# Refurbished laptop



## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

I am looking for a new laptop for myself. I would like to upgrade to at least 8 GB on the ram and 1tb on hard drive and at least an I3 processor. Kind of what I wanted seemed pricey. I see a lot of refurbished ones on Amazon and I am wondering does anyone have any thoughts or experience with refurbished.? You'd have to wonder buying it online would you know how or who refurbished it.


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## KS John (Aug 6, 2018)

Normally the manufacturer (Dell, HP, etc) will refurbish the hardware. You do not say if you are looking at Mac, or PC. As for storage, have you considered a cloud service? I use a 16 GB Chromebook which is lighting fast, but everything is stored on the cloud. I prefer it this way, so if the machine dies, I do not loose everything. Lots of options out there. As to the original question, I have nothing against refurbished, just bought a Dell refurbish because I do not want windows 10.


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

Refurbish is one of my favorite ways to save a few $$$. What I look for is a Dell professional type series (not saying there isn't other colors that might do just as well). I believe Dell professional/business machines are built a little more robust (remember that's MY opinion ), than the Dell home (Walmart) versions.

Here is some reasoning: my company has some certain requirements for a computer, including using Windows professional versions. Dell makes both a bottom-line type models and the 'business' type models (which cost more). There are a lot of folks that can't or don't want to buy the computer, instead THINK they need the latest and greatest computer on the market, so they lease computers. Those leases are almost always two year leases. With my years of experience, computers seem to break (hardware problems I'm speaking of), more so when new, than when older. Hence, a two year old machine is just barely broke in, it would seem.

The company that I work with has now changed, to where I can still buy a used computer, but I HAVE to have Windows 10 professional, so I recently bought new computers, ONLY because I was required to (I couldn't find a newer re-furbished Dell with Windows 10). :angry: The computers that I was required (by the company I work with) to replace where re-furbished Dells two of them I have had for 7 years (9 year old machines), one I had for 8 years (10 year old machine). The two 9 year old machines, I re-formatted, gave one to one of my son's and use the other one at home for now (both have Windows 7 professional).

I believe I came out a little ahead by purchasing re-furbished machines (and using for 7-8 years) verses leasing, but I'm a little bias when it comes to spending my money. 

I remember reading this recommendation from a farm magazine a more than a few years ago. About how you could get more 'bang for your buck', by purchasing a 2 year old machine (off lease). Most folks don't need the latest and greatest features (nor will even use them) IMHO.

HTH

Larry


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

I bought a refurbed HP G71 laptop about 7-8 years ago from Newegg--paid $400 for it. A couple of months ago, the screen started going black or getting streaks across it. It is the cable between base and the cover. Took it apart, figured out what cable was bad and order a replacement. Unfortunately, the cable came from China (surprise, surprise!) and did not fit.

I spotted an identical unit, but no HDD, on eBay for $45, bid it up to $70. Got it in, pulled the disk, fired it up, back in business.

I would only buy a HP unit refurbed.

I would go with a 2.5 Ghz, 2 core unit, 4GB, 240 GB SSD minimum. The SSD makes a world of difference!

Ralph


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## CowboyRam (Dec 13, 2015)

I bought a refurbished or off lease, don't remember witch now, it came from Tigerdirect.com and it did not come with the right charger. I got a Lenovo Thinkpad and I think the charger was for a Dell. Once I had the computer, Tigerdirect washed their hands from it. I had to deal with the company that it came from, and I could never get to talk to them, and they would never return any phone calls. I ended up getting a universal power supply form Walmart. Within about three months I ended up having the fan replaced and a couple years later the hard drive gave up. I will never buy another refurbished/off lease again.

I have seen some fairly inexpensive at walmart, say under $500.


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## rjmoses (Apr 4, 2010)

CowboyRam said:


> I bought a refurbished or off lease, don't remember witch now, it came from Tigerdirect.com and it did not come with the right charger.


I've been burned by TigerDirect a number of times--I won't do business with them.

Ralph


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## TJ Hendren (May 12, 2017)

We buy all our computers refurbished. There is a computer shop here in town that sells them. They give a 90 day full warranty. Just bought my wife a nice little laptop for valentines day for $100. and have bought 3 desktop off them in the last 15 years $250-300 and all have given good service. We are not exactly computer whizzes and what we get serves our purpose. However I would never buy one online period. So if you have a little shop in your area it might be worth a visit.


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## Palmettokat (Jul 10, 2017)

Ditto on TigerDirect here.

If you will follow Dell's web site they often have a model close out that is heavy reduce in price. Office Depot will also but think Dell direct is better.


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## paoutdoorsman (Apr 23, 2016)

Some good advice here. Avoid department store home models, and look more to business class machines. I would personally opt for a much smaller internal solid state hard (SSD) drive, then add a 1-2 TB external USB drive if you have that much data storage requirements.


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## Gevoergun2 (10 mo ago)

Try to find a laptop right away with a lot of memory


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## KS John (Aug 6, 2018)

Are there any local computer repair shops? Sometimes they have some refurbished ones.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk


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## Hayjosh (Mar 24, 2016)

I know they’re not as universal as PC’s but a Mac will run circles around a PC. I finally just retired my MacBook Air that I bought…in 2011. That was how long it took for operating system to get too far obsolete and the battery finally started dying. A PC would not come close to that by any means. My professional grade Lenovos give me about 3 good years then I’m ready to drive over it.

My Macbook Pro is a 2012 that is still going strong.


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## HayMike (Mar 22, 2011)

Josh, I'm reading this on a 2011 Asus laptop, still working great. But I do agree with you about the apples, generally.


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