Question Buy a PC of 2nd hand or New

[mohan-hardware]

I am planning to buy dell Optiplex 7000 desktop Tower
So this is i7 12th Generation

One of my friend tell's
If you go for i7 7th Generation of 2nd hand pc you only need to pay 35% of the New Optiplex 7000 price

I really don't know what to do?

Currently I as using a pc (Optiplex 990) which is manufactured on 2011 still no issue on the Motherboard, only hard disk failure

 

[punkncat]

7th gen will be stuck on W10 in a couple of years at EOS.
You could still search at the Dell Outlet and see if they have any refurbs of the 12th gen yet. It would be early IMO, but you might find something scratch and dent sale.

That 990 should be on, what? 1st gen? It has lived a good life. If you don't need anything more powerful than that you could opt to replace the drive and run it from a Linux distro.

 

[dark_globe]

intel 7th gen is obsolete at this point - so no matter how much you save it is not worth it .
(7th gen i7 has a performance on the level of 10th gen i3)
if you are buying second hand system and you want to save money i would consider i5 10400f or ryzen 3600 as a minimum requirement .

for a new system i5/i7 12th gen is fine generally speaking but it all depends on price .

it also depends what will you use it for -
do you want a gaming pc or just a pc for regular use ?

 

[DSzymborski]

Yeah, we can give more useful answers when we understand the situation more. Without the budget and the goals, any advice is just a wild-ass guess. Anything about your situation you don't tell us, we can't know.

 

[sonofjesse]

I see a lot of posts lacking information. Please tell us more so we can help you.

 

[mohan-hardware]

intel 7th gen is obsolete at this point - so no matter how much you save it is not worth it .
(7th gen i7 has a performance on the level of 10th gen i3)
if you are buying second hand system and you want to save money i would consider i5 10400f or ryzen 3600 as a minimum requirement .

for a new system i5/i7 12th gen is fine generally speaking but it all depends on price .

it also depends what will you use it for -
do you want a gaming pc or just a pc for regular use ?

I need a PC for AutoCAD Civil 3d 2021, not for gaming

 

[dark_globe]

I need a PC for AutoCAD Civil 3d 2021, not for gaming

7th gen i7 is obsolete either way (not worth buying even as a second hand machine at this point) :
if you want to save money and buy second hand system look for systems with
ryzen 3700x or at least i7 8700K/10th gen i5 (such PCs should not be much more expensive compared to 7700K)
and both would be much better options and a lot faster for productivity tasks compared to 7th gen i7 .
pair it with nvidia graphics card with 6/4 gb of VRAM (something like gtx 1060 6gb or gtx 970 and you are good to go)
add 32/64gb of ddr4 memory and it should not cost you a fortune
(you can either find a system that has all of the above already or build it yourself from second hand parts)
it all comes down to prices in your country .

if you save 50-60% of the cost it is worth it ,
but if the savings are negligible just go for a new system with 12th gen i7 .

 

[ohio_buckeye]

Don’t buy 7th gen now. Oldest I’d say is 10th or 11th, but even then you always want the best you can afford.

 

[ThraxInDistress]

I read that you need AutoCad. I have friends who are architectural students and certified Architects. All of them use an i7 or a ryzen 7 paired with a respectable GPU. I.e. a 3060.

I would suggest the 12th Gen. There is no point in saving 35% that will be obsolete in the next 3 years. Not to mention slower than a cheap ryzen 5 3600.

I will only assume that your budget is more than enough but youre hesitating for the savings. All I can say here is, your time saved and overall quality of life improvements will be worth more than any cent saved. Best of Luck!

 

[helper800]

This would be a very nice build for what you are trying to accomplish;

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-13600K 3.5 GHz 14-Core Processor ($319.91 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: ARCTIC Liquid Freezer II 280 A-RGB 68.9 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: MSI PRO Z790-P WIFI ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($246.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Flare X5 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL32 Memory ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Black SN750 SE 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($46.98 @ B&H)
Storage: Western Digital Black SN770 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($159.99 @ Amazon)
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ventus 2X 12G GeForce RTX 3060 12GB 12 GB Video Card ($369.99 @ Lenovo)
Case: Phanteks Eclipse P300A Mesh ATX Mid Tower Case ($69.98 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair RM650x (2021) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($104.99 @ Amazon)
Total: $1598.81
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-01-24 14:14 EST-0500