Buying a refurbished laptop

Dell have a refurb site which does pcs and laptops called Dell Outlet which sells Dell returns from Retailers, i.e. they're basically unused, they've just made the return trip from the factory to the retailer and back again.

http://www.dell.com/uk/dfh/p/?c=uk&cs=ukdfh1&l=en&s=dfh&~ck=bt&redirect=1#!

I bought a desktop pc  from them about 2 years ago for about £200 and its still going strong, never had any problems with it and more than adequate for BF and apps using the BF API, ( though just about anything is .... it's not the hardware that's critical, its the connection ).

Thank you gus

Presumably Dell are a good make

Would it be true to say the higher the RAM and gigabyte number of a machine the better ?

Well, yes it's true that more RAM and a faster processor make for a  higher spec, but really it's a bit like choosing a car.

A Ferrari is probably better car  than a Ka, but if all you use it for is  taking the kids to school a Ferrari's a bit over the top.

The Dell I bought has an Intel i3 CPU, 4.0GB RAM and runs at 3.07 GHz, and runs Windows7 (64 bit) and you'd be hard pushed to find a lower spec computer on sale  anywhere now, but, as I say it's more than adequate.

As for Dells I've had 4, 2 laptops and 2 pcs over the last 10 years and never a problem with any of them. Really the only reason for replacing the old ones is because I have to run a reasonably recent version of Windows, and each new version seems to need more Memory (RAM) and it's cheaper and a lot easier to buy a new pc / laptop with the new Windows pre-installed than to muck about with adding memory and installing Windows.

You'd really only need a higher spec if you did a lot of graphics-intesive Gaming or some other very specialised Graphics software.

Thanks for that comprehensive and I am sure very good advice Gus

looks like a Dell reasonably low spec should be adequate for my purposes

The sound system on my existing HP laptop is fooked and it keeps crackling and going off accompanied by blue screen crashes

I have had it about six years but really do not want to buy a new one if I can get a perfectly serviceable refurbished one

Its used mainly for betting sites and streaming of live sports and you tube and the like

i hav sanyo vaio 2001---on its last legs---VERY SLOW

sorry sony---had it that long cant remember name

Most important factor is RAM, the higher the better, also if your laptop is going slow.....

MSCONFIG

Click start, type that into the search box, click on it, then on the start up tab, you'll see a list of programs that have placed themselves in your startup, uncheck the one's you don't need, it save memory - even when not in use it's using memory - you might have to reboot after.

Use external hard drive to store your music, games and photos, saves a lot of space.

Uninstall all the programs you're not using, although be careful, don't uninstall programs that you have no idea what their function, it might be important.

anyone use any of the non apple tablets for betfair?

well, I don't want to start sounding like a salesman for Dell, and I'm sure plenty of other brands are just as serviceable, it's just that i happened to know about the refurb site.

But in terms of streaming live video, I actually don't have a TV (because I don't watch many TV programmes), but when I do want to watch something I watch it on iPlayer on the aforementioned Dell, and I watch live racing via Racing UK's web subscription service, again on the pc, and ATR via a TV card plugged into the pc (both, plus my API apps, running simulateously)... so streaming is fine.

why buy refurb? - new prices can be pretty low now.  Do you have a budget £££ ?

New laptop prices are shockingly low these days. It's frightening when you think about what a laptop cost 10 years ago, even before you include inflation.

Just been looking at some new laptops and yes the prices seem quite low

This seemed like a good one at the price ?


http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/compaq-cq58-253sa-15-6-laptop-20811654-pdt.html

I recently recommended Dell Inspiron 15R to a friend who was buying.  It has a similar spec to the one you're looking at but processor not quite as good.  Dell have a reputation for making reliable / long lasting laptops though.

If you're at all fussy about ergonimics I'd suggest going down to PC world and having a play with some of them.