like a very good deal to me. I know that there have been issues with problematic capacitors on motherboards from GX270s, but this one's a GX520. What do you think, folks? And any recommended sites (other than Ebay)? TIA! I would say the same as Christopher I don't know the specs on the specific computer but if you could spend $100 or get a good deal you could have a newer system. I am using Windows XP and like it so it is not a big deal that you want to use it. However, I don't know if you think you will want to upgrade at some point to Windows 7. If you do you may need to upgrade the video which may not be all that easy with a SFF. I saw a Compaq computer on clearance for $279.00 with an AMD dual core processor that was highly reviewed on PCMAG.COM it had Vista but came with a free upgrade to Windows 7. I would check slickdeals.net to find deals. Right now with the holidays coming it seems like some of these stores are putting stuff on sale to bring people in to the stores/websites. I use an older Dell notebook (1.6GHz P-M) that works well for me but I notice if I am at a website that uses Adobe Flash my computer will be usable but Flash seems to tax my machine so if I am doing several other things my computer slows down. Newer systems should work better. David |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
Opinions on Used PC
Daave wrote:
I am looking to purchase a used , but decent quality PC with Windows XP. On Ebay, I came across this offer from a "top-rated seller": Dell Optiplex GX520 SFF 3.2 GHz Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2 GB RAM 250 GB hard drive CD-RW/DVD combo drive keyboard, mouse, network card Windows XP Pro Price is $199.00 USD, shipping included Seeme like a very good deal to me. I know that there have been issues with problematic capacitors on motherboards from GX270s, but this one's a GX520. What do you think, folks? And any recommended sites (other than Ebay)? TIA! I'm not aware of serious capacitor problems with models other than the GX270. For the money, that is a pretty serviceable computer. You could get something more modern by spending more money. As long as you are running XP on it, it should do fine. If you think that you will be pushed into a Windows 7 upgrade, you might want to get a computer newer than a three year old GX520. The GX520 uses a 945 chipset, so it may be capable of running dual core CPUs. Not sure. The Dell BIOS could impose a limit on the types of CPUs that can be run in it. There may also be hardware design limits (notably thermal, CPU wattage, CPU voltage) that make it impossible to run dual core reliably. The SFF models, whether Dell or other makes, have more limited ventilation that tower models. If you ask Dell about CPU support, they won't tell... Ben Myers |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
Opinions on Used PC
Daave wrote:
I am looking to purchase a used , but decent quality PC with Windows XP. On Ebay, I came across this offer from a "top-rated seller": Dell Optiplex GX520 SFF 3.2 GHz Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2 GB RAM 250 GB hard drive CD-RW/DVD combo drive keyboard, mouse, network card Windows XP Pro Price is $199.00 USD, shipping included Seeme like a very good deal to me. I know that there have been issues with problematic capacitors on motherboards from GX270s, but this one's a GX520. What do you think, folks? And any recommended sites (other than Ebay)? TIA! I didn't find any evidence of a bad cap problem. One site claims the power supply fan can wear out. If the PC is an off-lease machine, it could have been running 24 hours a day for 3 years, which is plenty for the average fan in terms of usage. The form factor is SFF. That means it is hard to find cards small enough to fit the expansion slots. The power supply likely has limited wattage as well, so no monster video cards can be fitted. As long as you intend to use it "as is", it might work for you. One question about this purchase, is whether the version of WinXP on the machine is genuine or not. Sometimes, when they recycle a machine, they remove the OS. So as long as you don't mind buying a separate copy of an OS to run on it, then you might not be surprised by what you get. Geeks.com was selling one of those with Ubuntu on it, and they wouldn't be doing that if it came with WinXP still on the hard drive. Paul |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
Opinions on Used PC
that model usually came with a one year warranty,
so i doubt it would have any warranty left unless he got it from the dell outlet recently. Daave wrote: I am looking to purchase a used , but decent quality PC with Windows XP. On Ebay, I came across this offer from a "top-rated seller": Dell Optiplex GX520 SFF 3.2 GHz Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2 GB RAM 250 GB hard drive CD-RW/DVD combo drive keyboard, mouse, network card Windows XP Pro Price is $199.00 USD, shipping included Seeme like a very good deal to me. I know that there have been issues with problematic capacitors on motherboards from GX270s, but this one's a GX520. What do you think, folks? And any recommended sites (other than Ebay)? TIA! |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
Opinions on Used PC
Hi!
Dell Optiplex GX520 SFF Seeme like a very good deal to me. I know that there have been issues with problematic capacitors on motherboards from GX270s, but this one's a GX520. What do you think, folks? The GX520 is a much later system than the GX170/270 systems. I've never known it to have capacitor issues. The mainboard is a BTX type. Keep in mind that a GX520 does not have a PCI Express graphics slot. You'd have to move to the GX620 to get that. A GX620 is essentially the same thing but with the PCI Express graphics slot. Both systems use the same flash BIOS updaters. Both systems use the Intel 945 Express chipset with integrated graphics. And any recommended sites (other than Ebay)? I've had very good results from a seller known as epcsales on eBay. They have free ground shipping on most items, package stuff well and will take reasonable offers on systems. I bought an OptiPlex GX620 (tower) today that was priced at $225, and I made them an offer of $165. They accepted that offer. For a system with a 3.4GHz P4, 1GB RAM, DVD and CD-RW drives, WXP Pro COA, and a 160GB hard disk, I think I did *very* well. I mention the above as nothing more than a satisfied customer. I have purchased numerous pieces of equipment from them and each one has been excellent. William |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
Opinions on Used PC
On Nov 16, 9:58*pm, "Daave" wrote:
I am looking to purchase a used , but decent quality PC with Windows XP. On Ebay, I came across this offer from a "top-rated seller": Dell Optiplex GX520 SFF 3.2 GHz Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2 GB RAM 250 GB hard drive CD-RW/DVD combo drive keyboard, mouse, network card Windows XP Pro Price is $199.00 USD, shipping included Seeme like a very good deal to me. I know that there have been issues with problematic capacitors on motherboards from GX270s, but this one's a GX520. What do you think, folks? And any recommended sites (other than Ebay)? TIA! I have had good luck buying locally on Craigslist (user satisfaction may vary) bob_v |
#9
|
|||
|
|||
Opinions on Used PC
Paul wrote:
One question about this purchase, is whether the version of WinXP on the machine is genuine or not. Sometimes, when they recycle a machine, they remove the OS. There are quite a few Dell machines that have bios code that is recognised by Dell's own build of XP install media, and these skip asking for a license key on install if using that. So, if the sticker on the case is missing, it's normally not much of a problem to find another XP install disc from somewhere else and install that. After all - the OS was probably supplied with the original, and this could be seen as maintaining the status quo of genuineness. -- Adrian C |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
Opinions on Used PC
Paul wrote:
Daave wrote: I am looking to purchase a used , but decent quality PC with Windows XP. On Ebay, I came across this offer from a "top-rated seller": Dell Optiplex GX520 SFF 3.2 GHz Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2 GB RAM 250 GB hard drive CD-RW/DVD combo drive keyboard, mouse, network card Windows XP Pro Price is $199.00 USD, shipping included Seeme like a very good deal to me. I know that there have been issues with problematic capacitors on motherboards from GX270s, but this one's a GX520. What do you think, folks? And any recommended sites (other than Ebay)? TIA! I didn't find any evidence of a bad cap problem. One site claims the power supply fan can wear out. If the PC is an off-lease machine, it could have been running 24 hours a day for 3 years, which is plenty for the average fan in terms of usage. The form factor is SFF. That means it is hard to find cards small enough to fit the expansion slots. The power supply likely has limited wattage as well, so no monster video cards can be fitted. As long as you intend to use it "as is", it might work for you. One question about this purchase, is whether the version of WinXP on the machine is genuine or not. Sometimes, when they recycle a machine, they remove the OS. So as long as you don't mind buying a separate copy of an OS to run on it, then you might not be surprised by what you get. Geeks.com was selling one of those with Ubuntu on it, and they wouldn't be doing that if it came with WinXP still on the hard drive. Paul Good point. OP needs to ask eBay seller if the GX520 has a legit Windows XP Professional sticker still attached. Optiplexes are normally sold with the Pro version of Windows. Some sellers remove the stickers, per contractual agreement with the previous owner, e.g. a US Govt dept. This sounds like a moot point, 'cause the Dell install CD for XP Pro (preferably SP2!) will install on a system with Dell BIOS, but it's better to be legal in case the Microsoft anti-piracy police show up with real police and a search warrant... Ben Myers |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Opinions on what im getting 4 new PC | tk3445 | General | 4 | May 28th 05 08:31 AM |
I need your opinions | jr | Printers | 2 | February 16th 04 04:47 PM |
Opinions please? | rtr | Cdr | 0 | July 2nd 03 08:06 PM |