Refurbished Desktop PCs—The Best Way to Get an Awesome PC for Less

Refurbished Desktop PCs—The Best Way to Get an Awesome PC for Less–PERIOD.

By John Gawley on October 26th, 2007

Refurb Desktops are sweeping the Nation! Get yours today! Everyone is wary of a refurbished PC. But listen: we wouldn’t sell them if they didn’t work. While you may want to shell out the extra bucks for a new computer, a refurb is the best way to get a powerful, full-featured PC on a budget. You can get the perfect tower for a gaming rig build. You can make an amazing future-forward multimedia PC that controls everything from your television programs to your DVR. (Your Tivo gets you. That’s why you should lock it up in your computer tower. What are those creepy antennae, anyway?) And if you’re just looking for another PC for yourself, your office, or even your kid, then you owe it to your checkbook to check out our refurbished PCs.

It would be exceedingly odd if I were to exhort the value of these twice-around PCs and then told you I don’t know where you can get one. But I do! Right here from TigerDirect, of course. I’ve got a triple threat (sorry.) of refurbs that will have you asking your pals: “You didn’t buy that new, did you?”

Gateway GT5449E Desktop PC First up in my little showcase here is the Gateway GT5449E Refurbished Desktop PC. While it functions fine as a stand alone, ready to go PC, it is an ideal choice for building your own gaming rig. Why start from scratch when you can let Gateway start to put it together for you? (and thus let them incur all the scratches. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then you’ve never stuck your hand inside a PC case.) Aside from Running Windows Vista Home Premium, this PC comes with an Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 1.8Ghz dual core CPU. You will need this to tear through the 64-bit architectures you’re going to encounter in the near future, trust me.

Loads of space for goodies inside the GT5449E Desktop The Gateway GT5449E has a PCI-express x16 slot unencumbered so you can install one of those ultra-fast DirectX 10 cards you’ve been dreaming about. It comes with 2GB of DDR2 memory, and has space for another 2GB. This means (in layman’s terms) that you can outfit this machine to conquer some of the most intensive games on the market, and it will cost thousands less than the average PC designed just for Halo Heads. On top of all that stuff, there’s a flash media reader, dual layer DVD burner, and connectivity for everything from a removable USB hard drive to FireWire.

Gateway GM5483E Refurbished PC Don’t Game? Don’t Worry! There are still plenty of reasons for you to equip yourself with a powerful Desktop PC. Like music and movies for instance! Windows Media Center is an undeniable hit, and the uses for this amazing piece of software are limitless. You’ll want to have the Gateway GM5483E Refurbished Desktop PC, of course. Media Center allows your computer to function as a DVR. A DVR is exactly like the service you get from such iconic brands as Tivo, except in this case it won’t cost you much over the cost of the PC itself.

Windows Media Center is like Tivo without the proboscises You’ll be able to play, pause, and record live TV to your heart’s content. There’s a host of Television-friendly components on the back of the tower itself, including S-Video, Component, and Analog Antenna thanks to an AverMedia M791 NTSC/ATSC TV Tuner. The GM5483E has room for a big PCI-e x16 graphics card, as well. There are composite inputs on the front of the tower for your camera or video camcorder. Rounding out this multimedia powerhouse is a 15-in-1 flash card reader and a 320GB hard drive, so you can store and transport all the music, movies, and television programs you can think of.

But what if your computing tastes are more pedestrian? There’s a refurb for you as well, my friend. Without sacrificing anything you won’t need for basic web browsing, office management, and correspondence between friends, business associates, and more, the eMachines T5088 Refurbished Desktop Computer is the perfect (and price-concious) way to go. This Intel-powered desktop has 512MB of DDR2 memory, 160GB hard drive, and a dual layer DVD burner, amongst many other things.

For your basic computing tasks, this PC is outfitted for action. It comes running Windows Vista home Basic, which lacks the Aero interface of it’s big brothers Vista Home Premium and Vista Ultimate. But that won’t stop you from doing what you need to do. Far from it: the T5088 has a Intel Pentium 3.2 GHz processor, a comprehensive flash card bay, the ability to burn 8.5GB of data to a single dual layer DVD disc, and space inside for whatever upgrades you choose to bestow upon it.

These are just a few of the refurb PCs that we have available. I tried to select a trio that all fall under 500 dollars US, and the eMachines T5088 is substantially less than that benchmark. If you still feel nervous about refurbished equipment, just check out our warrantees that are offered when you buy one. If you’re interested in any of these three PCs, just follow the links below.

Categories: Desktops, Windows Vista
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57 Responses to “Refurbished Desktop PCs—The Best Way to Get an Awesome PC for Less–PERIOD.”

niiidar on Oct 9th, 2007 at 7:19 am

[..YouTube..] no, not nice :P
Dragon2sword on Oct 9th, 2007 at 8:14 am

[..YouTube..] a gamermachine, at 512mb ram? rofl
JadedBeliever on Oct 9th, 2007 at 8:21 am

[..YouTube..] Come on Logan you can’t call Home Basic a “bonus”
CRAKIZGOOD on Oct 9th, 2007 at 8:43 am

[..YouTube..] ya not nice as all
CRAKIZGOOD on Oct 9th, 2007 at 8:43 am

[..YouTube..] im not sure if this can run windows 95 :D
niiidar on Oct 9th, 2007 at 8:54 am

[..YouTube..] i know :D I wonder how much money they got from emachines to say it XD
Dragon2sword on Oct 9th, 2007 at 8:58 am

[..YouTube..] lol, I’d ask for a decent amount to say that
TommyGrule on Oct 9th, 2007 at 9:08 am

[..YouTube..] shit pc mine is 2 years old and shits all over that
inuysha360 on Oct 9th, 2007 at 9:14 am

[..YouTube..] god… i have a emachine W3609 … its basically the same thing… only my one is running a cenron D (h/e u spell it) though that fan looks kinda good
igob8a on Oct 9th, 2007 at 4:48 pm

[..YouTube..] not having aero is a bonus?! 0_0″
integrated graphics?!
single core cpu?!

i didnt even know vista could run with 512… it struggled to run on my old old old old old 1gb piece of crap PC i threw out like 3 months ago
ItachiUchihara on Oct 9th, 2007 at 7:10 pm

[..YouTube..] no firewire??? WTF
n00bstorm on Oct 9th, 2007 at 8:55 pm

[..YouTube..] I will never ever get a eMachine again!
Boinkmakr on Oct 9th, 2007 at 9:51 pm

[..YouTube..] logan says no problem at least 4 times in most of his videos
aeagle326 on Oct 9th, 2007 at 10:29 pm

[..YouTube..] logan is good at making things seem better than they are. Pc enthusiasts, such as myself, can determine a POS and a decent PC. most people just trust what salesmaqn like logan say.
thelegendofxxack on Oct 9th, 2007 at 11:00 pm

[..YouTube..] But of course he’s gonna say everything is good, its his job to sell it.
mackys101 on Oct 9th, 2007 at 11:02 pm

[..YouTube..] vista home premium can run by 512 mb ddr depend on the clock speed of the memory..
jstett1 on Oct 9th, 2007 at 11:36 pm

[..YouTube..] are you serious? EMACHINES.
WarheaD188 on Oct 10th, 2007 at 2:32 pm

[..YouTube..] Crap desktop PC.
niiidar on Oct 10th, 2007 at 2:50 pm

[..YouTube..] haha yea :D I wouldn’t say it, i have some respect left for myself… I don’t wanna loose it XD
niiidar on Oct 10th, 2007 at 2:50 pm

[..YouTube..] Aaaaaha… of course, they don’t have Aero XD
Thats why! But still a crappy computer :P
911chaos on Oct 11th, 2007 at 2:53 am

[..YouTube..] Don’t a PC , build one ( Thanks for the videos Logan )
RenegadeFury on Oct 11th, 2007 at 8:27 pm

[..YouTube..] He is a good salesman I can agree, but he does make it sound better than it really is but what he says is all true, 1 more thing for 250 dollars? not a bad deal at all
xavier425942 on Oct 19th, 2007 at 4:03 pm

[..YouTube..] why does every one hate it when people say “First11!!!1!1″

Oh by the way

FIRST!!!!!
kwapaz on Oct 20th, 2007 at 6:04 am

[..YouTube..] meh its alright could do with more RAM, and the rest
demonicwarrior1 on Oct 20th, 2007 at 8:01 am

[..YouTube..] put another gig of ram in there and a XFX 8600 GTS XXX and that will be quite a monster.
aaronkelvis12 on Oct 22nd, 2007 at 9:35 pm

[..YouTube..] FOURTH!!
wax333 on Oct 24th, 2007 at 5:36 am

[..YouTube..] whats the difference between : 3ghz Pentium D 2mb cache 800mhz and the new pentium d 2ghz 1mb cache 800mhz is theyre any speed diff with the new pentium d’s
willaspire on Oct 24th, 2007 at 9:47 am

[..YouTube..] Pentium D’s used to be built on inefficient 90nm now some of them probably are now built on 65 nm (just like Core 2)
it is a dual core yes….but you are better off with a core 2
2 vs 1 MB L2 Cache—I would go with the 2MB L2 Cache is CPU cache that it uses before accessing RAM. if you had to choose between these two processors
Gutsman0X on Oct 24th, 2007 at 5:34 pm

[..YouTube..] Gateways aren’t very reliable.
sourcemaster on Oct 24th, 2007 at 5:44 pm

[..YouTube..] first
SilverDragon90 on Oct 24th, 2007 at 6:28 pm

[..YouTube..] lol
DANDthekid on Oct 24th, 2007 at 6:28 pm

[..YouTube..] Cool Computer!
Seems very, “modern”
MrYapper07 on Oct 24th, 2007 at 6:38 pm

[..YouTube..] tigerdirectblog already put this video like a month ago what a crap
igob8a on Oct 24th, 2007 at 8:09 pm

[..YouTube..] That’s Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005… Doesn’t it come with Vista?
SilverDragon90 on Oct 24th, 2007 at 8:20 pm

[..YouTube..] lol
cutespice on Oct 24th, 2007 at 11:31 pm

[..YouTube..] only gateway usb drives fit into this machine. crap!
willaspire on Oct 26th, 2007 at 12:03 pm

[..YouTube..] really?
not true
they’re very reliable

but their optical mouse fail
jeremyesters on Oct 28th, 2007 at 1:47 am

[..YouTube..] that comp is pure bullshit
GlamEliteRockSinger on Oct 28th, 2007 at 4:58 pm

[..YouTube..] I’ve had My gateway computer for a whole year leaving it turned on all day almost everyday and hasn’t given me Not one problem, I have that keyboard and mouse by the way.
slavonic129 on Oct 29th, 2007 at 3:36 pm

[..YouTube..] GlamEliteRockSinger, Your power bill musta been really high lol
112bhoy on Oct 30th, 2007 at 8:20 am

[..YouTube..] i have an eMachine 307 it has intel p4 3.2 ghz with ht, vista,1 gb ram, and a pny 8600gt i did not know much bout pc’s when i bought it but i am getting a brand new system late dec by saving my pay and getting a good pc on sale the stupid part is my eMachine is not 1 year old.
ElixirSwe on Nov 17th, 2007 at 2:53 pm

[..YouTube..] Its cheap whit power.. I mean here in sweden it costs like 1 dollar a month to have the computer on
ElixirSwe on Nov 17th, 2007 at 5:46 pm

[..YouTube..] Mean 10 dollars a month
Rune101rune on Nov 28th, 2007 at 7:31 pm

[..YouTube..] good computer for average computer need not a gaming rig
opticaoptica on Dec 13th, 2007 at 12:34 am

[..YouTube..] Before criticizing listen to what he says. It doesn’t look that bad for the price.
vangstaz on Jan 6th, 2008 at 11:54 am

[..YouTube..] I recommend a duo-core processor for Vista. My Vista runs freakin slow with a one core Celeron D and 512mb ram.
vangstaz on Jan 6th, 2008 at 12:04 pm

[..YouTube..] This system is gonna give up and run slow on. 512mb ram is slow as crap, especially with Windows Vista. I recommend 2048mb ram.
YungQb7 on Jan 22nd, 2008 at 9:08 am

[..YouTube..] yea 512mb is slow as hell. i had it. then i added 1 gb and its so much faster. but im plannin on removin my my 512mb and replace it with another 1 gb. i run windows xp home edition sp2
RavenAngelX on Jan 27th, 2008 at 9:01 am

[..YouTube..] If XP was on that it’d be fine. NO Vista version can run properly on 512mb RAM.
Fresh0nline on Jan 31st, 2008 at 7:44 am

[..YouTube..] i know i got 1gb and still dont work properly
EddiesGames on Feb 21st, 2008 at 6:05 am

[..YouTube..] works awsome with only 1 gb, so stop bashing it. get a new computer and you’ll see the difference
dwaynee305 on Feb 21st, 2008 at 7:40 am

[..YouTube..] for some reason it worked great until like december or until i got mugen again,but now it keeps saying “blah blah blah stoped working windows is restarting blah blah blah” help please dont got money
stephenharperbest2 on Apr 14th, 2008 at 11:48 am

[..YouTube..] ROFL
stephenharperbest2 on Apr 16th, 2008 at 9:02 am

[..YouTube..] HEY IM PUNY WRIGLY
seanbenoy01 on Apr 27th, 2008 at 9:28 am

[..YouTube..] not impressed
wmrebel256 on Jun 6th, 2008 at 4:02 pm

[..YouTube..] oh wow your actually wanting people to buy shit emachine is shit i have one of those it wont even turn on :D so i threw it out my 2nd story window
william151515 on Jul 2nd, 2008 at 5:45 pm

[..YouTube..] well dah, that pc is old, get at least 2GB of ram to be able to run half decently

and even the processor is lacking
you can’t expect the latest stuff to run well on old hardware (2 or more years old)