Custom Built & Gaming
Sell a custom built PC, gaming rig or unbranded tower
No badge on the front is not a problem. Built from parts, bought from a UK system builder, or inherited with no idea what is in it — tell us what is inside and we will come back with a figure.
Start here
Custom built? Tell us this instead of a model number
Four things decide almost all of it, and you can find every one of them without a screwdriver.
The graphics card
The single biggest factor, and usually most of the figure. Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc for Task Manager, open Performance, and it is listed as GPU down the left-hand side.
The processor
Right-click the Start button and choose System, or search for System Information. It gives you the exact chip — an Intel Core i5-12600K or an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X rather than just “an i5”.
How much memory
Same screen as the processor. Worth saying whether it is 8, 16, 32 or more, because it moves the figure and it is the cheapest thing for us to check against what you tell us.
The drives, and the power supply
How much storage and whether it is solid state or a mechanical disk. The power supply wattage is printed on a label on the unit itself, usually visible through the back of the case.
Roughly is fine. If you can only manage “it has a 3060 in it”, that is already more useful than most model numbers.
Why these are different
Why a custom build is different: the graphics card comes out
This is the whole reason a self-built machine is worth treating differently. In a gaming laptop the graphics chip is soldered to the board: it cannot be separated, so it is worth exactly what the whole laptop is worth and not a penny on its own. In a tower it unscrews.
Which means a five-year-old custom build can be worth more than a newer office machine, because the part carrying the value is the part that comes out. It also means the rest of the machine failing matters far less than people assume — a dead motherboard does not touch what is plugged into it.
A laptop instead? Selling a gaming laptop is a genuinely different proposition, for exactly this reason.
Bought rather than built
If there is a builder's sticker on it
Plenty of “unbranded” machines are not unbranded at all — there is just a small sticker somewhere instead of a badge on the front. Any of these is worth telling us about.
- PCSpecialist
- Chillblast
- Scan 3XS
- Overclockers UK
- Novatech
- CyberPowerPC UK
- AWD-IT
- Fierce PC
- Stormforce
- Ginger6
The sticker is usually on the side panel, the back, or inside the front door if there is one. It is not essential — what is in the machine still matters more than who assembled it — but it saves a round of questions.
The honest bit
Sell the whole build, or part it out?
This is the calculation most people in your position are already making. Parting it out means five or six listings rather than one, fees on each, packing a graphics card well enough to survive a courier, and the buyers who agree a price and then go quiet. Selling it whole is one conversation and one collection.
We are not going to tell you which is the better answer, because it depends entirely on what your time is worth to you and how much of it you want to spend. We buy it either way — whole, or as a box of components with no machine around them.
What we would say is: decide before you start taking it apart. A stripped machine that then does not sell is the worst of both.
If it is not yours
Inherited an unbranded PC and no idea what it is?
A black box with no writing on it, that somebody else put together and did not leave notes about, is a genuinely common enquiry. You do not need to identify it before you contact us.
A photograph of the machine, another of the back where the ports and the power supply label are, and a third of the inside if a side panel comes off easily, is plenty to start with. If it still turns on, the screens in the first section above will tell us the rest. If it does not, say so — that is not the obstacle people assume.
Getting it to us
Custom built towers are collected, not posted
A mid tower is the heaviest thing on this site and a glass side panel makes it the worst candidate for a courier, so these go by collection. Tell us what you have and where it is, and we will confirm the route and anything it involves before it is arranged.
Payment is made at the time of collection, once the collector has checked the machine matches what you described. Loose components are a different proposition and travel differently — ask when you enquire rather than posting anything on spec.
Not a custom build after all? Selling an old computer covers machines with a badge on the front.
Questions
Selling a custom built PC, answered
There is no make or model. Can you still quote?
Should I sell it whole or part it out?
Do you buy the graphics card on its own?
It is an old gaming PC that will not start. Any point?
Should I take the hard drive out first?
Get a free quote for your build
Graphics card, processor, memory and storage, roughly. No model number needed. We will come back with a figure and there is no obligation to accept it.