I am thinking buying a laptop from Dell, and see a lot of refurbished ones on eBay. Will you buy a refurbished laptop on eBay or craigslist? I never bought one before.
Will you buy a refurbished laptop from eBay ?
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Buy it from Dell's outlet. Have bought several computers from their outlet online and all have been perfect. My current $229 desktop has been flawless for 4+ years.
Nope, not me. Unless it comes with a generous warranty.
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I have gone the refurbed route through eBay with good luck, but you may wanna consider an outfit like Tigerdirect too. I've bought many a refurbed PC from Tigerdirect. Lots of notebooks too. I've had such great luck that I'll never buy a new one as long as I can get a refurb.
Originally Posted By: Hermann
Buy it from Dell's outlet. Have bought several computers from their outlet online and all have been perfect. My current $229 desktop has been flawless for 4+ years.
+1. I bought a $450 core i5 laptop for my sister from Dell's outlet. I cannot discern the differences between the refurb unit and a new one. Great price (but only if you wait for the periodic specials) and a good quality unit if you are patient. Be sure to make the purchase with AMEX so that you can get an automatic one year extension on the warranty.
Buy it from Dell's outlet. Have bought several computers from their outlet online and all have been perfect. My current $229 desktop has been flawless for 4+ years.
+1. I bought a $450 core i5 laptop for my sister from Dell's outlet. I cannot discern the differences between the refurb unit and a new one. Great price (but only if you wait for the periodic specials) and a good quality unit if you are patient. Be sure to make the purchase with AMEX so that you can get an automatic one year extension on the warranty.
+1 on Dell outlet.
Also, Dell outlet is great if you want something cheap. But the Dell laptops, from my experience, leave a lot to be desired if you are looking for a laptop which has a premium feel (build quality, design). I just bought a laptop yesterday and decided to go with a $999 Sandy Bridge MacBook Pro instead of a Dell.
Originally Posted By: The Critic
Also, Dell outlet is great if you want something cheap. But the Dell laptops, from my experience, leave a lot to be desired if you are looking for a laptop which has a premium feel (build quality, design). I just bought a laptop yesterday and decided to go with a $999 Sandy Bridge MacBook Pro instead of a Dell.
The Inspiron is their value line and does have a cheap plastic feel to it. It's a good computer, but feels like what you paid for it.
I have a 17" Studio for personal use, and I love it. Has a much higher quality look and feel to it and it and has been a great computer.
For work, I have a Latitude. It has a metal case and is designed to be traveled with and is obviously a much more substantial unit.
Also, Dell outlet is great if you want something cheap. But the Dell laptops, from my experience, leave a lot to be desired if you are looking for a laptop which has a premium feel (build quality, design). I just bought a laptop yesterday and decided to go with a $999 Sandy Bridge MacBook Pro instead of a Dell.
The Inspiron is their value line and does have a cheap plastic feel to it. It's a good computer, but feels like what you paid for it.
I have a 17" Studio for personal use, and I love it. Has a much higher quality look and feel to it and it and has been a great computer.
For work, I have a Latitude. It has a metal case and is designed to be traveled with and is obviously a much more substantial unit.
Dell Outlet is a safe bet.
I always get refurbs off of ebay. The main thing is to have an iron clad warranty with Squaretrade or otherwise to cover yourself.
I've bought used Latitude models (not refurbished) and rebuilt/upgraded them myself. I'm not sure that I would trust somebody else's work, though, without a very high seller rating and a generous warranty.
+2 for Dell Outlet.
Or Newegg.com
Or Newegg.com
sifan, also, please let us know which model it is & with what options. D620's & D630's are not worth purchasing refurb due to high rate of m/b failures. Same goes for certain HP & Apple Mac models as they were affected by the same design flaw with certain nVidia cards. Avoid any of these like the plague.
I am interested in a laptop with i5 or i7 processor, 17" screen, SSD and 6G memory. Dell outlet has some M6500 laptops that interests me (they use ATI graphic cards), but they are very pricy.
I bought two used Dell laptops C840 and E1705 from eBay, and upgraded their memory myself. They both are still working fine.
I heard a lot of horror stories about HP laptop ownership on the internet. That is why I stay away HP products.
I bought two used Dell laptops C840 and E1705 from eBay, and upgraded their memory myself. They both are still working fine.
I heard a lot of horror stories about HP laptop ownership on the internet. That is why I stay away HP products.
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How does a computer get refurbed? I can't imagine it is anything more than the dust being blown out, a simple stress test and an OS install if part of the deal. I buy all my computers used sans OS and they are a good value IMHO.
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Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
How does a computer get refurbed? I can't imagine it is anything more than the dust being blown out, a simple stress test and an OS install if part of the deal. I buy all my computers used sans OS and they are a good value IMHO.
Replace broken plastics, switch out worn keyboards, switch out touchpads worn smooth, clean the guts of cat hair/dust/spilled coke, check fans for proper function and replace if necessary, perform any necessary wireless/ram/processor/optical/HDD upgrades you feel are warranted... And more stuff if you're talking about desktops.
The people that do this work buy lots of 20+ computers of like model (sometimes by weight, up to several hundred). They then work through the lots getting the best parts, cleaning them up and building working boxes. Junk is thrown away and the leftovers are sold as used parts.
How does a computer get refurbed? I can't imagine it is anything more than the dust being blown out, a simple stress test and an OS install if part of the deal. I buy all my computers used sans OS and they are a good value IMHO.
Replace broken plastics, switch out worn keyboards, switch out touchpads worn smooth, clean the guts of cat hair/dust/spilled coke, check fans for proper function and replace if necessary, perform any necessary wireless/ram/processor/optical/HDD upgrades you feel are warranted... And more stuff if you're talking about desktops.
The people that do this work buy lots of 20+ computers of like model (sometimes by weight, up to several hundred). They then work through the lots getting the best parts, cleaning them up and building working boxes. Junk is thrown away and the leftovers are sold as used parts.
You should. There's money to be made...
make sure that the bios password is cleared,
and if not a dell get the original microsoft COE key.
If it's a dell, try and get the green/blue dell restore cd with it so you can reload the OS.
those are the 2 biggest headaches when buying used laptops.
and if not a dell get the original microsoft COE key.
If it's a dell, try and get the green/blue dell restore cd with it so you can reload the OS.
those are the 2 biggest headaches when buying used laptops.
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