| Saving Money on a "New" PC
You can save some money if you buy a secondhand PC which comes with a good monitor, and upgrade a few items (one by one if you like) to give yourself a "top spec" PC. You can upgrade whichever items you want. Some new items you might want to consider first are: [1] A
new motherboard and CPU Depending on what new parts you buy, you could upgrade the secondhand PC to a high speed top of the range model for much less than it would cost you to go out and buy a PC of that specification brand new. Of course, our DIY information explains how to do all this, and a lot more. |
| If you don't yet have a PC, you may still
find that it is worth buying a not-so-recent model and
upgrading it yourself. Upgrading a PC can be easier than
building one from scratch, and you have also got a better
chance of saving money. Older PCs tend to be marked down
in price just because they don't have the latest CPU, but
the CPU is only a small part of the cost of a whole PC.
See the page on upgrading for more information on this.
There are many things to check before buying a PC with the idea of upgrading it. This is why we have included a special "PC Bargain" section in the manual which explains exactly what to look for (and what to avoid) when buying a second hand PC. Q: Where are the best places to buy second hand PC hardware? A: The best bargains are usually had at auctions. Companies and government departments sell off their old office equipment, including PCs, at very low prices. The prices of PCs are usually hammered into the ground since if the equipment is anything more than 12 months old, dealers know that they will have a job getting rid of it. This means that you can often pick up a suitable PC to upgrade for a silly price. Even if one or two parts such as the motherboard, memory, or video card are faulty, it is no real problem since you would be able to replace these parts and still save money overall. Q: What kind of second hand PC should I look for if I want to upgrade? A: If you are buying a second hand PC specifically to upgrade, one of the most important things to check is the type of case the PC is in. The manual explains in detail about different types of PC case, so you can tell what you need to look out for. |
| Buying second hand PC parts
Also in the "PC Bargain" section is a complete run-down of all types of second hand PC parts you are ever likely to find for sale. Although second hand parts can be very good value, there are also some parts which are worth nothing, even though they may seem to be worth buying. If you are thinking of buying any of the following PC parts second hand, the "PC Bargain" section will give you valuable tips and advice to save you wasting your money: Motherboards, hard disk drives, sound cards, video cards, monitors, CD-ROM drives, memory, modems, cases and PSUs etc. Don't forget - you only have to avoid one "turkey" to pay for the information over and over again. Also explained in this section are a couple of neat tricks which can breathe new life into an older PC. |
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