buying a new laptop computer...some questions

I am going to be buying my granddaughter a new laptop computer in the $250 range.
Any thoughts on buying a "certified refurbished " computer?
Any particular brands I should or should not look at?
She is used to windows, so it should be a windows computer.
It will be used for college school work (so she says:rolleyes:) and some web surfing.

Now I know , just like when someone says I want to buy x tool in the $400 range , we all come out with recommendations in the $600 range, I know I've done it, please don't:)

Thanks

Check out Microcenter they have some in your price range also go to there clearance page and see what they have I see there is a Lenovo I5 that is a real good price

PC Magazine released a list for students getting ready to go back to school on August 9, 2016. Seven out of ten of these are in your range and readily available. You can read the reviews on each if you like. I am in tune with this because I go back to college tomorrow.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2371334,00.asp

I would suggest an iPad. Much harder for him to mess up and a million time easier than Windows 10

$250 does not buy a laptop, it buys a clunky computer with a horrid track pad, loaded with piles of bloatware, poor performance even for a grandpa, and nothing but a headache.

FWIW - I own a small it consulting company... Just trying to save you a headache.

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Originally Posted by Rich Riddle

PC Magazine released a list for students getting ready to go back to school on August 9, 2016. Seven out of ten of these are in your range and readily available. You can read the reviews on each if you like. I am in tune with this because I go back to college tomorrow.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2371334,00.asp

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if you spend $700 and get a Dell BUSINESS class latitude, you should get 3-5 years out of it, easily. It will come with accidental damage and a 3 year warranty. No need to mail it in for repair, even if you drop it and break it, or sit on it. They come to you. It will come clean with no bloatware and no proprietary wireless, battery, security, toolbar or other silly software gadgets that do nothing but promote branding and rob performance.

i have seen hundreds of laptops come and go over my customer base. You get what you pay for, and 250 gets you very little and will likely not last you 2 good years.

better yet... Buy a MacBook. I like them for college students, though 99 percent of my business is PCs and servers.

I always use Macs.....but he said the budget was firm at $250 and not to recommend units that are more expensive. He might find an older MacBook like the one I am using for $250. Since I use the old MacBook when teaching at the university, I am positive it would work for students.

I misread granddaughter for grandpa anyway....

That said and even though he does not want to spend more, my advice still stands. $250 buys nothing but junk, regardless of what some no longer relevant computer magazine site says.

it may all be moot, as the average college kid will render a PC virus riddled and basically useless within days.

$250 buys the absolute bottom of the barrel laptop. I agree with the previous poster. Basically anything under $700 will give you 1-2 years of life, before requiring a format and clean OS install to get it back to running at a tolerable speed.

There's nothing wrong with refurbished. They are basically new PC's with possible minor surface blemishes.
I bought a refurbished Dell laptop on Ebay a few months ago, with full warranty, for $300 less than the new price.
$800 for an $1100 laptop. Added an M2 SSD for $90 and have a very nice i7 laptop with 16Gb RAM for under $1000.

[QUOTE=Gerry Grzadzinski;2596254]$250 buys the absolute bottom of the barrel laptop. I agree with the previous poster. Basically anything under $700 will give you 1-2 years of life, before requiring a format and clean OS install to get it back to running at a tolerable speed.

There's nothing wrong with refurbished. They are basically new PC's with possible minor surface blemishes.
I bought a refurbished Dell laptop on Ebay a few months ago, with full warranty, for $300 less than the new price.
$800 for an $1100 laptop. Added an M2 SSD for $90 and have a very nice i7 laptop with 16Gb RAM for under $1000.[/QUOTE

$800 is way more than the $250 he has. Why do people keep pushing more expensive ones. If he sends $250 and gets 1 to 2 years out of it and then another $250 after that he still didn't spend the $700 to $800 for a laptop that you say will last 3 to 4 years. And as far as having to reload the OS what makes an $800 one not need it.

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$800 is way more than the $250 he has. Why do people keep pushing more expensive ones.

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I wasn't recommending a PC, just pointing out how much you could save by buying refurbished,

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Originally Posted by Gerry Grzadzinski

$250 buys the absolute bottom of the barrel laptop. I agree with the previous poster. Basically anything under $700 will give you 1-2 years of life, before requiring a format and clean OS install to get it back to running at a tolerable speed.
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It's not unheard of to buy a new PC, take it home, download an appropriate clean Windows .iso from Microsoft, wipe the brand new hard drive and install a clean bare bones version of Windows to get rid of all the factory installed crapware. I'm not sure about Windows 10, does a new machine need to be connected to Microsoft's activation servers one time using the factory disk image in order to be activated? Is Windows activated from the distributor?

I've bought 4 Thinkpads off Ebay since buying a refurb from a distributor around 2004. Little over $100 bucks for a 1st. gen. I5 w/ 4 GB. RAM. Ebay machines often come without hard drives but that's okay because I like SSDs in laptops, no moving parts. Of course there's no warranty beyond maybe 15 days return, I'd have to pay return shipping. I only had a minor issue with one that I was able to fix with a quick shot of 50 psi compressed air. One machine threw a "fan error" message when first powered up. This is not unheard of in Thinkpads and sometimes entails replacing the processor fan. One forum source said try a quick burst of compressed air before taking things apart. It worked and the machine was working as advertised a few months later when I resold it. Another good reason to have an air compressor:).

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Originally Posted by William Burnett

I would suggest an iPad. Much harder for him to mess up and a million time easier than Windows 10

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Unfortunately, a tablet isn't going to cut it for a lot of college level work and the cost of an additional keyboard to make that work manageable gets up there. iPad is also above the stated budget by itself. Of course, a $300 laptop may also be marginal for college work, depending on what the student needs to do in software...

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Originally Posted by Curt Harms

It's not unheard of to buy a new PC, take it home, download an appropriate clean Windows .iso from Microsoft, wipe the brand new hard drive and install a clean bare bones version of Windows to get rid of all the factory installed crapware. I'm not sure about Windows 10, does a new machine need to be connected to Microsoft's activation servers one time using the factory disk image in order to be activated? Is Windows activated from the distributor?.

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A clean install may be trivial for a well versed person, but a well versed person would not be looking on a wood working forum for laptop advice....

The install media MUST match the license type (OEM, Retail, Volume) for the COA sticker (the Microsoft license sticker on the bottom of the laptop) to work. In the case of Dell laptops, especially their business class products, the DELL media authentication is hard coded into the system BIOS so no CD Key is needed. Activation is still part of the process, but it is automatic. This is ANOTHER reason to use Dell business class (Latitude) laptops. Other venders support SLIC (that type of authentication) BIOS at some level on some models.

Then there is the question of drivers and other included OEM licenses that will need to may be with the machine, be it Office, Acrobat, or some other product. In most modern cases, these are going to be harder to reinstall without re-purchase.

Dell systems are fairly easy to re-image if you have Dell Windows media. HP, forget about it.. a complete NIGHTMARE when it comes to consumer laptops, the same for Sony. The other 10 brands? I have no idea because we don't allow customers to buy them (or Sony or HP or Lenovo). We ask customers to use Dell due to the warranty, accidental damage and several other factors. PERIOD.

Other notes: Most refurbs come with W7 SP1 and will (literally) take 10-15 hours to get activated and updated. We don't allow customers to purchase these systems simply because the time invested in getting them up-to-date and ready for an employee cost more than just buying new, with a warranty.

I am not saying there are not deals to be had, especially for those who have no issue going down a rabbit hole to get a decent PC setup... for the rest? Spend the money and get a decent Dell latitude and you will not be sorry.