PC for less: Refurbished units
If the phrase “refurbished PC” makes you think of sketchy parts of town, and of hardware with a shady past dealt by a guy with a funny nickname and shifty eyes, its time to move that thought into the present. Refurbished systems today can be almost as new as new, and they can easily save a small business thousands of dollars.
As someone who has bought refurbished units, i can say that it pays to get these from a trusted source. Not only do they cost wayy less than a brand new one, they usually perform without any drawbacks.
You should shop for refurbished equipment carefully—much as you would for new hardware. In some ways, it’s like looking at “pre-owned” cars, but with less-annoying salespeople. All the major manufacturers offer refurbished systems, and these reconditioned systems are said to be stringently tested before they are shipped out. You can get just about any class of machine, from basic business PCs to high-powered workstations. What you probably won’t get is the very latest thing. Because of the return/refurbish cycle, systems tend to be at least 60 to 90 days old—more abrasive-edge than cutting-edge.
Refurbished can mean a lot of different things; there is no government–mandated definition for the term. The only rule is that companies cannot sell refurbished products as new ones. What all refurbished systems do have in common is they’ve been rejected, for one reason or another. Some were found faulty at the factory, usually due to component failure. Others were found faulty by the customer and returned. Many have been repaired and tested by the original manufacturer, or by independent refurbishers. Some just weren’t what the customer needed. In -theory, by the time refurbished systems are back on the market, they are once again fully functional, if not pristine, machines.
