Components - Which do you prefer buying NEW and which prefer buying USED?

[Sageofchaos]

I'm looking at upgrading my current rig, but would like some opinions from you guys and girls first;

Which components do you prefer buying NEW rather than used? Which components would you consider buying USED rather than new? It's a multiple answer poll, and if you don't mind either/or, vote for both.

I've got a decent budget to work with, but if I can spend less on certain components in used condition, it allows more budget for new items.
Obviously the most valuable components should be bought new for the warranty sake of things.
Mouse and Keyboard are too subjective, I'm buying new ones. My play style is..... strange.

But don't think about warranty alone (I'm buying from Evetech anyway. - jk.), think about longevity. cost/performance ratio etc.

i.e. A lot of GPU's (worth upgrading to) will have some sort of warranty left from what I've seen on the used market, the rate at which they are bought and sold is quite high. - I'd consider buying one in used condition (with a manufacturer warranty remaining.)

i.e. a case is subject to more wear and tear than other components, and are likely to be in a scratched/dented condition when buying used - I'd prefer buying new. - other people on the forum don't care what their case looks like.

This is your opinions, I'd like to see if there is a correlation in the poll results.

 

[Word1995]

I basically answered everything "Used", has worked out well for me, but i choose who i buy from fairly carefully and have never burned my fingers.

 

[natpoeper]

Used: things that can't break easily or don't have many parts that can fail. Things with long warranties. Things where the condition can be objectively measured.

CPU, RAM, are fine usually since they dont have a lot of bits that can break. PSUs often have 10 year warranties. SSD is fine because you can objectively measure the TBW.

Anything with a fan though including a GPU can be dodgy, people will say "fans sound fine" and then it sounds like the hub contains a swarm of wasps. Mobos I find just have too many little things that can go wrong, like the one day you finally get something that needs the USB-C port and poof, it's not working. Or now with my one board I found out the PCIe X16 slot had been running at X4 for who knows how long.



New: anything that touches the human body while in use. Because ew.

 

[Jack_Bauer_ZA]

All ssd's are crap, so def new. Atleast it will last a few days longer. Rest used, savings i like.

 

[-Shaun-]

Everything used except SSD's.

 

[PepeThePrawn]

SSD new but the other I often consider new is a PSU unless it is a high tier one with very long warranty. I don't trust budget PSUs second hand.

 

[Switch]

Used: things that can't break easily or don't have many parts that can fail. Things with long warranties. Things where the condition can be objectively measured.

CPU, RAM, are fine usually since they dont have a lot of bits that can break. PSUs often have 10 year warranties. SSD is fine because you can objectively measure the TBW.

Anything with a fan though including a GPU can be dodgy, people will say "fans sound fine" and then it sounds like the hub contains a swarm of wasps. Mobos I find just have too many little things that can go wrong, like the one day you finally get something that needs the USB-C port and poof, it's not working. Or now with my one board I found out the PCIe X16 slot had been running at X4 for who knows how long.



New: anything that touches the human body while in use. Because ew.

I would second this. Regarding warranty I would consider a minimum of one year remaining to be a useful period, but this is subjective to how probable the component will break/its current condition and how much risk you are willing to take.

 

[-Shaun-]

SSD new but the other I often consider new is a PSU unless it is a high tier one with very long warranty. I don't trust budget PSUs second hand.

If it has a 10 year Warrantty and is 5 years old I'd buy it though. But only if it's a 'reputable' Brand.

 

[skyscraper116]

New if price is really good, Same with used but I think a 70% of my components are used, Main drive, PSU, Mobo, Fans and Case New, the other 4 drives used along with used screen, keyboard, CPU, RAM, GPU.

 

[Sageofchaos]

I've accumulated some CUD parts!

First there's a story - I bought a RX 6800XT off Carb, hastily drove home to install it into my system. Excited as heck! STALKER 2 with >20FPS!!!

The motherboard is an MSI B350M Bazooka. (PCI-e Gen 3.0)
Power Supply is an 80-Plus Gold rated Fractal ION-850 Watt.
RAM is Corsair RGB PRO16Gb DDR4 @ 2666MHz.
CPU is an i7 8700

Right from the start, no display signal from GPU.
Went into the BIOS to meddle around with some settings (force PCI Gen 1, Gen 2, Gen 3, checked TPM Support, enabled/disabled TPM (SecureBoot) features, reset the BIOS, tried booting with 1x RAM Stick, changing RAM slots, I did a lot of troubleshooting.

the BIOS has a "board explorer" feature and you can see all of the components plugged into the Mobo. I looked at the PCI-e slot indication on the board explorer, and noticed that the GPU isn't detecting at all.

Updated the Mobo BIOS (msi EZFlash) and updated chipset drivers. Even installed a fresh version of Windows 10 to eliminate driver conflict.
No Joy. - Could this be a Windows 11/Operating system compatibility thing? I only had an image of Win10 to install at the time...

Drove back to the seller to test out the card in his setup, and works fine, he booted up, ran some games, everything detects and runs fine.

Seller's got a B550 Motherboard with PCI-e x16 Gen 4.0 - apparently on the AMD Ryzen CPU's the PCI-e version is dictated by the CPU you install. (?)

So, I know they say that the different PCI x16 versions are compatible (Some sources online say it is forwards- and/or backwards- compattible, some say only backwards, and not forwards?). - To my understanding a higher PCI-e Generation would only allow more bandwidth for the various components to communicate with? The components might run at a slower speed, but that's it, it'll still detect and operate.

What would result in the incompatibility I'm experiencing? My diagnosis is that the Motherboard/CPU is only PCI-e Gen 3.0, whereas the GPU is PCI-e Gen 4.

I am awaiting delivery of a Ryzen 5 7600 (PCI Gen 4.0 & 5.0), a B650M motherboard, and DDR5 16Gb 5600MHz RAM.

I'm 99% sure it'll work, I just don't know why it would.

Any thoughts? 😄

 

[natpoeper]

I am awaiting delivery of a Ryzen 5 5600 (PCI Gen 4.0 & 5.0), a B650M motherboard, and DDR5 16Gb 5600MHz RAM.

I'm 99% sure it'll work, I just don't know why it would.

Any thoughts? 😄

This won't work. The CPU is an AM4 CPU, the motherboard is AM5, they are not compatible with each other.

Re: the GPU, a gen 4 GPU should 100% work in a gen 3 motherboard, it'll just default to gen 3 speeds (which won't hold a 6800XT back anyway).

 

[Sageofchaos]

This won't work. The CPU is an AM4 CPU, the motherboard is AM5, they are not compatible with each other.

Sorry - its a R5 7600... Too many facks for my brain.

 

[Sageofchaos]

Re: the GPU, a gen 4 GPU should 100% work in a gen 3 motherboard, it'll just default to gen 3 speeds (which won't hold a 6800XT back anyway).

That's the thing! It doesn't! I couldn't get it to work and I spent a good 8-9 hours troubleshooting it. 😥

 

[natpoeper]

Sorry - its a R5 7600... Too many facks for my brain.

May want to also check the specs of your current rig, B350 and 8700 don't go together either.

That's the thing! It doesn't! I couldn't get it to work and I spent a good 8-9 hours troubleshooting it. 😥

Does this current rig work with a different GPU?

Dumb question but did you plug the monitor into the GPU and not the motherboard?

And maybe check in BIOS if it's defaulting to iGPU (integrated graphics on the CPU) output rather than dedicated GPU output.

 

[Sageofchaos]

May want to also check the specs of your current rig, B350 and 8700 don't go together either.

Link corrected - again. Sorry. I didn't proof read this. The CPU definitely works.

Does this current rig work with a different GPU?

Yes, works with a 1070Ti, I plugged it back in and the performance is fine like previous.

Dumb question but did you plug the monitor into the GPU and not the motherboard?

I tried both, the only way I could get access to the BIOS was through the on-board HDMI port.
Once I changed settings in the BIOS, I plugged the cable back into the HDMI port of the GPU, and no signal.

And maybe check in BIOS if it's defaulting to iGPU (integrated graphics on the CPU) output rather than dedicated GPU output.

I tried both settings in the BIOS - Something like "Force boot" PEG and IGD. - IGD being integrated and PCE being discrete.

 

[natpoeper]

Link corrected - again. Sorry. I didn't proof read this. The CPU definitely works.


Yes, works with a 1070Ti, I plugged it back in and the performance is fine like previous.


I tried both, the only way I could get access to the BIOS was through the on-board HDMI port.
Once I changed settings in the BIOS, I plugged the cable back into the HDMI port of the GPU, and no signal.


I tried both settings in the BIOS - Something like "Force boot" PCE and IGD. - IGD being integrated and PCE being discrete.

When the 1070Ti is in, and you're getting display output successfully, and you unplug the 1070Ti and plug in the 6800XT, you shouldn't need to change anything at all for the 6800XT to work exactly the same.

So it's weird that it's not working. Are you changing anything else when swapping the GPUs?

It might just not be in nicely. Presumably the 6800XT is bigger and more unwieldy, maybe take extra care to make sure it's definitely in. I once took a GPU all the way to Rectron only to figure out I just wasn't installing it deeply enough in the PCIe slot. Maybe also try supporting the GPU if it looks like it's sagging.

The only other thing I can think of is power. Are you using separate PCIe power cables from the PSU or using a single cable with a pigtail? Try separate cables, different cables if you have them, even a different PSU if nothing else works.

 

[Sageofchaos]

Are you changing anything else when swapping the GPUs?

Only the PCI power cable from a 6+8 to an 8+8 configuration. The PSU is strong enough in my opinion?
If it were underpowered, it would still have shown some sort of display.

I made sure about the seating of the PCI slot as well. It was all the way in, at the front where the notch is, there was a 0.5mm gap between the notch on the mobo, and the notch of the GPU, and the latch on the PCI Slot on the mobo was definitely clipped in/seated.

I went as far as cleaning the PCI slot with come IPA (not the beer) and a toothbrush. :lol

I laid the whole case on its side for troubleshooting, so the GPU sag wouldn't have been a factor either. The GPU even came with an anti-sag retention bracket, this had a little insulator which I installed too, being made from a metal and being conductive, I thought maybe this would have been an issue, so I tried installing the GPU with and without the retention bracket too.

 

[natpoeper]

Only the PCI power cable from a 6+8 to an 8+8 configuration. The PSU is strong enough in my opinion?

Is it one cable from the PSU that splits into 2x8pin connectors? Or two cables from the PSU? If you're using the former, try the latter, and also try changing cables. The PSU should be powerful enough, unless there's some fault with the PSU that doesn't stop the 1070Ti from working but when the 6800XT is connected, the fault is revealed. It could even be that one of the pins in the second 8pin connector is faulty.

If it were underpowered, it would still have shown some sort of display.

If the GPU detects an issue with incoming power, it won't display. E.g. one or more pins are not making contact, or no power is being provided by those pins.

 

[Switch]

So, I know they say that the different PCI x16 versions are compatible (Some sources online say it is forwards- and/or backwards- compattible, some say only backwards, and not forwards?). - To my understanding a higher PCI-e Generation would only allow more bandwidth for the various components to communicate with? The components might run at a slower speed, but that's it, it'll still detect and operate.

They are forwards and backwards compatible on all generations as of writing as far as I'm aware, the difference is the speed of each lane.

 

[Sageofchaos]

The PSU is modular, and it has space for 5x PCI-e connector ribbons (with 1x used currently for CPU Power) - 3x on the bottom side of the PSU, and another 2x bottom side. - leaving 4x connectors usable.

I've tried every configuration I could with the ribbon connectors;

1x ribbon making use of both terminations (2x 8-pin PCI-e) (Y-splitter vibes, which I didn't like anyway)
2x ribbons making use of only one termination per ribbon- I tried both the furthest termination and the closest termination on each ribbon cable.
2x ribbons making use of only one termination per ribbon (running 1x connector on on each the top- and bottom- half of the PSU.

 

[natpoeper]

The PSU is modular, and it has space for 5x PCI-e connector ribbons (with 1x used currently for CPU Power) - 3x on the bottom side of the PSU, and another 2x bottom side. - leaving 4x connectors usable.

I've tried every configuration I could with the ribbon connectors;

1x ribbon making use of both terminations (2x 8-pin PCI-e) (Y-splitter vibes, which I didn't like anyway)
2x ribbons making use of only one termination per ribbon- I tried both the furthest termination and the closest termination on each ribbon cable.
2x ribbons making use of only one termination per ribbon (running 1x connector on on each the top- and bottom- half of the PSU.

Then you've tried everything I can think of trying. Let's hope it works with the new mobo.

 

[BlueCrayon]

CPU's i generally always buy used, GPU's I tend to buy brand new.

I bought a GPU from a guy here on carb once and the card made my whole house smell like curry, it was awful. So I said never again

 

[jlags]

CPU's i generally always buy used, GPU's I tend to buy brand new.

I bought a GPU from a guy here on carb once and the card made my whole house smell like curry, it was awful. So I said never again

You just gotta ask them what the GPU smells like after they take it out of their case. I actually often do this as I'm very sensitive to smells, especially like smoke/vape.

I like the smell of curry though

 

[Sageofchaos]

I like the smell of curry though

Even me! But then I'd get hungry every time I turn the PC on (nothing new).

*checks to see if we're in Smack Talk thread*

 

[thecurto]

The PSU is modular, and it has space for 5x PCI-e connector ribbons (with 1x used currently for CPU Power) - 3x on the bottom side of the PSU, and another 2x bottom side. - leaving 4x connectors usable.

I've tried every configuration I could with the ribbon connectors;

1x ribbon making use of both terminations (2x 8-pin PCI-e) (Y-splitter vibes, which I didn't like anyway)
2x ribbons making use of only one termination per ribbon- I tried both the furthest termination and the closest termination on each ribbon cable.
2x ribbons making use of only one termination per ribbon (running 1x connector on on each the top- and bottom- half of the PSU.

A couple of other things you could try:

• Run DDU in Windows to remove the previous Nvidia driver and settings. This won't impact the BIOS at all but worth a shot
• Definitely use 2 separate 8-pin cables running from your PSU to the GPU. I've got the same GPU and the default settings limit the power to 255W so your PSU should be plenty.
• There is a little switch on the GPU next to the 8-pin power connectors to switch between OC and Silent mode. Switch it to the other position and try again
• Try a DisplayPort cable if you have one. You might be able to see the BIOS with that

Do the fans on the GPU spin at all after turning on the PC?

 

[Sageofchaos]

Run DDU in Windows to remove the previous Nvidia driver and settings.

Did this too. Fresh install after this didn't work.

Definitely use 2 separate 8-pin cables running from your PSU to the GPU

That's the way I'd want it, too.

There is a little switch on the GPU next to the 8-pin power connectors to switch between OC and Silent mode

Tried this, thinking it was an alternate BIOS or somesome.

Try a DisplayPort cable if you have one.

I had two monitors hooked up to it when testing, one in DP and one in HDMI.

Do the fans on the GPU spin at all after turning on the PC?

Yessir. the card 100% works. confirmed from seller on a newer generation PC.

I've built a lot of PC's and this one has me baffled beyond belief.

All I can do now is wait for the newer hardware to arrive and enjoy the full experience.

 

[Sageofchaos]

Update on this - I received some new hardware, an AMD R5 7600 with 16Gb DDR5 RAM, and a B650 Mobo. Installed the GPU, and worked 1st try.

Now, to try and forget about why it didn't work, and accept the fact that it now does work. 😩

 

[holler]

This thread reminded me exactly why I moved to console gaming. But I also miss the tinkering of pc gaming, so who knows... I might build a rig

 

[Sageofchaos]

This thread reminded me exactly why I moved to console gaming. But I also miss the tinkering of pc gaming, so who knows... I might build a rig

JA! Just wait until your acclaimed 4K/60fps has upscaled performance that visually represents a 720p noisy mess.

Upscaling and DLAA has been making waves on PC the last couple of months. Some reviewers even calling out nvidia for cheating because of proprietary technologies and techniques allowing the "doping" of benchmark results.

I'm not hating on consoles, heck I've got a whole list of good titles I'd rather want to play with controller or on Console... Nothing beats the cinematic experience on a couch with a console.

It's already an evident issue on newer PC titles. In order for publishers to achieve their (promised to the public) optimum result (1080p @ 60fps consistent, or 4K @ 30fps consistent) on older consoles. Publishers make use of the built-in optimization features from Unreal Engine 5 because of time constraints they hardly invest in optimization, these optimization features are terrible at providing a good visual result - On static images the picture quality looks great, but when objects start moving around it becomes a noisy mess.

Traditional Antialiasing has a drastic performance hit on a GPU, but when playing at a native screen resolution I end up turning it off anyway to gain the performance. Native screen resolution hardly requires AA because the panel is designed to work at that resolution for the best visual result.

I'd rather game with NO Antialiasing than enabling DLSS/FSR/DLAA/XeSS - Some titles don't even allow you to render at native AA anymore, as the game's graphic requirements (UE5) are too high for even the strongest of GPU's...

Anything equal to or faster than a GTX4070 or RX7700, which cost upward of R10,000 at the moment compared to Xbox Series X @ R14k and PS5 @ R15k, moreover, there's no way you'd be able to source a CPU, motherboard, and RAM for R5k that wouldn't cause a bottleneck on one of these cards... Not to mention PSU, case, storage (yikes at average 150Gb per game) and peripherals...

On paper you'll have dominating specifications over Xbox and PS5, but optimization of new titles seem very lacking on PC...

Also, whatever happened to Anisotropic filtering? I haven't seen the option in a very long time. While playing Stalker 2 you can clearly see the "artificial lines" created by repeating objects in the distance - such as the DUGA radar or any apartment bock in the distance.

Derailing my own thread with a rant. Anyway... That is all.