Mac Pro eBay Scenarios

[Gizmo22]

I believe I am parting with my recently acquired 5.1 Mac Pro. Stock, it came with...

Dual 2.4 quad
12GB Memory
5770
1TB HDD
Super Drive

Over the years of dabbling with computers, I have acquired several miscellaneous parts laying around. If I am going to be sending the system off to eBay, I am curious if the presumed buyer would prefer to have the "stock" system, or a faster system. If faster, I wonder what the marginal cost/value would be for...

16GB or 32GB of memory

Dual hex core processors

80GB SSD? 160GB SSD? 256GB SSD? Multiple 1TB HDD?

Blu Ray drives, or adding a second DVD/RW?


The cMP is such a joy to open up and tinker with (easily most incredible enclosure I have ever seen) that it would take all of 30 minutes to upgrade to hex cores with more memory and toss in an extra drive or two, but if it costs me $250 to add dual hex, and only adds $200 in relative value, it simply isn't worth it.

 

[h9826790]

Don't expect you can make money from this. For selling purpose, keep it stock may be the best option. You have no idea what the buyer want, the more upgrade you do, the less potential buyer you have.

Let's say, I want a dual 5690. However, you just upgrade your machine to 5670, then I will go to buy a stock (or the cheapest) one and then upgrade by myself. The same thing apply on RAM and SSD.

This situation is even worse on SSD, since most of us still have no idea about it's actual life span, quite a few buyers will avoid used SSD (unless it's really cheap). If you spend $300 to install a SSD on your Mac Pro, may be it will only worth an extra $150 for selling. A used SSD simply worth much less a new one.

 

[Gizmo22]

Don't expect you can make money from this. For selling purpose, keep it stock may be the best option. You have no idea what the buyer want, the more upgrade you do, the less potential buyer you have.

Let's say, I want a dual 5690. However, you just upgrade your machine to 5670, then I will go to buy a stock (or the cheapest) one and then upgrade by myself. The same thing apply on RAM and SSD.

This situation is even worse on SSD, since most of us still have no idea about it's actual life span, quite a few buyers will avoid used SSD (unless it's really cheap). If you spend $300 to install a SSD on your Mac Pro, may be it will only worth an extra $150 for selling. A used SSD simply worth much less a new one.

Thank you for the insight. I suppose my experiences have always been the opposite, with many users being okay with others upgrading their system - they simply do not trust themselves to do it. A shame really, since computers are not much more than glorified legos. Heck, with computers, the parts will only fit in one spot. As long as the part is "right side up" there's not much damage to do. Avoid upgrades while wearing wool pajamas and running around on carpet; doing upgrades in a rainstorm outdoors is also ill advised.

 

[Celedral]

I've rigged out my 09 Mac Pro to the max specs; 3.33 6 core, 48gb ram, gtx 780, Velocity x2 w/ Samsung 840 Pro, USB 3.0. Project cost was around $2400, ended up selling for $2800 a while back. Maybe I got lucky, but it was sold on craigslist for cash so no fees were taken by ebay.

 

[RoastingPig]

always sell stock like others have said you don't know what the buyers wants.

 

[pertusis1]

Keep in mind, you can always offer to upgrade before shipping if the buyer desires.