Are refurbished PC's worth it?

claire07

I was wary of getting a refurb but I got a laptop from argos on ebay for under £300 delivered (£100 less than the store) and I am delighted with it. It came in immaculate condition 1 year warranty and all the leaflets and attachments with it.

HO87

The average so-called refurb process (usually just done in workshop) involves the case and fans being cleaned out/vacuumed (or more commonly just airdustered), mice/kb's cleaned and airdustered, and the external case dry foamed to bring back a reasonable sheen and get rid of the mucky fingerprints, spilt drinks and fag ash. All on-board connections are checked to ensure they are well seated then the MoBo is (sometimes) run up in POST, the hdd reformatted and a clean OS installed over the top - this being used as the test for the rest of the hardware. In some cases (not all) hdd's are just replaced. All in all - 45 minutes start to finish. With some of the proprietory brands the kb's/mice are also automatically replaced.

Given the average price are they worth it? IMO, no. The bottom line is that you are buying a second-hand box possibly with a new hdd for not a huge discount off the brand new price and as there is no such thing as a "book" price to work on you end up paying over the odds.

As for ex-display I wouldn't touch one of those if you paid me and I'd be seriously disinclined to purchase a refurb from any of the High Street outlets. In fact I wouldn't even buy a brand new machine from the High Street simply because they are built to a price with a large (sometimes very large) mark-up on top.

I'd rather spend decent money on good quality and reliable parts and build myself a better machine for less money anyway - although I appreciate that not everyone either has the time, knowledge or inclination to build their own.