Can I find a Sandy Bridge desktop for <$300?

Time for a new desktop, and I think I've convinced myself that I want to get something in the Sandy Bridge family .... i3 would be great but maybe more than I want to spend; Pentium G6xx would probably be fine; might even be able to live with Celeron G5xx. (I tend to keep my computers for a long time, so I'd consider upgrading a Celeron to an i3 or something in the future when I can get one real cheap.)

So is it reasonable to hold out for a decent Sandy Bridge desktop (with Windows) under $300? Where should I look? I hardly see any deals on desktops these days, and most that I do see are not what I want (too expensive, AMD Vision; etc).

Refurb okay? Redtag had a gateway DX4860 with i5-2320/8g/1tb5400rpm and W7HP for 299 last month. You can wait and see if it comes around again.

Alternatively, an refurb i3 box should be obtainable in the 200's.

New, I think i5 sandy bridges can be had for mid-400s every now and then.

edit: Dell's sells new inspiron's wtih i5's for about 450 right now. They've also got, in the dell outlet, an inspiron 620 with the pentium G630 (a sandy bridge pentium) for $349 as well as i3-2120's starting at $379; people have indicated in other SD threads that you can possible negotiate a 20% discount off some dell outlet items.

Hmm, good question there. i3 box in the $200s is a nice price, but I'm not sure if refurb is a good idea or not. I suppose I'd choose a new G6XX over a refurb i3 at the same price. What's the consensus view on refurb?

you can't be picky when you set the price so low.

Quote from frankrizzo1 : you can't be picky when you set the price so low.

Thanks, that's actually what I need to know. Your point is that refurb is the only Sandy Bridge desktop (even Celeron?) that I'll find under $300?

If so, then I guess I need to decide between taking a chance on a refurb, or spending a bit more on something like this $349 G640 HP Pavilion p6-2220t [hp.com]. (I'd actually buy that HP today and be done with it, if it weren't for the extra $35 sales tax; $384 total price just burns my cheapskate sensibilities.)

Or on the refurb front, the best-looking deal I've found is a Gateway SX2855-UR20P G620 4GB/1TB [gateway.com] for about $280 from various shady sellers ... small form factor, which I guess I don't have a problem with; only thing I might ever upgrade would be the processor .... sounds decent, if the refurb quality can be trusted.

Quote from mc510 : Thanks, that's actually what I need to know. Your point is that refurb is the only Sandy Bridge desktop (even Celeron?) that I'll find under $300? If so, then I guess I need to decide between taking a chance on a refurb, or spending a bit more on something like this $349 G640 HP Pavilion p6-2220t [hp.com]. (I'd actually buy that HP today and be done with it, if it weren't for the extra $35 sales tax; $384 total price just burns my cheapskate sensibilities.) Or on the refurb front, the best-looking deal I've found is a Gateway SX2855-UR20P G620 4GB/1TB [gateway.com] for about $280 from various shady sellers ... small form factor, which I guess I don't have a problem with; only thing I might ever upgrade would be the processor .... sounds decent, if the refurb quality can be trusted.

Yeah. I went with Redtag refurb gateway DX4860 with i5-2320/8g/1tb5400rpm and W7HP for 299 that I mentioned. Stuck in a SD linked HIS radeon 7750 that was on tigerdirect for 84 (74 if the rebate shows up) and had a decent box for $384. The gateway is decentish (it actually has a nice design) but I wonder about the PSU and Mobo quality.

Previous desktop computer was a refurb desktop optiplex 745 (kind of a bad deal, the 755 would have been better as it is more upgradeable). Stuck in a low profile 4650 into that one when I got it over 2 years ago.

For what it is worth, I think those Dell's I mentioned above come with pretty decent warranties (I think 1 year), so quality concerns should be lessened.

Edit: If you go with the gateway, check and see if the model you went with came with a 220W or 300W PSU. You probably would want at least the 300W if upgrading. I think there may even be 500W models out there, although I don't know much about gateway's psu sourcing or quality.