I was going about the process of researching used replacements for my display setup at home on my gaming / video processing / other PC. I’d been using an AOC 24” curved WFHD display since 2020, and later got an MSI 30” UWFHD to use next to it, making for a very nice side-to-side curved setup. It’s worked for a long time, but for reasons I won’t get in to (and boredom) I wanted something bigger.
Used is how I go for a lot of reasons, price being a big part of it, but also I stand by the idea that if something is going to fail it will be within the first six months of it being used normally. Barring some sort of secret abuse that’s not visible or possible to perceive, it tends to work.
I was really debating the merits of a 16:9 32-34” display like the LG Ultragear, and even the 39” beast they’ve made. Wide as, or wider, than my 30”, they would make things a lot easier to read and make for a nicer editing and gaming experience. The 49” Samsung Odyssey is of course in the running, but I just couldn’t decide on anything.
One of the listings that came up showed the label on the back of a monitor, and when I looked at the ad title I saw something interesting . It was for a PC, the price had been slashed, but there were no details. I’d been mulling the thought of a new PC to replace my 9th gen Core i7 9700F and so when I clicked on the ad I was genuinely interested in what this was.
It later transpired that this PC wasn’t as first advertised, with a Ryzen 7 7700 instead of the 1390K i9 initially stated, written not in text on the ad, but along with the other details shown on a green lined note pad. The specs were good, the price was good, and it came with an acceptable LC smart monitor. I could work with this, but when I was informed of the CPU mistake I turned away.
There was also a local seller with a genuinely interesting alternative. It did indeed have the slightly slower i5 13600K CPU, and with a similar GPU, but with a tick down in spec. A very nice case, 27” display, and solid specs for the cost. However, they didn’t respond in a timely manner to my several inquiries, so I looked again.
This ad was even more intriguing. It wasn’t as well represented as the second one, but the price was similar, and the specs were incredible. A Core i9 14900K, 64GB DDR5, RX 7900 XTX 24GB, 2TB Gen5 Crucial NVME, two 2TB Silicon Power Gen4 SSDs, and in a nice Montech King Pro 95 case full of aRGB fans and a water cooling setup. My mind quickly did the math and I had to message this person, who was again quite local.
A quick response came, and within 30 minutes I was meeting at his apartment. He was a new young father getting into information security but needed out of the setup. I poked around at it and him a bit, finding that he did indeed know what he was talking about, and the PC was indeed genuine. He’d built it himself, I suspect using many parts sourced in the past two years from a local place that gets items sold in lots.
He’d had it connected to a nice OLED AOC 27” WQHD monitor and an WFHD Acer 27” next to it, all on a desk. Because I’d already talked to a family member about selling my current PC fully, I was curious about whether this seller would be interested in parting with the whole setup. He was, and after a few negotiations we settled on a price.
I pretty much took everything, really. This included HyperX headphones, EVO80 mechanical keyboard, Razer Deathadder Pro mouse, gaming pad, Shure SM7 mic with stand, GoXLR mic interface, Kensington USB-C dock, Edifier speakers, the two monitors with VESA stands, a standing desk unit, the desk itself, and a gaming chair. I mean _everything_, including many cables. What I did not get was spare parts and boxes and other accessories that I may want or need later, but that is a trade-off of buying used.
So, well, that escalated.
Between the two of us, with two cars, and a trip to the bank for cash, we got everything moved quickly and safely. I now had to wrap my mind around what I’d done and figure out what to do. And that’s for another entry, because it’s still not done, and there are some details to add on which haven’t even happened yet.