Should I buy a refurbished HP?

UnknownSaint

So I recently decided to replace my 6+ year old desktop, and was going to build one myself. My friend then informed me of some great deals he found on refurbished HP computers from the outlet on their official site. I checked things out and was way impressed with the specs for the cost.

My only concern of course is that the computers are refurbished, hence the savings. I'll have a decent warranty on it, and my friend has since reassured me that he's had nothing but good experiences with refurbished computers and equipment, but I'm kind of curious about the general consensus on the matter here.

TLDR - Is the massive savings for a good computer worth buying refurbished instead of buying/building new?

Feral

Yes, but not HPs. If you're going to buy refurbished, I'd buy a computer with a better history of reliability, like IBM/Lenovo.

MrMonroe

Also not Dells.

If you want it to last, build it yourself. The components they use on some of those pre-built rigs are just straight D-list. Dell doesn't make the DVD-ROMs that come in their computers most of the time, but the companies that do make them won't even put their name on the damn thing.

Crashtard

I have a refurb gateway laptop that I absolutely love. Might be worth checking out Tiger Direct, they usually have pretty good deals.

wunderbar

MrMonroe wrote: »

Also not Dells.

If you want it to last, build it yourself. The components they use on some of those pre-built rigs are just straight D-list. Dell doesn't make the DVD-ROMs that come in their computers most of the time, but the companies that do make them won't even put their name on the damn thing.

as opposed to making their own motherboards and processors?

Feral

wunderbar wrote: »

MrMonroe wrote: »

Also not Dells.

If you want it to last, build it yourself. The components they use on some of those pre-built rigs are just straight D-list. Dell doesn't make the DVD-ROMs that come in their computers most of the time, but the companies that do make them won't even put their name on the damn thing.

as opposed to making their own motherboards and processors?

Dell laptops are manufactured by a company called Compal, and Compal makes good machines. However, the swappable internal components like memory, battery, hard drive, and optical drives come from different manufacturers - in Dell's case, the internal optical drives usually come from TSSTCorp, a Toshiba subsidiary. I haven't seen anything to suggest that TSSTCorp's optical drives are particularly unreliable.