Buying a Used GPU, worth it, or not?

[FrostEel]

A friend is offering me a deal on his Diamond 6870 XOC that comes with a 850w thermaltake Power Supply. All this is for ($150). Nothing is wrong with the card, he just upgraded to two 580s. So is buying a used gpu worth it, or should I turn it down?

 

[wikiwikiwhat]

Test it and make sure the heatsink doesn't fall off. He may have OC'd it but still, the card can last a bit.

 

[FrostEel]

It's factory overclocked, and I don't think he did any thing more than that.

 

[FrostEel]

So, is it worth buying used computer parts

 

[king smp]

Yes definitley if you are smart and aware of dangers
always try to make sure you see it tested if possible

Working at Radioshack as a manager for 8 years
Iearned that electronics if they make it through the first 90
days or so
will last a long time if not abused
for example if they are overheated or subject to electrical surges
otherwise any defects will show in the first six months or earlier
I have video cards from 2004 still working fine

if he is a good friend than that makes it better
he shouldnt mind if you install and test it
If I am selling to friends I usually will give a three day defective return
guarantee as long as item is not abused

 

[king smp]

BTW the I have bought
E4300
E4500
7600GS GPU
4 sticks of DDR2-800 GSkill
mobos
ATI X1300
all used on Craiglist over the years
and they all work fine to this day

just remember "Buyer Beware"
especially when buying from strangers

 

[jaguarskx]

As long as your friend didn't further overclock the HD 6870 and it RMA's the video card on your behalf (you pay the shipping) if the HD 6870 fails under warranty, then it's a good deal.

As with most brand names, the warrant does not transfer when sold 2nd hand... XFX is a heretic to this standard policy though (only in the US).

 

[the fong]

Give it a quick test, as long as it works fine, you shouldn't have issue. I've been using a second hand q9550 cpu for years now, bought it off a mate who special ordered it right before the i7's dropped, his mobo died after 2 months, so he went the x58 upgrade path, the cpu has been running like a beast for years

 

[phishy714]

It is a great deal. I would test the card out first though. Plug it in, update drivers and all that and just run a benchmark - I normally just let Unigine Heaven run in stress mode for about half an hour and if its still going, the card is just fine.

As for the PSU, that's a bit harder to test, but that psu has gotten good reviews from what I have briefly seen, so you should be ok with it too. Once again, I would suggest you plug everything in with that PSU and see if the system works with that benchmark for a while.