Buying Used Gaming Monitors From B&h Photo Review
Without a gaming monitor, a $thousand gaming PC is just a collection of plastic and metal bustling away under your desk-bound wasting electricity.
To play games, you need to see games. You demand a monitor.
But monitors tin exist extremely expensive, with some of the high-cease models costing over $1000.
And then why not buy a used monitor instead?
I know what your thinking:
Ownership a used gaming monitor is risky. Subsequently all, you know exactly what you lot're getting when ownership new.
Simply buying a used monitor demand not be risky. I've bought multiple used monitors over the years, from workhorses such as 21 inch Viewsonic monitors for my office, to 32 inch 1440p HP Omen monsters. And they accept all worked perfectly.
Ownership a used gaming monitor, if y'all're mindful of the (spoiler alert) tips i'll show you lot in this article, can get you a loftier-end gaming monitor for a fraction of the price of a new monitor.
Then, should I buy a used Monitor? Yeah, yous should absolutely buy a used monitor. You can easily salvage as much equally 59.5% when buying a used high-end monitor. And that saving applies when buying a cheaper used monitor too.
In this commodity:
- Your question: "Should I buy a used monitor", will be answered in more depth
- You'll detect where you lot can buy a used monitor
- Yous'll learn the difference between a refurbished and used gaming monitor
- I'll evidence yous a list of tips to help y'all confidently buy a used monitor
- Finally, yous'll get a conclusion and a look at what you can practise side by side
Now yous're set to swoop into the kickoff section, let'due south become started!
But commencement, a quick note…
As I'thou from Wales in the UK, I sometimes talk about prices in Britain pounds.
The reason for this is unproblematic:
I wanted to be as authentic as possible by using my own experience of buying used PC parts here in the Britain.
Uk prices can exist easily converted to Usa dollars.
The price in US dollars and Britain pounds are pretty much the same cost afterward taking into account Great britain VAT Revenue enhancement. So £100 is roughly equal to $100.
Why y'all should buy a used monitor
Buying a used monitor… Saves you money
The money volition always exist the biggest motivator to buy a used monitor. Buying used lowers the cost of entry to the high-cease gaming monitor market.
A super widescreen Alienware monitor, that costs close to $chiliad new, can be had for less than half of that used.
In fact, while looking through eBay, I discovered a super instance of simply such an Alienware monitor.
Let's take a look:
Alienware AW3418DW 34″ 120 Hz G-Sync Gaming Monitor 1440p
Alienware is the Ferrari of PC hardware. Renowned for making some of the most powerful custom gaming PCs and Laptops the earth, Alienware is now pulverizing boundaries to push into new markets.
And i such market is the loftier-stop gaming monitor market.
The Alienware AW3418DW was ane of the well-nigh advanced monitors on the market at the time of release and all the same stands proud above 90% of the gaming monitor competition.
Sporting a super-wide curved display that unfurls 34" wide, the monitor can crank out 120 frames per second for super slick pro-level graphics.
Plus, it offers a mind-extraordinary 3440 x 1440 resolution. More than enough pixels to keep the nearly powerful graphics card busy.
And yous'd await something as cute, but badly named, as the AW3418DW to cost a lot. And you'd exist right. This desk swallowing monster would accept cost only over $1000 dollars new.
Mode beyond the wallet power of most gamers.
Not so if you buy used…
Slide on over to eBay and information technology'south a different story. What once was a $k gaming monitor is now a hardly used, nearly new, deal.
I constitute the monitor sold, later 23 bids, for only $405.00.
That's a staggering $595 less than the same monitor new!
Or, to put it in percent terms, buying the used monitor saves you 59.five%. A bargain if I ever saw one!
Buying a used monitor… Helps salvage the environs
If you've been coming to Career Gamers often, and if you oasis't why not, you lot've probably noticed in my used gaming component guides that I talk a lot about saving the environment.
I believe gamers, regardless of whether your a hardcore PC gamer, a console gamer, or a casual gamer shuffling sweets on Candy Crush, have a responsibility to help save the environment.
E-waste, such as Laptops, PCs , PC components, consoles, and of course, monitors, accounts for 70% of all toxic waste in the United states of america. What's even more frightening is that merely 12% of all electronics are designed with recycling in mind.
That means 88 out of every 100 monitors fabricated get stacked in landfill as time does our dirty piece of work over thousands of years to break the bonds of plastic down.
By buying used, y'all can delay those 88 monitors from ending their lives in a heap of trash. By buying used, y'all stop nevertheless another new monitor from beingness sold, which sends a articulate message to companies. A bulletin that reads, "Unless you make your components 100% recyclable, I will not purchase."
But I know what you are thinking. You are simply one person buying one monitor. What difference can you make?
You tin make all the difference.
All great goals, such as saving the planet for future generations to savour, are nothing but the culmination, thousands, millions of little goals.
Just as the great goal of climbing Mount Everest is the culmination of taking thousands of little steps, trivial goals, and so can you take a piddling step by ownership a used monitor instead of a new one.
So help past being 1 of those fiddling steps on the road to a more sustainable futurity. Purchase used. Save the planet. Repeat.
Information technology really is that simple.
Buying a used monitor… Lets you buy a improve monitor for the same coin.
For example, say you accept a gaming monitor upkeep of $1000.
Y'all could purchase a used Alienware AW3418DW for $400, and pocket the remainder of the cash.
Or, you could skip past the AW3418DW and purchase an even better monitor. Ane that would be manner out of your upkeep if bought new.
For case, you could level-up your monitor experience and buy a Samsung 49 inch CHG90 QLED ultrawide curved monitor for $580. A bargain for a monitor that normally retails for most $2000!
So for your $1000 budget, yous're getting a most $2000 monitor, and you lot're still saving $320 of your $1000 budget!
Ownership used seems better and improve doesn't information technology!
Buying a used monitor… Lets you lot purchase better computer components for a given budget.
Sticking with the case above of the Alienware AW3418DW, you could spend the $595 you saved on better PC components such as better GPU or CPU.
Where can I buy a used monitor?
This is my listing of the best shops and websites to buy used and refurbished monitors. If you can think of anywhere else that I could add together to this list, let me know in the comments.
Websites
- Amazon
- Ebay
- Craigslist
Shops
- UK
- CeX – Offers a expert 2-year warranty, but you do pay a trivial actress fee for this.
- Game – Sometimes sells used reckoner components, but non oftentimes. Usually sells them cheaply.
Difference between a refurbished and a plain used monitor
Plain Used Monitors
Used gaming Monitors are sold by individuals that have decided to upgrade to a newer, and hopefully amend, Monitor.
There'due south commonly nada wrong with the monitor they are selling. It'due south but being sold because information technology'southward surplus to requirements.
Y'all'll observe lots of gamers selling their one-time monitors on websites like eBay.
A used gaming monitor, such every bit those made by Samsung, Asus, LG, and HP Omen can oft be found at absolute deal prices compared to their new prices.
However, monitors bought from individual sellers will not come with a warranty, and will be sold as seen.
Refurbished Monitors
Refurbished gaming monitors are usually sold by businesses not individuals.
To be considered refurbished, the monitor must pass through a rigorous inspection past a trained technician.
The Monitor will first be checked for concrete defects such equally dents and damaged ports. They will also bank check all the buttons, cables, and supplied accessories. If everything passes A-Ok, the technician volition push the monitor to the side by side set of tests.
In phase 2 of the tests, the technician volition plug the monitor into a PC and test that it is performance correctly. The examination includes checking for obvious signs of wear such as lines of pixels non working, expressionless pixels, night marks on the screen such as bruising caused by failed backlights.
If the monitor works as information technology should, it'south given a thorough make clean, passed equally refurbished, and promptly put up for sale.
Refurbished monitors often come up with a 1-2 yr limited warranty.
Tips for buying a used or refurbished monitor
Information technology's worth noting that these tips are not in order of importance. I take put them all in random order in guild (sorry) to emphasize the importance of working through each tip to ensure what you lot are buying is worth your coin.
Tip one: Await for Expressionless pixels
Dead pixels are pixels on the screen that stop switching color every frame. Often a expressionless pixel tin can hands be seen on either an all-blackness screen or an all-white screen.
Sometimes, you'll get a single dead pixel. Other times, you'll find multiple dead pixels grouped together.
Dead pixels are not the end of the globe when it comes to buying a monitor. Most games are not played on purely white or black backgrounds making single dead pixels hard to see in existent-earth use.
So one or two dead pixels might not be a problem for you.
However, it's worth keeping two things in mind:
- Expressionless pixels tin can't be stock-still. If it's expressionless at present it will very likely remain that way forever
- A grouping of dead pixels can bespeak that the Monitor has been abused. If something has been thrown at the screen with enough force, the bear upon can destroy a group of pixels
If you spot a group of dead pixels, do not purchase the monitor.
If there are just a couple of dead pixels scattered in different places, then information technology'southward up to you to decide if this will bother you lot or not.
Tip 2: Are there any trample/dark marks
Bruise marks or large dark areas on the screen when it's switched on commonly indicate that either the LED lights behind the bruise take died, or the intricate assortment of mirrors that channel the light throughout the monitor have been damaged.
Usually, a trample is caused past mishandling the monitor. This could be through corruption such every bit throwing something at the monitor or dropping it.
Either way, if it'due south bruised, practise non buy information technology.
Tip iii: Bank check for fire-in/ghosting
You may accept heard of the dreaded burn-in from years ago on old-schoolhouse Plasma TVs.
Basically, if yous leave an image on the screen too long, it can slowly "wear down" the pixel's ability to fully switch away from the color that made up that original static paradigm.
The outcome is a ghost of the image that was left on screen a lot.
I used to accept a plasma screen TV back in the PS3/Xbox360 days and mistakenly left my Xbox on the domicile menu and then much, a ghostly outline of it was burned into the screen, even when I played games and watched TV.
It's less of an issue these days on LCD monitors but it can nonetheless happen. Especially on OLED monitors.
Screen burn down is irreversible, and so do not buy the monitor if yous notice whatever.
Tip 4: Avert Croaky or damaged monitor cases
If the monitor case is cracked or damaged in any mode, I would avert buying it.
A croaky case can indicate the mishandling of a Monitor. Either somebody has dropped information technology, or information technology's been abused in another style.
Yes, the picture may yet exist fine. Only if it was striking difficult enough to suspension the case, you have no idea what that sort of touch has done to the electronics. They could neglect at any point.
And so avoid monitors with damage to the outer case.
Tip 5: Does information technology have the right connectors for your needs
If yous're buying a used monitor, chances are it'll be a few years one-time. And that's no bad thing. I've bought Viewsonic monitors in the by for my outset freelance office computer that was 15 years former! And they worked perfectly.
The but problem with these quondam monitors was they used an outdated connectedness standard: DVI.
Check what connectors the monitor comes with. Avoid annihilation older than DVI such as the blowsy VGA standard.
And try your best to go a monitor with at least an HDMI port or modern Display port. Especially if this used monitor is for gaming.
Old connector types are not a problem equally you tin can buy adaptors to fit HDMI or Display port connectors.
But you volition observe a lower quality flick and dramatically lower contrast levels with older connectedness standards.
Tip 6: Lookout man out for color and dissimilarity degradation
Y'all may notice a deposition in color and/or contrast with older monitors. This is usually considering older monitors utilize fluorescent tubes to lite the pixels.
A expressionless giveaway for a fluorescent tube totting monitor is its thickness and air vents. If you lot expect at the back of a monitor and information technology is thick, say three fingers thick, and there are air vents at the top, it's lit with fluorescent bulbs.
Equally these bulbs age, they produce less light. This decreases the dissimilarity of the paradigm and makes colors look muddy and washed out.
If you detect this when viewing a monitor, practise non buy it.
Tip vii: Is the resolution right for you lot
Older monitors exercise not support very high resolutions. For instance, my quondam Viewsonic monitors were only 900p.
If you desire to game at a loftier resolution such equally 1440p or even 4k, you'll need a newer monitor.
So be certain to check the resolutions the monitor supports before committing to buying it.
Tip 8: Does it support a high plenty frame rate
Near monitors, gaming or otherwise, back up a 60hz refresh rate or frames per second. This means that every second, 60 static images are rendered to the screen to produce an illusion of movement.
Withal, with the arrival of super-powered GPUs and Esports, we've seen the rise of high refresh rate monitors.
120hz, 144hz, 240hz, and even 320hz monitors are now available.
Personally, I game at 60hz. I'yard ane of the lucky few who doesn't actually notice a difference in frame charge per unit from about 45 frames per second and up. And I've tried a lot of different high Hz monitors. But I never notice the difference.
Notwithstanding, yous might be dissimilar, you might think that 120hz is an absolute minimum. Perchance considering you suffer from bad motion sickness.
And then be sure to check the monitor supports the refresh rate you desire to game at.
Tip 9: Does the monitor come with all the cables and are they in good status
Many PC monitors use proprietary power and connection cables. And then be sure to check that the monitor comes with all the cables information technology should come supplied with.
Also, check that the cables are in good condition.
Tip x: Scissure in screen
Nice and quick one here:
Crack in screen = do not buy.
Tip 11: Lines or rainbowing on screen
Are there colored lines running across the screen? Is a large section of the monitor showing rainbow colors?
If so, the monitor is toast.
Do not buy it.
Tip 12: Does it come with the stand up?
Most monitors come with a stand up. However, some users, if they've mounted the monitor on a wall or 3rd party stand, may accept thrown away the stand that came with the monitor.
So be sure to check that the correct stand is supplied.
Tip xiii: Tin the monitor be mounted on VESA
Not the biggest bargain-billow as nearly gamers volition probable not want to VESA mount their monitor to a wall. However, if you are using the monitor equally a 2nd monitor, perhaps to monitor coms while streaming, you may want to bank check if the used monitor you are looking at can be VESA mounted.
Don't worry if it tin't, Amazon sells a slap-up VESA conversion kit. It'due south quite cheap but recall to take the cost of this conversion mounting bracket into business relationship when ownership the used monitor.
Tip 14: Does the monitor come with Manuals
Be certain the monitor comes with all the manuals so y'all know how to hands modify the settings.
Tip 15: Are there any scratches on the screen
Practice not buy a monitor with scratches on the screen. The scratch will act as an inverted prism and you volition notice the line on the screen when you lot are gaming.
Avoid.
Tip xvi: Damaged corners or edges is a bad sign
Damaged corners or edges could point the monitor has been dropped or treated roughly.
It's best to avoid monitors that have physical damage as you accept no thought how that may have affected the electronics or the LCD panel.
Tip 17: Does the stand up permit the monitor to tilt/move up/down
Does the monitor stant allow you change the height of or tilt the monitor?
If you intend on sitting in front of your monitor for a number of hours each day, information technology's always a good thought to buy a monitor that tin be meridian adjusted so you are not straining your neck looking upwardly or looking down at the monitor.
Equally a rule of thumb, your eyes should be looking 3/4th of the manner upwardly the monitor screen when you look directly alee, then your natural slightly downward gaze is fixed on the centre of the monitor.
Tip 18: See it working
Make sure y'all know the monitor is working earlier you buy it.
Ask the seller to plug it into their PC, and take a photo or video of the monitor working.
If they refuse to take a video or photo, practice not purchase the monitor
Also, if you can, see the monitor in person. Nothing beats an in-person inspection.
Tip nineteen: Are all the buttons working
On the underside of most monitors are 3-five buttons that let y'all turn the monitor off/on and scroll through and change different options. Sadly, these buttons on most monitors are only little paddles of plastic and they tin can fail later on a while.
Check that the buttons are intact and working correctly.
Tip xx: Does the monitor come in the original box?
Buying a used monitor in its original box is always a good idea.
Why?
A monitor sold with its original box normally indicates that the previous possessor looked subsequently their kit knowing they would eventually sell.
Also, the original box helps protect the item in stamp.
Whenever possible, buy used monitors that come packed in the original box.
Tip 21: Compare to new monitor prices
Earlier committing to ownership a used or refurbished monitor, bank check the price of a new version of the same monitor.
Yous may find that the new monitor is selling for the same amount equally the used version.
This will not often be the case every bit used monitors commonly sell for far less cash than their new counterparts.
However, sometimes, especially on days such as Blackness Friday, new monitors sell for less than their used counterparts.
And then always compare the used price to the new price. Y'all may non exist getting equally much of a bargain as you idea you lot were.
Tip 22: Paypal offers buyer protection: utilise information technology
Do not pay in cash. Yous get buyer protection past using Paypal. If there is a problem with the monitor, yous can inform Paypal and you'll go your coin back.
Tip 23: Cheque warranties before buying refurbished
Buying refurbished will mean you get a limited warranty. This is great, but be certain you are not paying too much.
Some sellers add a massive cost premium for the "security' of a warranty.
Be sure you're non paying over the odds for a warranty by checking the price of the aforementioned monitor when new.
If possible, as well check the toll of the monitor when it is simply patently used to get an idea of the deviation in price.
Tip 24: Lookout the postage and packaging (P&P)
If you buy a new monitor from a website similar Amazon, chances are you'll become free P&P.
However, when buying used, yous will have to pay for P&P.
Think monitors, though getting thinner, are still large and beefy things. And flinging them across the country using a courier is not cheap
Sending a monitor tin can price as little equally $8 to every bit much as $xx dollars depending on the size of the monitor.
And so take the cost of P&P into business relationship when buying.
Determination
I honestly believe that buying a used or refurbished gaming monitor is the perfect path for a gamer on a budget, or whatsoever gamer, to experience the wonderful and varied globe of high spec monitors.
Buying used opens up a world of possibilities, such as 4k and 240hz, at a price that everyone can afford.
The money yous salvage by buying a used monitor can be either saved or spent on a better monitor.
Alternatively, the saved cash can be spent on ameliorate PC components such as a better CPU, GPU, or RAM.
Besides, it's worth remembering that buying used saves nonetheless another monitor from the mountains of rubbish in landfill sites.
So, the answer to the question, "Should y'all buy a used monitor" is clear:
You lot should admittedly buy a used gaming monitor.
What'due south next?
Tin can I buy other used refurbished parts? Aye. GPUs, CPUs, motherboards, Blue-ray drives, you proper name it I've bought it used and built a organization out of it. I've never had any failure or bug.
What almost used fans and cases? Yes, you can buy used fans and cases. You can also buy used CPU cooling solutions.
What well-nigh the PSU? I have bought used PSUs in the past and they have worked absolutely fine. However, PSUs degrade over time. Their power output drops past well-nigh 5% every twelvemonth. Then, an old PSU volition supply less ability than a new PSU. That being said, if you buy a very powerful old PSU, information technology should easily have plenty ability to power fifty-fifty the virtually power-hungry modern components.
I'd like to build my own gaming PC from used parts, how would I do that? Ah, you lot are in luck, I wrote a "how to create a gaming PC from used parts" a few months dorsum. You can take a look at it here.
Source: https://careergamers.com/should-i-buy-a-used-monitor/
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