Does it include some sort of warranty? Usually refurbished computers will come with a free product service plan or extended store warranty. If you have done your research and you know what you are getting, then yes, you should get it if it has an extended warranty.
Shit no I wouldn't. A computer's the only thing I'd never buy used/refurbished, especially when the things are getting cheaper and cheaper every year.
The first 2 or 3 computers I ever bought were refurbished ones. They ran really well and very long considering the price I paid vs. newer models back then. After a while, I even added memory and extra hard drives to them so that they functioned better with newer software. I have no regrets about it.
Laptop, sure. Desktop, no. I don't "buy" desktop computers in any condition. I "build" desktop computers.
I found a pretty good deal on an eMachines 17 inch LCD Monitor for $88 bucks link: http://www.overstock.com/Electronic...duct.html?keywords=11657863&searchtype=Header
That's not really a good deal. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4831309&CatId=12 J.
Yep, I buy em. Great on all ends. Save a few hundred, have a warranty and they've been checked over by company techs.
This is really the proper way to think about refurbs. There's not much reason to not like them. Still, I'd rather build if that's an option.
I've bought several, both for work and for myself or members of my family. You can always plug and play later (which I often do). Worth it if you want a "name" brand, not so much of you want to build a really fancy rig - depends on what you want to do with the machine.
It depends. Sometimes you can buy a refurb with a decent chipset and upgrade everything else, and it still works out being cheaper than building from scratch.
Yep. When I added everything up to build my latest PC, it was a bit cheaper for me to just simply buy off the shelf. Plus I'm getting a free copy of Windows 7, so that worked out nicely. J.
Usually not worth it to me personally. OEMs often use nonstandard cases, PSUs, and motherboards. That's all fine until something dies or you need to upgrade one of those two things.
I bought an Acer refurb netbook from CompUSA dirt cheap. There's a lot of things it can't do, but for the price it's exactly what I need to take on the road. I would be careful about the warranty, though. I think this one only came with a 90 day P&L. 1 year P&L ought to be the standard, IMHO.
I get 3 year business service next day with all my Dell refurbs. Or at least I was - I can't seem to find that option lately.
The biggest thing about buying Dell, Hewitt-Packer, etc. is they come with sooo much crap already pre-instlled. It's really a struggle to get rid of all that, and then you need to fight it by telling it, NO you do not want to re-install/update. The worst offenders seem to be those antivirus and network security programs. I hate them all, and really wish they would just have the system come with the barebones it needs. I know what I'm asking is not possible, because those companies probably pay Dell to add their spyware into their machine, and that is why we can get it for so cheap. I usually get my computer built by Memoryexpress.com. I can build it myself if I have to, but I'd rather pay the extra $100 to save myself the time of making a few trips to the store because I forgot something important.
My Dell systems don't come preloaded with tons of crap. I remember when I worked at Best Buy, I HATED all the preloaded crap on those systems. Like I said, Dell, not so much.
Your systems come business side. We removed anything aside from Dell Support from business side systems. All of our images were designed bare minimum, except for images on systems going to U.S. military. J.
About a year on my Dell XPS M1530. Warranty service repaired the speakers, but did doofus they used didn't snap my laptop back together just right. Had to use a flat head screwdriver to help my USB ports get back into place. Maybe it was because of being refurbished, but I didn't have hardly any crap software when it arrived. Regardless, I formatted the drive and reinstalled Windows and other software, as I would do with any computer that has recently come into my possession.
It's the only way to be safe. On my personal laptop, I reinstall everything about once a year. Or rather, I HAD been doing that. Right now, I have a few programs that aren't being nice to me in the area of exporting profiles.
We have a few programs at work that are ancient and make it a serious pain when it comes to upgrading a user's computer. In most cases, the solution is actually pretty simple: Copy the program's entire directory onto an external USB drive (c:\program files\xxx). On the new computer, install the program as usual. After the program is installed, rewrite over that program's directory with the contents you placed on the USB drive.
