Is it worth buying an ex business PC in 2023

Is it worth buying an ex business PC in 2023
So you want to buy a dell precision tower 3620, but is it worth it in 2023?
We will talk about the pros and cons of buying a used office pc.

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[Britec]

Let me know in comments whether you are using a old used office pc.

[FlyboyHelosim]

The short answer is YES... they are worth buying. I pretty much exclusively buy used business computers nowadays, as they're dirt cheap and often robust and very modular, with a toolless design. Also, he keeps on about OptiPlex, but this is a Precision. And being an 'ugly' case is just personal opinion that doesn't take away from the functionality of the computer... personally I think 'gamer' cases that are bright white with glass panels and loads of RGB are bloody ugly. Another thing, it doesn't have to be about games all the time. Some people do actually use computers for legitimate purposes, you know? By forgetting about games you can get some absolute bargain computers that will do just about everything else exceptionally. Also it's ironic that he's denouncing YouTubers who praise these machines for the sake of content, when he did exactly the opposite for content. What a joke.

[jonathanmaybury]

Learning how to piece together your own PC is always the best way to go, you'll get what you want and it'll be cheaper. Plus most of it will be upgradable. These days I would never go for a PSU under 750 watts.

[marklondon]

Excellent review by Britec. I worked for a large company that told its computer vendor to lower costs. One year the computer vendor deleted parts that caused hard drives to fail in about 1 out 3 machines. While that problem was corrected, there might be other hardware issues/specs that work well for the large company but not the average user.

[curts.]

Nice video Brian. I have purchased refurbished business models, Optiplex specifically, for residential customers and business clients ( non profit ). They get great hardware at a fraction of the price new. All of my customers have been happy with the purchase. I even include a 1 year warranty. I always sell new Optiplexs to businesses.

[markjackson]

I Have a Couple old Dell Computers. One is used for A General Purpose PC and runs very well, The other one I bought for my Daughter which her first computer and I'm in the middle building a New one to replace it very soon. Thank You Brian for another very informative video.

[tomschmidt]

I've had good success purchasing off lease PCs, but my wife and I are not gamers so take that into account. When Win7 hit end of life I purchased two off lease HP Z230 small footprint desktops for myself and wife. Each of us also each have a Lenovo T520 Thinkpad laptop. Certainly not as sexy as the current crop of ultra thin laptops but then we don't have to lug them around every day. Lastly I'm using a T420 Thinkpad as a poor man's server on our home network. I stuffed a 2TB HD in the DVD slot and swapped out the original HDD for SSD's in the laptops.

It all a matter of determining what you need and how much you are willing to spend.

[DaftdogUK]

I'm currently running an HP z820 workstation (about ten years old) with dual Xeon E5-2687W, 128GB RAM, Nvidia Quadro 5000 GPU, 20TB of storage (about 5TB as SATA SSD). 2x second-user HP E242 24" 1920x1200px. It weighs as much as a small car, but is built like a tank and runs Linux superbly. I also run W7/10/11 as VMs if I feel like it, and I see no performance hit. I don't play games, my reaction speeds make the Walkers from Walking Dead look like fighter pilots. Cost including storage is overall about £900. I'm very happy.

[GeorgeSheets]

I've used many refurb Optiplex over the years in business and home settings with no issues. Loved them and saved a bunch of money.

[certs]

I would recommend keeping an eye out for a bargain. I have a T5610 with dual Xeons and maxed out at 128 GBs of RAM and I love it. The thing runs circles around some newer machines in actual use Running linux. I also find synthetic benchmarks are more about bragging rights and often don't reflect reality. I do agree you are taking a gamble buying them online though. I only buy workstations from brick and mortar businesses here. I got mine from an animation studio that was upgrading their systems.

[honahwikeepa]

I have an old HP Z440 workstation. I bought it primarily because they are bullet proof, and it cost $230 AU. Came with a E1620 V4 and 16 gb ram and k2200 quadro and an SSD. I thought about upgrading the CPU, Ram. and GPU at some stage. It goes well. I don't game or anything like that. I basically do video editing of video's I make using OBS and Capcut. Thanks for the video.

[GeoSam]

Thanks Brian.
I have two old Dell's, one is a NASD (Network Attached Storage Device). The other is used as a media center.

[SoulPoetryandOtherWorks]

I am operating a refurbished Lenovo Thinkpad. Very reliable for what I need as I do a lot of word processing. I can do a little audio recording as well when required. They were very robust machines and will keep going for a long time.

The newer ones don't seem as well-made and are extortionately expensive. I plug in my mechanical keyboard and off I go.

[jonevansauthor]

It's amazing how many comments completely ignore that you're talking about upgrading them for gaming and not as home office PCs. Clearly, a second hand Optiplex or similar is fine for a spare PC for some niche uses, or a family member who just needs to browse the web a few times a week (if it's not from 2015!). For those cases though, it seems like it'd be so easy to spend £300 on a second hand Optiplex when a brand new Minisforum mini PC might perform better and not be out of date immediately.

It'd be really interesting to see how this works out if you buy an Optiplex that's got a 9th Gen (or 10th etc) CPU, can be upgraded to Windows 11 and probably has things like more recent HDMI ports, or USB-C. I suspect it's still not a cost saver unless you get an amazing bargain. A legit Windows licence is appealing, but even that cost might not make enough difference.

It definitely feels like a minefield for those of us who are amateurs (at PC building, or Ebay tbh).

I was thinking about my next PC being a SFF build, to use mostly for office work, and then got interested in the Fractal Terra shown at Computex. It looks great at what it does. But then I realised that ITX cases and components are all super expensive and lack of size is the only thing you're getting.

All I'd be doing is making it much easier to move around on the rare occasion I move house or reorganise my office. Or... I could just buy an ATX & motherboard for less money, and put it on a wheeled PC trolley under the desk to make access easy.

[MrEvilWasp]

I had actually considered buying something similar... up until you gave us your valuable advice.

Thanks for saving me some money :)

Peace

[ghostemane]

Yup I have a dell precision T5810.... And I put in a FE 1080ti... and i love it!!!

[ceed]

I regularly purchase old Office computer for $50 to $75 US for use at Churches and other non profits to use for basic office use and occasionally to a customer that only wants to get on FaceSpace and other social media. I can throw in a inexpensive SSD and they get several years out of them before they need to replace them with a newer one for a similar price. I would NEVER even consider purchasing one to turn into a cheap gaming computer as they just can't handle that well enough to be worth the upgrade costs.

[richardpalmanteer]

Dell Optiplex 790 Purchased from Ebay $85.00
Microsoft Windows Pro 22H2, Intel Core i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz, 3401 Mhz 4 Core 8 Logical Processor
UEFI 16GB RAM, 1TB HHD, I upgraded the HHD and the RAM. It had an 80GB HHD and only 8GB of RAM. It came with a WiFi Dongle, Keyboard, and Mouse. No issues with computer. Works for my needs.

[MrConsiderateguy]

I'm using a hp pro desk mini PC with 256 gb SSD, I5 processor and 16 gb of RAM, I have it plugged into my 55 inch TV and surround sound system, with wireless keyboard and mouse, got most game emulators to run smooth and GTA 5 runs at near 60 fps, I'm not a serious gamer so im not that bothered about gaming performance but a lot of non power hungry games runs smoothly at medium settings at 720p, I'm more than happy with this system.

[glucosefructose]

12:31 Indeed
I think the reason why people first started buying these was back when specs were stagnant with 4 cores 8 threads. But today we live in world where BigLittle & Threadripper exist and so there is race to the top to add more cores.