Should I buy this used PC?

I posted a couple of days ago about building a $1,200 system for photo editing. Long story short, I shoot with a friend who just bought a new system and he's willing to sell his old PC.

The bad news is that it's an HP Pavilion d500t. He just got it out of the shop after the mother board died and paid $350 to get it replaced. He took it to Fry's and they replaced the mother board and baselined the system--yes, he got ripped on the price. The system is running great now.

The good news is that he will sell it to me for $350 just to break even. The PC is just over two years old and he paid over $1,500 with the monitor back in the end of 2008. Here are the specs:

HP Pavilion Elite d5000t.
Windows 7
Intel quad core Q9550 @ 2.83 GHz
Two 500 GB Raid Hard Drives
6GB DDR2 SDRAM
16X DVD+/-R SuperMulti Drive
16X DVD-ROM
15 in 1 Card Reader
2 USB and 1394 Firewire on front panel plus audio.
1 GB NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT with 2 DVI, HDMI
LAN, Keyboard and Mouse
Office 2007 Home/Student
Nero 7 Essentials

I believe this system will have enough horse power to run CS5 and LR3. The Core 2 Quad Q95550 2.83 Ghz (Yorkfield) CPU still sells for around $275. My only hesitation is that the mother board failed once. Not sure if this is a sign that the mother board could fail again or not.

What do you think? This is not my dream machine but it should work for now. Should I buy it for $350?

For $350 it looks like a great deal. It should do just fine photo editing.

Gomboman wrote in post #11388489
Intel quad core Q9550 @ 2.83 GHz

well that said right there.. is worth $250

i run LR and PS on a Q6600 - 2.4ghz...
runs great... and you have the 45nm as i have the 65nm...

yup jump on it...

bump this up though...
6GB DDR2 SDRAM

and this is good too so no need to upgrade
1 GB NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT with 2 DVI, HDMI

Gomboman wrote in post #11388489
My only hesitation is that the mother board failed once. Not sure if this is a sign that the mother board could fail again or not.

i missed this part... but if it does...
$50 case and a $50 mobo and your back up and running... or buy that mobo replacement on line....

or a nice case (i like the antec 900) can be had for $100 or if you wait for mail in rebates... $60... then a mobo... xfx 790i (not sure if it works with that memory but 6gb i believe will be tripple channel....

remember.. your getting a $250 cpu and $150 video card... so you can build your own later if needed as you will have alot of good parts

This system looks great and should serve you fine. If you're worried about the mother board going out, do some research on Google about that desktop and see if it's a common problem. I would do a separate search for desktop and another for motherboard, there seems to be a forum for everything these days.

isnt there a 1 yr warranty ont he replaced mobo?

if you're curious about where the cpu ranks go here
http://www.tomshardwar​e.com …-Photoshop-CS-4,1387.html

seems like you're getting a real good deal....

motherboard has been replaced... heck yes -- great deal!

kitacanon wrote in post #11391442
if you're curious about where the cpu ranks go here
http://www.tomshardwar​e.com …-Photoshop-CS-4,1387.html

seems like you're getting a real good deal....

Thanks for the link. Maybe not as good of deal as your i7. That was a good find too. Maybe we'll have some better luck with HP's.

I'm going to pick it up tomorrow. It should be an improvement over my 2003 P4 and Inspiron 1525. Yes, I also have a warranty on the new mother board.

Now I'm searching for a decent monitor.

Gomboman wrote in post #11391625
Thanks for the link.

I'm going to pick it up tomorrow. It should be an improvement over my 2003 P4 and Inspiron 1525.

That's funny...I used a P4 VAIO from 03-06 when going digital demanded more RAM than the 1gb max of the vaio and I found a Dell P4HT/2.5gb RAM at Habitat for Humanity Restore 2.5 years ago....this is my 1st store upgrade since the Vaio. The 310t I got is running cold and quiet...a good sign for long life.

Damn, I love this computer.....

Worry is not good for you health. You cash or check? I will stop by to pick it up tomorrow. Thanks for the tease G. I got your email.

Gomboman wrote in post #11397220
Damn, I love this computer.....

I know the feeling!!!

My only dissapointment (so far) is the limited color adjustments for ATI software....nVidia had individual color channels to adjust, AIT is just a hue slide switch...not very precise...oh well...I may have to get another video card...