I bought the Acers (ATC-705-UC52) because Costco stores are clearancing them out for $449.99 right now, plus it has 12GB RAM, which I'm selling all the 8GB sticks for $38 each. I figure it's cheaper to buy this and install Celeron or Pentium by myself, and keep the 4GB in it plus find a 2GB stick to make it 6GB, instead of buying refurbished or new with i3 installed for same price.
I still have one more to pick up from Costco tomorrow. Need 4 units total, it turns out. Started out at 2 first. Selling the i7-4790 processor again for $285 shipped on eBay.
One unit I removed out the whole Acer LGA1150 board, and replaced it with a new Acer's last LGA1155 board built in 2013, and put in a Celeron G470 processor. Like the new 2016 case look powered by G470 inside, Windows 10, and low cost/power.
I really don't understand or follow the math. You seem to be thinking like a guy who owns a car junkyard. You seem to think it will be more profitable to part these out and make money, but have you done all the math?
The cpus may have sold for $285, but you have to pay ebay and paypal fees, plus maybe shipping depending on how you set up the auctions. What do you really get in the end? I'm guessing maybe $250 each.
Same thing with RAM. Sold for $38, but fees and shipping leave you probably with $30.
So that's $280 in your pocket, and you are left with a shell of a computer with no cpu, hence the need for the Pentium for $39.
The computer was $449.99, but that doesn't include tax, correct? Even with a low tax rate that's around $475 or so, and probably more.
Let's put that all together. You spend $475 and sell parts for $280. That's $195 now. But wait you had to buy a $39 cpu, so now we are at $234.
Some would say that's a lot of work and money for a computer with just a pentium and 4GB or RAM.
You can get a new Dell T20 barebones server for $179 and maybe a few bucks shipping, and it has the same Pentium class cpu with 4GB of RAM, and it's ECC which is a bonus. It has no hard drive or OS, but someone into computers likely has an extra hard drive or two sitting around, or you buy one cheap. Now to the OS. There are guys on Hardforum selling Win7 keys for $20.
So all that flailing around, tying up your money, waiting for auctions to complete, hoping buyers pay, and then later don't want to return, etc, and you could have just got the cheap computer to start with for about the same money, and maybe even less. It seems like a lot of work for no reason to me.