[masque]

last topic on this was 1 year old

Basically i'd like to upgrade my video card, but I'm notoriously cheap (or frugal, take your pick). I was poking around the ATI website, and found their refurbished section. (http://shop.ati.com/searchresults.asp?dept_id=39). Are there any big drawbacks to refurbished parts, especially when they were fixed by the original manufacturer?

 

[Noxious Ninja]

As long as they offer a full warranty, there are usually no drawbacks. For something like a monitor, it may be a bit scratched, but a video card should be fine.

 

[Squigi63]

if it's a good deal than do it. refurbished is a nice way of saying used. No electronics can be sold as new after the boxs have been open. Theres a good chance someone could have just bought it tried to install but didn't have the right requirements and sent it back. it might have been used at all but you get it cheap. I don't like to think of it as it was broken at one point because I don't like buying something that was borked at one point. Last thing, I heard stay away from refurbished harddrives. If the were once broken then someone had to open it to fix it.

 

[KillerShots]

Nah, no problem with refurb as long as you got warranty (even a short one). I saved $800 on my laptop because it was refurbished, and bought a 3 year accidental warranty. After a year, I still haven't used the warranty. Refurb isn't always a bad idea, particularly if you never see it if it's scratched.

 

[D.D.]

open box also is great ^_^. i bought a MS wireless adapter for my xbox yesterday for $64 CAD when the original is $149 CAD >_>. It works perfect (low, low pings...3ms even though my wireless-g router hasnt arrived and im still on wirelessb>_>) but the price was cut to less than half just because it was open-box/refurb because someone bought it and returned it.

 

[RF]

I hella ordered a refurb X800XT PE 256mb AGP card from ati's site today. With a 3 year warrenty, and with that price its a pretty nice deal even if they are in back order. For just over 300 cad, you cant go wrong. The local computer store which has the best prices in the city has 800XL's for $420 CAD, and any 6800GT is either $460 and over up to $550+.

 

[Alias]

i think buying single parts refurb is okay, but some things refurb are just more of a headache then they're worth.

Despite what KillerShots said, I would avoid getting a laptop refurbed. There are just so many points of failure in a complete and enclosed system like that it's very likely that something will go wrong. Killershots, I feel, was lucky.

Still, if you don't mind hassling with warranty, it's a great way to save money.