I'm negotiating to buy a used gaming PC locally in Ireland and have brought the seller down to €1,600. I mainly want high frame rates in competitive games such as Valorant, but I also play newer AAA games. Since Irish hardware prices can be higher than elsewhere in Europe, I'm trying to work out whether this is a reasonable used-market price or too close to what a new system would cost.
The first PC includes:
- PNY GeForce RTX 5070 12GB Triple Fan
- AMD Ryzen 7 8700F
- MSI B850M Gaming Plus WiFi 6E motherboard
- 32GB Kingston Fury DDR5-7200 memory
- 2TB Kingston NV3 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD
- Valkyrie Surge SL125 120mm cooler
- Kolink Regulator 750W 80+ Gold ATX 3.0 power supply
I also found another used bundle for €1,050. It has an RTX 3070 Ti Founders Edition, Ryzen 7 5800X, 16GB DDR4, a 240GB SSD, and a 1TB hard drive. The bundle also includes an Alienware AW2525HM 24.5-inch 1080p 320Hz monitor, an MSI 24-inch 144Hz monitor, a Logitech G502 X mouse, and an ADX mechanical keyboard.
Would either deal be good value? Is the first PC overpriced because of its relatively weak gaming CPU, and is the second one worth considering after budgeting for a larger NVMe SSD and possibly a RAM upgrade?
3 Answers
Between the two, the second deal may offer better overall value if you genuinely need the 320Hz monitor and the peripherals, but only after checking their condition and assigning realistic second-hand prices. If you already own a monitor and accessories, I’d skip it and look for a better-balanced tower instead.
The first PC has newer graphics hardware and storage, but €1,600 is a lot for a used machine with an 8700F and relatively budget-oriented parts such as the SSD, cooler, and power supply. Try pricing an equivalent new build locally and leave room for the normal used-market discount. Neither listing is an obvious bargain, so walking away is reasonable if the sellers won’t negotiate further.
The €1,050 bundle is more interesting because the monitors and peripherals add meaningful value, but the tower itself is an older platform. The Ryzen 7 5800X is still capable, and the RTX 3070 Ti can handle 1080p very well, but 8GB of VRAM is becoming a limitation in some newer games. It is also less future-proof than the RTX 5070 system.
The included 320Hz monitor is particularly useful for competitive games, assuming it is in good condition and has no dead pixels or excessive wear. Check the current prices of both displays separately before deciding how much value to assign them.
The €1,600 system looks expensive for a used build, especially because the Ryzen 7 8700F is not an ideal choice for high-refresh competitive gaming. Its reduced cache compared with many Ryzen 7000 and 9000 desktop CPUs can hold it back in CPU-limited games. I’d compare the individual parts against current Irish new-retail prices, but for that money I’d prefer a stronger gaming CPU, such as a Ryzen 7 7800X3D or 9800X3D if the pricing gap is reasonable. Also check the exact condition, remaining warranties, and whether the seller can demonstrate stable temperatures and performance.
For a used purchase, I’d want to see the PC running a game or benchmark, check SSD health, confirm the memory is stable at its advertised speed, and verify that the PSU is genuine and in good condition.
I wouldn’t value the small SSD and hard drive very highly, but I also wouldn’t assume the hard drive will make games stutter automatically. It will mainly mean much longer loading times, and some newer titles can stream assets poorly from a hard drive. Replacing it with a 1TB or 2TB NVMe drive is sensible, but you may be able to clone or reinstall Windows without replacing the entire system.