last time I checked I had like 235+ buys and one dead beat screwed me out of 45 bucks on one of the 80+ scsi drives I bought. And... I got some sh*tty blank dvd's once also. I have saved that much basicaly on any two or three buys I made. If your careful and know what to watch for it isnt hard to stay out of trouble on ebay.
If the seller has no or very little feedback and especially if the deal is to good to be true then it probably is. Stick to reputable dealers pretty much and its a done deal. I have won a couple that seemed to good to be true and didn't pay till I checked them out cause it didnt feel right... and both were bogus. 99 percent of the serious sellers are legit and will answer questions and be very open. Beware of the others.
The opteron dealer I linked for example has 1000 positive feedbacks sales with a 99 percent satisfaction rating. He sells tons of just cpu's each week. If you watch the seller ratings it isnt that hard.
Tex
Ok so I went and double checked... I was wrong. The opteron guy has 1180 feedbacks and 99.7 percent are positive. Not even newegg can beat that.
I bet if you just used pricewatch to find the best price on stuff and bought from the top two listed sellers you would have a 20 percent dis-satisfaction rating. 90 percent of the people screwed on ebay never look at the sellers rating or buyt from people with almost no feedback. I only do if they are local and I can go pick it up in person.
And this wasnt some once in a lifetime deal. I just happened to see the opteron going off real low and threw a bid out. In fact if I hadn't bid the cpu would of sold for 52 bucks to the other guy.
The asus go off for that all the time.
After I get that one finished I'll only have one dual 2100+ XP MSI k7d left as a 32bit computer in my house. Pretty weird how fast everything got upgraded in the home after I liked the first one really.
They had another MSI k8d dual opteron MB go off the other day with no bids and a starting bid of $200. With four pci-x slots thats a killer board for $200.
I have yet to get burned on ebay as I'm rather scrupulous about who I buy from on there. I like trolling for treasure there myself and am watching some gear to snipe it at the last moment if the bidding holds steady. Ebay rocks but you have to put in the correct time/research to make sure you don't get burned. As always, caveat emptor
I tend to take chances only when its someone local who is willing to let me come and pick it up basicaly. I took a chance sort of on the msi Neo motherboard I jujst bought and he was maybe the best seller I have ever had on ebay. He actually went ahead and shipped the item to me before I had paid for it for christ sakes.
Slightly off topic but I'm just curious, where do you put all these computers? 80+ scsi drives . Not to mention what you do with them all. I'm not bashing by any means and I'm sure many here are like yourself but I just can't imagine. I have 3 PC's running here and 1 of them is rarely even turned on.
0
Geeky1University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
edited May 2004
Well, not to speak for Tex or anything, but I've got 4 assembled, working computers, and plans for at least 2, hopefully 3, possibly even 4 or 5 more. What do I use them for? Basically, nothing.
In fact, more often than not, the only one that sees any use at all on any given day is my laptop. But I'm still hoping to set up a total of 8 desktops (plus the laptop); my goal is this:
A dual Athlon system (got it)
A dual Opteron system
A dual Hyperthreaded Xeon system (got the board)
A dual Pentium III system (got it, need to RMA the board I want to use)
A single Athlon system (got it)
A single Hyperthreaded P4 system (need to RMA the board)
A single Athlon 64 or Athlon FX system
A Banias/Dothan-based desktop
Why? Basically, just so I can screw around with every relatively current pc platform that's worth my time. I might consider adding a Via C3 system to that list, but I am NOT a fan of the C3 by any stretch of the imagination, so I doubt it.
I buy and sell scsi drives and scsi raid controllers so I don't have 80 in my possession of course. (grin) I build dual cpu boxs not for the computing power primarily but for the 64bit slots for scsi controllers. I have a 6foot tall 19" rack actually that has two 4U rack cases for the scsi drives and two 4U rackmount cases for servers all on slide out cases and the dual opteron is in a custom Lubic case that fits perfectly in the bottom of the 19" rack and is probbaly either 5 or 6u. I have a 1800 and a 1200 watt voltage regulator powering the mess. I also have a little half rack thats maybe 3 foot tall sitting next to it that holds a hp laser and the stereo gear as my computer sound system for playing MP3's coonects into a 200 watt rack mount carver power amp and pre/amp tuner that kicks a four foot tall set of old klipsch Cornwalls. The cornwalls are the next smaller klipsch speakers then the famous Klipschhorns. Many theaters used them actually. Makes for a killer sound system. Our home was a "model home" in a sub-division meaning this is where the salesman selling new homes worked out of. Most the homes have a double car garage. Ours doesnt as it was finished out as a big office for the salesman to sell the homes from, and has it's own seperate central air conditioning setup to keep the customers comfy as they signed the contracts., or in my case to keep the computers cool. Well thats the "Office" I use currently for the computers. We usually have two computers not "racked out" but right now we are down to just one and thats Robins thats going to be upgraded with the new opteron. If I keep the old Kr7 she is running for my duaghter we will have two again. The top of the 19"' rack has the cable modem/smc router and the rackmounted 8 port gigabit switch. The rack has a smoked plexi door in both front and back and is pretty slick to work on with all the cases on slides and everything. I have been in thjis buisness for 20 years btw... and Robin is an Oracle DBA and developer so our "home" is more of a "lab" of sorts. I run a domain controller and a linux server etc..
Its been in a constant state of change for the last 3 or 4 years actually and hopefully the core stuff is pretty much set... LMAO famous last words.. Robin has heard me say that line a dozen times this calendar year alone (sometimes with a semi straight face). and then.... another to good to be true deal pops in and I cave again. (grin)
I bet the msi k7d dual 2100+ will actually only be here a few months and I'll upgrade it to a dual opteron actually... Hmmmmmm maybe a tyan board this time though just to try something differant? (evil grin)
And I still lust for a shuttle XPC mini PC based on a athlon 64 so.... Ok all bets are off. I only have to promise Robin to keep her box stable and not keep parting it out. She used to be so P.O.'d to sit down and find I sold off half her P.C. while she was gone. LMAO So the deal is I keep enough other toys here to jack with and don't touch hers.... Worked great till the kid was using hers the other day and she sat down at my desk to play around where all the other computers run through a KVM into my 21" monitor and now she just whines about how slow hers after using my "toys" so I promised to upgrade her PC next... I mean... gee... building her a new opteron is the very least I could do right guys?
The lady is so cool. You will never know how slick it is havinga wife that does this crap for a living to. It's much easier to justify new toys. And she is a cutie too so I really have no complaints.
Comments
My dual 240 opteron's with msi k8d master mb was like $450. last time I looked newegg wanted that for just the MB.
My 3200+ Athlon 64 and msi k8t neo was like $240 total.
The 142 opteron and asus sk8n was as posted. The $80 for the opteron included shipping and I threw in 2 bucks for insurance.
All on eBay as always.
I got a nice Kilipsch 4.1 promedia last weekend for 40 bucks on ebay and picked it up local to avoid shipping.
Tex
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3482311122&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&rd=1
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3481476811&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&rd=1
oooops. it was $133 not $130. Sorry.
Tex
KF
If the seller has no or very little feedback and especially if the deal is to good to be true then it probably is. Stick to reputable dealers pretty much and its a done deal. I have won a couple that seemed to good to be true and didn't pay till I checked them out cause it didnt feel right... and both were bogus. 99 percent of the serious sellers are legit and will answer questions and be very open. Beware of the others.
The opteron dealer I linked for example has 1000 positive feedbacks sales with a 99 percent satisfaction rating. He sells tons of just cpu's each week. If you watch the seller ratings it isnt that hard.
Tex
Ok so I went and double checked... I was wrong. The opteron guy has 1180 feedbacks and 99.7 percent are positive. Not even newegg can beat that.
I bet if you just used pricewatch to find the best price on stuff and bought from the top two listed sellers you would have a 20 percent dis-satisfaction rating. 90 percent of the people screwed on ebay never look at the sellers rating or buyt from people with almost no feedback. I only do if they are local and I can go pick it up in person.
meh... its not like could afford it anyways.
great buy tho man!
The asus go off for that all the time.
After I get that one finished I'll only have one dual 2100+ XP MSI k7d left as a 32bit computer in my house. Pretty weird how fast everything got upgraded in the home after I liked the first one really.
They had another MSI k8d dual opteron MB go off the other day with no bids and a starting bid of $200. With four pci-x slots thats a killer board for $200.
Tex
KF
In fact, more often than not, the only one that sees any use at all on any given day is my laptop. But I'm still hoping to set up a total of 8 desktops (plus the laptop); my goal is this:
A dual Athlon system (got it)
A dual Opteron system
A dual Hyperthreaded Xeon system (got the board)
A dual Pentium III system (got it, need to RMA the board I want to use)
A single Athlon system (got it)
A single Hyperthreaded P4 system (need to RMA the board)
A single Athlon 64 or Athlon FX system
A Banias/Dothan-based desktop
Why? Basically, just so I can screw around with every relatively current pc platform that's worth my time. I might consider adding a Via C3 system to that list, but I am NOT a fan of the C3 by any stretch of the imagination, so I doubt it.
Did that help at all?
Tex
I bet the msi k7d dual 2100+ will actually only be here a few months and I'll upgrade it to a dual opteron actually... Hmmmmmm maybe a tyan board this time though just to try something differant? (evil grin)
And I still lust for a shuttle XPC mini PC based on a athlon 64 so.... Ok all bets are off. I only have to promise Robin to keep her box stable and not keep parting it out. She used to be so P.O.'d to sit down and find I sold off half her P.C. while she was gone. LMAO So the deal is I keep enough other toys here to jack with and don't touch hers.... Worked great till the kid was using hers the other day and she sat down at my desk to play around where all the other computers run through a KVM into my 21" monitor and now she just whines about how slow hers after using my "toys" so I promised to upgrade her PC next... I mean... gee... building her a new opteron is the very least I could do right guys?
The lady is so cool. You will never know how slick it is havinga wife that does this crap for a living to. It's much easier to justify new toys. And she is a cutie too so I really have no complaints.
Tex
And here is a pic of my Oracle DBA wife.
Can't argue that