Refurbished or New?

[AirlessTHEGOOSE]

I'm looking into a laptop for college - but don't need anything insane. Notes and usual office applications. But I'd still like a machine that's not a complete waste of space. I've a ~350$ budget, and can go over if the difference is incredible than the other options.

 

I've been looking at Newegg refurbished, and it seems (from the reviews) that it's not a bad program. The two current models I'm looking at are an HP Elitebook 8460, with some rocking specs for it's 289.99$US asking price.

It's got an i5 2520M @ 2.5 GHz, 8 GB of DDR3, a 240 GB SSD and Windows 7 Professional. Not too shabby for under 300.

 

However, I've had a soft spot in my heart for the Macbooks (shudders across the room) of the world, and they've got a basic MB Air for ~350$, which fits right into my budget. I know exactly what I'll be getting for the budget here, so no qualms about performance from a hardware standpoint - or software, probably. I do enjoy OSX for what it is.

 

The question remains, however - is refurbished worth it? Has anyone had experience with the program or refurb laptops in general that can attest to the build quality/quality in general?

 

The other option that seems good is the Acer Chromebook 14 - which seems to have ironed out some of the issues that come with Acer CB (namely, the screen being absolutely awful). I don't mind using the Chrome OS and Google Docs since that's what I mainly use anyway, but and feedback on the Chrome OS and this laptop in general would be appreciated.

 

Thank you in advance! And if there's a laptop that I've missed and should consider, please let me know.

[Djole123]

I'd say go for the PC and make it a Hackintosh.

[AirlessTHEGOOSE]

Just now, Djole123 said:

I'd say go for the PC and make it a Hackintosh.

I mean, I really do like Windows 7 - what's the advantage of going through the trouble to make a Hackintosh when I can just use W7 perfectly fine?

[Damocles]

Usually, refurbed stuff are systems with 1 or 2 defective components that have been replaced. These are often hard drives or bad memory. However, sometimes the refurb can be done so poorly that the laptop is held together by tape, and I have seen pictures of these laptops with the drive held in by double sided scotch tape. The risk is what it is, and I think it's not worth refurb if you can afford brand new.

[Djole123]

2 minutes ago, AirlessTHEGOOSE said:

I mean, I really do like Windows 7 - what's the advantage of going through the trouble to make a Hackintosh when I can just use W7 perfectly fine?

I mean you said you love MacBooks, but if you like Windows stick with it.

[AirlessTHEGOOSE]

4 minutes ago, Djole123 said:

I mean you said you love MacBooks, but if you like Windows stick with it.

Yeah, I do - so I'd probably get the Air. No need to get a Hackintosh really. It's just as much about the physical architecture as it is about OSX

[MrDrWho13]

So your options are:

• Macbook air (A tablet with a keyboard. Can't do too much, but it does it in style.)
• Refurbished PC (Pretty good specs, I'd just be cautious of what may be wrong)
• Chromebook (Excellent battery life and speed - it's just a cheaper alternative to the macbook air concept)

[AirlessTHEGOOSE]

7 minutes ago, Damocles said:

Usually, refurbed stuff are systems with 1 or 2 defective components that have been replaced. These are often hard drives or bad memory. However, sometimes the refurb can be done so poorly that the laptop is held together by tape, and I have seen pictures of these laptops with the drive held in by double sided scotch tape. The risk is what it is, and I think it's not worth refurb if you can afford brand new.

So the new Chromebook > Refurb anything? A lot of these PCs fall right out of range brand new.

[GeneralLol]

As far as I know was that you won't get a machine worth that price with Apple. I mean their designs were great but well, their insides were just not that great compared to a PC at the same price. So my opinion is going for the HP. And get yourself a better MacBook when you've got more money. 

[ShadowCaptain]

1 minute ago, MrDrWho13 said:

So your options are:

• Macbook air (A tablet with a keyboard. Can't do too much, but it does it in style.)
• Refurbished PC (Pretty good specs, I'd just be cautious of what may be wrong)
• Chromebook (Excellent battery life and speed - it's just a cheaper alternative to the macbook air concept)

 

the macbook air is not a tablet with a keyboard

 

and a chromebook is nothing to do with a macbook air concept

a macbook air, while not the most powerful is still a fully fledged computer running a full MacOS Desktop operating system, you can run steam, itunes, adobe creative cloud etc

You cannot do any of those things on a chromebook

[AirlessTHEGOOSE]

Just now, MrDrWho13 said:

So your options are:

• Macbook air (A tablet with a keyboard. Can't do too much, but it does it in style.)
• Refurbished PC (Pretty good specs, I'd just be cautious of what may be wrong)
• Chromebook (Excellent battery life and speed - it's just a cheaper alternative to the macbook air concept)

Yep, that sounds about right. The tablet with keyboard is like 50% OSX and 50% physical notebook - they really do look nice.

 

Sounds like you would go with the Chromebook from your comments, especially for hauling it around campus all day

[Damocles]

Just now, AirlessTHEGOOSE said:

So the new Chromebook > Refurb anything? A lot of these PCs fall right out of range brand new.

Chrome book? That stuff is what you give your parents who only surf the web. That's basically what they're good for as you can't do much without internet access. My school got to use chromebooks and believe me when I say a class of 30 and nobody touched the free chromebooks. Buy the Mac, even though I am a PC fan, I'd stay away from refurbed and crapbooks.

[AirlessTHEGOOSE]

Just now, GeneralLol said:

As far as I know was that you won't get a machine worth that price with Apple. I mean their designs were great but well, their insides were just not that great compared to a PC at the same price. So my opinion is going for the HP. And get yourself a better MacBook when you've got more money. 

I'm just never going to have the money for a brand-new macbook. They're just waaay too much, and I already bought a brand new one ~5 years ago and I still wish I had half the money from it. That's why I'd rather get the Air, that seems like a fair machine to create documents and projects and play the occasional game for 350.

[AirlessTHEGOOSE]

1 minute ago, Damocles said:

Chrome book? That stuff is what you give your parents who only surf the web. That's basically what they're good for as you can't do much without internet access. My school got to use chromebooks and believe me when I say a class of 30 and nobody touched the free chromebooks. Buy the Mac, even though I am a PC fan, I'd stay away from refurbed and crapbooks.

Even though the mac is still refurbed? The reviews seem to give the refurbisher a good rep, just some minor cosmetic damage (to be expected, I'm really not picky) but a fully functional system and battery.

[MrDrWho13]

1 minute ago, ShadowCaptain said:

 

the macbook air is not a tablet with a keyboard

 

and a chromebook is nothing to do with a macbook air concept

a macbook air, while not the most powerful is still a fully fledged computer running a full MacOS Desktop operating system, you can run steam, itunes, adobe creative cloud etc

You cannot do any of those things on a chromebook

Damn ShadowCaptain, you're everywhere!

Ok I agree with your comments. I was trying to represent the power rather than functionality. 

The mac book has better compatibility with most applications but that's what you're paying an extra $100 for. (Along with the looks)

[Damocles]

I've never heard of a refurbed Mac being sh1t on so I think it's fine to get a refurbed mac

[ShadowCaptain]

1 minute ago, MrDrWho13 said:

Damn ShadowCaptain, you're everywhere!

Ok I agree with your comments. I was trying to represent the power rather than functionality. 

The mac book has better compatibility with most applications but that's what you're paying an extra $100 for. (Along with the looks)

Sure its not as powerful but it does turbo up to 2.3ghz so its not that bad for light tasks

 

 

[AirlessTHEGOOSE]

1 minute ago, ShadowCaptain said:

Sure its not as powerful but it does turbo up to 2.3ghz so its not that bad for light tasks

 

 

That'll turbo up to 2.3?

[GeneralLol]

5 minutes ago, AirlessTHEGOOSE said:

I'm just never going to have the money for a brand-new macbook. They're just waaay too much, and I already bought a brand new one ~5 years ago and I still wish I had half the money from it. That's why I'd rather get the Air, that seems like a fair machine to create documents and projects and play the occasional game for 350.

Well if that's the case go for a ThinkPad. I had one bought in 2001 by my dad and I used it until 2011, and before it was stolen it was still functional as a studying machine. Not for gaming though because it stuck like hell. But that was the problem of RAM. ThinkPad is something you can rely on for a seriously long period of time. Just wait for a discount or something. 

[GeneralLol]

9 minutes ago, MrDrWho13 said:

Damn ShadowCaptain, you're everywhere!

Ok I agree with your comments. I was trying to represent the power rather than functionality. 

The mac book has better compatibility with most applications but that's what you're paying an extra $100 for. (Along with the looks)

I thought you can install Windows on Chromebooks, and everything would be fine. 

And there was an extension on Chrome that allows Google Docs and Drive and everything to work offline. 

And that rhymes. 

[MrDrWho13]

Just now, GeneralLol said:

I thought you can install Windows on Chromebooks, and everything would be fine. 

And there was an extension on Chrome that allows Google Docs and Drive and everything to work offline. 

And that rhymes. 

I think you'd be mad to install Windows on a Chromebook (and I don't know if you can).

Windows is a very heavy operating system so even if they had enough storage (Chromebooks usually have 16 or 32GB) it would run really slowly.

[AirlessTHEGOOSE]

1 minute ago, GeneralLol said:

I thought you can install Windows on Chromebooks, and everything would be fine. 

And there was an extension on Chrome that allows Google Docs and Drive and everything to work offline. 

And that rhymes. 

Yeah, but keep in mind the hardware used on the Chromebooks meant to run the Chrome OS. The architecture simply does not line up with Windows, and you will have a bad time.

[GeneralLol]

Just now, MrDrWho13 said:

I think you'd be mad to install Windows on a Chromebook (and I don't know if you can).

Windows is a very heavy operating system so even if they had enough storage (Chromebooks usually have 16 or 32GB) it would run really slowly.

Okay. I thought the only thing that would go wrong was the keyboard. 

[MrDrWho13]

7 minutes ago, GeneralLol said:

Well if that's the case go for a ThinkPad. I had one bought in 2001 by my dad and I used it until 2011, and before it was stolen it was still functional as a studying machine. Not for gaming though because it stuck like hell. But that was the problem of RAM. ThinkPad is something you can rely on for a seriously long period of time. Just wait for a discount or something. 

I think that was an IBM thinkpad rather than a Lenovo one. The Lenovo ones are renowned for being worse than the IBM ones (but they're not necessarily bad)

[AirlessTHEGOOSE]

2 minutes ago, MrDrWho13 said:

I think that was an IBM thinkpad rather than a Lenovo one. The Lenovo ones are renowned for being worse than the IBM ones (but they're not necessarily bad)

Even so, a new laptop at that price isn't within my budget. The ones I'm seeing on Newegg aren't affordable at the moment, unless they're refurbished - which I'm having second thoughts about now (Windows based refurbs that is)