Refurbished laptops?

Kent Brockman

Anyone got any experience of these? They are pretty reasonable on ebay and a guy from work also sells them pretty cheap.
Avoid or not?

I have a wireless router at home and would like a laptop for Email, surfing the net watching the odd movie, youtube and also watching a bit of football.
Can anyone recommend a spec for me?
I had a Dell from work which was ideal (never checked the spec:o, it worked and I didnt care how:o ) I know it had windows Xp and our IT guy put in a card for extra RAM because it was slow.
Any advice appreciated:D

Alanstrainor

I'd want to know where the came from and who refurbished them. The likes of Dell Outlet machines are classed as "refurbished", but are practically new, but others i wouldn't be so sure of.
What's your budget?

Kent Brockman

The budget is probably up to 500ish but if I can get a good as new refurb for 250-300ish then why not?
Will only be using it at home but it will get alot of use.

Alanstrainor

Post a few links to machines you've had your eye on on ebay. There's a lot of ridiculously overpriced machines on ebay, the sellers prey on people looking for a "bargain" who don't necessarily know what they're buying.

Kent Brockman

http://cgi.ebay.ie/DELL-LAPTOP-SMALL-THIN-LIGHT-WIRELESS-WIFI_W0QQitemZ270489790812QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_Laptops_EH?hash=item3efa72a95c



http://cgi.ebay.ie/Dell-D410-Laptop-Wireless-Xp-Light-Slim-p4-office-wow_W0QQitemZ320454393325QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_Laptops_EH?hash=item4a9c91fded

A couple of examples above but I think I may need at least 1G of ram

Alanstrainor

Kent Brockman wrote: »

http://cgi.ebay.ie/DELL-LAPTOP-SMALL-THIN-LIGHT-WIRELESS-WIFI_W0QQitemZ270489790812QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_Laptops_EH?hash=item3efa72a95c



http://cgi.ebay.ie/Dell-D410-Laptop-Wireless-Xp-Light-Slim-p4-office-wow_W0QQitemZ320454393325QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_Laptops_EH?hash=item4a9c91fded

A couple of examples above but I think I may need at least 1G of ram

Wouldn't touch either of those with a barge pole tbh, the first is very old at this stage, even with 1Gb of RAM i wouldn't expect it to be that fast, and it's bloody expensive. As for the second, i'd be thinking much the same, it's slightly newer, but with a slow 40Gb drive and only 512Mb of RAM it'll struggle imo.
I'd only buy factory refurbished stuff. Check out dell outlet, there's often bargains to be had on there, keep in mind that the price in dells outlet store are ex.VAT though.

Kent Brockman

http://cgi.ebay.ie/WOW-Dell-Vostro-1000-Laptop-2Gb-Ram-120-GB-HD-1-6-GHZ_W0QQitemZ280431552311QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLaptops_Nov05?hash=item414b05e737

How about this one? looks better to me but coule probably get something decent in dell for that price?

AlmightyCushion

Kent Brockman wrote: »

http://cgi.ebay.ie/WOW-Dell-Vostro-1000-Laptop-2Gb-Ram-120-GB-HD-1-6-GHZ_W0QQitemZ280431552311QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLaptops_Nov05?hash=item414b05e737

How about this one? looks better to me but coule probably get something decent in dell for that price?

Seller is in america which means you're gonna get raped in customs and vat. Even before this it's expensive.

Alanstrainor

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

Seller is in america which means you're gonna get raped in customs and vat. Even before this it's expensive.

Although the pricing etc is in dollars it appears to be in Kildare, although you might want to email the seller to confirm.

Kent Brockman

thanks for the advice guys. decided to go for a new one in DID electrical sale. (Lenovo Intel pentium dual core T4300@2.16Ghz, windows viste, 4Gb ram).

The good woman waited in line at 9.30am on Saturday and got the last of 20 that were on sale for ...wait for it.... 399 euro:eek: Class! early christmas pressie:Doo bad!

Dont know what most of the tech stuff means but apparently its not too bad

pokerface_me

Kent Brockman wrote: »

thanks for the advice guys. decided to go for a new one in DID electrical sale. (Lenovo Intel pentium dual core T4300@2.16Ghz, windows viste, 4Gb ram).

The good woman waited in line at 9.30am on Saturday and got the last of 20 that were on sale for ...wait for it.... 399 euro:eek: Class! early christmas pressie:Doo bad!

Dont know what most of the tech stuff means but apparently its not too bad

Kent hate to burst your bubble man, but that computer you bought is a heap of junk, i'm no expert but have windows vista and its a complete nightmare. Windows vista is now obsolete there is the new windows 7 out which can be picked up for the same price on a machine that you paid. If its not open bring it back and tell them you changed your mind, it really is a piece of rubbish that Vista.

If you can return the above get this:
http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?b=&c=ie&cs=iebsdt1&kc=N4X15201&l=en&m_30=143259&oc=N1215224&rbc=N1215224&s=bsd
Change processor to: Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T5870 and ram to 2gb and hard disk to 250gb = 520euro delivered
Far far far far superior business class laptop for 120 extra. Ive been running win 7 for over a year now and 2gb is more than enough for every day use. With word, firefox, mediamonkey and nero 9 open i only use 1.2gigs of ram.

AlmightyCushion

pokerface_me wrote: »

Kent hate to burst your bubble man, but that computer you bought is a heap of junk, i'm no expert but have windows vista and its a complete nightmare. Windows vista is now obsolete there is the new windows 7 out which can be picked up for the same price on a machine that you paid. If its not open bring it back and tell them you changed your mind, it really is a piece of rubbish that Vista.

It's not a heap of junk, it's a pretty decent spec actually. Firstly, vista isn't as bad as people make it out to be. Secondly if it's vista home premium then he can get a free upgrade (well he'll have to pay p+p) to windows 7.

david7536 wrote: »

If you can return the above get this:
http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?b=&c=ie&cs=iebsdt1&kc=N4X15201&l=en&m_30=143259&oc=N1215224&rbc=N1215224&s=bsd
Change processor to: Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T5870 and ram to 2gb and hard disk to 250gb = 520euro delivered
Far far far far superior business class laptop for 120 extra. Ive been running win 7 for over a year now and 2gb is more than enough for every day use. With word, firefox, mediamonkey and nero 9 open i only use 1.2gigs of ram.

The processor isn't much better than the T4300. The higher clock speed of the T4300 will make up for the lower cache somewhat. The T5870 is still better, but it isn't worth the €120 difference in the two laptops. Plus he'll be dropping the ram down to 2GBs. For the average user more ram will be better than the slightly faster processor.

robdig

No seems a pretty good deal at €399 i work in retail for a shop which sell laptops. Because you only bought the laptop yesterday you are entitled to an upgrade to windows 7 as are all machines purchased with vista after the 26th of june 2009. you should log onto the lenovo website and check that, if you cant find it there its deinately on the microsoft website. It's ment to be a "free upgrade" but you still have to pay P&P so your looking at €25-€30

Capt'n Midnight

if you buy a new laptop you get new parts and you know it hasn't been abused and a years guarantee

if you buy a dell / other manufacturer refurbushed you get a years guarantee and a good chance that it was returned for a non-technical reason

if you buy from a place offering less than a full years guarantee, you can be resonable sure it's battery is less than 100% , it has had a greater chance of being abused as well as it being older


It's very common to see older laptops being sold for more than you could get an entry level new one. and the new laptop is probably higher speced than the older one

That spec seems fine, I wouldn't be returning a laptop over the OS. You could get a Windows 7 upgrade anyway but personally I don't think it's any better or worse than Vista, it's just percieved to be better.