Brian....One thing to keep in mind about reviews from users/buyers.... How
often do you actually go back and rave about anything you've bought? I'm
betting little to none? OTOH, if you buy something that's absolutely
terrible , you want to tell the whole world about it? Am I close? And I'm
not singling just you out? I'm thinking that's how most people react to
things.
If I look at a review and get mostly great or good reviews ....and a few
snags..I buy it...Especially if it's something technical..like a PC a higher
end TV etc. Lots of people are not real swell when it comes to technical
things.. If they have issues, they bale out, or just 'review' it as junk..
when reality says, they've just not set things up properly?
I had a FIC 503+ motherboard many years ago. Exceptional motherboard at the
time... Didn't get the greatest reviews, but mostly respectable. What I
found out is installing the motherboard's software and drivers was the
issue.. I had to install them in a specific order to make the system run
properly....That wasn't noted in any of the instructions anywhere. Sooo, a
less technical person might have loaded they board the 'wrong' way and wound
up with some serious issues that would never clear up? That person would go
online and say 'don’t buy this is a piece of junk?" I used that board for
many years without any issues at all.
You're not likely to find 100% rave reviews about much of any
products....just try to look at the overall pictures. Are most of the
reviews good or above.. Do the negative reviews sound like less technical
people. ( as in maybe they're not really suited to set something up
properly)...without that sounding like a slam?:))) If I see 5 good reviews
and 3 not so good reviews. I go for it.
Also, look at what people are complaining about with a given system... If
it's speed, do they know how to tweak things to get the speed where it
should be.... did they do upgrades to drivers and software programs and
windows like they should? Do they have 7 chat programs loading on every
boot? ( yep, I DID run into that one time on one of my clients systems?:))))
Lots of things to think about when you read reviews...Not every screamin'
demon system runs that way out of the box? One of my friends bought such a
screamin' demon from Dell this spring.. The 1st boot took over half an
hour.. once he got a desktop, his CPU was at 93% constantly. That's on a
$2400 system? The culprit was a trashed Dell service DLL loading the
database of his system specs..One he turned off that Dell updater messenger
service the system screams.. darn thing all but changes screens before you
have a chance to click anything?:)))
On that scenario a less than techy person would send the system back and
scream like bloody murder about how bad that system is on a review site?
When the fact is the system absolutely flies. This guy runs WOW and all the
other high end games (at full bore) and his CPU rarely goes above 15%, or
some foolish number...
For all those reasons I don't worry too much about buying a 'refurb'.. For
one thing, you never know why the system was actually returned.. could be
the nontechy user didn't have a clue.. could be the tower was too large to
fit inside a desk...the cord was too short, the color didn't match my
décor....people send things back for all kinds of reasons....and they all
wind up being 'refurbs'..Refurb in the PC arena no longer means all the bad
stuff it used to mean.... *I* actually returned 2 laptops ..ok a laptop and
a netbook...Went looking for a netbook.. beside the netbook was an Acer
laptop with a 15.6 screen for $50 more....So
I went with the laptop....got it home and after while decided it was too big
to be carting back and forth to my other job. Bought the Acer Netbook...Got
that home and decided it was going to be too much hassle because of the LCD
screen and my bifocals.. I had to lean down to see the screen properly, and
look up to get my bifocals on the pages.. needless to say that doesn't
compute...
Both those systems went back as 'refurbs' when there's absolutely nothing
wrong with either system....
Just my 2 cents...
Bruce
-----Original Message-----
From: triadtechtalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:triadtechtalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of brian
Sent: Friday, November 13, 2009 2:29 PM
To: triadtechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [triadtechtalk] Re: New Computer/ Win7 Upgrade
Degilbo,
Thanks for the feedback.
I guess either way there is no way to be sure.
I have read some of the review of what seem to be top new setups, and
usually 95% of the users were relative happy, but there seemed to always
some that were very disappointed.
So either way I guess you just have to take your chances.
BRIAN
*************
Degilbo wrote:
Brian, your question really should have been "Can one depend that any
unit - new or refurbished - wouldn't be a head ache?". There are good
"bargains" to be had in refurbished ones, but there is no way of
determining just how long they would last. Similarly, there are some
good prices on new units now, but still no guarantee that they will
last either.
Degilbo
On Sun, Nov 1, 2009 at 4:23 AM, brian <brian99@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
TTT Members,
I am still hoping one or more of you may have experience with refurbished
and small form factor computer and could give me some feed back about
your
experience.
I am finally narrowing down my choices and any help on this would sure
help.
_*Questions:*_
Can one depend that a refurbished unit wouldn't be a head ache?
Is it reasonable to avoid the mini-tower case computers because adding
components and lack of expansion room would be a hassle? It seems like
the
best buys are available in that configuration, and I don't want to rule
them
out if they are a good option.
Thanks for the help.
BRIAN
************
VIEW ARCHIVES @ //www.freelists.org
UNSUBSCRIBE by sending email to triadtechtalk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with
unsubscribe in the Subject field.
To VIEW/CHANGE your subscription status go to
//www.freelists.org/webpage/triadtechtalk
Contact List Owner - dbcfour@xxxxxxx
VIEW ARCHIVES @ //www.freelists.org
UNSUBSCRIBE by sending email to triadtechtalk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with
unsubscribe in the Subject field.
To VIEW/CHANGE your subscription status go to
//www.freelists.org/webpage/triadtechtalk
Contact List Owner - dbcfour@xxxxxxx
VIEW ARCHIVES @ //www.freelists.org
UNSUBSCRIBE by sending email to triadtechtalk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with
unsubscribe in the Subject field.
To VIEW/CHANGE your subscription status go to
//www.freelists.org/webpage/triadtechtalk
Contact List Owner - dbcfour@xxxxxxx
VIEW ARCHIVES @ //www.freelists.org
UNSUBSCRIBE by sending email to triadtechtalk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with
unsubscribe in the Subject field.
To VIEW/CHANGE your subscription status go to
//www.freelists.org/webpage/triadtechtalk
Contact List Owner - dbcfour@xxxxxxx
