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[linkboy]

I was wondering if anyone has taken a look at refurbished business laptops. I'm ready to chuck my Sony Vaio POS off my balcony and I'm looking to replace it. My budget is around $450 and all that's going to get me at a store is a low budget piece of shit.

I've been looking at some of the HP Elitebooks, mostly the 8770w

I really like the fact that it's basically a desktop in mobile form. It's not really going to be used for much gaming.

Has anyone gone this route for a laptop?

 

[Plum]

I'm using one right now which I got around 3 years ago. Apart from one cracked screen that was both my own fault and easily fixed it's worked amazingly well for what I've been using it for. Only upgrades were putting in 8gb of RAM and upgrading the HDD to an SSD, both of which I'd definitely recommend. If you don't care about looks there's practically nothing to distinguish a good refurbished business Laptop from a Mac or high-end PC for what most people use laptops for.

I reckon that if the seller is reputable there's little harm in buying a refurbished machine, I know I'm doing so for the gaming laptop I plan to buy soon. That's doubly so for eBay which has an incredibly buyer-focused support system, if you get a dud system you're going to get your money back no matter what.

 

[RecRoulette]

I'm using a Dell Latitude e2460 for my school laptop. Thing is a tank but has 8gb of ram and an i7 processor. Cost me about $300 altogether after buying the ram and replacing the battery. 128gb SSD.

Really great if you need something cheap for work only, although it's not light.

 

[NeOak]

Go for Lenovo refurbished

 

[Mammoth Jones]

Where can you buy these?? Never heard of buying em like that.

 

[linkboy]

I'm using a Dell Latitude e2460 for my school laptop. Thing is a tank but has 8gb of ram and an i7 processor. Cost me about $300 altogether after buying the ram and replacing the battery. 128gb SSD.

Really great if you need something cheap for work only, although it's not light.

Thanks, I figured it wouldn't be light, but I've used the 8570 and I really liked it.

The second hdd bay is the biggest reason why I'm leaning towards the 17" over the 15". I have two HDD's (one SSD, and another 2TB) in my Vaio and I had to take the DVD drive out to do it. I'd like to have access to the DVD drive if I could.

Go for Lenovo refurbished

I couldn't find one that had the two HDD bays that the HP has. Lenovo was my first choice.

Where can you buy these?? Never heard of buying em like that.

Ebay has a slew of them.

 

[Gentleman Jack]

Where can you buy these?? Never heard of buying em like that.

Depends on the manufacturer. Some models are refurbished by 3rd party shops that rebuild returned hardware and sold on sites like newegg. I can't speak to their reputation, I personally wouldn't buy one without an iron-clad return policy either from the refurb shop or the marketplace. Others like Apple have dedicated refurbished/open box/as-is sections in their online shops and that's what I'd search for first if I wanted to go this route.

 

[XOMTOR]

I bought a Lenovo T520 refurbished; paid around $350. Has a 1080p screen, 8 gigs of RAM, a 240GB SSD and an i7-2760QM 4c/8t CPU so it's pretty damn fast. The 520 was the last of them with the traditional style keyboard.

I couldn't find one that had the two HDD bays that the HP has. Lenovo was my first choice.



Ebay has a slew of them.

The T520 (and most Thinkpads actually) has the UltraBay slot so you can remove the DVD drive and replace it with a HDD caddy. I've got an old mechanical drive in there for storage.

 

[linkboy]

The T520 (and most Thinkpads actually) has the UltraBay slot so you can remove the DVD drive and replace it with a HDD caddy. I've got an old mechanical drive in there for storage.

I know (I've done something similar with my current VAIO, having both a 500GB SSD and a 2TB regular HDD). However, I'd prefer to keep the DVD drive in there.

 

[blame space]

Damn, that $400 laptop has a better graphics card than my desktop.

 

[thefragrance]

I bought a Lenovo T520 refurbished; paid around $350. Has a 1080p screen, 8 gigs of RAM, a 240GB SSD and an i7-2760QM 4c/8t CPU so it's pretty damn fast. The 520 was the last of them with the traditional style keyboard.

I like this. Where did you get it? I'm looking for similar specs but with no success. Got a link you could share?

 

[linkboy]

I like this. Where did you get it? I'm looking for similar specs but with no success. Got a link you could share?

I found this one, is it similar to what you're looking for

 

[XOMTOR]

I like this. Where did you get it? I'm looking for similar specs but with no success. Got a link you could share?

Got it from an eBay seller in Canada a few months back. Price was good seeing as how most everything up here is expensive. Here's a similar T520 (minus the SSD) he has up for auction.

 

[ponpo]

Using an old Thinkpad X230 now. Recommend.