I am thinking about purchasing a Refurb Laptop and I am undecided as to whether I should actually make the purchase. It is a hell of a steal at $1329.00. 90 day warranty. The specs are listed below. My question is has anyone here have any experiences with refurb laptops or computers? Good or Bad? Please help me decide which side of the fence to sit on.

Gateway Pentium 4 3.2 GHz Notebook


General Features:
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition pre-installed
Intel Pentium 4 3.2 GHz processor
Hyper Threading Technology
800 MHz Processor System Bus
512 MB DDR SDRAM (up to 2 GB maximum)
80 GB hard drive
CD-RW / DVD-RW combo drive
1.44 MB floppy drive installed
Full Sized keyboard with TouchPad
17.1-inch active matrix (TFT) LCD color display
Maximum panel resolution: 1440 × 900 (WXGA)
128 MB DDR-SDRAM video memory
Sigmatel Soft Audio 6-channel AC97 revision 2.3 codec
(STAC9758)
Built-in Speakers
Integrated Intel 82547EI IEEE 802.3 (10/100/1000
BASE-TX) Ethernet interface
Integrated Ambit AC 97 Soft V.92/56K data/fax modem
IEEE 802.11g WLAN card installed


Expansion Slot:
One (1) PCMCIA Type I/II slot


I/O Ports:
Four (4) USB ports
One (1) Parallel port
One (1) 15-pin VGA port
One (1) S-Video port
RJ-11 modem jack
RJ-45 ethernet jack
One (1) 4-pin FireWire port
Mic in, Line in, Headphone in jacks

My Dell Latitude X200 was purchased refurb. It was a great deal and has been serving me well for the past 2 years. The base price on the X200 was nearly $2,200 at the time, but my refurb came pimped with maxed-out memory, DVD/CD-RW combo, and XP Pro for only $1,600.

Hm. Doesn't say what video chipset is used.

M675PIR is ATI M10-P graphics processor with resolution of 1440×900

I am gonna have a hard time explaining this one to the wife!!!!!
On a side note, I just helped spec out a Dell XPS notebook for my cousin and he paid like $2600 for what looks like pretty much the same thing.

Is this the deal?
http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=3004993

Doesn't look bad....

That's a good deal but I'd be nervous the brand and the waranty. I know it's standard for refurbs to have a 90 day waranty, but the fact that the manufacturer isn't willing to stand behind this thing any longer than they possibly have to shouldn't give you a lot of confidence in any repairs they may have done.

Gateway has never impressed me as a brand, and cheap laptops have a tendancy to fall apart under reasonable use. Read a few reviews and make sure it's a sturdy machine.

Also - are you sure you want a desktop replacement machine? They're fine for some people, but they're intended to be moved from desktop to desktop, not used on the run. The battery life will be poor, it'll be heavy to carry around and it probably won't fit on the traytable in front of you should you be traveling.

Matthew