Opinions on refurbished PC

VoucherMan

Having said for years that I'll never get a PC again I'm now reconsidering. Don't need anything spectacular. Mostly browsing the web and working on spreadsheets - Excel & Googledocs mostly. Also a few small programs running in the background if I forget to close them. I do tend to have a few tabs open with Chrome & sometimes when I try to open another spreadsheet I get an Excel cannot complete this task with available resources message so something better spec than my Lenovo G550.

Had a wander to local PC shop and they've a number of refurbs in which they say will be quite adequate.

Hoping for opinions (& if I could get something better/cheaper elsewhere)

Don't have full specs but both have Windows 7 64 bit & a 500GB hard drive.

For £230 - Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.0GHz with 2GB RAM

For £250 - Intel Core 2 Quad, 2.4GHz with 4GB RAM. Also has a dedicated graphics card (2GB Nvidia GT 610 HDMI)

Cycrow

The first one i think you might struggle with (and lower spec then the Lenovo G550)

Neither are all that quick and are quite a few generations old now (released in 2006/2007)

Do these include everything, ie monitors, keyboard, etc?

HereAgain_2

Buy new or at least refurb with a full warranty. Would not ever recommend anything less unless it was really cheap.

HereAgain_2

Not that I'm recommending it, but as an example you can get this Compaq CQ2924EA with Windows 8 and a full 12 month warranty for £228.94

No need to traverse the five year old PC route. Five year old PCs are fine if you have owned them for five years. Sticking a £30 graphic card in is something that you can do yourself if you felt the need. But the modern graphics of a new PC would obviate that for everyday purposes.

poppellerant

If I were choosing between those two machines, it would be the £250 one. Compared to the £230 machine, it runs 400MHz (0.4GHz) faster, has 2GB more memory and has a dedicated graphic card - therefore is the more futureproof one out of the two.

In regards to the 4GB of RAM, you will need a 64-bit operating system to be able to utilise it - for the £230's 2GB of memory, a 32-bit is sufficient.

HereAgain_2

poppellerant wrote: »

If I were choosing between those two machines, it would be the £250 one. Compared to the £230 machine, it runs 400MHz (0.4GHz) faster, has 2GB more memory and has a dedicated graphic card - therefore is the more futureproof one out of the two.

In regards to the 4GB of RAM, you will need a 64-bit operating system to be able to utilise it - for the £230's 2GB of memory, a 32-bit is sufficient.

Almost goes without saying.

The OP does mention Windows 7 64 bit.

Wondering if these are brand name PC or custom made? Warranty?

VoucherMan

Thanks for replies. Looks like I won't be shopping locally then.

Cycrow wrote: »

Do these include everything, ie monitors, keyboard, etc?

The £250 was just the tower. Not sure about the other.

HereAgain wrote: »

A
Wondering if these are brand name PC or custom made? Warranty?

Couldn't see any labels or logos I recognised. He did say that both had new hard drives in & warranty was mentioned but I don't remember what he said.



I'll stick to looking on eBay / Ebuyer for now then. Or at least watch this forum for when someone spots a bargain that might suit me.

HereAgain_2

VoucherMan wrote: »

Thanks for replies. Looks like I won't be shopping locally then.



The £250 was just the tower. Not sure about the other.



Couldn't see any labels or logos I recognised. He did say that both had new hard drives in & warranty was mentioned but I don't remember what he said.



I'll stick to looking on eBay / Ebuyer for now then. Or at least watch this forum for when someone spots a bargain that might suit me.

Come up with a total budget. Do you have and/or want a monitor? PCs aren't posted much here.

Johnmcl7

That seems an awful lot of money for machines that are very old now, if they were under £100 they may be worth considering but I don't think they're worth it at that cost. A friend was looking for a desktop as cheap as possible so I managed to get them a Dell Inspiron 660s off the Dell Outlet for £234 delivered with a Pentium G2020 (Ivybridge processor running at 2.8Ghz, four generations newer than the Core 2 Duo/Quad), 4GB ram and a 500GB hard drive.

John

closed

VoucherMan wrote: »

I get an Excel cannot complete this task with available resources message so something better spec than my Lenovo G550.

Is this the reason why you are looking for a new pc?

http://blogs.technet.com/b/the_microsoft_excel_support_team_blog/archive/2012/05/22/quot-excel-cannot-complete-this-task-with-available-resources-quot-after-installing-ms12-030.aspx

donny-gal

A little more but I feel more sense
https://www.aldi.co.uk/en/specialbuys/thursday-specialbuys-25th-july/product-detail/ps/p/multimedia-desktop-pc/
DG