Buying Refurbished: Yay or Nay???

[TenSShoe]

I've been looking at a few video cards on the refurbished section of NewEgg.com. Anyone ever had any experience buying refurbished from NewEgg or others? I'm really tempted because a Golden Samle 5900XT for $160 is a hell of a deal! Thanks!

[ShadeZeRO]

I say nay...

and if you do some how say yay...

the manufacturers will laugh down on you.

Referb = not good, OEM better.

I say stick with OEM or retail.

[BuildItYourself]

my experience with refurbs has NOT been good (read: faulty dvd drive, bad hard drive and failing PSU fan in a refurb HP)

[bubbalou32]

Sometimes it's a hot deal.

Others times it just me adding what you spent on the refurb onto the cost of whatever you end up getting to replace it cause it didn't work.

You pay your money, you takes your chances.

[TenSShoe]

Thanks for the advice! I'll definately stick with new: OEM or Retail now. Anyone know of a good seller of OEM video cards? Thanks again.

[ShadeZeRO]

if you mean where to buy them

then Newegg
if you mean OEM brand, there's lots of them

Sapphire
Visiontek
BFG
ASUS
Powercolor
...the list goes on and on

[BadDriver]

Sometimes you get lucky. I bought my vid card "refurbished" from newegg. Went to show my wife what I had bought and it had disappeared from the site within 10 minutes. I ordered an Sapphire X800XT red pcb and was shipped a blue PCB X800XT PE.

I got an OEM instead of refurb because of mistake on the site. I am not saying newegg always does something like they did this time but I am not complaining. It is the luck of the draw. For once I got lucky. The one thing I have noticed about the card is that it will not OC much. It doesn't need OC'd so I don't worry about it.

So for $400 I got an $650 card. I swear it looks to be brand new and in the original OEM packaging but I'll never know for sure. At any rate the card is fantastic. Now I have to keep my fingers X'd that nothing goes wrong with it because if it does I am screwed.

Like everybody has said, it is risky but refurbed has to go through the manufacturers testing before it leaves their hands.

[BadDriver]

But it is pretty huh? :D

[tweakerpc]

I would say Yah but.... it depends on how much is costs and how muched it has been overclocked

[ShadeZeRO]

oO Fancy :x :r

Sapphire makes good quality cards, even the 9600SE is decent by them.

[ukulele]

Refurbished just means it was junk when it left the factory. It's like buying a used car from a rental company. You have no idea who was driving it.

[BadDriver]

Actually refurbished means it was sent back regardless of the reason. Somebody ordered it and had no AGP slot??

Somebody didn't have a PSU capable of pushing it??

It is a roll of the dice but you can get a deal and you do have 15 days to return it.

Buy one and torture it is the only way to find out. If it can take it for a few days then you got a deal. If not pack it up and send it back.