<div dir="ltr"><div>I've had a library on rare occasions get some refurb laptops. I highly discourage that, but not necessarily for the fact that they were refurbished. I'm not terribly concerned with old refurbished computers so much as the <u>specs</u>. In the case of the laptops, the library was drawn to the cheaper price, but they neglected the actual specs. The performance of the laptops was bad enough that nobody really wanted to use them and it took exponentially longer to configure and keep them updated. So the library... in net over the lifespan of the laptops... bought 6 or 7 laptops that took longer to initially configure, weren't regularly updated because it took longer to update, didn't get used all that often because they were rather slow to begin with and became slower with time/bloat, and overall paid me far more in tech services time to configure them than they would have if they'd paid more up front for faster laptops. It was a complete waste of money.</div><div><br></div><div>For the most part, starting with good manufacturers and product lines, it's been my experience that generally hard drives (both traditional spinning or TLC and worse SSDs) and fans are most likely to fail with age in a computer, followed by perhaps power supplies at a distant 3rd place. (Note that failed fans might in turn <u>cause</u> other failures.) The solid state components generally will either 1) fail quickly in the first year or 2) many years later in a typical office environment. Everything in between will survive just fine and it becomes more of a performance issue driving a replacement.</div><div><br></div><div>My own comfort level is that if the device is well-spec'd and will <u>perform</u> well now and in the future, then I don't mind old or used hardware. The fact that hardware is refurb doesn't bother me, as long as the manufacturer and product line is of good quality and is <u>spec'd</u> well for your purposes to begin with. But with a refurb, it's worth taking an extra moment to research if that particular product is known to frequently fail more than it should. Every manufacturer occasionally has a dud component in a product line or poor design, etc. Just stay away from those product lines, of course.</div><div><br></div><div>2 cents</div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div>______________________________<br><b>Chad Neeper</b><br><font size="1">Senior Systems Engineer</font><br><br><b>Level 9 Networks</b><br><font size="1">740-548-8070 (voice)<br>866-214-6607 (fax)</font><br><br><font size="1"><i>Full IT/Computer consulting services -- Specialized in public libraries</i></font><br></div></div></div></div></div></div><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Fri, Dec 4, 2020 at 11:30 AM Phil Shirley via OPLINTECH <<a href="mailto:oplintech@lists.oplin.org">oplintech@lists.oplin.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
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<p>Have you ever bought refurbished computers from TechSoup, and if
so what did you think?</p>
<p>Have you ever bought refurbished computers at all? I don't think
I ever have.</p>
<p>I would be a little suspicious of the reliability of refurbished
equipment, and I would be worried about being able to get a
quantity (maybe 20 units) of the same kind, or to be able to find
something that I wanted available when I wanted it. However, the
prices I see are very attractive.<br>
</p>
<p>Thanks for any input you can give me.</p>
<p>Phil</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%"><b><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Phil Shirley</span></b><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><br>
<i>IT Manager</i><br>
<b>Cuyahoga Falls Library</b></span><span style="font-size:9pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:115%;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><br>
<b>p.</b> 330.928.2117 x109 <b>e.</b> <a href="mailto:pshirley@cuyahogafallslibrary.org" target="_blank">
<span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none">pshirley@cuyahogafallslibrary.org</span></a>
<br>
<b>w. </b><a href="http://www.cuyahogafallslibrary.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none">cuyahogafallslibrary.org</span></a>
<b>a. </b>2015 Third Street, Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44221</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/fallslibrary/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:windowtext;text-decoration:none"><img id="gmail-m_-5771162577480272430Picture_x0020_5" src="cid:1762e98bb1581d591601" width="24" height="24" border="0"></span></a>
<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span><a href="https://twitter.com/FallsLibrary" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:windowtext;text-decoration:none"><img id="gmail-m_-5771162577480272430Picture_x0020_6" src="cid:1762e98bb15fdf3264e2" width="24" height="24" border="0"></span></a><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span><a href="https://www.instagram.com/fallslibrary/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;color:windowtext;text-decoration:none"><img id="gmail-m_-5771162577480272430Picture_x0020_4" src="cid:1762e98bb152ae4b8583" width="24" height="24" border="0"></span></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
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