Refrurbished computers

[kenmo]

Any thoughts on refurbished computers....??? I usually build my own but sometimes you can get a really good deal on a refurbished Gateway AMD computer... It would be alot cheaper then buying a mobo, cpu, ram and case...PLUS you get a hard drive, power supply and DVD burner...

AND what exactly is a refurbished computer...??? Is it one that has been returned by the customer or is it factory repaired...???

Cheers

Ken

[SingSing]

I assume these are no fault returned, or rapaired unit with a major component replaced.
If they come with 3 or 6 month return no question asked policy, then you are okay, else they are difficult to deal with, because they have more custom parts.

[ROF]

Refurbished can mean anything from complete failure to a customer who didn't like the color of the case. It's a returned item that can no longer be sold as "new".

That being said you can find some good deals on these machines. When I'm looking for spare parts I usually will buy a refurb to pick n' pull parts off the refurb to make a whole machine. Sometimes if you ask the company they will relate the reasons why they are selling refurb machines. Beware of machines that have had the processors replaced. There is only one reason why a company pulls a prcoessor and that's because the machine fried the original. If it fried the original imagine how long the new one will last.

It's buyer beware and ask alot of questions before you buy a refurb.

[oldandinthe way]

I have found that in many cases manufacturer's refurbs are more expensive than the Sunday paper big box store specials after rebate. And there is always a bell or whistle that the older model does not have. Similar experience with retailer's open box specials.

[SingSing]

You are right. One should look for those slightly out-of-date PC/Laptop fire sales for bargain.

The last great one was a 15.4 in HP laptop with 100GB, 512MB, DVD burner, 6 in 1 media slot...for $549.00. All gone in two days at Compusa. The current one is a 17 inch Acer laptop also at Compusa.

[ROF]

I have found that in many cases manufacturer's refurbs are more expensive than the Sunday paper big box store specials after rebate. And there is always a bell or whistle that the older model does not have. Similar experience with retailer's open box specials.

Around the turn of the millenium I bought one of those specials. It came with a camera, a scanner, a printer, and a monitor. I sold all of those and after the rebates and the sales of that equipment to others I was paid $300 for purchasing a Pentium 4 computer. Big box specials are the way to go especially if you can sell the stuff in the box you don't need.

[Bjs]

We build our system's from new component's so customer's know what they is getting come's with full warrantee incase they run into an issue , which at this time has never happened with our system's .

We also get trade in unit's from customer's which are completely checked over , and sold to user's at cost price , without our charge's applied on top .
We do this for those who can not afford to layout more then a few hunder dollar's .

Older pc's that dont meet a minimum requirement , as traded , either become door stopper's , scraped for repairing pensioner pc's or given to local's whom have been ripped off and ended up with complete junk ... and there is plenty of that going about these day's , refering to p1's , p2's and amd k6's and older .

As for refubished unit's ... these come from end of lease item's and are of usually good value , but you need to watch out here .

Look for tower system's as you can source replacement power supplies readily .. no sence in getting stuck with a proprietry power supply that can only be obtained from the original manufacturer .

Older system's should have as a minimum of onboard video chipset , as older 1x , 2x , 4x , and even 8x agp are on the way out now .

Prefered if unit has usb2 ... for newer device's such as digital camera's , cam's ...

For video editing consider cpu's above 2 gigahertz as minimum point .

Ram , 256 minimum is a good starting point , 512mb made up of 2x 256 is better incase one gose on the blink you can still use pc while replacement is located .

As for other bonus's , like dvd burner's , video capture card's ... these are neither here or there ... good if they do , but they are not of any real benefit as they are "used" .

Some company's do supply a new unit with these , but make sure they also supply the original software installed for the device ... we have seen this a few time's before ... when user's required a complete reinstall .

Yes , a bargain can be had ... but remember the old saying "buyer beware" .

You never know if they are being sold after a complete system failure , and have been repaired .

I recently had to repair a pc for a customer , that had bought a second hand pc ... and it had me stumped why it kept loosing the optical drive ... to my surprise , they had repaired the motherboard by bypassing a blown chip using some wire ... a bad pc ... which should have been thrown to the tip after harvesting all working component's from unit .

[ROF]

Yes , a bargain can be had ... but remember the old saying "buyer beware" .

You never know if they are being sold after a complete system failure , and have been repaired .

I recently had to repair a pc for a customer , that had bought a second hand pc ... and it had me stumped why it kept loosing the optical drive ... to my surprise , they had repaired the motherboard by bypassing a blown chip using some wire ... a bad pc ... which should have been thrown to the tip after harvesting all working component's from unit .

If you weren't on the other side of the globe I'd say your customer might have gotten one the "specials" from a local outfit here that does internet business(USA only). I've had two of their PCs with this issue in the last six months. Aftermarket solder marks are a good indication of a bad pc made well enough to survive the trip out their door. Whenever I pull out the solder gun I tell the customer of the repair and tell them it's only a temporary fix and that they should consider buying a replacement part. When I see someone elses cobbed workings I send the PC on it's way without charge. I get alot of their PCs and I never have to ask where it came from since they use a BIOS splash screen to let me know.

[isogonic]

these are nowhere near refurbished. they are pretty much old well used computers that have had there hd wiped.

ive been awful tempted to get one, price cant be beat. if it works great, if not, you get some spare parts and a case.

if anyones purchased one from this place i would like to hear how it went.

http://www.retrobox.com/rbwww/home/default.asp

[SingSing]

Most of the laptop deos not have power supply. How easy is it to get one and at what cost ?

[ROF]

these are nowhere near refurbished. they are pretty much old well used computers that have had there hd wiped.

um . . . that's one definition of a refurbished computer. They clean it up, wipe the hard drive, make sure all parts are functional nominally and re-sell it.