Gateway Parts

Building a computer from used parts?

I'm looking to save a little bit of money this year, so I've decided to construct my computer entirely from used parts purchased off of Ebay. Does anyone have any experience doing this? Is it worth the hundreds of dollars saved?

Public Comments

1. lol dont use real part use part in between leg ;}
2. The real benefit of assembling your own computer is that you can do it over time, as your finances permit. In the olden days (before the year 2000) you really could save a lot of money assembling your own computer from parts that you buy from various sources (including 'mom & pop' computer shops, 'brick and mortar' electronics retailers, and online computer parts retailers). But now, with kick-butt systems that run as low as $498 (+ tax) --- from places like Walmart, it's really hard to save much with the DIY method of assembling a computer. Thus, as I stated at the beginning, the only real benefit of building your own system is that you can buy really great parts over a span of time --- so that your wallet won't be decimated all in one go.
3. Not worth it. You'll end up paying more on shipping cost than the price of the actual item. Besides, if the part is defective, you'll have to reship it to the seller.
4. I built my first computer like that, I got everything except the CPU and video card off ebay. It's a good way to go, the only thing I would recommend buying new is the motherboard.
5. I would advise you not to because you dont know what could be wrong with the part and diagnosing the problem is tedious task. You do however save money building a PC and all the individual parts are covered under Manufacture warranty. Your best bet is to find out what you want to do with this PC. Dont let some of these guys fool you. You can get a decent PC and be able to play most games nowadays without the need for a monster PC. You could look into Barebone kits which will have a good bit of the parts selected for u. But if u want to do it yourself all the way I would suggest that you dont be cheap when choosing a motherboard and Ram because those are the 2 most important things for your machine. Then comes Video Card but you can find one for a decent price
6. yea what they said, but there is satisfaction in building one!
7. Seems no one here has experience in this lol The only right thing said was, dont buy computer stuff on ebay, which is the best advice you can get lol I would not get any parts from ebay, period... People really dont know how to take care of things, really overprice things based on age/use, there is no warranty, no support, etc. Building your own for the most part will save you money, BUT if you are going really cheap, it may be better to buy an already built one that has no graphics then add a graphics card. As those computer will come with a legit copy of windows. Now if you have a legit windows disc already you can use, then by all mean build your own. When going for budget, use ANYTHING you can form older computer. -case (though if its a branded computer like dell/hp, those cases arnt too good for airflow, you will want a new one) -hard drive -optical drive (dvd drive) -keyboard/mouse -speakers -operating system Then hit u an online retailer like newegg, tigerdirect, etc and start buying parts. Remember to look for combo deals, that might save you a few bucks aswell. If i knew your budget and what you need/dont need (that you can reuse from another computer from list above) i could give you some choices which would be good. And the most important parts in a computer are not motherboard or ram, those are some of the least, down there with the hdd and dvd drive. you can get any ram as long as the motherboard supports it, and your motherboard can be the cheapest one, as long as you dont need features of higher priced ones (like multi video card support, lots of overclocking ability, etc. you dont need that on budget computers). Really the cpu/graphics card are the most important things you should spend the most money on. The cpu and graphics pretty much determine majority of the performance of your computer. Case is very important, not only is it the main look of your computer, it is what need to provide the airflow to keep everything running cool, which prolongs the life of the components. Also overheating causes lots of problems. (when buying cheaper cases you usually have to add more fans, as they usually only come with 1). The psu is pretty important, but on a cheap computer, its ok to get a cheaper psu. But you dont really want to go with the extremely cheap ones, like 600W for $9 type of thing. Id say spend like $30-40 on a psu. motherboard/ram are important, but you can buy the cheapest of either and be fine as long as everything is compatible. But you do want to look at a few things on a motherboard. One is make absolutely sure the motherboard supports your exact processor. if it says phenom II, it doesnt mean EVERY phenom II. go to the manufacturer site to make sure. Also try to get the one with the newest chipset in your budget. Like take an 880G amd chipset over a 760G if they are around the same price. As older chipsets may have problems running on newer OS and with newer hard ware. and less features. hdd/dvd drive you can pretty much get w/e. just get a hdd with enough space on it to cover what you need it for.
8. you have to make sure you properly research and spec your parts to make sure that it will work with your OS of choice (which must be the full retail version of windows, not oem). for instance, if you are buying a video card, and you are going to run windows 7, then you want a directx11 card if possible. and a NIC that is windows 7 certified and a RECENT motherboard if you don't want your audio or video and network communications de-res'd by windows 7's Output Protection Manager. sometimes you can get a bad/defective hardware. my mother bought a laptop from ebay and it had one keycap gone. this defect was not in the advertisement. cost to replace keyboard: $200. the bad part about this is, if you haven't bought all the parts and are testing them all at once within the DOA return policy period of time, then you are going to suffer the loss of your cash + gas to take the bad hardware to the local computer recycle place. you also have to probably pick up your own drivers and manual, because they may not supply a driver disc to you. so you are going to need use of a computer and internet service in order to build the computer. think: you have to get on ebay, research, download... I would not use mobile wireless to do this if you can avoid it!