Consumer Advice.

[Shishio]

This friend of my landlord's is trying to sell his computer. He says it's top-of-the-line, and new, but he doesn't know the system specs. I assume he is not that familiar with computers, since he said a friend of his will know, and that I should call him back later to get all my questions answered.

He wants $500 (Canadian.) for it. I don't care whether it's a high end machine or not, as long as I get my money's worth.

So, system spec wise, what would you say would be worth $500?

[Zonehunter1]

Ask to see the computer first.
Look under system properties, it will tell you whats under the hood.

[Jay]

http://stores.tomshardware.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=10479095
Cheapest price @ US$295

http://stores.tomshardware.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=9108659/search=fatal1ty
Cheapest price @ US$194

Bang goes ya 500. Won't get you much high-end gear these days...

Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager. Brings up a tree of the gear you're running in the box, as well as other peripherals etc...

[Shishio]

I know enough to ask to see it, and I know how to find the system specs, but I mean, obviously, for example, a computer like mine (533 mhz 160 mb RAM.) is not worth $500. At least I strongly doubt it is. I just want to know what type of machine would be worth $500.

[Zonehunter1]

I can recommend a motherboard or graphics card thats good at that price....
See where I'm going with this?

[Kiari]

Well, if you look at some of the big stores, you can get a brand new AMD Athlon 64 3500+/Intel 4 3ghz or better for that amount (or at least thereabouts, I'm assuming you're using American dollars and the shops I tend to look at are in Canada).

Having a good video card, extra ram and such will effect the price, but if it's just a standard computer, the processor should be pretty good to justify that price.

A lot of people tend to have an overinflated price in their mind for their computers, for example "I spent 2000$ on it two years ago.. it -must- be worth at least x% of that", so who knows what you'll find.

[Jay]

I can recommend a motherboard or graphics card thats good at that price....
See where I'm going with this?

Only too well. :(

[Shishio]

So basically, if I can get a complete tower, (With motherboard, hard drive, optical drives, audio & video components, etcetara.) which is what he is selling, he may also include the monitor, keyboard, and mouse with it as well, for $500, it's worth it?

[Jay]

What, when you can get a Dell Dimension for that price? :D

[Kiari]

If the monitor is included, and it's not an lcd (which is worth more) and the video card/ram aren't anything special, you should probably be getting at least a 2.3~2.5 on the intel scale, and a decently high (but not 64 bit) amd. But it really depends on what the other stats are too.

(edit: maybe check out a computer store webpage, look at what they're offering in the 500$ range, then expect that or slightly better, since it's used and its warranties are probably all expired or voided, and some parts wear out with usage)