Buying a Used Desktop

[Shawn Dunmire]

Hey folks,
I'll try to keep this short and sweet.
I'm looking to get my gaming desktop back (had to sell it a while ago for financial reasons).
I see some SUPER good deals on my local craigslist, makes it very tempting to go that route when the computer being sold is half the price it would be new. (pricing out on pcpartpicker)

Question: how can I tell if anything is wrong with the computer other than doing the ol' tire kick?
I remember when I was a lad I sold a old HP on craigslist that would BSOD like once a day. Didn't mention that to the seller, but that's why I got rid of it. Didn't know how to fix the problem so I sold it. I'm so afraid that i'm buying someone else's problem going the craigslist route.

Any advice? thank ya

 

[heavyartillary9]

well, the easy fix is to meet them at there house, and if they screw you, then you know where they live 😛

 

[heavyartillary9]

i have bought an entire build off craigslist without issues, so you probably wont have any issues

 

[lolimstupid]

I would go to their house and ask to test it first, bring a monitor with you if you have to. If you can't find one eBay is another option. I just bought a starter build for 85$ on Monday. Here are the specs
Optiplex MPN:
Optiplex780MT
Operating System: Windows 7 Model:
Optiplex780
Processor Type: Intel Core 2 Quad Graphics: ATI RADEON HD 3450
Operating System Edition: Professional Memory: 4GB
Form Factor: Mini Tower Hard Drive Capacity: 250GB
Storage Type: HDD (Hard Disk Drive) Processor Speed: 2.66GHz

 

[Shawn Dunmire]

Okay thanks for the answers fella's. Ummm, are there any sort of diagnostic tests or something I can do as well?

 

[heavyartillary9]

You could run some stress tests and see if anything is out of the norm

 

[Shawn Dunmire]

CPU GPU HDD RAM? are there stress tests for all 4 of these? anything i'm missing?
Mobo problems? power supply?

 

[lolimstupid]

CPU GPU HDD RAM? are there stress tests for all 4 of these? anything i'm missing?
Mobo problems? power supply?

Yes there are test for all those and did you ever get the desktop you wanted? I was going through old unsolved threads I had. And you don't need to worry about powersupply tests or motherboard ones. If broken they wouldn't turn on/would make the stress tests results bad, hope I was helpful!