How do you feel about second-hand & demo laptops?

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giggity

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Hi,

I am looking into getting a laptop from Bidorbuy that was a demo model. It's about a third the price of a new one, so I really wouldn't mind the fact that thousands of people have touched it -- I'd imagine that they're not too bad after disinfecting and formatting them? Have any of you had experience with purchasing demo models? Good? Bad? Would like some feedback.

Thanks :)
 
For a third I would go for it. Disadvantage I can think is you can't see the condition. Battery life will be much shorter depending how long it was used.
 
I have purchased an Alienware, 3 x XPS 15's, 2 x XPS 13's and 2 x XPS 12's all pre-owned with balance of next business day from Dell. I won't buy new. Can save a fortune going pre-owned.

I used to buy new, but hindsight - its limiting.
 
When I buy a second hand laptop I check the display for dead pixels.

Also check the hard drive condition of the hard drive with Crystal Disk Info http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html

And I check the battery condition http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/battery_information_view.html

I recently bought a HP ProBook 4520s i3 with 250G hard drive & 4Gb RAM for R 2,000.00

Using the tools mentioned above I determined the battery condition to be 96 % good and the hard drive had run for the equivalent of 28 days.

As a second hand machine I got a good deal so if you do your homework there is nothing wrong with second hand or refurbished computers/laptops.
 
I bought a HP Core I7, 256gb solid state, 8 gig ram windows 7 laptop for R4650 courier incl on bidorbuy.. Windows 7 obviously cracked but as it is for personal use eg movies series and not work, I got a great deal for the price AND the battery still last at least 2 hours.. If you want to buy one for work go for secondhand dell with next business day warranty.. if not for work, do what i did!
 
I bought a notebook from Incredible Connection FHD intel I7, touch screen the works for R5999, couldn't view the notebook in-store had to purchase the notebook online. On booting the notebook noticed the LCD colour is pinkish/stained on white background(example website/open notebook) which is a clear indication that the inverter is on its way out or worse LCD needs to be replaced o faulty graphic card or lose wiring. I booked in the unit with incredible connection took nearly over a month to receive the notebook back as their distributor were slacking off to actually collect the notebook with their courier.

The report came back positive that everything has been checked and has past quality control. Upon booting up the notebook, opening up notebook/viewing the forum noticed the LCD screen is still pinkish/redish in colour. It could be the backlight/inverter on its way out. I have escalated the matter further with their distributor, and complained about the matter.

Will book the machine in again probably this weekend, as I needed to get things done.


My advice would be to always view the notebook in person before exchanging any cash.
 
giggity said:
Hi,

I am looking into getting a laptop from Bidorbuy that was a demo model. It's about a third the price of a new one, so I really wouldn't mind the fact that thousands of people have touched it -- I'd imagine that they're not too bad after disinfecting and formatting them? Have any of you had experience with purchasing demo models? Good? Bad? Would like some feedback.

Thanks :)
Click to expand...

why don't you buy direct, look at partserve.co.za, thet service various brands and have some decent refurbished items, no dealer account required to purchase
 
I am happy with ones I have purchased . Recently being the clevo p150hm ,msi gt70 and alienware m18x.

Had one bad experience on bid or buy.

Laptop had patches of dead pixels ,still waiting for the refund :(
 
lived666 said:
why don't you buy direct, look at partserve.co.za, thet service various brands and have some decent refurbished items, no dealer account required to purchase
Click to expand...

I bought one laptop from Partserve in Cape Town, it was ok except I had to return it when the wifi adapter didn't work, and they exchanged it for another one.

Then I wanted to buy a better laptop through them, and they kept promising me to get back to me and just never did.

Thought about it for a while, and bought new through Takealot instead *shrugs* Your mileage may vary.
 
lived666 said:
why don't you buy direct, look at partserve.co.za, thet service various brands and have some decent refurbished items, no dealer account required to purchase
Click to expand...
There are two problems with Partserve with regard to notebooks, so I don't recommend them.
#1. Expensive and/or to old, with XP/Vista licence in BIOS, not Win7. Low on RAM.
#2. Poor specification. They don't give screen resolution, GPU details, connectivity options, they don't even know processor numbers. By example they only say i3, usually it is the first generation Core CPU, no processor number.
 
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Goliath said:
I bought a HP Core I7, 256gb solid state, 8 gig ram windows 7 laptop for R4650 courier incl on bidorbuy.. Windows 7 obviously cracked but as it is for personal use eg movies series and not work, I got a great deal for the price AND the battery still last at least 2 hours.. If you want to buy one for work go for secondhand dell with next business day warranty.. if not for work, do what i did!
Click to expand...

Sounds close to what I want to get.

RichardG said:
My advice would be to always view the notebook in person before exchanging any cash.
Click to expand...

I'll see if the seller will send pictures.

Gtx Gaming said:
I am happy with ones I have purchased . Recently being the clevo p150hm ,msi gt70 and alienware m18x.

Had one bad experience on bid or buy.

Laptop had patches of dead pixels ,still waiting for the refund :(
Click to expand...

Where did you buy all of those laptops? Multiple stores, or are those the ones in particular that you got from bidorbuy?

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. Not too sure how I feel about it still. Seems risky.
 
giggity said:
Hi,

I am looking into getting a laptop from Bidorbuy that was a demo model. It's about a third the price of a new one, so I really wouldn't mind the fact that thousands of people have touched it -- I'd imagine that they're not too bad after disinfecting and formatting them? Have any of you had experience with purchasing demo models? Good? Bad? Would like some feedback.

Thanks :)
Click to expand...

I bought a demo laptop from Incredible Corruption about 9 years ago. I got screwed with the price, and it was full of gay porn.
 
giggity said:
Sounds close to what I want to get.



I'll see if the seller will send pictures.



Where did you buy all of those laptops? Multiple stores, or are those the ones in particular that you got from bidorbuy?

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. Not too sure how I feel about it still. Seems risky.
Click to expand...

Laptops was from gumtree and carbonite.

Just the one recently was from bid or buy which I am having a issue with.
 
Mike Smit said:
I have purchased an Alienware, 3 x XPS 15's, 2 x XPS 13's and 2 x XPS 12's all pre-owned with balance of next business day from Dell. I won't buy new. Can save a fortune going pre-owned.

I used to buy new, but hindsight - its limiting.
Click to expand...

Where?
 
2nd hand is fine with me...except...I'd want enterprise spec (easier to repair) and it has to be SSD (or else factor in cost for SSD). Plus you might need to replace the battery...their life tends to nose-dive round the 2 year mark.

I genuinely liked the Dell Latitude E6420 my work gave me & got the option to buy it. Would have taken it except the supplier upped the price by 2x at the last minute. If you can get one of those, make sure it passes memtest86 and replace the HDD with SSD then thats what I'd go for (assuming lower end of price scale).

As for demo models...generally...depends on SSD vs HDD. SSD I'll accept being 2nd owner / demo model as they're less sensitive to idiots. HDD...I had better be owner #1...don't trust other people to understand what HDD can/can't withstand.

But yeah...that model would be my starting point...just don't buy the Dell generation before that...those were a wreck. (My crowd worked with both in parallel so we saw both). And I'd budget for SSD replacement for any laptop that rocks a hdd unless you need mad storage space volume wise.
 
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Bought 2x Laptops (Demo) from a guy on Bid or Buy, a year apart.

No issues and saved a ton of money.
 
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Bought a refurbished Dell E6410 from Xperien with a 1 year guarantee and happy.
 
2nd hand is fine, just replace the HDD immediately (cost that into the price).

Probably an idea to upgrade the ram, hdd ( or swap to ssd while you're in there ) , and give it another 2 years of usable life.
For the more advanced user, swap the cpu also.

I just did a cpu upgrade on a HP yesterday. Pain in the ass as a million screws (horribly designed laptop chassis), but went from a crap Celeron 900 to something more usable. New CPU only cost me R100 too...
 
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