[ronaldasten]

Looking at a laptop refurbushed, never bought anything that way. I dont think I would buy a GC refurbished because of overclocking but maybe a laptop. Dunno, thanks

[Adeniinteme]

Looking at a laptop refurbushed, never bought anything that way. I dont think I would buy a GC refurbished because of overclocking but maybe a laptop. Dunno, thanks

I bought a Canon 350D camera refurbished and I never had any problems with it but I guess it depends on just how they define refurb'd. At work we bought a ton of ex lease Lenovos and they continually have failing hard drive controls and drives.

[erelvenewmeva]

I've had a factory refurbished Compaq business laptop where apparently the display had been changed to a new one. Unfortunately the battery did show its age of a year or two, but other ways the laptop was in pristine condition with no signs of use, not even a scratch. [yes]

[carinsurancess]

I am wary of crappy brand refurbed laptops. An Acer or Toshiba refurb for example probably has recurring problems that are just going to happen again after you buy it, whether it be faulty drives or wireless or screens or whathaveyou.

If it is a good brand item say from Sony or Dell(TVs, laptops, etc) though I'm usually more willing to risk it, depending on the amount off the full retail price of course. I wouldn't risk getting a product that will crap out on me after a year(out of warranty) just to save fifty bucks.

Most of the time you get what you pay for basically.

[Ruidselisse]

there is nothing wrong with refurbished items. I prefer them.
But you have to do your research. If an item in new condition has good reviews/ratings then refurbished is great. But if an item new has common known problems then the refurb is a bad idea. It's someone that had that problem that returned it or exchanged it for another. As stated earlier the problem keeps recurring.

[grattperret]

I got a refurbished Dyson Vacuum on sale. Running great for 3 years now.

[Audi_z]

Refurbished items overclock like crap. [thumbdown]

[frequensearules]

Refurbished items overclock like crap. [thumbdown]

I bought a refurbished nf-7 that would disagree with you :P

[pipojambo]

If it is a good brand item say from Sony or Dell(TVs, laptops, etc).

[rofl][rofl][rofl] [sarcasm] yes because dell and sony use quality electronic parts with great tolerances, high yields, unparalleled materials, parts that are mass produced for the lowest bidder and wouldnt be available to any other assemblers, youll never see the same materials etc in budget or premium brands [/sarcasm].

I would trust buying an acer (even given some of the problems i've had with them as most of the problems are not just exclusive to that brand, almost every potential problem i have seen on a large variety of different brands with albeit different failures rates. its simply manufacturing and no on is absolute king) and especially a toshiba over any dell anyday. The brand delusion especially in electronics catches quite a lot of people too unfortunately.

Ask most electronic technicians for example which brands they prefer from the brands they have actually worked on, the consensus; get the cheapest relating to the features you want within reason, but dont however buy a hp pavillion

Ask anyone that has worked in a dell facility exactly how things get done in there ("oh no just dropped a screw, awh this is too awkward if i skip 2 screws that dont seem that important i can average more and get out for an early break"), granted its probably not all of them but after experiencing it for myself (Ireland), i wouldnt be too quick to purchase a dell

I would however praise sony on some of their chassis build quality relating to i/o ports they're power connectors design and implementation from my experience are solid, never liked their hdd access though. but if you deal with a lot of crappy repair jobs i can honestly state some of sony's laptops are by far the most resilient power connector wise. anyone whos worked on models of vaois knows what im talking about, particularly relating to the heatsink area practically protecting the connecter. it just makes sense

/rant over. sorry

Looking at a laptop refurbushed, never bought anything that way. I dont think I would buy a GC refurbished because of overclocking but maybe a laptop. Dunno, thanks

To be completely honest as an individual, if you are going to have issues with the product you have just as much chance of having them with a new item than you would refurbished one

For new ones; manufacturing flaws, defects and handling will be the deciding factor
for refurbs; manufacturing flaws and defects are also a decided factor but the chances are favourable that you will get one that already has had some attention. it is also likely that the product is fine but the customer returned it for reasons other than operating issue. there is also the potential that the customer did find something off about the product, it went back for testing and the issue could not be repeated thus going unresolved and was then labelled a refurb.

inevitably how you treat the product yourself also plays a role.but buying a new product and particular brand does not rule out the chance of failure. there are hordes of numerous reasons why you may inevitably suffer a failure, buying new or refurb from experience doesnt offer much of a distinction

[carinsurancess]

too much to quote

Basically I was referring to the warranty policy. In my experience Sony and Dell have much better warranty/customer service than Acer or Toshiba. I owned a laptop from and both broke under manufacturer warranty(but not store warranty) and I literally had to fight tooth and nail to get the bastards to fix the damn things. I never bring my laptops outside the home and I treat them like babies and I know how to use computers so I don't go to random sites and get viruses and crap(my 3 month+ desktop uptimes can back that up) so I'm pretty sure it was no fault of mine that they ceased to function.

Admittedly in the early Playstation days when they had that laser/disc read error cause the laser was too close to the power supply units and they would melt, they really shafted me because Sony didn't cover that in their warranty and they wanted like $150 to fix it when it happened 3 months after I bought the thing. But I had a Sony CRT TV that had all the buttons stop working and even the remote stopped working and when I called them about it I just had to bring it in and within a week it was fixed for free no problem with only a few months left on warranty.

I've had similar experiences with Dell. Friend's laptop broke, sent it in, new one back + a data transfer from the old one in no time at all.

I'd feel more comfortable buying a product from them that might be faulty than the other brands I've mentioned.

True though, that refurbished items might have a permanent fix in them that the new ones won't.

[bridsanaeds]

I haven't bought referb but I would agree that if I was looking at referb I'd make sure it's a top quality product. Though it is hard to tell if it's a new model as people have not had an item long enough to notice these problems. Even if it's been reviewed as a "good product" for its function.

[stuntduood]

In general I don't like buying refurbished products.

But if the price is low enough (eg 40% or more lower than new retail) on something I'd already set my mind on buying, then to me it's probably worth the risk. As long as I have sufficient warranty (say 3 months) and I am equipped to properly test the device out myself to ascertain its full functionality.

For example, in mid-2009 I bought a refurbed Evga GTX285 for only $250. If I recall correctly the new retail price was about $400 at the time. That's nearly 40% off and I am able to test it thoroughly myself so I took a chance - luckily it's worked just fine so far. It even overclocks acceptably (about 10% from stock: eg 648MHz core to 700+MHz).

[Audi_z]

I bought a refurbished nf-7 that would disagree with you :P

That's unfair, the NF7 was probably the best motherboard ever made.

[Seilehogshell]

From my experience they're more prone to breaking than the normal ones.

Other than that, like said before, sometimes they can be dirt cheap and worth the trouble. But I would first make sure the service of the company you're buying it from is in order.

Bought a couple of laptops from ndc.co.uk, a 13 inch XPS laptop that was 1000 euros new for 550. First one I got had a broken screen though, second one is still up and running
A latitude XT (tablet). Although absolutely gorgeous and again dirt cheap (650 vs 1100) but unfortunately started to develop some problems over the months it's been used. Harddrive failing, keyboard faulty. But Ndc's service is excellent, it's over there for repairs right now.

Some other good refurbs are for example nintendo ds handhelds, they cost no more than 20 dollars if you can find a shop in China (order via email). I bought mine for a lot more from a company that imported them from a Chinese shop, the (chinese) receipt was still in the box though.

[Adeniinteme]

Refurbished items overclock like crap. [thumbdown]

That's true if they are Dyson Vacuum cleaners [yes]

[lh88gFzI]

That's unfair, the NF7 was probably the best motherboard ever made.

NF7-S FTW.

[Audi_z]

That's true if they are Dyson Vacuum cleaners [yes]

Yes, or cats. Glad someone gets it!