Looking to buy one of these refurbished laptops, would love some advice

Thrillhouse11

The price is too attractive for me to resist, so I've decided to go for one of the A1 Grade laptops listed here:

http://www.laptopsdirect.ie/st/refurbished-laptops

I'm sure you're all sick of hearing this but I know next to nothing about laptops, so I have no idea which one would be considered the safest buy.

I'd be using it for watching movies, doing office work, general web browsing and downloading, and a small bit of video editing with Adobe Premiere Pro. Just something suitably powerful with a decent screen size.

Any input would be greatly appreciated. I'd prefer to spend under €400 at the moment (hence why I'm looking at refurbished hardware), but can stretch my budget if it's really worth it. This one looks pretty good, for example: http://www.laptopsdirect.ie/Refurbished_Grade_A1_Samsung_3530EC_Core_i5_Windows_8_Laptop_in_Black_-_Sil_a1-NP3530EC-A0LDX/version.asp

And lastly, just in general, what have people's experience with refurbished laptops been like?

Thanks.

mordeith

Thrillhouse11 wrote: »

The price is too attractive for me to resist, so I've decided to go for one of the A1 Grade laptops listed here:

http://www.laptopsdirect.ie/st/refurbished-laptops

I'm sure you're all sick of hearing this but I know next to nothing about laptops, so I have no idea which one would be considered the safest buy.

I'd be using it for watching movies, doing office work, general web browsing and downloading, and a small bit of video editing with Adobe Premiere Pro. Just something suitably powerful with a decent screen size.

Any input would be greatly appreciated. I'd prefer to spend under €400 at the moment (hence why I'm looking at refurbished hardware), but can stretch my budget if it's really worth it. This one looks pretty good, for example: http://www.laptopsdirect.ie/Refurbished_Grade_A1_Samsung_3530EC_Core_i5_Windows_8_Laptop_in_Black_-_Sil_a1-NP3530EC-A0LDX/version.asp

And lastly, just in general, what have people's experience with refurbished laptops been like?

Thanks.

There's only a 2nd gen i5 though. I reckon you could get a better processor in a similar spec laptop for not much more. If you are editing full hd the screen is 720 and not full 1080

Thrillhouse11

mordeith wrote: »

There's only a 2nd gen i5 though. I reckon you could get a better processor in a similar spec laptop for not much more. If you are editing full hd the screen is 720 and not full 1080

I'm OK with the HD issue, I have no problem with converting to 720 for editing.

I didn't realize it was only 2nd gen though, to be honest I really don't know enough to know what kind of a difference in performance that'd cause. But I'll take your word for it and have a closer look. Thanks for the reponse!

mordeith

This Asus is the same price but has a better processor and better graphics card
http://www.laptopsdirect.ie/ASUS_A1-R500A-SX162H/version.asp

Thrillhouse11

mordeith wrote: »

This Asus is the same price but has a better processor and better graphics card
http://www.laptopsdirect.ie/ASUS_A1-R500A-SX162H/version.asp

The other one has more than three times the storage though, and 6GB ram as opposed to 4. Is it worth it?

Capt'n Midnight

Thrillhouse11 wrote: »

The other one has more than three times the storage though, and 6GB ram as opposed to 4. Is it worth it?

RAM and HDD can be upgraded and as a rule will get cheaper until they stop making compatible stuff.

CPU only if in a socket - a lot are soldered on the motherboard these days

Graphics can't be upgraded. Unless it's a rare laptop with a separate card and even then you are extremely restricted in upgrade options and the cost can be extortionate

Thrillhouse11

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

RAM and HDD can be upgraded and as a rule will get cheaper until they stop making compatible stuff.

CPU only if in a socket - a lot are soldered on the motherboard these days

Graphics can't be upgraded. Unless it's a rare laptop with a separate card and even then you are extremely restricted in upgrade options and the cost can be extortionate

Really appreciate your response. I've been told that a powerful processor isn't uch use if my RAM is low, and that you really need more RAM for the multiple cores to really matter. Is this true? And 4GB is apparently the bare minimum RAM required to run Premiere semi-efficiently. I won't be upgrading for quite a while, my budget is too tight.

Also just as an aside, I came across a macbook pro i7 in a shop on Parnell street for €700. That has to be too good to be true right?

riclad

LOOK at adobe premiere recommended specs,cpu ,ram
will you be editing hd video?
RULE is get laptop with fast cpu,
you can add ram or hd drive as needed.
make sure screen is dull,
not shiney,too many reflections,
read a review , look on youtube laptop model x review.
look at how video ram the grahics card has.
eg 200, 512video ram,
as well as the main ram .
VIDEO cards in laptops cant be upgraded.
Do not
lose your receipt.
to run premiere you need a fast cpu .







Corel VideoStudio Pro X6


CyberLink PowerDirector 12


Installing
Both Elements—Premiere and Photoshop—can be had for $149.99 together or $99.99 separately. If you're upgrading from a previous version, those prices drop to $119.99 and $79.99. The software is available for both Windows (XP with SP3, Vista with SP2, Windows 7, or Windows 8 & 8.1) and Mac (OS X v10.7 through v10.9). On Windows it requires a 2GHz or faster processor with SSE2 support, 2GB RAM (though I'd recommend more), and a DX 9 or 10 graphics card with at least a 1024x768 monitor. It only runs at 64-bits on Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 and Mac. For this review, I tested Premiere Elements 12 on a 3.4GHz AMD quad-core Windows 7 Ultimate PC with 8GB DDR3 RAM and an ATI Radeon HD 4290 graphics adapter.

i think you,ll need a 64 bit os to run it properly,
win7,or mac os
maybe with ddr3 ram 4gig.

check the screen resolution,of the screen,
do you need 1080p screen.

riclad

http://www.adverts.ie/laptops/hp-pavillion-g6-15-6-laptop-black-intel-core-i5-3210m-1tb-hdd-8gb-ram-windows-8/3532944#comme

This is a good laptop,3months old, with receipt.
I do,nt know if the grahics card would be suitable for video editing ,though.