Can I get the boards opinion on refurbished items? I'm looking at a refurb intel p4 2.6GHz 400 FSB. I know that you cannt speak to individual items but in general are refurb'd items worth the cost or are they a hassle?
Opinions on Hardware
- Thread starter PacoD
- Start date
I have never had a bad experience with a referbished piece of hardware, and I've bought a lot of it in my time. Most refurbished items are items that were returned to the manufacturer but were not actually found to be defective. These are not items that were "fixed" and then resold; rather, they were mostly never broken to begin with. Also, refurbished stuff has often been inspected and gone through more quality control procedures than the regular retail. Go ahead and save a few bucks!
They can be worth it if you get a good enough deal. But I wouldn't buy one that I couldn't return if it didn't work. Note that you sometimes do not have any manufacturer warranty with refurbished items (but sometimes you do; you should check with the store and manufacturer if this is a concern).
Refurbs are generally items that were opened and then returned to the manufacturer by a retailer for some reason; usually they are tested, repaired if they don't work right, and then sent back to the retailer. Often they turn out to be fine when they are tested. Some of them are just items that failed to work because of user error. IMO, they're generally not particularly better or worse than other 'used' items.
Newegg refurbs tend to be fairly good, although they're not 100%. With Newegg, they have a two-week (I think) return policy on refurbs, so you get a chance to test it out and make sure it actually works, and at worst you're only out the return shipping. If you're getting a sizable discount on the part, it could definitely be worth it.
You can search for older threads if you want more opinions; people ask about refurbished items (often video cards) every now and then.
It can be good, and in some cases, even be better than new!
Take for instance the ABIT IC-7-MAX3 mommaboard. It needed some board mods to make the RAM voltages stable beyond 2.8 volts. If you purchased new, you had to rMA. If you purchased refurbished, then you got it from jump with the mod!
On the dark side of that one, there's board makers that are great at making boards, but NOT their rMA process and they simply throw boards back out in no particualr order and seem never to find problems with anything.
Still, whether our collective pride wants to believe it or not, most returns are due to some sort of user error and not the fault of the part in question.
With ABIT, they warranty it well if a refurb job. On CPU's you generally get 30 days and no heatsink even if you don't need it. 30 days in my opinion simply isn't enough to offset the cost savings in most CPU pricings I've seen.
Take for instance the ABIT IC-7-MAX3 mommaboard. It needed some board mods to make the RAM voltages stable beyond 2.8 volts. If you purchased new, you had to rMA. If you purchased refurbished, then you got it from jump with the mod!
On the dark side of that one, there's board makers that are great at making boards, but NOT their rMA process and they simply throw boards back out in no particualr order and seem never to find problems with anything.
Still, whether our collective pride wants to believe it or not, most returns are due to some sort of user error and not the fault of the part in question.
With ABIT, they warranty it well if a refurb job. On CPU's you generally get 30 days and no heatsink even if you don't need it. 30 days in my opinion simply isn't enough to offset the cost savings in most CPU pricings I've seen.
I don't trust them because some people over-overclock or overvolt CPUs and videocards, then RMA these abused parts when they don't get the stable massive overclock they hope for.
Some people also try replacing video card HSFs, bungle the job, then put back the original HSF and hope Newegg doesn't notice.
This kind of concealed damage might be hard to notice before your two weeks are up.
Newegg and other online parts sellers usually aren't selling you -factory- refurbs (where the factory has the equipment to properly test a returned part) they just take the RMA and look for scorch marks and screwdriver gouges.
Some people also try replacing video card HSFs, bungle the job, then put back the original HSF and hope Newegg doesn't notice.
This kind of concealed damage might be hard to notice before your two weeks are up.
Newegg and other online parts sellers usually aren't selling you -factory- refurbs (where the factory has the equipment to properly test a returned part) they just take the RMA and look for scorch marks and screwdriver gouges.
Yreka
Diamond Member
- Jul 6, 2005
- 4,084
- 0
- 76
Good post.. Newegg is 15 days I believe.
Personally, I will buy refurb if the following conditions are met *in order*
1. The deal is good. Im not going to pay $280 for a refurb *or used* if I can get it new for $300
2. I can return DOA's no questions asked.
3. I retain the full MFG warrenty.
Source? I'm pretty sure at least some of Newegg's 'refurb' items have been back to the manufacturer. If someone returns a part and says it was DOA, it would be pretty dumb of them to turn around and resell it when they could just send it in for repair.
Maybe "NeweggSupport" could provide some more information.
I'm sure some do go back to the manufacturer, especially DOA/defective returns, but returned as good (with unreported abuse) would not. Since Newegg doesn't tell you what refurbs have been manufacturer-tested it's a gamble.
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