Do any of you ever order refurbished parts for computers? If so, do they last for a for a good amount of time or do you stay away from them? Plz let me know. thx
Too many variables to make a good judgement on this, I can give my personal experience though. I will buy refurbished stuff if it comes with a good warranty, and typically buy a little more than I need, in case something goes bad. I have bought plenty of refurbished/off lease computers and had good experience with them. An occasional dead memory stick or hard drive, easy enough to replace.
For me it depends what it is and how much of a savings it is over the retail new cost if available and like Myrrh said whether it's got any sort of warranty or not and warranty provided by whom (seller or manufacturer). The main issue with anything refurb is that you don't know why it's refurb. It could be as simple as a customer return because they didn't want it (and therefore can't be sold as new again) or something broke and had to be repaired. Just because something has been repaired does not mean it's as good as new, in my opinion. But you'll never know which case it is. So it all depends on what your tolerance is for potential problems.. for example I wouldn't buy a refurb hard drive but I'd buy someone's used hard drive if it's still under manufacturer warranty. Refurb could mean anything in that instance so why take the chance that it had any physical damage that was "repaired" (and prone to happen again).