Should I sell my 3-year old computer?

[Aisengard]

I have a dilemma on my hands. I'm going to be building myself a new computer around the middle of the year. June, July. Obviously I need an entire new motherboard, and I really want the Antec P182 in place of my P160. I also have my old Geforce 6800GT lying around, replaced by a 8800GT. So I could realistically salvage my Antec TruPower 550W PS, my DVD-RW drive, and my 74 gig WD Raptor (along with my 250 gig Hitachi). The problem lies with what do I do with the other crap I can't use?

So, two options. I salvage parts from my old computer, slap it into my new case along with a new motherboard, CPU, heatsink, and RAM (along with various case fans). Guesstimation, that costs me, respectively, $90 + $170 + $200 + $50 + $70 (+ $20) = $600 all told, but I have stuff lying around that will never be used again.

My other option is to salvage just the Raptor and sell the whole damn thing as a complete computer. Unfortunately, I don't really know how much it could sell for. Here's the specs:

Athlon 64 3200+
Thermalright 90 w/fan
nf4 DFI LANParty SLI
GeForce 6800GT
2x512MB DDR RAM
250 GB Hitachi HD
Antec TruPower 550W
LiteOn DVD+_RW (8x speed, I think?)
Antec P160 Case, minimal to no damage

How much could/should I sell that for? In this case, I'll have to add a new power supply, a new hard drive, and a new DVD-RW drive to my configuration, which would total, respectively, $100 + $100 + $35 = $235.

Could that complete, ready-to-go computer sell for around that much? It runs perfectly fine, it even runs some modern games respectably, and the power supply, case, hard drive, DVD drive, and even video card are okay parts for vultures.

So maybe there's three options. Just throw away/give away the motherboard+CPU+heatsink+RAM, and sell the rest part-by-part. Anyone have suggestions for how much I could/should sell the separate parts? I have some guesses:

Antec TruPower 550W - $30
Antec P160 - $45
Hitachi 250 GB - $25
LiteOn DVD-RW - $15
GeForce 6800GT - $35

This is a net total of $150. Of course, not all of the items would sell at those prices, and some may not even get purchased. I would be totally down with putting stuff up on the For Sale forum, but I have to choose one or the other option, as I can't sell a whole computer without a PS, or a case, or a HD, or a DVD drive, or a video card.

So, suggestions?

 

[Aisengard]

bump

 

[Twsmit]

If you have a big budget I would just buy all new stuff, but if you want to save money keep the hard drives, optical drive and PSU if possible. Sell the rest on ebay or on the FS/T forum. Your stuff is not so ancient that it is worthless, and most parts can probably fetch $25-50 each. Just search through the FS/T section and you can figure out what the stuff is worth.

 

[Aisengard]

Thanks Twsmit. I do have a big budget, but if I can save money and not let these parts go to waste I'd rather do that. Dyou think I would make more money selling the system as a whole? It would certainly be easier.

 

[0roo0roo]

Antec TruPower 550W - keep, newer cpus are more power efficient
Antec P160 - $45 -keep, newer cpus are much faster with less heat output. you don't need a wind tunnel case.
Hitachi 250 GB - $25 -secondary harddrive for backup. cobian/syncback/drive image xml
LiteOn DVD-RW - $15-keep, new name brand fast drives are 25 on new egg. 15 dollars for a used drive is pushing your luck. its not worth shipping.

and yes the rest is pretty worthless.

 

[warpigeon]

Been in the same boat as you for a while. I'll second what the guy with 46,000 posts said.

 

[Twsmit]

In my experience if you price your stuff to sell it will go pretty fast in the FS/T.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: Aisengard
Should I sell my 3-year old computer?

To answer that question, we'd need to know exactly what tasks you perform with your PC now.
It would also help if you told us how your current rig is letting you down.

You could just tell us that you don't NEED to upgrade, but that you've caught the upgrade bug.

 

[corkyg]

You can do what I did. Keep the second system as a reserve/backup for your own use. It lets me play with a LAN and is good for time consuming things that can go on in background such as DVD burning and Lightscribe labeling.

And you can always sell it, but then . . . you can also give it away to someone less affluent. 🙂

 

[nortexoid]

i used to sell my computers but lately i've been holding onto them for at least 3 years so that the return isn't worth it. now i give them to people who will make good use of them.

i'm inclined to think that it might be tough selling the parts individually. sell it as a complete system or you'll likely be left with scrap parts.