Bought a refurb'd Dell laptop from Dell Financial

[mrsilv04]

Just bought an E6400 Dell laptop from Dell Financial Services. We have hundreds of this model floating around here at the office, although I currently have a newer E6420 model assigned to me.

I've done this in the past with two Optiplex 620 desktops (one I bought for my parents, and one I bought for the secretary at the Church) with excellent results. Both of those machines have been trouble free (outside of one failed hard drive a few months back).

This laptop is considered as being in "Class A" condition, it has a Core 2 Duo processor running @ 2.53 GHz, 2GB of RAM, DVD-RW drive, 160GB drive, b/g/n wireless, running Win 7 Business. I picked it up for $175.00.

This same unit, but with a DVD-ROM, is $299 at Tiger Direct.

They've already given me the serial number, so I've been able to see its original config on the Dell site. The laptop was originally config'd and shipped with a 80GB drive, so somewhere along the line, it has had a larger drive installed.

I hope to have it by the end of the week, Dell Financial is located in Texas.

Considering that this unit was probably somewhere around $1,000 new, I'm curious to see what $175 will get me. For that money, if it lasts two years, I'll be happy.

 

[javacontour]

The win7 business license is worth almost that much

 

[SwampSurvivor]

$175 is a good price for an E6400! With the exception of the thinkpads I bought on ebay a few months ago, all of my computers have come from Dell as refurbs. Never got a used one - they were all brand new units that were returned for something or another.

 

[SLCraig]

It is a decent deal. I have been looking at refurbs lately myself and I can get a nice Dell small form factor desktop with Windows 7P and a Core2 processor for $179. Hard to go wrong, as the COA alone is worth almost that much. The Dell E series are decent laptops, we have some at work.

 

[John_K]

How does one do this?

John

 

[mrsilv04]

Originally Posted By: John_K
How does one do this?

John

Three ways that I know of:

eBay: http://stores.ebay.com/Dell-Financial
Dell Financial Services Auctions: www.dellauction.com
Dell Financial Services Direct Sales: www.dfsdirectsales.com

 

[SuperDave456]

I've had a few Dell's that were given to me.
I researched their Service Tag Number maxed out their RAM and updated their drivers.
Then I reloaded the factory image.
Once I get all the Window's updates downloaded and installed I go out to the site File Hippo and install that.
Avast! anti-virus and Ccleaner are also 2 programs that I install, Ccleaner does an excellent job allowing you to view and uninstall all the junk Dell puts on their machine by default.

Last time I did this it took me most of 1 full day.

However, I am currently surfing the web on a 10 year old laptop. Firefox flys on this machine.

Yes it is slow for the ancient version of Microsoft Office that I have on it, but for any web application it is pretty awesome.
BTW, the best upgrade I could recommend is RAM. Followed by any new drivers that may be needed.

One man's trash is another man's treasure!

 

[JTK]

I rarely buy PCs any other way.

Most of the desktop and notebook purchases I've made the last 10yrs or so have been refurbs. They've all looked brand-new. Only once did I have a goofy problem w/ a USB port on an Acer laptop. Tiger Direct mailed me a new one and I sent the 'broke' one right back in the same packaging, n/c.

Joel

 

[mrsilv04]

This will be replacing a 4 1/2 year old Compaq C700 15.6" laptop which I got from Best Buy. It was nothing special. Even though it was a Compaq, it withstood a lot of use and abuse during the time that I had it, and performed well. It spent a lot of time in the topcase of my Honda Goldwing 1800, travelling thousands of miles, all over the country.

IIRC, I paid $349 for it, and it did have an Intel Dual Core processor, running at 1.87GHz.

 

[sxg6]

Good deal for the price. Do you know what resolution the screen is?

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

Good deal! Slap a quality 128GB SSD in there and you'll be amazed at the high-performance & value of the Core2Duo processors for years to come.

Congrats!

 

[Vikas]

does it come with a new battery or the old one?

 

[mrsilv04]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
does it come with a new battery or the old one?


It claims to have a "refurbished" battery, not too sure what that means... I would assume that to be a battery that has new cells in an old case?

The laptop was delivered to my house earlier this afternoon... but dangit, I'm in Indianapolis today. Should be home in 3-4 hours...

 

[Vikas]

If you get a good useable battery life (2+ hours), you got a screaming deal! Even otherwise you can probably pick up a good battery for reasonable price on ebay.

 

[simple_gifts]

That is a good machine. I use one as my work machine. You might want to get 4Gb RAM.

 

[mrsilv04]

Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
That is a good machine. I use one as my work machine. You might want to get 4Gb RAM.


I'll see how it does, and then decide.

I'm running 2GB on my current laptop (with a 1.87GHz Dual Core processor). This one is a 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo processor.

Right now, at my office, we're running these 6400's, and 6420's.

My work 6420 has a Core i5 running 2.60Ghz, and 4GB of RAM.

 

[mrsilv04]

I'm here on the refurb'd laptop.

Initial observations: It has a brand new keypad. Absolutely no wear or shininess on any of the keys. The touchpad is new as well. The touchpad buttons have very minor wear. The lid has no marks or scratches on it. The hinges on the lid are tight but smooth.

The base has minor marks on it, looks like they are from a port replicator (dock). The corners of the base have very minor rub marks from being carried in a laptop bag.

The power supply is brand new, and (IMHO) is a better one than my 6420 came with.

The screen is crisp, clear and bright. No dead pixels that I can spot. Exactly as expected.

The battery? Not sure yet. Once I get it up to a full charge, I'll unplug and see what happens.

Initial reaction is that I like this 6400 better than the 6420 supplied to me by my employer.

 

[mrsilv04]

Probably can't really do a fair judgement on the battery right now... it is downloading and installing updates right and left, and is spinning the hard drive nearly continuously... I'm going to keep it plugged in for now.

 

[Shannow]

Back to original post, we've had a refurb optiplex for nearly a month, and are loving the clean slate Win 7 installation...got the whole lot for about the price of the O/S, and doesn't come with all the rubbish that Dell and Compaq jam on their machines.

That's the new family business model...factory refurb.

Oblivion works better on this than the machine that I bought for it.

 

[mrsilv04]

Originally Posted By: Shannow
...and doesn't come with all the rubbish that Dell and Compaq jam on their machines.


I hadn't noticed that until now.... but this is very true, and a very good point!