[SOLVED] How can I determine the selling price for my PC?

[Pauwl300]

Hi,

I'm thinking about buying a new PC and if I do that I want to sell my current one. My current system is a 4 year oldprebuilt Acer Aspire TC-780, but I have added a MSI GTX 1050 Ti and an extra stick of 8GB DDR4 2133Hz RAM. It still works perfectly and is still pretty clean from the inside.

Current specs:
CPU: Intel i5-6400
GPU: MSI GTX 1050ti 4GB
RAM: 2x Curcial 8GB DDR4 2133Hz
SSD: Kingston RBU-SNS8151S396GG (96GB)
HDD: WDC WD10EZEX-21WN4A0 (1 TB)

I've thought about searching the price of the Acer Aspire TC-780, but I can't seem to find any price history for it. Also I don't think it's as simple as adding the prices of the individual parts together. So, how can I determine what to sell my PC for. (Also, if it's important for prices, I'm located in The Netherlands).

 

[DSzymborski]

If you're trying to sell it as one unit, then finding the prices of the parts used or similarly performing parts will tend to work, but you generally have to give a significant discount off the total of all the parts. Except for very high-quality rigs, a build tends to fetch less in return than parsing out the parts one-by-one; think of it as the price you pay for unloading everything at once, including the less desirable parts. There will also be a hit for this being a prebuilt; its "bones" aren't very good.

 

[doolittle]

I would look at new entry level gaming pcs like this HP Pavilion for $700, and ask $350 for yours - despite having 16gb and ssd/hdd they have some miles on it and you will want to have serious offers for it

 

[MJS WARLORD]

Hi a suggestion for you , do you have space in your home to keep the pc you have now and a new one.
Whenever i buy a new pc i put the one i have been using into a spare room , i then do a clean install and delete all the things i know i will never want.
I then use the spare pc for surfing and for downloading items that i am not sure will cause me a problem.
If downloaded items run ok i put them on my new pc , their is nothing worse than a download messing up a new pc.

WARNING .... if you do sell your current pc as a complete machine instead of parts make sure you remove everything that you would not want somebody else to find , the best way to do that would be a clean install , also when you hand over the pc you must remember to tell the new owner that it will run slow for a while because the machine will have to re-install all the windows updates , that will take a long time and the machine may run slow whilst it is doing this.

 

[Pauwl300]

Hi a suggestion for you , do you have space in your home to keep the pc you have now and a new one.
Whenever i buy a new pc i put the one i have been using into a spare room , i then do a clean install and delete all the things i know i will never want.
I then use the spare pc for surfing and for downloading items that i am not sure will cause me a problem.
If downloaded items run ok i put them on my new pc , their is nothing worse than a download messing up a new pc.

WARNING .... if you do sell your current pc as a complete machine instead of parts make sure you remove everything that you would not want somebody else to find , the best way to do that would be a clean install , also when you hand over the pc you must remember to tell the new owner that it will run slow for a while because the machine will have to re-install all the windows updates , that will take a long time and the machine may run slow whilst it is doing this.

I have considered that yes, but I kind of need the money for the new PC. I haven't yet figured out how I'm gonna do all this. Because I wouldn't want to go a long time without any PC at all, but I also don't want to sell it very late after buying the new one. I'm still far from sure if I'm even gonna buy a new PC yet so I have enough time to think about it.

I still have a crappy laptop from some years ago so I might use that for risky downloads.

 

[Pauwl300]

I would look at new entry level gaming pcs like this HP Pavilion for $700, and ask $350 for yours - despite having 16gb and ssd/hdd they have some miles on it and you will want to have serious offers for it

That's a very good suggestion, thank you!

 

[Pauwl300]

If you're trying to sell it as one unit, then finding the prices of the parts used or similarly performing parts will tend to work, but you generally have to give a significant discount off the total of all the parts. Except for very high-quality rigs, a build tends to fetch less in return than parsing out the parts one-by-one; think of it as the price you pay for unloading everything at once, including the less desirable parts. There will also be a hit for this being a prebuilt; its "bones" aren't very good.

Would a discount of 50% be enough, too little or too much?

 

[kanewolf]

Would a discount of 50% be enough, too little or too much?

Also look at SOLD items on e-bay. For example, there is an i5-6400 with an RX560 that sold for $300. So I would say that $300 to $350 is possible. Will you be able to get that ? Unknown.

 

[geofelt]

Find your pc on ebay in used condition.
Filter on completed auctions.
In green, you will see what a similar unit actually sold for.

It might be best to sell locally if you can. Shipping a heavy case can eat up your return.

In what way is your pc not doing the job?
Perhaps you can simply upgrade it.

 

[MJS WARLORD]

A store known as pc world in England has stores all over the world , in different countries they are known by different names , if you have one in the Netherlands and money is a bit tight you could try the following.

In England they sell reconditioned machines , they are usually machines that have gone faulty under warranty , they are then sent away to be repaired , under the sales of goods act because they have been repaired they must be what is known as " fit for purpose " , in actual fact because of the fit for purpose phrase your consumer rights are actually stronger than if a new machine proved to be faulty.

 

[Pauwl300]

Find your pc on ebay in used condition.
Filter on completed auctions.
In green, you will see what a similar unit actually sold for.

It might be best to sell locally if you can. Shipping a heavy case can eat up your return.

In what way is your pc not doing the job?
Perhaps you can simply upgrade it.

I'm starting to play games more competitively recently and I really want to be able to run 144 FPS for eSports titles and also more modern titles at atleast 60 FPS on med-high settings, maybe even high-ultra. My current PC can't reach 144 fps on even a game like CS:GO and I can just barely run Battlefield V at 60 FPS on the lowest settings, and a low resolution.

I've considered simply upgrading, but I'd rather not be limited by my current PC. For example, say I want to upgrade to 4 RAM sticks, that wouldn't be possible with my current motherboard. Also, I don't really know how reliable this PC's PSU is. I didn't really care for it at first, but now that I'm considering way more expensive parts (made this list: https://nl.pcpartpicker.com/list/YhYDMv not set on buying it or anything just trying to get an idea of a build) it's important to me to have a reliable PSU. I've also heard about motherboards limiting CPU and RAM performance. At this point, I'd have to upgrade almost everything, so I might as well build an entirely new one myself.

 

[geofelt]

Games, particularly at higher resolutions are primarily limited by the graphics card.
Consider buying your graphics card upgrade first and see how you do.
Likely, you would also need to upgrade the psu.
Here is a handy chart as to what you might need:
http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm

Try his simple test:
Run YOUR games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
This makes the graphics card loaf a bit.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.

Your i5-6400 has 4 threads and a passmark rating of 5157. That is when all 4 threads are fully busy.
The single thread rating is 1974. Single thread performance is usually the better metric for gaming, particularly for single threaded games like CSGO.
Your strongest upgrade is likely to be a i7-7700K with 8 threads and a rating of 9708/2764.
Most games can only make effective use of 4-6 threads.
Your 3600 upgrade processor would have 12 threads and a rating of 17866/2585.
Probably comparable gaming performance compared to a 7700K.

On ram, do not chase 4 sticks.
ryzen and intel are dual channel so there is no benefit from 4.
Intel does not need fast ram for performance. 2133 is fine.
Ryzen does need fast ram to perform at top speed, 3600 or so.

If you are considering a cpu upgrade, look at the $120 10th gen i3-10100.
It has 8 threads and a rating of 8949/2648.
Lest you think it is not a gamer, look at this review, particularly for 1440P gaming:
https://www.techpowerup.com/review/intel-core-i3-10100/16.html

 

[Pauwl300]

Games, particularly at higher resolutions are primarily limited by the graphics card.
Consider buying your graphics card upgrade first and see how you do.
Likely, you would also need to upgrade the psu.
Here is a handy chart as to what you might need:
http://www.realhardtechx.com/index_archivos/Page362.htm

Try his simple test:
Run YOUR games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
This makes the graphics card loaf a bit.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.

Your i5-6400 has 4 threads and a passmark rating of 5157. That is when all 4 threads are fully busy.
The single thread rating is 1974. Single thread performance is usually the better metric for gaming, particularly for single threaded games like CSGO.
Your strongest upgrade is likely to be a i7-7700K with 8 threads and a rating of 9708/2764.
Most games can only make effective use of 4-6 threads.
Your 3600 upgrade processor would have 12 threads and a rating of 17866/2585.
Probably comparable gaming performance compared to a 7700K.

On ram, do not chase 4 sticks.
ryzen and intel are dual channel so there is no benefit from 4.
Intel does not need fast ram for performance. 2133 is fine.
Ryzen does need fast ram to perform at top speed, 3600 or so.

If you are considering a cpu upgrade, look at the $120 10th gen i3-10100.
It has 8 threads and a rating of 8949/2648.
Lest you think it is not a gamer, look at this review, particularly for 1440P gaming:
https://www.techpowerup.com/review/intel-core-i3-10100/16.html

I've run your test a while ago already and I did come to the conclusion that I'm definitely CPU limited.

I've been recommended the Ryzen 5 3600 by a friend a while ago, but in the tests from the review it seems to be performing worse than the i3-10100 you mentioned, despite the Ryzen being way more expensive. Why is the Ryzen so much more expensive when it performs worse? Also, what GPU were those tests run with? The results seem way too high to me for a $120 cpu. I know expensive doesn't mean better, but it still all seems weird to me. I'm sorry if this is a stupid question, but I don't know much about building PC's yet.

 

[geofelt]

The tests were run with a RTX2080ti.
Probably the strongest card available to them at the time.
The intent was to reduce as much as possible the graphics card impact on the tests.

Ryzen , or amd, for that matter has always offered more threads than intel.
A reasonable thing to do if your focus is batch processing where all threads can be fully occupied. I would not characterize ryzen performance as worse. It is quite similar with more focus on fully loaded multithreaded apps.
If your games are multiplayer with many participants, then many threads can be very important.

I think today is not a good time to buy new.
The best parts are in short supply and command a premium over msrp.
That applies to the 3000 series cards as well.
You probably want one of them like a 3070 for 1440P gaming.
Today, the best ryzen upgrade is a 5600x. The boost in IPC(instructions per clock) is impressive.
But, this month will also bring intel 11th gen. Unconfirmed leaks indicate a similar boost in IPC

On your partpicker build:
No need for an aftermarket cooler, 3600 comes win one, as does i3-10100.

With ryzen, that ram should be 3600 speed for best performance.

With ssd prices low, I would not buy a HDD.
Look for a 1tb ssd. Perhaps even 2tb.

Case looks good, as does the psu.

2060 super is probably not enough for what you want to do at 1440P.

 

[Mherrmann2]

If you can, sell on your local market place. Say shipping the thing would cost $40+ to do it right, and 10% from ebay, and 3% from paypal. Not to mention if you have the listing up for more than a month because of renewal fees. If you sell it for 350, you'll pay about 50 from fees, the buyer will pay 40 from shipping. Thats 90 and you walk away with 300, versus making back an extra 90 if you sell local like on offer up or craigslist. Now is a good time to sell because you could get back what you originally paid for it.

 

[Pauwl300]

The tests were run with a RTX2080ti.
Probably the strongest card available to them at the time.
The intent was to reduce as much as possible the graphics card impact on the tests.

Ryzen , or amd, for that matter has always offered more threads than intel.
A reasonable thing to do if your focus is batch processing where all threads can be fully occupied. I would not characterize ryzen performance as worse. It is quite similar with more focus on fully loaded multithreaded apps.
If your games are multiplayer with many participants, then many threads can be very important.

I think today is not a good time to buy new.
The best parts are in short supply and command a premium over msrp.
That applies to the 3000 series cards as well.
You probably want one of them like a 3070 for 1440P gaming.
Today, the best ryzen upgrade is a 5600x. The boost in IPC(instructions per clock) is impressive.
But, this month will also bring intel 11th gen. Unconfirmed leaks indicate a similar boost in IPC

On your partpicker build:
No need for an aftermarket cooler, 3600 comes win one, as does i3-10100.

With ryzen, that ram should be 3600 speed for best performance.

With ssd prices low, I would not buy a HDD.
Look for a 1tb ssd. Perhaps even 2tb.

Case looks good, as does the psu.

2060 super is probably not enough for what you want to do at 1440P.

Ah okay, I do play mostly multiplayer games so that's good to know. I'm not really aiming for 1440p gaming right now, because I think it would go too much above my budget (I'd also have to buy a 1440p 144Hz monitor).
Would an RTX 2060 Super suffice for 1080p gaming? As for the Ryzen 5600x, do you think the increase in performance compared to the Ryzen 5 3600 is worth the €100 higher price tag? Or will the Ryzen 5 3600 be good enough for smooth 1080p gaming?

Very good to know about the cooler by the way, thanks!

Even with the SSD prices low I still think I'd go with what I have now. I kinda want more than 1 TB of storage at least and the 2 TB SSDs are really expensive, don't feel like it's worth it. Still thanks for the suggestion.

When do you think CPU prices will stabilize? Would it be after the launch of the Intel 11th gen you mentioned?

Also, I've heard that there might be an RTX 3050 coming, would it be wise to wait for that card and maybe buy it instead of the 2060 Super? I know that there's not much know about the 3050 yet, but do you think it'd be better than the 2060 Super?