Inexpensive Assembled PCs on eBay

jo86

Member
Hey forum.
After searching for high performance PC's on eBay, I've recently come across a slew of sellers who offered top performance assembled desktops for ridiculous prices.

10th Gen i9, 10 core with 32GB RAM with 1TB SSD for below 1000€. Looking at one for 935EUR (1150USD). I've seen some from Italy, Germany (I live in France) and the sellers have 10-100k stars with 99% positive ratings.

It's VERY tempting, but I'm still naturally a tad skeptical ofc. In particular about the durability of the machines, but I'm guessing if those really are genuine Intel Core CPUs and components... So I was wondering if anyone here has any first hand experience with those assembled PC sellers, anything I might want to know that I can't tell looking at the ad.
Thanks.
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
The only part that will actually be branded will be the processor most likely. Everything else will be nonbranded, cheap parts. They like using off branded power supplies, ram, and others.
 

jo86

Member
The only part that will actually be branded will be the processor most likely. Everything else will be nonbranded, cheap parts. They like using off branded power supplies, ram, and others.
I figured, yeah. The CPU is genuine, they can't explicitly claim it is on the ad and then it isn't, but I'd be curious to see what hard drives and RAM they use.
 

beers

Moderator
Staff member
I'd be curious to see what hard drives and RAM they use.
99% of prebuilts (even the ones you customize new for 'top tier gaming pc!') use low quality subcomponent parts like MB/RAM/PSU/HDD in order to increase margins.
 

jo86

Member
99% of prebuilts (even the ones you customize new for 'top tier gaming pc!') use low quality subcomponent parts like MB/RAM/PSU/HDD in order to increase margins.
would I be naive then to think, get the PC, enjoy it for a while and then progressively change up the components ? I would swap the RAMs for Corsair/Crucial eventually, swap the HD etc. Is there anything in durability and performance that I'm overlooking in that case ?
 

Darren

Moderator
Staff member
would I be naive then to think, get the PC, enjoy it for a while and then progressively change up the components ? I would swap the RAMs for Corsair/Crucial eventually, swap the HD etc. Is there anything in durability and performance that I'm overlooking in that case ?
It's immensely more cost effective to save more and get something decent from the start. The difference really isn't that much, whereas you're proposing buying everything twice over in the long run.

I'd also take slightly lower specs of higher quality components versus higher specs that are sketchy and liable not to last.
 

beers

Moderator
Staff member
would I be naive then to think, get the PC, enjoy it for a while and then progressively change up the components ? I would swap the RAMs for Corsair/Crucial eventually, swap the HD etc. Is there anything in durability and performance that I'm overlooking in that case ?

Kinda, depends on the upgrade timeline. Eventually an upgrade is inevitable (you don't see anyone still using 486DX, okay maybe like one dude), if you're just upgrading in a year or so then as per @Darren you've essentially wasted money buying the old parts that you're paying again for to swap out.
 

jo86

Member
It's immensely more cost effective to save more and get something decent from the start. The difference really isn't that much, whereas you're proposing buying everything twice over in the long run.

I'd also take slightly lower specs of higher quality components versus higher specs that are sketchy and liable not to last.
Kinda, depends on the upgrade timeline. Eventually an upgrade is inevitable (you don't see anyone still using 486DX, okay maybe like one dude), if you're just upgrading in a year or so then as per @Darren you've essentially wasted money buying the old parts that you're paying again for to swap out.
I see... although the part about spending more I'm not sure. Say I get one of those i9 PCs for 950€. Throw in another 100€ later for a storage HDD, (would transfer my current m.2 for the main drive). Maybe replace the RAM if I'm finding the current ones dodgy, put in 120-150€ for 32GB RAM. I'm around 1200€, no exaggeration. And I got an i9 10 core. Compared with 2000-3000€ PCs (usual price). Unless I'm missing sth. Do you think I'd need to change up the GPU ? I don't play video games. I do handle HD videos though.
 
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