electrocomputerwarehouse

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: Dave Cramer <davec-zxk95TxsVYDyHADnj0MGvQC/G2K4zDHf at public.gmane.org>

| Any comments good or bad .I'm looking for a refurb laptop. They have a
| dell d620 for 250 ...

It depends how important price is to you.  If you listen to Lennart,
you will always pay more and get a higher quality device.

I'm impressed by the price-performance of many new notebooks these
days.  One side-effect of "inexpensive" is that the products may be
flimsy -- electronic components get less expensive most of the time but
mechanical components don't.

I think that used and off-lease computers made a lot more sense when
new ones were way more expensive than they are now.  I remember a
considerable period during which I knew a desktop computer would cost
be about $2000, all that changed was what it could do for that money.
For example, my Kaypro II cost $2295 -- a Z80 with 64k and two floppy
drives.

Come to think of it, my current desktop cost ~$2k, but that's because
about $1100 was my 30" monitor.  Sure beats my Kaypro (24x80 character
9" mono screen).  Over that 30 years, the CPU has increased more than
1000-fold and RAM capacity about 100,000 but the screen has improved
more like 10.

A used computer is so cheap these days that the store overhead has 
to significantly add to the price.

New notebooks come with a better warranty than used ones.  I think
that warranties are particularly useful with notebooks since they are
harder to fix yourself.

I posted a netbook deal which is still on (barely) for $239.99.  I think 
that I'd pick that over a used d620 at the same price.  Lennart clearly 
explained why neither is up to his standards.
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