Recycle, Research, Refurbish, Rejoice!
Most of my readers know the extent to which I will go to recycle, when possible. Getting a carload of aluminum cans to a recycler was part of a previous post. I still recycle everything that will be accepted since moving into the apartment. I believe I have just been rewarded for being an environmentally conscientious old coot.
I have intermittently mentioned wanting a new PC, but finding that everything that I configured or found on special sale were well above my budget. I continued to search until I made my way into the land of the used and refurbished. I tend to do that sort of research for several months before making my impulse purchases. I saw many PC’s that “looked good” online, but I did not know the seller, in what condition the computer really was, and that gut feeling that whenever something that looks too good to be true, it generally is. I began to search more deeply into the offerings of companies I do trust and found some good offers on factory refurbished PC’s. I didn’t see anything quite close enough to what I wanted to be willing to part with actual money. I finally found that Tiger Direct advertised good refurbished deals, but concentrated on the ones that they believed would be the best sellers. That’s reasonable for any business advertising, and admittedly I wanted something a bit out of the mainstream. Then I discovered that I should be looking at the related deals in the sidebars. Different versions of the same basic model were there. Then I saw it.
In case the link to the ad is discontinued, it is a factory refurbished HP m8467c with an AMD 2.2 GHz, quad core Phenom processor with 5 GB of RAM, 640 GB hard drive (2 x 320 GB drives,) NVIDIA GeForce 8400HD, DVD+/-RW/RAM Dual Layer burner with Lightscribe, Wi-Fi LAN, a 15 in 1 media reader, a wireless keyboard and mouse, and 64 bit Vista Home Premium OS. I was pleased. Even the hard drive(s) would seem to lend themselves to dual booting the PC with my beloved XP Pro OS. I ordered it at about 3:15 a.m. Wednesday. My first credit card was refused (the company was protecting me) but a second one worked fine. It was processed at 6:55 p.m. Wednesday and arrived today, Thursday, at 1:57 p.m.
I have not yet “fired it up” as I want to make certain that I do all possible to make the dual-boot setup as easy as possible. I can see absolutely nothing that I have inspected to have anything whatever wrong with it. Not even a surface scratch. The only bit of data on the spec sheet that concerns me is that it has only a 300 watt power supply. It would only cost $40 or $50 to replace it with one double that wattage. Oh, did I mention this PC lists for $1,999.99 and I bought it for $649.99. I thought it would be a good idea to buy it while the dollar is still spendable.
Peace, Doc
Copyright © 2008, Thomas A. Blood, Ph.D.
“Woot! Woot!” – Doc
Labels: computer, online purchase, refurbished, Vista. XP
posted by Doc at 12:00 AM
2 Comments:
All that recycling must have brought you some good Karma.
I like the concept of "months of research" for an "impulse" buy. lol.
There really is such an obsessive type as me. The one that blew the family out of the water was buying my last car. I had been driving a Ranger pickup for 17 years and knew I really should get something that would run consistently and not rust out around me. I had been looking for about a year for the right replacement for the right price when McCue's had a Customer Loyalty Rebate of $1K at the same time as big factory incentives were being offered. The '04's had just come out at the end of '03. It was one of the top 3 models/brands on my list and I walked down the line of new Cavs with the salesman trailing me till I read the specs on one that looked good and they were exactly what I wanted. $10K for a $15K+ car. Even the salesman was surprised when I pointed and said, "That one!" Drove it home.
Peace, Doc
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