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We re faced with replacing around 100 machines in the next year are so. Most of these are old XP machines that have small drives and barely run. For the most part they run Telnet sessions into legacy software running on either unix or windows servers located in the region.

I’ve been researching pricing and I stumbled across companies that offer refurbished and off lease machines They are still older but far newer than what we have. The kicker is they are really really cheap. Seeing that most of the usage doesn’t require a lot of horsepower, what are your thoughts on going refurb? Have any of you gone that route?

@Dell_Technologies

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Core2 Duo+ 4GB RAM - nothing less.

We’re a charity so most of our kit is 2nd hand (usually from the place I last worked where I brought the PC’s in new!)

Building them twice was surreal! Wiping off all the “backed up” and “DBANED” notes I stuck all over the place, not so.

… do you have a link for said sites please?

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We used to sell a lot of refurbed machines when I worked for an MSP. You generally trade warranty for savings. You will be more likely to have parts failure (HDD/fans/PSUs etc.), but if you pick up a few spare machines it shouldn’t be too much of an issue. Keep in mind that someone will have to put hands on these machines if something breaks, so if there are remote sites or users you can’t call Dell or HP and have a tech dispatched.

DDR2 RAM is getting pricey, so I would try to find machines that either come with 4 GB (or more) already, or something with DDR3.

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Going refurb is probably fine, provided the seller is reputable and offers some sort of warranty on them. And I agree with LWBM, don’t go with anything that has less than 4Gb of RAM and a 64Bit dual core or better CPU (such as the Core2Duo).

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I’m a big believer in refurb myself.

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We buy almost all our laptops for field use refreb. Get a good vendor who will give you a warranty. For machines that that don’t run software locally but on servers, we started buying thin clients. I have a lot of users who need to RDP in to a server to work but don’t need to run anything locally. We can get the thin clients fairly cheap.

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Most of the Time refurbished machines are not a bad deal. like others have said, you trade warranty and age for price.

With the age of the machine comes a toll on the hardware. most of them will hold up fine. just be ready to replace a HD or 2.

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I was looking at Tigerdirect.com under the refurbed desktops.

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Be prepared for hard drive failures. Many companies that refurb machines DO NOT replace the HDD. I have gone from an all new shop to all refurb. I saw more HDD crashes in three months then i had in 3 years. Other then that if you go manufacturer direct for refurbs the warranty is typically as good as that of the new ones.

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I’m thinking that if I can get a batch of machines configured the same I would just image a drive and replace them from the get go. This way I can have all the required software loaded at the same time and would save time on cleanup.

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I’ve purchased refurbs from a company called CDI computers before. They have a one year warranty on all refurbed equipment so most of the failures I had with the PC’s we’re fixed in good time.

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Refurb, scratch 'n dent, and open box can be a good way to go to save some cost, if you’re buying from a legit source. Look for refurb items on manufacturers outlet sites and at reputable vendors. Those are generally actually “refurbished” as in, whatever was wrong with them, if anything, was fixed, they have been tested, and come with a competitive warranty.

The ones to stay away from would be the lots on ebay or lesser known distributors, pallets of stuff somebody swiped from their company recycle bin after hours that are in various stages of disrepair but being passed off as “refurbished”.

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@E_Willie Mar 3, 2014 at 11:22 AM

Be prepared for hard drive failures. Many companies that refurb machines DO NOT replace the HDD. I have gone from an all new shop to all refurb. I saw more HDD crashes in three months then i had in 3 years. Other then that if you go manufacturer direct for refurbs the warranty is typically as good as that of the new ones.

I have purchased brand new machines that have had a batch of dud HDD’s. It is just the luck of the draw.

@flyboy1957

If you use a firm who has a great rep - then you should be good.

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Refurbed is fine, but you have factor in that you can only expect a years use out of them. That’s not to say that you won’t get more, I’ve refurbs last years and years. But if your sinking every penny you have into them then you can run into trouble. If your saving money for other uses and will be able to replace any that break then no probs. Also make sure you get them from somebody who will put a warranty on them and order spare while you at it. I’ve had plenty turn up DOA.

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Believe it or not, Walmart has started selling refurb PC’s. We recently got one that came with a 1-year-warranty!

I’m still getting it set up for production, but it boots fast :slight_smile:

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We are a school district that relies pretty heavily on Refurb / off-lease machines.

I have had very few issues over the last few years.

Here are a few vendors who I have dealt with for quite a while on Off-lease/refurb equipment.

Insight Systems Exchange - Larry Mcreanor
lmccreanor@insightinvestments.com

CDI Computers - Dino Lauretti
dlauretti@cdiemail.com

Partstock PC - Devang Shah
dshah@partstock.com

2TAC - Ken Ballentine
kenb@2tac.com

I’ve bought from a few more vendors but these are the ones I have done the most business with and trust the most. Let them know I sent you their way.
you.

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I am at a private school in Florida, and since I got here, we only purchased teacher laptops new. All other purchases are refurbs. The one thing to realize with refurb is that warranties are often shorter. But if you are on here, my guess is you know how to replace a power supply, or RAM, etc., and wouldn’t send it back to the manufacturer for a problem like that anyways.

I was told last school year that we needed a second smaller computer lab to accommodate a second computer class. I had very little in terms of budget. I bought some dual core Dell SFF PC’s for $150 each, 12 total. With monitors that I bought refurbished in bulk, and a switch for the lab, I came in under $2200!

Just realize when you go refurb, you are the guy that will have to have a quick turnaround time if something goes down. Keep a few power supplies/video cards/hard drives/RAM sticks on hand and you will be fine.

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We had success with a group of 30 Dell refurbs a few years back. Dell even gave a 6 month warranty on them.

We have not had any real issues with them.

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Excellent Tip, I need to update 10 office PCs, and they really only need Office and Internet Access, this could work well, and save us some $.

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If you can swing it in your environment you could get these refurbs and use PXE boot to pull down an image like Linux Mint. I retired 5 XP boxes that took BLOODY AGES to boot and do anything. They are now PXE booting Mint without a local hard drive. These P4 3GHz boxes from power on to user interaction are about as fast as my 2nd gen i3 Win7 boxes. The users I am targeting these boxes with only use web apps and RDP to do their job. Spend the time to understand what you need to accomplish and then craft a solution.

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