Was my dad swindled when he purchased my PC?

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Stelladevania

Stelladevania

Dec 22, 2019
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My dad bought a PC 2-3 years ago for my sister for around $540. When i asked what's the specs, they just answed intel i5, 16gb RAM, and nvidia with 2gb of VRAM. So i didn't think too much of it. (I was actually quite amazed they built a PC with those specs for only that price, thinking those specs they talked about were newer components. I thought it was 16gb of DDR4).
My sister bought a laptop, so she never uses the PC anymore. So i was planning on upgrading it, scrap the parts i can still use and exchange the rest and use it for myself. So i cracked open the case, checked the components and i was SHOOKETH. Okay excuse the spelling but i was really shocked at how old those components are.

Here's the specs:
Cpu: I5 2400
Gpu: Nvidia geforce Gt 710
Mobo: Biostar h61
Ram: 16gb ddr3 665mhz (8x2)
Storage: Seagate 500gb
Kingston Ssd 120gb
Unbranded psu
Super cheap fans that you can buy for $1 (i'm serious!)
Super cheap case that's probably less than $10
Super cheap genius keyboard and mouse
Monitor: Lg 20mp48a

These components, today, can be bought for like $180 TOTAL (excluding the monitor, but then again, that monitor used is only $20). That's less than my speakers ALONE! Selling the whole thing would only get me like $120 if i can even sell it and that's not even enough to buy a processor!

So, was my dad swindled? I know that prices drop but a $540 to $180 in just 2-3 years? Pretty sure they should've only paid $300 for those specs even back then.

And now i'm confused, i was planning on buying just the Mobo, processor, and NVMe SSDs first, maybe the PSU and cooler too. but it doesn't seem like i can use anything at all. I have to ditch the whole thing.
 
it has been my experience that many computers sold to people are way overpriced. still the same today.

Check out PC Part Picker and spec yourself a nice system
 
"Pretty sure they should've only paid $300 for those specs even back then." But did they go out and spec the parts out to see what would work together and the shop around for the best prices and the assemble and test the machine? My guess is someone else did all of that work and probably wanted to be paid for it and add in a bit of profit and there's your$500.

So, no, your father didn't get swindled.
 
Mandark said:
it has been my experience that many computers sold to people are way overpriced. still the same today.

Check out PC Part Picker and spec yourself a nice system
Click to expand...

Yeah.. I was actually thinking of getting a graphic tablet first. I thought it was gonna be faster than my laptop, but now it doesn't seem like it's worth it. Gosh i wanna strangle the person who sold it to my dad.
 
Stelladevania said:
My dad bought a PC 2-3 years ago for my sister for around $540. When i asked what's the specs, they just answed intel i5, 16gb RAM, and nvidia with 2gb of VRAM. So i didn't think too much of it. (I was actually quite amazed they built a PC with those specs for only that price, thinking those specs they talked about were newer components. I thought it was 16gb of DDR4).
My sister bought a laptop, so she never uses the PC anymore. So i was planning on upgrading it, scrap the parts i can still use and exchange the rest and use it for myself. So i cracked open the case, checked the components and i was SHOOKETH. Okay excuse the spelling but i was really shocked at how old those components are.

Here's the specs:
Cpu: I5 2400
Gpu: Nvidia geforce Gt 710
Mobo: Biostar h61
Ram: 16gb ddr3 665mhz (8x2)
Storage: Seagate 500gb
Kingston Ssd 120gb
Unbranded psu
Super cheap fans that you can buy for $1 (i'm serious!)
Super cheap case that's probably less than $10
Super cheap genius keyboard and mouse
Monitor: Lg 20mp48a

These components, today, can be bought for like $180 TOTAL (excluding the monitor, but then again, that monitor used is only $20). That's less than my speakers ALONE! Selling the whole thing would only get me like $120 if i can even sell it and that's not even enough to buy a processor!

So, was my dad swindled? I know that prices drop but a $540 to $180 in just 2-3 years? Pretty sure they should've only paid $300 for those specs even back then.

And now i'm confused, i was planning on buying just the Mobo, processor, and NVMe SSDs first, maybe the PSU and cooler too. but it doesn't seem like i can use anything at all. I have to ditch the whole thing.
Click to expand...

That doesn't sound unreasonable for 3 years ago- remember 3 years ago was before Ryzen came out so a top end i7 was only 4 cores.... A lot of older parts have depreciated quite a bit since higher core count options have become standard recently.
 
Honestly at the bare min If your in the US look on craigslist or offerup get a used Nvidia 780 $60.00 or a 970 $75.00 Ati Rx 470/480 $60-80 you just made computer playable.

Than stop there start saving on the side for a whole new system in the near future.

Would I have paid what your Dad did no but I don't think he out right got taken to the cleaners.
 
The computer must have performed as expected since you didn't find it neccessary to check what the exact components were immediately after you brought it back home.

The people who sold the PCcould have been more specific, I agree, but I also believe the buyer has a part of the responsibility to make sure that the product you are about to buy meets your expectations.
 
MadsModsat said:
The computer must have performed as expected since you didn't find it neccessary to check what the exact components were immediately after you brought it back home.

The people who sold the PCcould have been more specific, I agree, but I also believe the buyer has a part of the responsibility to make sure that the product you are about to buy meets your expectations.
Click to expand...
Yeah, if i was the one who bought it i would've compared prices from store to store. And i would've googled which ones are in my budget to narrow down the search. But not everyone do that, my sister probably thought an i5 is better than an i3 no matter what and she probably didn't even know AMD exists. This is a very typical store trick, they trick the consumers into thinking that something is soooo much better when in reality they just wanna mine some free cash from the ignorant. It's funny how just a few years ago people were afraid of fraud in online shopping, when in reality fraud in offline shopping have been happening for decades.
 
I find the methods of the original sellers very unsympathetic, and I would have been very dissatisfied as well.

My mom for instance, wouldn't have been able to do that kind of research either, and she would have beleived the sellers as well - so I can definately understand your sitution and feelings.
But if possible, that's why it's a good idea to ask for help, before spending a lot of money.
 
thx1138v2 said:
"Pretty sure they should've only paid $300 for those specs even back then." But did they go out and spec the parts out to see what would work together and the shop around for the best prices and the assemble and test the machine? My guess is someone else did all of that work and probably wanted to be paid for it and add in a bit of profit and there's your$500.

So, no, your father didn't get swindled.
Click to expand...
A 200% profit, after tricking an old dude into thinking the item's worth his money, when it's not, seems normal to you? Says a lot about your moral compass.
 
It's about the moral compass of the seller.... not anybody commenting on whether or not the deal was good or not. As a buyer, you have to always watch out for sellers selling crap. Your Dad got swindled by a seller with no moral compass. Saying that there are many sellers out there like this says nothing about my moral compass.
 
Stelladevania said:
When i asked what's the specs, they just answed intel i5, 16gb RAM, and nvidia with 2gb of VRAM. So i didn't think too much of it. (I was actually quite amazed they built a PC with those specs for only that price, thinking those specs they talked about were newer components. I thought it was 16gb of DDR4).
Click to expand...

so you asked the specs, were given vague answers, and just went with it and assumed you were getting high end specs for $540? The seller told you the specs and didn’t lie according to the specs you listed were in the PC. Definitely the buyer’s fault here for not further inquiring about the specs. A single question such as “could you be more specific with the parts?” couldve saved you. Or just opening it up.
 
johnsoner13 said:
so you asked the specs, were given vague answers, and just went with it and assumed you were getting high end specs for $540? The seller told you the specs and didn’t lie according to the specs you listed were in the PC. Definitely the buyer’s fault here for not further inquiring about the specs. A single question such as “could you be more specific with the parts?” couldve saved you. Or just opening it up.
Click to expand...
I asked my dad and sister, i wasn't present when they bought it
 
anyways, guys, can i use the gt 710 on msi b450m pro-m2 max with ryzen 2600 for a bit before i buy a proper gpu? Or am i better off buying the 2400g instead?
 
If it was worth it to your dad, then he didn't get swindled.

Lets flip the situation a bit. You go to a garage sale and found a genuine Picasso for $50. Do you tell the owner? Or do you buy it? The owner thinks it's worth $50. So to him $50 is fair. Just something to think about.

Two years ago, memory prices were through the roof. $200 for 16 gigs memory wouldn't be surprising. Intel also had a monopoly. So even base model chips weren't that cheap.

That said, anyone charging more than $350 for it was putting in padding to negotiate or was counting on a sucker. To be honest for the pricing at the time, $250-$300 is more reasonable just because how much memory was. Building a cheap PC was close to impossible.

On a side note: We get asked all the time on a hobby forum "Did we do good for $XYZ?" This is usually a newb, who got a box full of used parts. Truth is they are usually ripped off. But at the time, they thought they were getting a bargain compared to new prices. They were unfortunately comparing apples and oranges.

We say, "If you are happy with your purchase, that is all that matters. But next time try looking here first for advice so you can stretch your dollar and enjoyment more."
 
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Yeah, definitely dishonest tactics to merely say "it's got an i5" when there are like 2 dozen different i5 processors in the Sandy Bridge family https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/codename/29900/sandy-bridge.html

Are you sure that's all the specs they were given, or do they not remember? I want to fair to both sides here, but if the info was not given then the seller was absolutely exploiting the information asymmetry there. Leaving out such information in the hopes that no further questions are asked is not "just business," but dishonest business.
 
Just don't beat your dad up on making a bad dissension. Food for thought. When you young you just want to be heard ............................................when you get older...........You just want to be still relevant.
 
I don't think there was really any "swindling" going on. I wouldn't have expected much more out of a ~$500 complete pre-built computer system including a monitor a few years ago.

At that time quad-core i5s were still the norm for mid-range processors, and per-core performance of processors hasn't exactly increased massively from what an i5-2400 offers. So it was, and still is a reasonably capable processor for many tasks. A current entry-level processor like a Ryzen 2200G is only somewhere around 20-25% faster than that CPU, albeit with notably faster integrated graphics. Of course, in the mid-range, you are looking at 6+ cores now, which has driven down the prices of quad-cores.

And the RAM seems perfectly normal for that processor. While you are seeing "665MHz", the DDR rate should be double that, so it's likely a DDR3-1333 kit, standard for that processor generation.

The piece of hardware I would be most inclined to replace in that system would actually be the GT 710, at least if one intended to play somewhat modern games on it. The card might be fine for general desktop use, and is substantially faster than an i5-2400's integrated graphics, but it's not up to the performance-level of even the integrated graphics of current desktop processors (at least those that include integrated graphics).

So, that's the thing. This is not a "gaming" system. It should offer reasonable performance for most other common desktop tasks though, like browsing the web, watching videos and running typical productivity software. So, it might be worth just keeping the system around for those tasks.

Or, maybe toss a better graphics card in it, and turn it into an entry-level gaming system, so long as the power supply can cope with it. The CPU certainly isn't going to be ideal for gaming, and may hold back some newer titles from getting a solid 60fps, but most modern games would likely run okay at reasonably high settings if paired with something like a GTX 1650 SUPER (around $160). At the very least, that would undoubtedly get you better performance in most games compared to running a current-gen processor with either integrated graphics or a GT 710.
 
Stelladevania said:
Here's the specs:
Cpu: I5 2400
Gpu: Nvidia geforce Gt 710
Mobo: Biostar h61
Ram: 16gb ddr3 665mhz (8x2)
Storage: Seagate 500gb
Kingston Ssd 120gb
Unbranded psu
Super cheap fans that you can buy for $1 (i'm serious!)
Super cheap case that's probably less than $10
Super cheap genius keyboard and mouse
Monitor: Lg 20mp48a
Click to expand...

It wasn't a swindling. The time and effort it takes to build a computer for someone else and trying to make a little profit- pretty much isn't worth it today... so it was more the other way around if you ask me :).
And there are plenty of fine parts on your list - not sure why you would need to throw them away instead of just upgrading the psu,fans,qpu as you see fit. What exactly is wrong with a 500gb hard drive lol.
 
Honestly, I'm not even sure we can say the seller pushed the lines here. If the people who were there buying the PC didn't know much about parts that nothing past "i5" meant anything, it's not unreasonable to think they didn't remember anything past i5.

I try to be careful with the word "swindle" without knowing more. The Michelin-starred chef isn't swindling me because he sold me for $90 the meal I could have made for $25. I'm paying the difference for the expertise required to actually make the meal.

Now, if the company said that it was the latest, greatest PC or that you could play any game on a GT 710, yeah, I'd consider that swindling. But it's hard without knowing exactly what your family was told at the time.
 
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