Is this good?

[SparklyMoon]

I know nothing about computers, and am very interested in buying one. My friend has offered me a reconditioned Pentium 3, with a 17" monitor, keyboard and mouse, for 400$CDN.
Is this a good deal?
Thanks!:confused:

[Budfred]

Welcome to http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif

I am not sure how much that comes to in currency I am familiar with, but it seems pricey to me. It would depend on what else came with it. If it has a bunch of software that you would actually own the original disks for, it could be a decent deal. Also, if it has some nice drives it might add some to the value. Pentium 3s are a bit outdated and you could buy a new barebones system at more that 2 ghz for about the same price (I think, that exchange rate thing).

Find out and post more details about what this includes and we can tell you more about what it is worth....

[saphalline]

I don't know, Budfred, that included monitor makes it a pretty good deal in my mind. 17" can be gotten for cheap, but this is basically a complete system. At least I would assume since it even comes with a mouse & keyboard.

SparklyMoon, can you verify that it is indeed a complete and working system? By this, I mean can you take the whole thing home, turn it on and be playing a CD or game right away? Obviously surfing the net would take some configuration, but all in all it should be ready to go and stable.

I can't be 100% sure on the price as $CDN and $US tend to be a bit off from eachother, and the fact that we don't have further specs, but I wouldn't pay more than $300-350 US for a config like that just because it's used and I don't know the brand name and new hardware in general is pretty cheap these days. If you can get some more specifics, it would help us a lot. For instance, the PIII ran at speeds from a measely 450MHz to the respectable 1.4GHz versions. That right there can mean a lot!

[malcore]

$400 CDN = $290 US. If it has no problems, not a bad deal.;)

If under 800MHz and no CD writer, some good old bartering might be in order. Knock him down a few beaver pelts!!:p