My experience with Dell has been quite good. When I looked at refurbished Dells my understanding was these were computers Dell replaced because something was wrong with them (e.g., a bad HD, etc). All Dell does is fix the problem then sell them as refurbished. One of my customers had Dell computers where this happened -- a HD was bad. So Dell sent him a new computer and a return shipping label for the defective unit. Once he received the new computer, he packed up the defective unit in the same box the new one came in, slapped the label on it and shipped it back. These refurbished PCs are not units that have been used for a year or so then traded in. So, they should be a good deal if you can find one that has what you want on it.

>Some are below $500. Some have Windows 2000 or Windows XP Pro (maybe 10%). Many have a reasonable amount of memory, say 256K.
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>I might want to upgrade soon and I can't spare a whole lot of money. I don't have many specific needs because it is for home and I don't work at home. If the price is low, I could afford to upgrade again in a year or two and make this one a Christmas present to someone.
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>But I don't want to spend 3/4 the money for 1/2 the hardware. That can happen easily with used computers. Part of what you pay for with a new Dell is the ability to customize, which is not available with the refurbished systems. But that doesn't matter to me if I get a pro operating system and enough memory.