Refurbished Macs, to buy or not to buy that is the (?) Options

[adolf500x]

Hi there
Is there anyone out there that has had any experience buying a refurbished Mac.If so,R they as good as they sound?If they r as good as they sound.Any idea on were i may find the best deal on one.O one more thing.What do u think of this spec and price?

Technical Specifications:
Processing and memory
Dual 1.25GHz PowerPC G4 processors
Velocity Engine vector processing unit
Full 128-bit internal memory data paths
Powerful floating-point unit supporting single-cycle, double-precision calculations
Data stream pre-fetching operations supporting four simultaneous 32-bit data streams
256K on-chip L2 cache running at processor speed
1MB DDR SRAM L3 cache per processor
Up to 167MHz system bus supporting over 1.3Gbps data throughput
256MB of PC2700 (333MHz) DDR SDRAM
Four DIMM slots supporting up to 2GB of DDR SDRAM using one of the following:
- 256MB DIMMs (64-bit-wide, 128 or 256 Mbit)
- 512MB DIMMs (64-bit-wide, 256 Mbit)
Graphics and display support
The following graphics card is installed in a dedicated AGP 4X graphics slot:
- ATI Radeon 9000 Pro graphics card with 64MB of DDR SDRAM
Support for digital resolutions up to 1920-by-1200 pixels and analogue resolutions up to 1600-by-1200 pixels
ADC and DVI connectors; DVI to VGA adaptor included
Dual display support for extended desktop and video mirroring modes
Support for up to two Apple displays
Communications
10/100/1000BASE-T Ethernet connector (RJ-45)
Built-in antennae and expansion slot for optional 54Mbps AirPort Extreme Card (based on 802.11g draft specification; IEEE 802.11b Wi-Fi certified)
Optional Bluetooth 1.1 module
Built-in 56K v.92 modem
Storage and expansion
Four 3.5-inch hard drive expansion bays:
- One 80GB 7200-rpm Ultra ATA/100 drive preinstalled
- Support for up to four internal ATA drives (two Ultra ATA/100 and two Ultra ATA/66)
- Support for up to four internal SCSI drives (requires third-party solution not offered by Apple)
- Support for a combination of internal SCSI and ATA drives (total of four)
with the following optical drive preinstalled:
- Combo drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW); reads DVDs at 12x speed, writes CD-R discs at 32x speed, writes CD-RW discs at 10x speed, reads CDs at 32x speed
Four open, full-length 64-bit, 33MHz PCI slots
One AGP 4X slot with graphics card installed
Peripherals and audio
One FireWire 800 port and two FireWire 400 ports (15W total power)
Four USB ports (two on system, two on keyboard)
Front headphone jack
Built-in speaker
Stereo audio line in and line out minijacks
Apple speaker minijack for connection to optional Apple Pro Speakers
Electrical and environmental requirements
Meets ENERGY STAR requirements
Line voltage: 100V-125V AC or 200V-240V AC
Frequency: 50Hz to 60Hz, single phase
Maximum current: 6.5A (low voltage range) or 7.5A (high voltage range)
Operating temperature: 50° to 95° F (10° to 35° C)
Storage temperature: -40° to 116° F (-40° to 47° C)
Relative humidity: 5% to 95% non-condensing
Maximum altitude: 10,000 feet

£1099.00 ex vat (£1291.33 inc vat) and that is $2,055.67 United States Dollars.

[monkeymike]

macs are generally solid (like buying a Honda). There is always the odd one that has a bug- you could buy it new or used and it might just be born with a bad bug.

I worked in a MIDI lab with 15 refurbished macs..........on a good day 14 worked!

[Synthetic]

actually... a you are likely to have less problems with refurbished macs than a brand new mac. I have heard that new macs are not really tested very well before leaving the production line. We have had to send many macs back here from work because they had some flaw or error and they were new. But the macs that get sent back for repair are subject to more testing as they don't want to have to repair the same mac twice on warranty. These sometimes are the macs being sold as refurbished. I have bought a refurbished Tibook over a year ago and no problems at all with it.

[scientificbox]

there is "apple refurbished" and then macs that are refurbished by a third party. i would have no hesitation buying an apple refurb. (in fact i've bought 2 with no trouble and may soon pick up a third). you can't realy generalize third party refubs. it could be a very complete cleaning, testing, repair process, or it could be some guy wiping off the case and blowing the dust out of the interior. if its a reputable dealer, a used mac can be a good bargain, you'll have to decide if they seem like someone you can trust.

i don't know the british market, but in the states a NEW dual 1.24ghz g4 with slightly better specs (larger hd, superdrive, better video card, more ram, no firewire 800) cost about $100.00 less than the machine you listed.