byronlj wrote:
I bought a re-manufactured Dell from Walmart for my garage. They take old pc's upgrade them with a new processer and memory. Mine came with windows 7 and is amazingly fast. I think it cost a little more than $150.00.
Dave
I doubt that Walmart is doing the "refurb".
Walmart most likely is BUYING Dell factory "refurbs" and I would doubt that Dell is upgrading processor or memory from the original configuration.. Dell nor any other manufacturer gets "free" parts that they can afford to put faster processors in or more memory. Most likely those PCs came WITH those processors and memory and were off LEASES which went back to Dell, Dell then "refreshes" the OS and then runs a burn in test.
Just buyer be aware, when manufacturers refurb a PC they only change out THE NEEDED part(s) to make it work again. This may be a hard drive, power supply, DVD drive or even a power LED AND the replacement parts themselves may be refurbs (think, refurbed HDs), if no parts are found to be bad they simply reload the OS according to the LICENSE which was originally attached to the PC.
Keep in mind, Dell for sure DOES keep a record of EACH PC they have ever built via the "service tag" (AKA Serial number) so they know WHO the PC was originally configured for and what the configuration was.
They do not replace everything in that box, nor do they upgrade the OS (XP to Win7 or 8) if they did load a newer OS they WILL have to pay extra for the new license and in the end the consumer would pay a higher price for that refurb..
So, what you are getting is a USED PC which may have had one part replaced and they give you a very short warranty.. your mileage may vary on how long that PC will live..