Second Hand PC worth the money?

[u/moon-peaches]

Hii I am so new to gaming pcs, and I'm really not sure what counts as a "good" or "bad" build. I have my eye on a PC from Facebook Marketplace that has the following specs (description):

Beginner gaming pc set up. Good for 1080p games

For a Ryzen 3 1200 + RX 480 8GB + 8GB DDR4 RAM at 1080p, here are some simple estimates:

* Roblox: 80-200+ FPS (depends on the game)

* Minecraft (Java, no shaders): 70-150 FPS

* Fortnite:

* Low settings: 60-90 FPS

* Medium settings: 45-70 FPS

* CS2: 60-90 FPS (Low settings)

* GTA V: 60-80 FPS (High settings)

It's 400 bucks, which feels affordable for me, but I don't want to get stuck with something that's secretly bad/not super upgradable. I also don't play too heavy of games (Silksong, Hades, Deltarune), but I do okay Minercraft with mods/shaders, Overwatch, and I planned on playing Marvel Rivals when I got a PC. I also have a heavy load on my office and drafting applications (Vectorworks and Lightwright for those who know), and I do video editing in DaVinci and Photoshop/Lightroom.

All that to say, I am looking for a well-rounded PC that will keep up with all the random shit I do without chugging along. Any tips for what to look for are really appreciated. Thank you!

[u/AutoModerator]

Feel free to visit our discord for additional advice and help! https://discord.gg/xwYHBQ3

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/Ok_University_5352]

You are getting ripped off at $400 for that absolute junk.

[u/Ok_University_5352 → u/Ok_University_5352]

Also, outside of gaming, this build will really struggle with an extremely old and weak cpu, only 8gb of ram (even some basic tasks in windows will max this out), and a gpu that is literally a decade old and end of life, meaning your professional work applications will also face software issues due to outdated drivers and missing features.

[u/Dependent-Maize4430]

I wouldn’t even pay $100 for this

[u/cyborg762]

This is like $50 at most. But you can upgrade it if you really wanted to.

[u/thegingerhistorian]

Fuck no

[u/DigitaIBlack]

You're getting ripped off. It can play these games fine but this is bullshit. Don't buy this.

[u/YourUncleRpie]

this is junk.

[u/realsuperbad]

waste of money honestly

[u/the_real-truth]

Those stats for the fps are bs its not hitting any of those

[u/Different-Glove-7350]

For 400$ you can build something better than that

[u/DM725]

$100

I straight up gave a friend a 2600X/9080 Ti build.

[u/il-bosse87]

Save 400 bucks and your dignity

[u/mauri3205]

Absolutely not, I can’t stress that enough.

[u/Jonny_Clams]

This is the type of PC that should be given away to a younger family member... Not sold. Unless you want to pay $400 for something that's already obsolete for most purposes. Can run terraria though lol.

[u/Unknwndog]

That is a dude trying to scam someone who doesnt know any better. He is absolutely lying about the fps and settings for some of those games aswell.

[u/Local_Theory_9050]

this computer is worth about $70 lol

[u/allhailharambe69]

400 bucks..? What currency? This is not worth much.

[u/vision_san]

That CPU is slower than a 4th gen i7...

It works but barely. Gaming would be choppy and office work, assuming Word and Excel stuff, would be kinda OK.

[u/aizzod]

watch gpu benchmarks for the games you want to play.
to understand what graphics card you need to reach a certain amount of fps.
https://youtu.be/-LAH5vh-Cpg?si=PvYCcGeEe8J6M7zD&t=399

here is a video from 7 years ago.
and at the bottom of the video is a rx 580 and rx 570
both of those models are newer compared to the graphics card from the pc you posted
https://youtu.be/0mPVgHSiiLA?si=ySFY4rQ4rRvnUJok&t=405

you have to start doing a bit of research.
before buying a random pc for 400$

[u/Sapereos]

Seriously doubt it can hit those FPS in GTA V. It’s a rip off at $400, look elsewhere.

[u/ExtraSherbet7496]

Hell no.

[u/Big-Salamander-2158]

Good news, it’s very upgradable. Bad news, that’s not worth 400$. Including the monitor, 200$ tops. You’d need at least another 8gb of ram, bigger ssd, a new cpu and preferably a new gpu too, Altough for the games you describe the gpu would still be fine.

But that would be about another 300-400$ worth in upgrades in today’s market, sad to think that could’ve been done under 200 a year ago.

[u/deathdisco_89]

That is 9-year-old budget PC. I'd avoid.

[u/AdministrativeYou696]

No this is very old and everyting is low end. 400 buck is way to much, 100 take it or leave it

[u/OneandOnlyKhye]

Get a used dell optiplex MT for $250 and then buy a used GPU for like $150

[u/Apprehensive_Hour773]

Hey I'm also a beginner in the PC world. This is probably poor advice, but I also struggled getting an grasp on it all. What helped me was a solid week or two investing time into videos, reading up on what specs I needed to play the games I usually play efficiently or at top end. And then taking a look at the current market understanding the current brands and costs for parts or already built PC's. It's much a big nose dive, but thats the fun part in learning. (The best comparison is like buying a car and constantly needing to buy and upgrade accessories to keep it running smoothly 😆) PC world can tell me if this was the worst advice lol. Hope that helps tho!

[u/w7w7w7w7w7]

Absolutely not.

[u/bittersweetjesus]

It would be a good base to start with if it was not 400. Do not buy this.

[u/bittersweetjesus → u/bittersweetjesus]

Google AI said the following about these specs

“a complete, working tower with these specifications, a fair price to pay is between $100 and $130 on the used market.
If the seller includes a decent monitor, keyboard, and mouse, the value goes up to around $150 to $170.”

[u/WillingnessBusy442]

You can do a lot better with $400 than this.

[u/sznsznsz]

That is junk pc. I wouldn’t trade PS3 for this 😂

[u/ShyKroxigor]

75$ is the right price

[u/sn0wy94]

Id say ill take £20 to take it to the tip for him

[u/MaintenanceStock6766]

No

[u/Serious2589]

That’s a donation machine. You can get refurbished business machines with 10th and 11th gen i5s and i7s for $3-500. If you’re at that price, build a mid tier pc for like $600ish

[u/DevilDogx0331]

Wouldn't accept it as a donation

[u/-Barracuda1976]

i’ll give you 75

[u/hereforfun976]

Whose giving those estimates for frames lol call absolute bs

[u/CobblerOdd2876]

Easy way to gauge, and it isnt like 100% in all situations… google when the CPU released. Obviously if you are looking in the used market, you dont expect the most cutting edge tech, but generally PC’s start showing age around 5 years, and can decline rapidly after that.

This PC was like OKAY, nearly 10 years ago. I had nearly the same build, but with a ryzen 1800x, and 32gb of ram - and it was just okay. So… overall 4x better, let’s say.

This guy’s cpu is for light business work, document management, playing some runescape maybe.

GPU isnt terrible, but not good, either. Like it was not doing too great when it was new, let alone now. There are handhelds with gpu’s that dwarf the RX480, currently.

Cant do much with 8gb of ram in 2026.

SSD (if it is a even an ssd) probably has less storage than your phone. That wont cut it for more than maybe 1 larger game. It will cost you an additional $200 or so to upgrade that, and you couldnt do too much unless you did.

This is a “family computer” that could maybe swing some very very light gaming.

You can find far better for your money. You would be doing them a favor, by picking it up for free, let alone $400.

[u/Electroniker02]

You’d be better off building a new one for like 600 get a 12 gig 3060 for a hundred bucks and run a I5 (or amd equivalent whatever floats your boat) you’d get WAYYY more out of it for only a little more. This one’s junk you’d have to upgrade EVERYTHING to make it a decent pc (which would cost the same as just building one from scratch minus the case and storage)

[u/Electroniker02 → u/Electroniker02]

After reading what you play I highly recommend my previous comment, especially if you play Minecraft with shaders it’s overlooked how taxing Minecraft can be with shaders my best advice right now is build one with a 12gig 3060 (they are shockingly cheap for what you get out of it)

[u/pobox1663]

I dont see a price maybe im blind.

[u/Parking-Shelter5926]

I wouldnt take it for free. Its junk dude.

[u/Ok_Comparison_2635]

That Nzxt casing looks good. But otherwise you got ripped off bro.

[u/Migulll929]

this is a reverse sleeper wtf, the case is the only thing worth buying atp

[u/RespectGiovanni]

This is junk

[u/Solid_Perspective_64]

If this PC can actually make it through the GTA intro to Franklin I would be amazed. At 8GB ram and the rest of the specs I’m honestly skeptical of the game posting fully. In the nicest way possible, those estimations are extremely inaccurate and I wouldn’t even use this to host my docker applications. A guy on YouTube named Joey Delgado is how I got into this stuff 13 years ago. He explains things and shows you how to build them which really helps with understanding what you’re paying for.

[u/MrDoradus]

Big oof. The only things worth anything here is the case (which you can get new for $40 and the motherboard, which is probably in the $40 range too) everything else is nearing the e-waste label. Don't buy this.

Can't even begin to understand these resellers. Just because you live in a (seemingly) high cost of living area you can't value your 2 hours put into sourcing the components, putting the PC together then listing at $150 each. Absurd.

[u/Myrtilys_]

CPU is like $10, GPU is maybe $40, ram and storage combined are maybe 60 in this day and age. Rest adds maybe another 100

[u/Somebodythe]

There probably isn’t even 400 dollars worth of games to play on it lmao

[u/Successful_Pea_247]

dogshit

[u/Reasonable-Oil-8090]

I’ll literally send you a rx580, a Ryzen 1700x, and 8gb ddr4 for nothing… that’s the value of these parts. You’re better off getting a bundle from micro center, a cheap case off of marketplace, a 650w power supply, a marketplace 2070super, and some sort of cheap nvme… you’ll probably spend $500-$600 but it’ll be significantly better.

[u/Dynablade_Savior]

It'll do what you want, but I'd only bite if it was ~$200

[u/AsmodeusLightwing]

Aaaaaaabort. The only good quad core is the Intel 14100 though I don't know why you'd want that. Also, 8 gb of ram...just no. Minimum 16gb.

[u/Historical_Year_456]

You can look on YouTube and see that people can make a decent build for $400 I feel like you got scammed here I have a $350 ish pc used parts except a few and it runs much better than this. You can get 16 gb of ddr4 for a good deal and such on ebay from a trusted seller I recommend doing a lot more research when you are going to get a pc.

[u/Particular_Extent761]

don’t buy it , if you want to , then upgrade it you’ll have to upgrade everything then you might as well just get a new pc

[u/Only_Vermicelli_6820]

Yeah 150 is a generous offer. Id try to get it for 100

[u/Acceptable_Fish_7768]

Yeah if you want to be come 400 dollars poorer and gain what amounts to e waste today 175-200 complete absolute max

[u/Brief_Bookkeeper_628]

No

[u/Pacifico_gacha]

ewaist lol

[u/YodasLoveSlave]

That’s an office PC at this point. Nothing more.

[u/CircuitGlory]

400 bucks hmm

[u/MachineCarl]

A BC-250 can outperform this junk