Originally Posted by
Janus
I am always hard pressed to say one PC vender is better than another. Rather, folks tend to be more comfortable with a particular brand (or have been burned by a different brand) and make recommendations based on that. Generally speaking, if you go the refurbished route, you will save a few bucks, but may not get the exact configuration you are looking for.
My advice, computer manufacturers and resellers fiercely complete on price (similar to how airlines do) so figure out the configuration you want, and see who is offering the best deal. Most every PC warranty these days is identical, and will provide the same lousy level of services, so don’t let brand name vs. generic sway you. Only thing to consider with the warranty is duration, and just like buying a car, the manufacture always wins out in the end (otherwise they won’t be offering a warranty).
Good points. All the refurbished units I have seen, all of them have been HP, have a 90 day warranty instead of 1 yr warranty for a the new HP system is 1 year. I figured that a major manufacturing defect will show up quickly. I encountered a defect in my Compaq laptop in about six months, which, I admit is longer than the 90 day warranty. Some 1 year warranties are also difficult to use, as you have to ship the system off to the manufacturer. When PCs cost in the neighbourhood of $3000 vendors could allcate substantial sums towards tech and warranty support. Now that PCs cos a few hundred dollars, you just can't expect the same level of tech support or warranty.
I haven't used any tech support in the last 10 years. When I did call them, they were not able to help much. It took me time, but I was eventually able resolve every issue myself.
Your advice about deciding on a configuration is a sound advice and goes to heart of my requirement. Getting advice on the optimum configuration was the reason I started this thread. I posted links to specific systems to give an idea about what kind of configurations I have been thinking about.
For a given configuration, I can save $200-$300 on refurbished unit. I can use some of the savings to extend the warranty by a year to cover any risk of 90 day warranty on a refurbished system, as I don't know how much the system was abused or not by prior owner(s) and how much refurbishing the vendor actually did.
I am not averse to buying less known names. It just happens that most of the ones whose configuration was close to what I was looking for, happened to be HP. Other than Apple, which is not a PC, and Dell, which are definitely priced higher, I have not ruled out any vendor(s).