just wondering if anyone has any experience buying a pc or laptop on ebay because at the moment I am looking to replace my pc that died on me.

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If it's just us, it seems like an awful waste of space.
Contact Carl Sagan

I kept my eyes open and when Dell advertised a laptop for £300, I bought it.
Extraordinary long spiel from the call centre guy, trying to sell me add-ons, hard-, soft- and vapour-ware (insurance), THEN the same from the supervisor, but to no avail. I got my not-bare-bones laptop for that much!

The speil made me think that the price was a mistake, as I didn't get the same when I ordered a desktop previously, and I've never seen Dell advertise one as cheap again.
I would recommend them though - their aftersales, call centre advice is good.

John

I wouldn't recommend eBay for PCs when there are plenty of cheap alternatives. The profit margin on computer hardware is so small anyway. The only way ebay PC hardware sellers can make profit is by using dodgy parts.

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Climate Change Australia

Just take one look at the shipping costs of a computer on eBay, and you'll know where they make the money. Total ripoff IMO.

Since you're in Canada David, I'd recommend checking out http://www.ncix.com/

They have awsome prices, and if you pick out the components that you want, they'll even put it together for you for $25-50, depending on the cost of your purchase. If you're not into the whole customized scene, then as John had mentioned, get yourself a Dell. They're prices are pretty hard to beat.

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Obedience brings victory
Victory is life
That is the order of things

If you do go Dell, however, you need to be certain that the machine is going to come with enough RAM. The reason Dells are so inexpensive (and cheap, frankly) is that they short the RAM, trusting that you'll have no choice but to ship the machine back to them (at your dime, both ways) for an expensive upgrade. Remember, Dell's warranty says you can't do even trivial upgrades by yourself.

Assuming you'll be using Windows XP, Dell will ship 256 megs onboard. XP's requirements are 512 megs before you're running any software efficiently. 1 Gig of RAM is plenty for nearly everybody.

Don't be afraid to go with Dell's lower end machines to save money. Most of the features they advertise are just spec-toys for inexperienced "heat seekers". Unless you're a serious gamer, any machine currently sold today, from anyone, will be more than adequate to your needs, so long as it has enough RAM.

If you're a casual gamer, consider making sure the video card is either by ATI or by NVidia. Anything by either of these companies will do the job. Even the budget cards. But relying on the as-shipped onboard video support tends to be inadequate for any sort of gaming whatsoever. If you're not gaming, however, onboard video support is plenty.

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In Fallout 3, 'happiness' is a warm junkyard dog and a loaded gun. It's mostly the loaded gun.
- Moose's one-line review.

"your going to regret that one. You are now a colonoscope...
- Chrissy, corrupting PraedSt's wish.

thanks for the advice I am mor leaning going somewhere like future shop to get my new pc but just been hearing praises for ebay at work so I needed a second opinion, the real debate is whether to get a laptop or not and that is more a budget issue.

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If it's just us, it seems like an awful waste of space.
Contact Carl Sagan

One thing is hard drive space and most models i am seeing have more then enough to partition a couple od times for different operating systems.

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If it's just us, it seems like an awful waste of space.
Contact Carl Sagan

Another thing to be aware of is Dell's use of proprietary hardware. Should, for example, your system board die (as mine did), you can only replace it with a Dell board, since the case will accept no other. Combine that with insufficient, or non-existant, expansion slots and you have a bit of a lemon. My Dell worked well up until the lightning strike that killed it, but it was a constant source of annoyance that I couldn't upgrade it with a better video card.

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You could also look at iBuyPower.com...

I configured one from there last year and haven't had any problems with it
at all...

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LifeTime Gamer

I'd say it depends. Do you want to buy a brand new computer, laptop or desktop? I'd say don't bother with Ebay. Either build your own, or if you aren't able to do that, purchase on from a retailer such as Dell, Best Buy, etc. You can get plenty of good deals if you shop around.

If you are looking for older hardware, however, Ebay is a good place to go. I got my 800Mhz PIII laptop off Ebay for about $150 shipped. I didn't want to spend $800-$1500 on a new laptop with the ports I needed (it's getting hard to find serial and parallel ports on most new, cheap laptops) and I didn't need much hardware to run the software I was planning to use on it (custom engine management diagnostic and programming software that doesn't take anything higher than a regular Pentium to run).

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DOOM Master

I could build my own,from my old system I have two cd burners, a 40 gig hard drive, a sound card and video card, what I need to upgrade is motherboard and cpu power supply and ram ( for cpu I want a least duo core so I do not have up grade for at least a couple years), mostly what I want is have a machine that runs either one version of windows and linux and maybe dos for some really old games but enjoy once and while. The only reason I was thinking laptop is portablity but all my old hardware would go to waste.

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If it's just us, it seems like an awful waste of space.
Contact Carl Sagan

I assemble all my own hardware because I am a total nerd, but my mother bought a Dell and has been very impressed with it. They have very good support service and at one point came out within a day or so to replace a power supply that had a loud fan. Their cases are very good. They have a special heat pipe system to avoid the use of loud HSFs. Even if you pay an extra $150 for a full gig of RAM, Dell works out reasonably cheap. Wait around for the special deals that come and go periodically.

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Climate Change Australia

has any body bought a pc on ebay?

No, but I have used any pc (in this case, a friend's) to buy a body on ebay.

Cadavers are so expensive these days, and the quality isn't what it used to be.

Plus, once you remove the cover you find out that many generic parts are missing or have been replaced by proprietary substitutes.

Try teaching an anatomy class with a stiff that has no gall bladder or has a mechanical heart.

Best to shop at the morgue, where you can trust the generic version you get is complete and was fully-functional.


BTW, the same advice applies to buying PCs.

Unless you have no OS and/or essential productivity software, and its inclusion with the PC package makes the deal a real value, then, instead, go generic. It's nice to know exactly what you have. It's even better to know that it's upgradeable.

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What model was that?

I had a Dimension 4100 back in 1999 that worked like a dream through Thanksgiving 2005 that went through numerous personal overhauls, including two replaced hard drives, four AGP cards, three RAM upgrades, and two Soundblaster Soundcards.

I hadn't realized Dell was still doing that, or I'd have mentionned it.

We have a whole bunch of Dells in my department. Our previous batch (P400s) had cases that physically prevent standard cards from being added or removed from the expansion slots. Short of grinding off parts of the case and/or card, that is.

Our current ones (1.2Ghz) accept add-ons. Supplies and Services found me an old PCI TNT2 card to drive my second monitor.

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In Fallout 3, 'happiness' is a warm junkyard dog and a loaded gun. It's mostly the loaded gun.
- Moose's one-line review.

"your going to regret that one. You are now a colonoscope...
- Chrissy, corrupting PraedSt's wish.

I dun' know. I've bought my last three computers off e-Bay and all three were Dells and all three great computers.

Thing is, I've never needed the most recent model. When I'm ready to upgrade, I check out e-Bay, spend about a 2 to 3 weeks bidding on computers I like until I get one for a reasonable price.

Hmmm. Come to think of it, my whole computer room is by e-Bay!

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Photons have mass? I didn't even know they were Catholic.

Yes.

I purchased a used IBM laptop, years ago, on e-Bay from a private seller (not an e-Bay "company"). I was very happy with it. It was in good working condition (including the battery), and at 1/2 the price of a comparable (albiet newer) model.

I have bought dozens of other items on e-Bay, and only twice did I not get my merchandise -- once for a loss of under $10.00, while the other item was not paid for because the seller did not correspond as to where to send the payment! Strange. I still want that out-of-print book, too!

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