looking to buy a used business class pc (thinkcentre or optiplex) on ebay

[Payne3d]

Is one better built than the other? Does the Lenovo ThinkCentre use a better quality motherboard and power supply compared to the Dell Optiplex, or are they about the same? Currently, I am using an old ThinkPad with a 3rd gen Intel processor as a desktop, which I have connected to an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse. I'm pretty happy with the quality and stability of it, but it's just getting sluggish as apps are getting more resource hungry and the integrated intel gpu doesn't support H.265 or vp9 hardware decoding for youtube.

[Trunks0]

I deal with this hardware on the regular. For gaming the only things to watch out for are...

1) Watch the form factor. Allot use half-height cards.
2) Double check the PSU has a 6 or 8-pin connections. These systems rarely have GPU's in them, never mind ones that requires a power connector.

Otherwise, they tend to be pretty great. The only reason I tend recycle older Dell Optiplex systems for instance is they won't support Win11 (8th gen or new Intel CPU's only. So a person is choosing now to upgrade) or they need a faster CPU because they went low spec 5+yrs ago. Pretty rare for either the PSU or Mobo to fail.

[Silent-Runner]

i would be surprised if he intended to use it for gaming

[Payne3d]

I deal with this hardware on the regular. For gaming the only things to watch out for are...

1) Watch the form factor. Allot use half-height cards.
2) Double check the PSU has a 6 or 8-pin connections. These systems rarely have GPU's in them, never mind ones that requires a power connector.

Otherwise, they tend to be pretty great. The only reason I tend recycle older Dell Optiplex systems for instance is they won't support Win11 (8th gen or new Intel CPU's only. So a person is choosing now to upgrade) or they need a faster CPU because they went low spec 5+yrs ago. Pretty rare for either the PSU or Mobo to fail.

Gaming is not a high priority for me these days. My primary concern is the stability of the hardware and the quality of its components, particularly the power supply. Thank you for suggesting that CPU. I was aiming for a minimum of an 8th generation Intel processor. So either lenovo or dell are good as far as components go?
thanks for your input

[Nagorak]

I know that you can get super cheap systems like this from Ebay and have done so for my company before. However, they are pretty anemic systems. The specs are misleading because they will always be significantly slower than a similarly spec'ed custom build because of poor component choice and quality (i.e. slow memory, only a single memory stick so running in single channel mode, insufficient power delivering or cooling leading to performance throttling). The motherboard and other components are trash tier for the most part: no better than the cheapest standalone version you can buy on the market, and oftentimes worse. They work fine for an office machine but that's really about it.

Unless you are on an extreme budget I'd say it's better to just put together an inexpensive machine made out of quality components. And in this case by quality I mean like a $50-$60 class motherboard, PSU and memory. The extra $100-$200 it sets you back provides you with a better platform for future expansion and better performance in the immediate future.

[Trunks0]

Nagorak kinda nailed it. They are perfectly serviceable/reliable, but not high performance. So long as the model is up-gradable(nothing soldered in place), you can solve the performance issues related to poor choices in RAM, SSD's or HDD's.