Buying second PC - Need help

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korrupt

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Im planning to buy a cheap second hand PC (around $150-$200) but want to make sure that all the hardware is working, can anyone recomend some diagnostic utilities tocheck RAM, HDD etc for errors/fault damage. Also I will open up the case to see in it - is there anything I should look out for?

Is there anything else I can check other than RAM and HDD?

Any help would be appreciated,

Regards,

Korrupt
 
Do you actually have the time to run these? All those tests and benchmarks can run for hours.

You can find all the utilities for HD/RAM/CPU testing on the UBCD: www.ultimatebootcd.com

In Windows, you can run something like 3DMark to test the graphics card (if it is a 3D one) and gaming performance. Business Winstone to see if the machine can handle hours of intensive office work.

When looking inside the machine, check all the capacitors - if you see any that are bulged or corroded, then you will have to get aquainted with a soldering iron very soon :p Noisy fans are not good either
 
Thanks for your reply,

Is there no fast way to check hardware? Inside 10-15mins or so?

Regards,

Korrupt
 
Nope.. You can ask them to power up the machine and see if it goes to Windows normally and maybe start up some heavy-duty programs, but nothing more.
 
Yeh.. i'd agree wint nodsu on this.. just open up the case and take a look at whats what, poking for any dodgy looking bits or burns etc and also check the temps and voltage readings in bios if you want, then see if it'll boot up properly, which is your main consern anyways (who'd want a pc that wont boot up properly, unless its for scraps..)
 
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