Expert explains why old high-end processors can become a real cost trap for you
On Amazon and eBay you can get used high-end processors for little money. Now an expert has explained why it’s only partially worth it, even though the prices look great.
If you want to upgrade your gaming system, you can either buy new or used hardware. Especially with used hardware you can often save money and sometimes make real bargains. Due to the high prices, even old graphics cards are currently worth a lot of money.
But what about high-end hardware that is a few years old and no longer gets updates or drivers? An expert has now done the test and bought old high-end processors and compared prices.
Who’s speaking? Linus Sebastian is the boss of the YouTube channel “Linus Tech Tips” and here he tests hardware or tries out new gadgets. At the current time (01/28/2022) he has more than 14 million subscribers.
What’s the matter? In his video, Linus tried out several processors that are several years old. The reason for this test is simple: you can currently get the processors really cheaply:
- On eBay, for example, the Xeon X5690 costs just under 60 euros.
- You can even get the i5-2500K for around 20 euros on eBay.
- You can also get the even faster i7-2600K for just under 60 euros.
The processors are already around 10 years old on average, but still offer a lot of performance for their age. For example, the colleagues from the GameStar in the test of the i5-2500K and i7-2600K explains that you get excellent processors for the money.
But Linus found that it is rarely really worth buying old hardware. You can currently watch the full video on YouTube:
Used hardware can become a cost trap
Linus had tested the processors in practice and explained that the processors are significantly weaker than modern processors in multithreading. Multithreading means how many processes the CPU can process at the same time. In games, however, the old processors can definitely keep up and also beat processors of the new generation from Intel and AMD.
Why is it still not worth buying? There are several problems with the old hardware:
- For the apparently cheap processor you still need a corresponding mainboard. And they can get really expensive. Here you are happy to pay 150 euros for an outdated mainboard. Then there is DDR3 RAM, which costs around 40 euros.
- From an upgrade perspective, buying outdated hardware is always a dead end, since you can’t mount a new processor on the old motherboard. DDR3 memory is also not compatible with new mainboards.
- Support for many old models has now expired, in the worst case you will no longer get any software for Windows 10 and support for Windows 11 is also questionable.
What’s the biggest problem? If you buy a modern mainboard and DDR4 RAM today, you only pay a few euros more than for the outdated hardware. This means that you are also much more future-proof than with hardware that is years old.
You pay more for modern processors, but you also rely on a future-proof platform and have no problems if you want to buy a faster processor. Linus therefore says clearly in his video:
It’s hard to justify investing in old hardware when faced with both of these problems and a complete lack of an upgrade path.
So if you are flirting with old hardware for a cheap price, then you should think twice about this purchase. Because in most cases it is hardly worth it at all to invest in such old things.
Old hardware is an option for many users not to spend quite as much on hardware. Because in the current situation it is difficult to get hardware for gaming at good prices. In the following article we explained to you why many users currently have little chance of buying a graphics card:
Why you as a gamer hardly have a chance to buy a graphics card
Reference-mein-mmo.de