Used laptop purchase, what to do.

shiraz99

What would you do in the following scenario?

I purchased a Dell Latitude 3540 from a local auction site (not eBay) and got what I think was/is a pretty good deal. The described specs were, 12th Gen Intel i5 processor, 16gb RAM, 512gb SSD etc, but what I actually got was only 8gb RAM, 256gb SSD but it does have a later 13th gen intel i5. Also, the laptop is in mint condition. All for around £130.

I have emailed the auction site to let them know but should I just return the laptop for a full refund if they agree or take the reduced specs on the chin given the condition of the machine and the newer processor. The other option would be to ask for some sort of partial refund to at least cover the cost of an additional 8gb of memory but I doubt they'll go for that.

caprikid1

What outcome do you want, memory is cheap, work out the cost of adding the extra memory, sounds crazy to go for a refund of a mint laptop you are otherwise happy with that has a better processor.

shiraz99

caprikid1 said:

What outcome do you want, memory is cheap, work out the cost of adding the extra memory, sounds crazy to go for a refund of a mint laptop you are otherwise happy with that has a better processor.

Memory used to be cheap but it isn't anymore unfortunately as most manufacturers move away from consumer supplies to AI server supply. An 8GB DDR4 stick is at least £40 these days.

paradigital

A used stick will be under £15.  Clearly used is acceptable as the 8GB you currently have is used.

So long as it passes a memtest86 run, it’ll be fine, snd if it fails send it back. 

outtatune

shiraz99 said:

caprikid1 said:

What outcome do you want, memory is cheap, work out the cost of adding the extra memory, sounds crazy to go for a refund of a mint laptop you are otherwise happy with that has a better processor.

Memory used to be cheap but it isn't anymore unfortunately as most manufacturers move away from consumer supplies to AI server supply. An 8GB DDR4 stick is at least £40 these days.

I remember my college lecturer saying 'memory is really cheap these days, it's about £50 a megabyte'.

If you would have paid £130 for what you've got, then keep it, it sounds like a great deal. I'd ask them for maybe a £20 refund to go towards upgrading the memory but returning for a full refund seems daft. 

shiraz99

outtatune said:

shiraz99 said:

caprikid1 said:

What outcome do you want, memory is cheap, work out the cost of adding the extra memory, sounds crazy to go for a refund of a mint laptop you are otherwise happy with that has a better processor.

Memory used to be cheap but it isn't anymore unfortunately as most manufacturers move away from consumer supplies to AI server supply. An 8GB DDR4 stick is at least £40 these days.

I remember my college lecturer saying 'memory is really cheap these days, it's about £50 a megabyte'.

If you would have paid £130 for what you've got, then keep it, it sounds like a great deal. I'd ask them for maybe a £20 refund to go towards upgrading the memory but returning for a full refund seems daft. 

That's what I'm trying to do at the moment. It's actually quite ridiculous how much the costs of memory is rising and it's only going to get worse, especially with the likes of Crucial (Micron) pulling out of the consumer market from February. You have to feel sorry for anyone trying to build a system from scratch.

Cisco001

CEX 8GB DDR4 3200 laptop RAM £18 + £2.95 delivery.

£130 is a good price.

LightFlare

A 256Gb ssd will rapidly become full with just Windows leaving you very little space for anything else

shiraz99

LightFlare said:

A 256Gb ssd will rapidly become full with just Windows leaving you very little space for anything else

No it wont. I've a couple of laptops with 256Gb, one of which I've used as a dev machine for software development and databases for many years now and it's nowhere near full. Besides, storage is still fairly cheap so that's not my concern.