With GPU prices finally tumbling down, chances are that your 3-year-old PC might just be due for an upgrade. With that said, selling your PC can feel quite cumbersome, especially if this is your first time doing so.
Here are all the steps you should follow to sell your PC:
1) Prepare a list of your specifications.
2) Check your system’s health for any issues.
3) Perform a backup and reset your PC.
4) Now, value your rig appropriately.
5) Lastly, sell it on a particular platform.
In this article, we will go into discrete detail on what exact steps you should perform to get a fair and accurate price on your PC and sell it as quickly as possible. So, read on!
Preparing Your Specifications
It might’ve been ages since you purchased your PC. Chances are, you might not exactly be sure of every nitty-gritty component in your computer. Knowing each part that makes up your computer helps you drive a more reasonable bargain.
Thankfully, multiple tools can help you accurately assess what exactly makes up your PC. We’re big fans of Speccy. With it, you can get an accurate, readable report of the specifications of your computer.
After you have run the tool, take note of the following components:
- Motherboard
- CPU
- RAM (Speed and Size)
- GPU (If present)
- Storage (NVMe / SATA / HDD)
- PSU
Checking System Health
When selling a PC, it is important to drive a fair bargain. You don’t want to stick someone with a faulty storage device or a GPU that overheats. So, you can use two particular tools to help ensure your PC is in tip-top shape.
Storage Health
If you have been running your PC for a few years now, chances are that your HDD/SSD isn’t in the same health as it once was. While negligible differences are okay, you need to make sure there aren’t any bad sectors. A tool like HDD Sentinel will quickly let you know if that’s the case.
Temperatures
A computer that’s running hot is not one anyone will be willing to buy. Generally, your CPU and GPU are the two components with a high chance of heating up. With a tool like HWMONITOR, you’ll be able to identify whether temperatures are within passable limits.
If you do end up having a temperature that runs hotter than usual, clean it thoroughly, check if all the fans are spinning, and re-paste both your GPU and CPU to bring your temperatures back to normal.
Perform a Backup and Reset
Now that we’ve got our specs up-to-speed and all our components are working flawlessly, it is time to now ensure all our data is backed up and the PC is reset back to its factory default settings with all our data being wiped clean.
Backing Up
Backing up a Windows PC is more tedious than it sounds. There is no way to make a system image backup that includes everything like a phone or Macbook. Instead, you’ll have to manually copy everything to either OneDrive or Google Drive.
While automated tools exist, we aren’t very keen on recommending them as they might miss out on valuable information that will be irretrievable after you reset your PC.
Resetting Your PC
Thankfully, with Windows 8 and higher, deleting System32 isn’t the only way you can have a fresh install of Windows. Just like a phone, you can reset your PC back to its factory default settings. Here’s how:
- Press the Windows key and type “Reset This PC” in the search box.
- Once that pops up, click on “Reset PC.“
- Now, click on “Remove Everything,” and your computer will be reset after 10-15 minutes.
Valuation
When it comes to selling a used product, undervaluing your PC might lead you to lose a lot of money, and overestimating its value can lead to a dry spell. Therefore, it is integral to have a ballpark figure of how much your overall machine would cost to make at the time you sell it.
If your computer is custom-built, there’s a high chance that you won’t find an exact computer that matches your specs. However, you can get a great estimate from PCPartPicker. Just add in the aforementioned specifications you got from Speccy, and you’ll have an estimate of how much your PC costs.
After finding an estimated price, it is important to be realistic with your expectations. Generally, keep a 10-20% leeway on the price you are willing to let go of your PC for. This is because you might have to deal with a lot of bargaining and haggling. So, slightly overestimating the value of your PC won’t hurt with negotiations.
Selling Your Rig
Ah, now we’re at the final part. We’ve got our estimate, we’ve got an idea of our specifications. Now, it’s time for us to finally sell our PC. First things first, remain as transparent as possible. If there’s a fault or an issue, point it out in your description.
Now, while there are multiple avenues one can use to sell their PC, here are the ones that we found were the most effective:
Facebook Marketplace
Facebook marketplace is an excellent place to sell your PC. It is completely free, requires no commission, and all the haggling can primarily be done through text. Plus, we’ve often found great customers who don’t mind a dent or two, given that the PC works great.
eBay
While eBay might seem like the first choice for many, it has its disadvantages. Firstly, there’s a higher chance of getting stuck in a dispute as customers often tend to pick issues out of the tiniest of things. Plus, we’ve often found buyers on eBay to be a bit pickier as they’re primarily resellers.
Local Computer Store
While driving down to your local computer store seems like something right out of the last decade, it still drives solid results. If you have an older computer that is nearly obsolete, a local computer store may just end up picking it up. This is because they can usually be scrapped for parts or recycled later on.
Summary
Selling your PC can be quite a tedious process. However, with the right mindset and a valuation that isn’t completely obscene, you’ll be able to get your rig sold in no time and reap the profits of a GPU that simply didn’t drop in price.
