Another question on upgrading with second hand stuff.

[Treize]

I was offered a Club 3D HD6850 card.

I already have the exact same model, just the coolstream edition. The one that is offered is the normal one but it looks completely the same, even the heatsink.

Now I could run them in Crossfire, it would cost me €60 max. I paid a little over €120 for a new one about a year ago. This one is like half a year older than mine.

Do or don't?
I am not going to spend any more just so you know.

[paradamed]

Well, second hand stuff can be reliable. In pc world many people tend to get rid of cards because of upgrades and not much because of hardware giving signals of malfunction. Crossfire can give you a decent boost in performance. I can't say accurately if the price he charges is being fair because of differences in currency. You should compare the price being asked with the price of a new card of the same model.

[Treize]

Well atleast twice the price but it isn't really sold anymore.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

if the seller is reliable then its fine,

sell stuff myself all the time but i have a heatware account and reliable feedback from many sales, buying used is what it is. Take the chance or don't that simple.

[Treize]

But is the price right? I tried to get some off but he refused.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

look up the price of the HD 7770 that = the 6850s replacement, in terms of performance most of the time, then cut 20% off for it being used, that will give you an idea on if your getting shafted or not.

[Treize]

That would be around €100.
But would it be better than 2 HD 6850's?

[Bolkonsky]

Yeah, it'd be better than a single 7770 but not by much. I doubt you'll see a noticeable difference.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

7770 is only slightly faster than a 6850, im not telling you to buy the 7770 im telling you to compare the prices

they roughly according to AMD similar in performance, this means if the 6850 was still available it would be priced around the same as the 7770,

this gives you the ability to compare the used price to a new price.

[Treize]

But I plan to run them in Crossfire. And 2 of these cards are better than one 7770, right? At a lower price as I already own a HD 6850 and have no one to sell it to in the case I wanted a 7770.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

okay you cant seem to follow basic english

you asked if it was a good deal, i just told you how to judge if it was or not your not understanding the simple concept

yes 2x 6850s is faster than 1x 7770

1x 7770 costs the same as a 6850

so if you want to know if its a good deal second hand look at the price of the cheapest HD 7770 new then compare that price to the 6850, if the 6850 is 20% cheaper or more than yes thats a fairly good deal

one thing to consider tho is if your PCs power supply can actually handle 2x HD 6850s in crossfire because if your power supply can't handle the load your screwed regardless.

Anyway im done here i dont have time to reword the same information again and again, someone else can handle it from here.

[Treize]

You don't seem to understand, why would I buy a card that is more expensive and the end result would be inferior? Why the hell would I compare both cards? The thing is that one 7770 would be inferior to two 6850's, am I right, while being more expensive.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

okay lets see if i can break this down since your head is thicker than the dude in the Mug root beer commercials

6850 and 7770 = same price

6850 and 7770 = roughly same performance

price of used 6850 compared to new 7770

is the price of the used 6850 less than the 7770, if yes how much less? if its greater than 20% less then its a good deal it means your paying the proper value of the card second hand and your not getting screwed over.
good way to look at this

you say the used 6850 is $60 if an HD 7770 is $80-90 new in your region your getting a very good deal in which case crossfire situation makes sense, if the HD 7770 is only $70-80 then your paying a bit more than you should be for the 6850 now do you get it? on a used product price should be around 20% lower
so if the price is good and falls into the above guidelines your all set. if it doesnt then your not getting a good deal

and again if your power supply isnt good enough having a second 6850 will do you no good so keep that in mind, i honestly can't dumb this down any further

[Treize]

Well that's what I already understood, what I was trying to say is that it would not make sense to buy a 7770 because I can't run it in crossfire with the hd 6850 that I already posses. The cheapest 7770 is like €115 so this is probably a good deal then...

[Crazyeyesreaper]

i was never telling you to buy a 7770 lulz,

still didnt tell me what your PSU is, if its not good enough crossfire could overload it and fry the rig if it boots at all.

[Treize]

600watt Corsair

[Crazyeyesreaper]

600w CX? yea should be alright not idea but should be okay.

[Treize]

I already used one of those simple calculators, I should be fine.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

simple calculators dont take into account quality of the unit ripple on the rails etc. just because you have the wattage it suggests doesnt mean everything is good to go.

example i had an HX850 from corsair my nominal load was only 600w i Still managed to blow the damn thing up mostly do to the fact corsair over rates the capabilities a bit on the 5v and 3.3v in terms of what i can handle reliably.

So never take a PSU or Brand for its name and wattage, 12v 5v and 3.3v rail specs along with proper reviews showing ripple etc need to be taken into account.

That said the 600w CX is adequate but again not ideal. However as long as the PSU isn't to old youll have no problems another thing people dont think about is Age. as Capacitors age they are less able to provide proper power. This is why you will see most enthusiasts have more powerful unit then they need its to help deal with that small aspect. Most of this is all minor tho but plays into the better safe than sorry situation like the above HX 850 which SHOULD have done the job but instead killed 2x GPUs and 3x HDDs.

[mrmouth]

The CX series had a stigma to it despite the pro reviewers finding them very solid. I believe they were all CWT, with good caps.

And good caps, aside from straight up failures, are not going to age beyond spec range for the time you have it. Unless you are running the thing real hard for 10-20 years. Like heavy server load 24/7.