Laugh at me in 12 months about my "refurbished" computer.
So I've ordered a refurbished PC (i.e. a machine some business dude doesn't want anymore and has supposedly been seen by a Microsoft Certified Refurbisher) from itzoo.sk and the one thing I really wanted before I ordered it was to hear some reviews from people who've gone this route in the past. Most of the reviews online are like "The computer arrived as promised, 5 stars!" - so this thread can serve more as a longitudinal study as I'll come back here whenever it gets bumped.
Here are the specs:
Lenovo ThinkCentre M71e G630
Processor: Intel Pentium G630 CPU (2.70 GHz)
Memory: 2x2GB (4 GB) DDR3 1333MHz
Max RAM: 2x4GB (8 GB) UDIMM, PC3-10600 1333MHz DDR3 (I think this means possibility to upgrade)
Hard disk: 250 GB - SATAIII, Cache 16MB, 7200 RPM
Graphics card: INTEL on BOARD
6xUSB: 2.0
Optical drive: NO
Weight: 5.9 kg
Power source: 240W
Operating system: Windows 10 Home Premium
Guarantee: 12 months
Price: 115 euros (including delivery and VAT)
Yet again this subforum was useful - in that you guys didn't dismiss ProfessionalPoker out of hand when he was considering a refurbished laptop for his daughter. Past advice from lurking here that I found useful was having a non-admin windows account for daily use (why did no one tell me before?), so just taking the opportunity to say thanks for that now.
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Finally replacing this after nearly 8 years. Still works fine (posting from it right now) - upgraded RAM to 12 GB, when the case was open I saw manufacture date in April 2012 - pretty good that out of the 12 year life of the machine I got two thirds of it but for a fraction of the cost the original owner would have paid. It just feels slow compared to modern SSD computers. More an issue with higher expectations on my part than an actual decline in the machine. So we can mark this as a win for refurbished computers.
Replacing with another refurbished machine: Dell Optiplex 5070 i5 SFF, 8GB/256GB, Windows 11 - (condition A - means a 2-year guarantee, mostly they are B which means more scrapes and a 1-year guarantee) Intel® Core™ i5-8500, onboard Intel Corporation UHD Graphics 630 for 199 Euros
just because the unit still functions... I just replaced my around 15 year old computer that still runs perfectly with a modern unit and I am SO glad I did.
I wouldn't buy a computer that doesn't have a least 16 GB of RAM or a dedicated graphics card. Your "new" computer is going to seem slow.
