My current laptop is over seven years old and I had a scare recently and thought it was going to die, but saved it. However, I know I need a new (different) laptop ASAP.
A teacher where I work has bought a new laptop and said he would sell me his four year old laptop, Dell xps M1710.
He overpaid back then, but got all the bells and whistles. He is offering to sell it to me for $300.
It looks to be in very good condition.
Anyone have any experience with this particular computer?
Does that seem like a fair price for a laptop that is four years old?
I could probably afford to go up to about $600-800 to buy a new laptop, so is it stupid to buy this one?
BTW, I use my computer mostly for Internet surfing, Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator as well as Dreamweaver - but no real gaming.
I hate to haggle, especially with a co-worker, so I don’t want to try to talk him down in price.
I told him I would let him know by this Saturday - so there is kind of a rush. All comments appreciated.
Buy it. You’re getting a bargain - this is a genuinely capable machine, especially if your colleague bought it with a top-of-the-line configuration. It even has a video card that should be capable of light gaming. On Amazon, this system seems to go (used) for about $500. The battery will likely be in rough shape, so you’ll need to spend another $100 or so to buy a new one - but this is still a good bargain.
It’s 7200 RPM (Hard Drive speed), which usually costs at least $600 new.
The only risk is that it’s 4 years old and could develop problems soon. But I would take the chance for $300. It’s probably the same chance you’d be taking for any laptop that you could buy for $300.
Don’t get it. Laptops have extremely limited life spans - you were lucky to get 7 years at of yours. If notyhing else, its battery has to be completely dead by now. Those things aren’t designed to last more than a couple of years.
Agreed that the battery is likely crud. It is also possible that the hard drive is nearing the end of its life - that’s another hundred bucks to replace, give or take. But it might be fine. My five-year-old MacBook is still going strong.
Oh. I’ll believe that. But while I understand having a machine with one already installed is more convenient than buying a new one and having to install it, I think it’s still worth mentioning, for the sake of this thread, that a new 320GB 7200 RPM 2.5 sata drive goes for about $60.
Without knowing the specifics on this machine, it won’t be hard to find something as good or better for the amount you’re willing to pay. A new machine will be in warranty, will have a better processor & at least 4gb of ram, maybe even a better graphics card, and Windows 7, which is worth the money.
I loathe Dell’s website, but looking over their 17" Inspirons, they have a few in your price range which would be a better choice.
Incidentally, that link shows a configuration which they claim was worth $4000. Anyone who paid $4000 for that configuration four years ago - was an idiot.
You have a good point,Merneith, so I am going to do a quick price comparison at my local Fry’s Electronics today. See how much it will cost to get a new laptop with the features I need.
I don’t know what the guy paid for his computer originally, but my guess is quite a bit - this is the guy who always buys 3 year extended warranties and wants every bell and whistle. He has tons of music and simply needed a larger computer for those files, that is why he bought the new one and is getting rid of the old.
Well, $300 is a great price for that machine, but I’d still get a new laptop. Even the entry-level Core i3 2310M blows the C2D T2600 out of the water, at least in Passmark. Plus, aside from the warranty and Windows 7, you can opt for slightly more futureproof technology, like Thunderbolt or USB 3.0 ports. Okay, maybe not Thunderbolt.
Why would you pay $300 for used, when you can usually get a new one from Best Buy or Staples for $400 or less? My own Toshiba Satellite cost me only $379. Worth spending the extra money to have the thing under manufacturer’s warranty, plus you can extend that if you pay with the right credit card (I use American Express for that, but I know that some other cards have some flavor of warranty extension as well).
You can buy a more powerful laptop for $500 and get a warranty to go with it. I’d also buy an external hard drive to back it up. Most, if not all of them come with free backup software. If you do this, start the external on the NEW laptop first and THEN transfer information to it from your old laptop. That way it will be slaved to the new one.
Do yourself a favor and buy a remote keyboard so you don’t grunge up the laptop’s keyboard. Money well spent.
Yeah, computers are something I’m leery of buying 2ndhand. You don’t know what’s been done to them before you get them, they have limited operational lifespans. If you’ve got the money for a new one, go for it.
If you can do it, I’d get the new one. Mine don’t live all that long, and of course the older years are when more repairs are likely to be needed. Really, it doesn’t sound like that great of a deal. JMHO.
I’ve bought and sold a fair number of notebooks both used and new. Paying $ 300 for that machine is (IMO) insane. A new, substantially more powerful notebook with a full warranty is only $200 more on sale. Used notebooks more than a year old are rarely a good investment, and a single repair will often be more than the cost of the machine.
Where is the $200 new computer that would outspec this machine? Because I was looking a lot for a new computer in that price range, and I couldn’t find anything. I wound up buying a netbook from a friend for cheap and getting a (piano) keyboard with the remaining money.
The graphics card alone outspecs anything I could find.
I’d never buy a 4-year laptop no matter how good a deal it is. Laptops are not user-serviceable; the only user-replaceable parts are memory, hard drive and battery. If anything else breaks on a used laptop, you either throw it away or pay hundreds of dollars for repair. Also a 4-year old battery would have noticeably less capacity than a new one.
And BigT, astro said you can get a new, better laptop for $200 more (i.e. $500 total).