Questions to ask a seller when buying a used CPU and MB?

[AnitaPeterson]

Hi there,

I was wondering if there are any specific questions to as of a seller if I'm interested in buying a CPU and motherboard combo...

Beyond things like "Why did you decide to sell them", "Any warranty left" and "Did you ever overclock the CPU" there's not much else I can think of.

What are other good questions to determine if a deal is good or not?

Thanks much!

 

[John]

A lot of sellers will simply tell you what you want or expect to hear. I'd ask for a non-DOA guarantee and the original receipt for warranty purposes.

 

[jkresh]

receipt would be good but no guarantee you can get warranty on anything as most arent transferable, also when you ask about overclocking ask about voltage as well, ie if they ran heavily overclocked but a stock voltage thats less of a concern then if they heavily overvolted, you can also ask about cooling as that does affect how much damage can be done (within limits). Also if you are buying from someone on this forum (or any other one) do a search for their posts/signatures and see if they ever listed a high overclock/overvolt of those parts and see if that matches how they answer when you ask the question.

 

[AnitaPeterson]

excellent tips!

Anything else I should be mindful of?

 

[conlan]

I agree w/ both those suggestions, plus, if your leery, ask the seller to run Prime95 for a couple of hours and take a screenshot of the results. Then if you buy, verify their results.

 

[fire400]

ID's and versions and technology the products come with, if the seller can't verify this, such as if a Pentium 4 you are purchasing with capabilities of FSB hit, HT, SSE3 or VT support, then hell, the seller's gonna be fishy. they don't know what the hell they're sellin' to you, and you might get the wrong shi_

date purchased
distributor
how many times it's been passed around
how many times it's been installed
if the pins were ever bent and bent back to place
what kind of thermal paste has been used and if it was installed by a pro
number of system failures in result of improper installation of any components or interconnects
OC and specs of the OC
HSF usage and if it's ever been over RPM'd
BIOS versions installed

ask a bunch of shi_ if you want, it's your money you're about to put into something.

when I buy expensive video cards from other sellers, I make them pledge an oath that the card will not be a DOA, it's just my way of saying that if my shi_ doesn't work upon arrival, you better figure something out for me, or you are fu--ed, kid.

good luck