OT: Refurbished computers?
 

Has anybody out there ever bought a refurbished computer? What was your experience with it?

I'm looking to get a new machine, partly to reward myself for some recent accomplishments. The wife is agreeable. But our money is tight. It is definitely time to upgrade--our current computer is 5 years old. We have a 400 MHz Win 98 machine with an 8 MB video card and a 20 G hard drive.

Micro Center has refurbished computers, at lower prices of course vs new ones. Perhaps one of those would fit our budget better than a new computer. Slap a 128 MB video card into it and a low-priced sound card... If it would last just a couple years until our financial situation gets better (ie, until I can find a better job)...

Re: OT: Refurbished computers?
 

Most are lease returns and are fine. Some are problem systems that people returned for replacement, stay away from these.

You can get a new Dell for about $450 these days, why risk a used system?

Re: OT: Refurbished computers?
 

ALL OF HP COMPUTERS are refurbished. I once bought a new HP, had a problem with the cdrom, called tech support, gave them the correct information, verified twice, and was asked if I was Mr. Paris. - Um no.... - Seems that brand new PC I just bought from CompUSA was a refurbished and had been returned because of a bad CDRom by a Mr. Paris.

Months later and several problems systems later I am told by HP that they will send me a NEW pc. The one I have now. Six moths after getting it, the CD/RW stopped working. I called tech support and once again I discovered that my brand new PC was in fact a returned/refurbished system.

DO NOT BUY HP COMPUTERS!!!! You have been officially warned.

Re: OT: Refurbished computers?
 

Mr. Paris? You should have sent him at Warp 10 into the Delta Quadrant to mate with a lizard, LOL! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: OT: Refurbished computers?
 

You have bad bad BAD luck AT! My parents bought an HP over 2 years ago, and have had no difficulty whatsoever, except that the CD-RW died a couple months back. But from what I understand, RW drives have a lower mean time before failure than a purely reading drive. So it wasn't horribly unexpected, just inconvenient.

Re: OT: Refurbished computers?
 

I think the HP computers we had at work didn't last very long because of problems. But our Compaq PC's have had even more problems.

Re: OT: Refurbished computers?
 

Once the bad drive was replaced I have had rather good luck with this machine. The bad luck was in the service catagory. In order to get good service now a days you need to know how to speak Farsee (sp) or Arabic.

Re: OT: Refurbished computers?
 

That would be Farsi. But I'm not aware of any large numbers of support staff that have been outsourced to Iran or the Middle East. A lot of the more conservative segments of the Persian and Arabic populations still don't take too kindly to capitalist American influence http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/shock.gif Most of it is India, and even then, knowing how to speak Hindi probably won't help. A lot of people in India technically speak the same language, but don't understand each other because the dialects have shifted so much. So the common language between them all is English (good old fashioned colonial influence). You still have to put some effort into understanding the accent, but I've found that thinking of the speech as someone trying to talk with their tongue outside of the mouth helps. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: OT: Refurbished computers?
 

Isn't Dell mail order only? I'm looking to get the best payment terms possible, so something I can get with a store credit card would be ideal. Six months same as cash, 24 months same as cash, etc.

Thanks for the info, guys. Unfortunately, all of the affordable computers in the stores here are either HP or Compaq.

Our current computer is a 400 MHz IBM Aptiva. I've had no problems with it.

I'm even thinking about just installing a 128 MB video card, just to stretch out the usefulness a bit and enable me to play Eve Online. Probably SE5 too will require more than my existing 8 MB video card.

How hard/easy is it to install a video card?

Re: OT: Refurbished computers?
 

I think Dell will finance systems.

Re: OT: Refurbished computers?
 

I looked around on the Dell site, and unfortunately, the computer that is within our price range does not come with any decent software, just the OS. And there's no warranty, which is strange.

Doing all this shopping for a computer, I have to laugh at these $2,000 gaming monsters. I sure with I could spend that much for a computer. Apparently, somebody's buying them.

Re: OT: Refurbished computers?
 

I thought I was out of date when I upgraded from my 700 MHz Compaq 2 months ago! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/shock.gif

The installation of a video card is a breeze. Just make sure you have everything you care about backed up (as with any upgrade). Follow instructions carefully and you should do just fine. Make sure your PC can handle a newer card!

Re: OT: Refurbished computers?
 

Try looking in for-sale classifieds, and around college campuses. All the time, there are people looking to replace their computers that sometimes are only a year or two old. And they usually don't ask too much for their "old" computer, and you can make an offer. You don't get warranties or support, but you can get a fairly nice system for cheap.

Re: OT: Refurbished computers?
 

You should already own >99% of the software you'll want to use.

Everything you want (except SE5) is already on your old harddrive; just plug it in to the new machine.

Re: OT: Refurbished computers?
 

Exactly... it is pretty silly to go and buy a bunch of new software just because you get a new computer. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Also, there are free alternatives to pretty much everything you would get on a Dell (or any manufacturer) system. Most of them are just as good or better...

Re: OT: Refurbished computers?
 

Microcenter has a 3.0 gig refirb for $350 with $50 rebate and they will give you $100 off if you qualify for a Microcenter credit card = $200

Edit for lack of math skills. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: OT: Refurbished computers?
 

LOL!

Customer : Hi, I want to complain about this power supply I bought the other day.
Middle Eastern Call Centre Agent : You want to complain? I want to complain! I live in one of the most unstable and dangerous countries in the world! I mean the fundamentalists have guns, the Iranians have nukes and the Americans have Jesus. I just about crap my pants every time I open the newspaper.
Customer : Ummm, well, right. The thing is, when I switch it on...
Middle Eastern Call Centre Agent : I mean it's hardly our fault. Sure, we've done some crazy [censored], but what do you expect? For the last hundred and fifty years, we've had Western imperialists killing our people, plundering our natural resources, looting our cultural treasures, inciting religious and ethnic conflicts and meddling in our political autonomy to suit their own ends. It's hardly an environment conducive to the development of a secure and moderate socio-political landscape, is it?
Customer : Do you think if I took it back to the store they'd...
Middle Eastern Call Centre Agent : And then they have the nerve to call us terrorists! The bloody cheek! No wonder everyone's so pissed off all the time. And don't even get me started on the Israeli thing...
Customer : *klik* *dial tone*

**NOTE** The opinions of the middle eastern call centre agent do not necessarily reflect those of the author. Just a joke guys, no need for another flame war.

Re: OT: Refurbished computers?
 

Ashamed to say it but I bought a Microcenter PC this last time instead of building (first time I didnt build since the 386) because of price. The system works great and was only $476. And I didnt go the discount road with the rebate and opening the store card. So if you want to go the store route then I would go that way. (though I will be building a custom PC when/if I get the money again)

Rasorow

Re: OT: Refurbished computers?
 

Side note: Not just for the past one hundred and fifty years have Western imperialists been invading the Middle East.

You do know about the Crusades, don't you?

Re: OT: Refurbished computers?
 

I build my own computers. This way I know what I get. Ready made computers tend to have cheap parts, with low quality.

Re: OT: Refurbished computers?
 

Applauds Dogscoff http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

I needed a laugh before heading off today