So I've ordered a refurbished PC (i.e. a machine some business dude doesn't want anymore and has supposedly been seen by a Microsoft Certified Refurbisher) from itzoo.sk and the one thing I really wanted before I ordered it was to hear some reviews from people who've gone this route in the past. Most of the reviews online are like "The computer arrived as promised, 5 stars!" - so this thread can serve more as a longitudinal study as I'll come back here whenever it gets bumped.

Here are the specs:

Lenovo ThinkCentre M71e G630

Processor: Intel Pentium G630 CPU (2.70 GHz)
Memory: 2x2GB (4 GB) DDR3 1333MHz
Max RAM: 2x4GB (8 GB) UDIMM, PC3-10600 1333MHz DDR3 (I think this means possibility to upgrade)
Hard disk: 250 GB - SATAIII, Cache 16MB, 7200 RPM
Graphics card: INTEL on BOARD
6xUSB: 2.0
Optical drive: NO
Weight: 5.9 kg
Power source: 240W
Operating system: Windows 10 Home Premium
Guarantee: 12 months

Price: 115 euros (including delivery and VAT)

Yet again this subforum was useful - in that you guys didn't dismiss ProfessionalPoker out of hand when he was considering a refurbished laptop for his daughter. Past advice from lurking here that I found useful was having a non-admin windows account for daily use (why did no one tell me before?), so just taking the opportunity to say thanks for that now.

for 100 quid why not


what do u wanna use it for/to do?

Mostly office stuff. It's replacing a budget machine from 2007 running XP.

A bit of poker on Unibet maybe but it's pretty much random whether or not someone's specs are good enough for that - the XP one was fine for Unibet until they stopped supporting XP, but people with much newer machines were having problems.

You should be fine. Just weakish performance, but might now matter too much if you are just doing basic tasks.

Put money saved into having backups in case of hard drive failure.

Thanks. Yeah the HD is probably the weakest link. I have a jungledisk mapped drive which I will set up on the new one - it also has the advantage I can work on the same stuff at home.

Is this a desktop? Unclear as you list weight

Yes, there is a photo on the page. Not sure why the refurbisher lists weight. I suppose it's just their standard data sheet.

Here's the link to their page with photo:

http://www.itzoo.sk/kancelarske-pc/l...tre-m71e-g630/

I just noticed there's no mention of a network card. I imagine that's standard nowadays isn't it? I last built a machine in 1999

They probably have one even though it's not mentioned.

There is a network connector in the photo unless you mean a WiFi card?

Yeah, that's what I mean.

It arrived anyway, and is working fine so far. It has a new Win 10 sticker (Win 10 license for refurbished computers) and it also came with a mouse and keyboard. The keyboard looks like it has come from a German speaking country but I had a spare one anyway so I am using that.

It also has an internal speaker which is pretty quiet for playing a film or something but is ok for things like poker table pinging.

Over 3 years in this is still working fine by the way.

I recommend getting a computer this way.

Finally replacing this after nearly 8 years. Still works fine (posting from it right now) - upgraded RAM to 12 GB, when the case was open I saw manufacture date in April 2012 - pretty good that out of the 12 year life of the machine I got two thirds of it but for a fraction of the cost the original owner would have paid. It just feels slow compared to modern SSD computers. More an issue with higher expectations on my part than an actual decline in the machine. So we can mark this as a win for refurbished computers.

Replacing with another refurbished machine: Dell Optiplex 5070 i5 SFF, 8GB/256GB, Windows 11 - (condition A - means a 2-year guarantee, mostly they are B which means more scrapes and a 1-year guarantee) Intel® Core™ i5-8500, onboard Intel Corporation UHD Graphics 630 for 199 Euros

just because the unit still functions... I just replaced my around 15 year old computer that still runs perfectly with a modern unit and I am SO glad I did.

I wouldn't buy a computer that doesn't have a least 16 GB of RAM or a dedicated graphics card. Your "new" computer is going to seem slow.

I don't game though. I may upgrade the RAM if needed but memory is as cheap as chips these days.