Dell Outlet refurbished is fine. There are several reasons why a machine shows up on Outlet, none of them bad. And they all come with the same new-machine warranty... 3-years, on site service. 250GB is TONS of storage unless you plan on storing movies. Hard drive storage and RAM are extremely cheap these days.... easy to replace with a bigger one or add a 2nd one if it becomes necessary.
The Dell Outlet has 3 categories of machines: New, Certified Refurbished and Scratch & Dent. S&D machines can have a dead pixel(s) in the screen. Bargains can be found if you keep your eye open. Dell has several Outlet coupons offering various % off on certain product lines. Some of the coupons have been around for awhile, so some of the categories are picked over... Link for the coupons: http://twitter.com/delloutlet
Not really an issue... If you get one of those, you can return it for exchange or a refund. They usually give you about and additional $80 discount to take a "scratch-n-dent" model. Again, if it's too much for you to accept, you can return it. One of the best deals I ever got was on a S&D... the black paint on the top of the case had a scratch and the shiny metal below was visible. Covered it with a Magic Marker... you'd never notice unless looking for it.
Please excuse my possibly dumb questions, but is there any really good reason to get a desktop instead of a laptop? I've never owned a laptop so that's why I'm asking...........don't know much about them. I was looking at this laptop on sale at Staples for $550. http://www.staples.com/HP-Pavilion-dm4-2180us-14-Laptop/product_375364_HC2 Then I'd have a 2nd monitor from the laptop, & I could just use my old monitor & old keyboard & it would work just like my old desktop............right?
Some people have abandoned their desktop computers altogether. However, laptops usually have a quirk or two, can be somewhat proprietary in nature, more difficult/expensive to repair.. difficult to upgrade, usually. Then, there is the keyboard... I don't like them, but lots of people do. You should be able to run at least 2 displays (including the laptop's) from a modern machine.
I've done way too much computer shopping today, and still not sure what I'm looking for. I want to stay under $500, so I found a this one on the Dell Outlet site: How's this one? Inspiron 620 I5-2320 Processor 6 GB Ram 500 GB SATA 7200 RPM HD $469 new or $439 refurbished. Processor Processor: Intel Core i5-2320 processor(6MB Cache, 3.0GHz) Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium Base Inspiron Desktop 620 Hard Disk Drive 500 GB SATA II Hard Drive (7200 RPM) Memory 6 GB DDR3 Memory (1X2G/1X4G), 1333MHz Media Bay 16X DVD +/- RW Drive System Color Black Chassis Type Desktop Network Interface Card Dell Wireless 1502 802.11b/g/n Keyboard USB Keyboard Mouse Dell 2-Button Mouse Hardware Upgrade 120V Power Cord Thermal Heatsink, 95W Office Software Microsoft Office Starter Software Upgrade Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Operating System DVD Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Operating System DVD
I presently have 45gb free on a 250gb dedicated OS drive (no data on it) on my Win7 x64 ultimate box. 250gb is tons for the OS but not tons for the OS and storage. It's a Win7 thing related to how much you dedicate to system restore, hyberfile, pagefile, etc. I never understood why people store their data on an OS drive anyway. If there's going to be a problem, that's where it's going to be. If you have a second drive, you have a much better chance of not loosing it during an adverse event.
Sheesh. I'm using only 14GB on this 250GB drive... includes W7 OS. Why would someone "dedicate" so much other crap to the OS drive?
My hiberfil is bigger than that! I didn't count the restore points, but looking at my currently available oldest restore point it's from June, 2011. Hyberfile & pagefile both benefit from more disc space. I'm always very liberal with them. Disc space is cheap. I do stuff the average person does not do where I may have a program open for months while working on something (unrelated to trading) and when you go away and find out the power was out for a day and of course the UPS only lasts a matter of hours, start the system up and everything's right there. Well worth it especially considering I have no other use for the disc space. I did not know you had any W7 boxes running. How do you like it?