State Surplus Questions (Hardware)

[jsoward]

Greets ti All

I live in a state where you can buy the States old computers for a Song minus the hard drive, everything else is there.

I have some serious questions about doing this, if I bought such a bare bones computer, added a HD and an OS would it work or am I just buying blind.

I've been told that if you doi something like this that you can only get it to work if you put in the same OS that was in the PC originally. That it won't work with a different OK because of the way that MS configures plug and play hardware.

[Geek-9pm]

Well, you'll come to the right place.
I'm using dictation to give you a quick answer.
No, don't do it.
The fact that you come here to ask suggest to me that you have no experience in personal computer retailing sales.
From my own experiences and observations I would say that you do not want to even make a bid on anything owned by a government agency that is trying to get rid of it. Because if the stuff was of some value they would've already had somebody come in and get it or else it would have been sold to employees.
Before anybody can help you, you have to indicate what make and model and how many units are available from the state agency. It is Ray likely that the units they have are not PC compatible units. Without more information. I could only make a wild guess that the units are going very cheap because nobody wants them.
Of course, just as soon as you can give some information about the model number and make an age, you will get some better answers from other members of the form.

That's the best I can do for you. 

[Lisa_maree]

HI jsoward,

This is a great way to get a computer but as geek said you will need to give some details of what you are buying. Most Government computers are around 3 years old and normally have a lot of life left. I would suggest if they are a Dell or HP you buy 2 and keep the 2nd for parts also make sure you get the mounting screws. Parts for corporate equipment can get really expensive it is  like the manufactures don't want them to be fixed just replaced. Sometimes the computers have been taken out of the box and used for 3 years and then returned to the same box so have new mice, keyboards and sometimes the recovery cd's. If the computers were running Windows 10 then it is easy to install a hard drive (ssd drive) and load windows 10 it will activate against the bios so no need for a key.
It's getting really hard for Governments to recycle computers so you will be doing them a service taking a couple off there hands.