Which to purchase…. New hardware or off lease refurbished hardware? Each one has it’s positives and negatives. Let’s look at them:
New hardware
Pros:
- Never used
- Nice and shiny
- Warranty
- ‘Assurance’ of all new parts
Cons:
- Price
- Lack of features and or power if budget shopping
- Depreciation
Refurbished Hardware:
Pros:
- Lower price
- Hardware has been thoroughly tested
- Features and power. For the same price (or less) as new, used gear usually will have more CPU, more features.
- Warranty
Cons:
- Not new
- Most refurbished gear will have minor scratches, etc.
To give a good example, we recently priced a workstation replacement for a customer:
A new HP i5 workstation was the same cost as a refurbished HP Z600 workstation with dual six core Xeon CPUs and a 2x 1TB raid array. Clearly, the refurbished Z600 will outperform the i5 workstation at the same price. So for best bang for the buck, the choice is clear.