HP P6-2378 AMD A8 8GB 1TB Desktop (Refurbished) for $329.99 + $5.00 shipping

What do you all think? Good deal?

I've been holding out on a desktop--Dell's Inspiron 660s (new) comes out to about $50 more than this, but I hesitated on that due to the tiny case. This is big enough to do some work under the hood as needed. Would be adding a SSD (would do the same for the Dell), but otherwise this would suit my needs. Never bought a refurbed desktop though. Thoughts?

Quote from TheBlueGoose : What do you all think? Good deal? I've been holding out on a desktop--Dell's Inspiron 660s (new) comes out to about $50 more than this, but I hesitated on that due to the tiny case. This is big enough to do some work under the hood as needed. Would be adding a SSD (would do the same for the Dell), but otherwise this would suit my needs. Never bought a refurbed desktop though. Thoughts?

First refurbished computer I bought was just a week ago.
Got a Lenovo i5 Desktop for about the same price.

This looks like a decent deal.
Sure would do everything I need it to.

Am I reading the specs wrong....no HDMI out ?

Quote from TheBlueGoose : What do you all think? Good deal? I've been holding out on a desktop--Dell's Inspiron 660s (new) comes out to about $50 more than this, but I hesitated on that due to the tiny case. This is big enough to do some work under the hood as needed. Would be adding a SSD (would do the same for the Dell), but otherwise this would suit my needs. Never bought a refurbed desktop though. Thoughts?

There are plenty of AMD haters on this site

Quote from bigpollack : First refurbished computer I bought was just a week ago. Got a Lenovo i5 Desktop for about the same price. This looks like a decent deal. Sure would do everything I need it to. Am I reading the specs wrong....no HDMI out ?

That's right--no HDMI out, though it has DVI-D. I'd just get a cable to convert to HDMI, so I don't see a downside there (let me know if there is one, though).

I'm in the market for a fairly cheap office computer so I'm looking at this closely. The toughest pill to swallow is definitely the 90 day warranty + refurbished tag. For $45 more you can get the Inspiron 660 deal which has a better processor, 2GB LESS memory, and a full year warranty/not refurbished...also have to consider extended Amex warranty would put this HP up to 6 months vs. 2 years with the Inspiron.

Here are some reviews on the processor from Newegg/Amazon as well as a detailed review from Anandtech.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Pro...6819113281

http://www.amazon.com/AMD-A8-5600...B0095VPAVE

http://www.anandtech.com/show/634...top-part-2

As you can see from the below link, the graphics card is not great but certainly decent. It's on par with a 7800GTX / GT 220 DDR3.
http://www.tomshardware.com/revie...107-7.html

Very tempted, been looking for a desktop.

Quote from jeffreii : I'm in the market for a fairly cheap office computer so I'm looking at this closely. The toughest pill to swallow is definitely the 90 day warranty + refurbished tag. For $45 more you can get the Inspiron 660 deal which has a better processor, 2GB LESS memory, and a full year warranty/not refurbished...also have to consider extended Amex warranty would put this HP up to 6 months vs. 2 years with the Inspiron. Here are some reviews on the processor from Newegg/Amazon as well as a detailed review from Anandtech. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Pro...6819113281 http://www.amazon.com/AMD-A8-5600...B0095VPAVE http://www.anandtech.com/show/634...top-part-2 As you can see from the below link, the graphics card is not great but certainly decent. It's on par with a 7800GTX / GT 220 DDR3. http://www.tomshardware.com/revie...107-7.html

I'm also hesitant due to the 90-day warranty. Anyone bought a refurb HP desktop in the past?

Quote from TheBlueGoose : I'm also hesitant due to the 90-day warranty. Anyone bought a refurb HP desktop in the past?

I haven't bought a refurb, but I did get a desktop and laptop recently both of which were listed as not working (one CL and other ebay). DT just needed the power connectors pushed onto the motherboard properly. The LT just need to pull out the battery/power, press power button on for 60 secs and bam it worked.

Point I'm trying to make is that many of these refurb products are nothing more than someone who knows nothing of PCs returning them for some small, easy-to-fix issue. Rest assured if there is something wrong with the item, you'll know pretty quickly, it won't take 90 days...

This is a really good deal. Just use a creditcard that doubles the warranty if you have one.

Quote from TheBlueGoose : That's right--no HDMI out, though it has DVI-D. I'd just get a cable to convert to HDMI, so I don't see a downside there (let me know if there is one, though).

Can usually find the adapters for 2-3dollars on ebay.
No downside imo.

Wonder if I should buy this to convert to an HTPC or build my own. I would just have to buy a tuner and SSD for this and call it good.

Any thoughts on how this would transition over to an HTPC?

Quote from jeffreii : I'm in the market for a fairly cheap office computer so I'm looking at this closely. The toughest pill to swallow is definitely the 90 day warranty + refurbished tag. For $45 more you can get the Inspiron 660 deal which has a better processor, 2GB LESS memory, and a full year warranty/not refurbished...also have to consider extended Amex warranty would put this HP up to 6 months vs. 2 years with the Inspiron. Here are some reviews on the processor from Newegg/Amazon as well as a detailed review from Anandtech. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Pro...6819113281 http://www.amazon.com/AMD-A8-5600...B0095VPAVE http://www.anandtech.com/show/634...top-part-2 As you can see from the below link, the graphics card is not great but certainly decent. It's on par with a 7800GTX / GT 220 DDR3. http://www.tomshardware.com/revie...107-7.html

I did a quick search and the 660 comes with a G2020 processor which is nowhere near as good as the A8-5600k, Unless there is another 660 which has a different processor you were talkign about.

Quote from TheBlueGoose : I'm also hesitant due to the 90-day warranty. Anyone bought a refurb HP desktop in the past?

I bought a refurb HP desktop for my wife in early January from Microcenter. Took it home, hooked it up. We noticed a "kickstand" underneath the keyboard was missing, so she couldn't prop it up. We called and went through hours upon hours of being on hold, dealing with clueless CSRs, etc. Then when they confirmed that it was under warranty, they said that the missing part wasn't covered under warranty and that I could get it replaced by buying an extended warranty. It's a five cent piece of plastic. After much arm twisting, they finally sent out a replacement keyboard.

On the computer side of things, IMHO, it's slower than it should be (i3 2nd gen dual core 3.3 GHz -- with 8 GB of DDR3 memory). Also, it tends to rarely, if ever, do a clean restart (i.e. it just hangs with a spinning circle during the shutdown screen to the point where you have to hold down the power button and force it to power down).

If this crap keeps up, I'll be giving 'em a call and having them fix it/change it out completely.

Quote from TheBlueGoose : That's right--no HDMI out, though it has DVI-D. I'd just get a cable to convert to HDMI, so I don't see a downside there (let me know if there is one, though).

Okay - stupid question here. I've always thought that the DVI-to-HDMI cable was not a good as the HDMI-to-HDMI cable. Does the DVI carry the audio too?

I use a DVI-to-HDMI cable on my desktop, but I use the audio-out ports to some Bose speakers. If I use the HDMI cable, it uses the monitor speakers, which aren't as good. I'm probably doing something wrong there.

So - bottom line - is using the DVI-to-HDMI cable as good regarding the quality of resolution and sound?

Just asking 'cause I don't know.