How do you feel about buying used and NOS high end Video cards vs. buying New?

[cbn]

How do you feel about buying used and NOS high end Video cards vs. buying New?

NOS= New Old Stock or New Original Stock (ie, Any Older generation card that has never been sold before and is still unopened in the original packaging.)

 

[nitromullet]

If the price is right and card is still under warranty with the manufacturer, than I have no problems with it.

I've bought used and refurb cards from individuals as well as retailers without issue. I've never bought anything NOS before. In my experiences stores that still have last generation cards new in the box are generally charging too much, which is why they are left with old stock in the first place.

 

[Azix]

Trust used more actually. If it's used and working fine it's unlikely to give trouble unless you do something. A new card could be doa. That's how I looked at it anyway but that depends on testing by manufacturer. Just fans to worry about

 

[Borealis7]

i bought my card used for half the price of a new one, and same for the card before it. unless the cards have been tortured with mining, they will last long after you would want to replace them.
plus i can sell my card when upgrading to offset the cost of the next card by a little.

 

[boozzer]

I also trust used over nos. just make sure it runs well before you buy it. how you make sure is up to you.

 

[Headfoot]

I love buying used off of the FS/T forum here. Great deals, and the people have been universally trustworthy.

 

[Flapdrol1337]

bought my current card used, as well as the previous one and the one before.

all are still fine afaik.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I might buy used from someone here with decent postcount and Heatware.

I'd be very hesitant to buy from random strangers on eBay or from open box / returns where you have no idea how badly the person treated the card. Installed custom BIOS to overvolt and overclock past safe limits? Messed with the cooler? Ran in a case with insufficient cooling 24x7 to fetch Dogecoins and cooked the card? Who knows?

 

[flexy]

Years ago I was always buying the latest and greatest, new, but this is when high-end GPUs cost a $400 max.

For some time already, I am buying most h/w used, motherboards, CPUs, GPUs although my last "used" purchase was pretty much almost new price, an EVGA GTX 970. (In this specific case, the fact that EVGA warranty is transferable of course was great ..low and behold I HAD TO RMA this card a week after I got it used).

But I am making it a habit only to buy H/W from forums where people have a history and rep, at least for more expensive things. Stuff like HDs, memory etc. I also buy from classifieds forum.

If you buy second-hand, warranty CAN be a criterion, note that not all warranties are transferrable. For example, people often advertise things like corsair memory "still has 5 years warranty" etc...however Corsair warranty only applies to the initial buyer. (At least here in the EU!)

When you buy, make sure people have receipts etc. so you know they bought the stuff otherwise its difficult to trace back the history of h/w, how many people owned it already and what they did with it. There is a certain kind of people on h/w forums who seem to buy large amounts of stuff like GPUs, CPUs etc. all-the-time to cherry pick the good stuff for themselves and then re-sell the bad ones, bad overclockers etc...so always use some common sense when buying used.

 

[manimal]

picked up two gtx 970s for 180 a piece a few months ago now and a gtx 980 for 380 last month used. Buying cheap now is your best bet with the new release.


People are DUMPING tons of cards right now.

 

[cbn]

Just fans to worry about

One thing I like about Nvidia is there appears to be many cards with the reference cooler design. That should help with sourcing replacement fans if necessary.

Example:

This, in contrast, to the R9 290X and R9 290 where I could only find one card with the reference design:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131523

And I believe the fan for that one has the part# FD7525U12D

 

[squirrel dog]

I just snagged a gtx670 gc for $50 . It was 400+ new . For what I do , I love it . Nothing drops in value faster than tech .

 

[PG]

I just snagged a gtx670 gc for $50 . It was 400+ new . For what I do , I love it . Nothing drops in value faster than tech .

Nice. I was going to brag a little about how I got an R9 290 for $170 but you got me beat by a mile.

 

[squirrel dog]

I lerk craigslist local .