Opinions wanted! Buying a used PC via Paypal.

[FuriousFiddler]

Hey there! I've been browsing around this site for the past couple of months and really like the community and the incredibly useful input that everyone gives. So I decided I would go ahead and make my first thread here and see what everyone thinks.

The Situation:

I found a guy on reddit that has high karma and has been on reddit for over a year. He posted and add in hardwareswap. He is selling off his setup so he can get something more practical for college. He has confirmed trades and relatively high karma.

I looked into his posting history and he ran into a startup issue about a month ago.

"Hey as the title states, my computer turns on, doesn't post, and then shuts down before restarting to do the same thing. If I force it off a blue led flashes on the motherboard. The only way I can replicate this is by letting the computer shut down normally then waiting a few hours (usually sleeping) before starting it up. The only fix is to flip the switch on the power supply and then fire it up normally. This never happened before OS X. I called MSI support and they told me to change from UEFI to UEFI+Legacy to see if that fixed it. (It didn't). I feared that it might have been the UEFIPatch modification to the bios, so I flashed the stock bios and will test it when I get home from work. Any ideas? I've reset cmos and reseated everything. Like I said this never happened running Linux or windows. I've also noticed that when its in the loop of not starting, the led on the gpu (xfx logo) flickers a bit." - Seller

Question 1:
He says the issue was from his PSU. I'm not the best with computers, just learned some basics from my father. Would a PSU cause this issue?


Now onto the setup! This is the rig. http://pcpartpicker.com/p/JWy6ZL

I'm getting this for $400 less than what I could find online.

Question 2: Is it worth the potential risk?

Finally, this guy has been very courteous. He is obviously very tech savvy, works at a computer repair shop, and wants to use Paypal exclusively. (No he has not sent me random links to my email)

He has also posted videos, pictures, and specs of his computer.

General question: What should I look out for with this potential purchase? As far as $ to power ratio is this a good choice? Has anyone here experienced a similar situation that went sour? Or has anyone had a similar situation that's been positive?

Any input or comments would be appreciated! Thank you for reading this long post. If you have any ?'s or want some links to the build just let me know!

FYI- I've take screenshots of all our conversations, pictures posted, the video he sent. We've exchanged #'s.

 

[COLGeek]

If this was a simple as just replacing the PSU, the seller would so do and have a system even more desirable to sell. I would also assume that PSU is still under warranty, too.

The risk here is rather high. I would recommend you pass. However, you could offer a much less than asking price and take your chances.

Good luck!

 

[FuriousFiddler]

Yea...someone just showed me this.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/txDbQ7

Fans can be made compatible.

 

[COLGeek]

I would simply move along on this deal. Just my $0.02.

 

[FuriousFiddler]

If this was a simple as just replacing the PSU, the seller would so do and have a system even more desirable to sell. I would also assume that PSU is still under warranty, too.

The risk here is rather high. I would recommend you pass. However, you could offer a much less than asking price and take your chances.

Good luck!

Any thoughts on building this instead?
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/fdNkK8

Just wondering how the temperatures would hold up in this. I found a very similar build. However, there weren't any readings of temps during gameplay. I would push the CPU to 4.4

 

[FuriousFiddler]

I would simply move along on this deal. Just my $0.02.

I'm going to. There is not point when I can build my own. ( I haven't in almost 5 years)
In addition, the 980 sc is barely and improvement from a normal 980. And a 970 can be clocked to almost hit 980 performance levels.

Along with the additional VRAM and power of the r295x2 I could future proof for years. Instead of my awful plan of just buying another 980 a year from now..

Within an hour of my post I just answered a weeks worth of browsing.

I love this website!

 

[COLGeek]

Nice build. Should perform quite well.

 

[FuriousFiddler]

Nice build. Should perform quite well.

Should I have any issues with cooling? Also, will an i5 4690k bottleneck a 295x2?

 

[COLGeek]

The system will run hot but should be manageable. Might get loud under load.

You should have no bottleneck issues.

Just be patient cramming all of that into the relatively small case.

 

[ssddx]

the elite 130 sucks in air directly from the side into the gpu so cooling is not as horrible as you would think despite the size. i'd think about running nvidia instead though (970 or 980) to keep things cooler. well that and running 2x4gb of ram instead of a single stick.

instead of the elite 130, take a look at the corsair 250d. a little larger but also a bit more spacious (yet still small). i'd suggest using a aio water cooler to help out on space as well.

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as above, for only $400 less than new i'd also pass on the deal on reddit. if he offered you more (enough to do a motherboard replacement and still have saved $400-500 off retail then maybe). based on his history i'm thinking he is having issues with the pc and wants to offload it more so than he wants to build something more economical for school. building yourself is the safest route.

 

[FuriousFiddler]

the elite 130 sucks in air directly from the side into the gpu so cooling is not as horrible as you would think despite the size. i'd think about running nvidia instead though (970 or 980) to keep things cooler. well that and running 2x4gb of ram instead of a single stick.

instead of the elite 130, take a look at the corsair 250d. a little larger but also a bit more spacious (yet still small). i'd suggest using a aio water cooler to help out on space as well.

---

as above, for only $400 less than new i'd also pass on the deal on reddit. if he offered you more (enough to do a motherboard replacement and still have saved $400-500 off retail then maybe). based on his history i'm thinking he is having issues with the pc and wants to offload it more so than he wants to build something more economical for school. building yourself is the safest route.

Did you do some research into his profile? 😉

I'm assuming he tried putting too much custom work into it and burned out one of his main components. He had his i5-4690k at 4.5 (According to him) on only air. Built well, but I'm assuming he had it above 80 and thought it was fine due to his voltage reading.

I wanted to go with a gtx. But I did a lot of research into them and I'm not really digging them. I want to upgrade later. Then I looked into life expectancy, power, sli, all that jazz. And the r295x2 would be a more economical start for what I am looking for. Nothing against Nvidia. I love their hardware, service, and product. I just want more power and vram. I don't think the price is worth the difference in power between their products.

In short, I can buy a r295x2 for the same price of a 980ti. And the r295x2 is better than a titan in almost all performance tests. Sure I need better cooling and a nicer PSU. But why go with a 980 when I know I will want another one within another year. Additionally, I'm guessing the price of buying one now and then another one a year later will be around the same price of a r295x2.

I see a lot of debate on the 980sli vs. r295x2.
Majority rule is the 980sli is better in anything under 4k.
However, both would max out 1440p.
So, I don't see any issue with saving money ahead of time.


I like that case quite a bit. I've got a friend convincing me to go with a mid-tower at the moment. I think the novelty of a mini is getting in the way of what my goal is. I just have an ugly case at the moment.

 

[ssddx]

the only reason i suggested nvidia is for cooling purposes in a small case. while the 250d and elite130 both have gpu sucking air in from the side (which gives it the coolest air it can get) dual and tri fan designs also exhaust some of this into the case and not all out the back which means a hotter gpu would still increase temperatures inside. dont get me wrong, you can run hot cards in those cases, i was just suggesting something which would keep your temps lower.

mini towers are good if you need to travel with the case or have no room for a bigger tower. however if you want upgrade options, better cooling and the ability to actually sli/cf you need at least m-atx motherboard support (mid tower cases). your call ultimately.