Dennis Nicholls
Senior HTF Member
I've been getting by with just a desktop, but have wanted a laptop too for various reasons, e.g. using the diagnostic tools for my Boxster in the garage. Looking at Craigslist didn't inspire much confidence in the used machines offered there.
These days Newegg appears to be the broker for the corporate/commercial grade Dell refurbished PCs. They offer among other refurbished items the Dell Latitude laptops. These were built with a sturdy mag alloy case - a better choice than their home-use Inspiron offerings. I decided to try one of their refurb e6420 laptops, which was offered on a Black Friday week special at $140, free shipping. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834854944
The unit showed up and I plugged it in with the AC adaptor. After waiting a while I turned it on and it booted right up into a new clean install of Win 10 (32 bit). This was disappointing. I checked for the as-built configuration using the Dell tag number. It was shipped originally with Win 7 32 bit for some reason. At least the original 250 GB 5400 rpm disk had been replaced with a 500 GB 7200 rpm disk.
The DVD was read-only, so at the same time I ordered a DVD-RW that was the Dell original for $20 from a Newegg partner. You have to reuse the Dell latch and bezel but otherwise it's just a slide in fit. I then performed a Win 7 image backup to DVD-R (yes I'm paranoid).
The Win 10 32 bit was a disappointment, but at least the refurbisher, US Micro, stuck an official Microsoft Win 10 Home product key sticker on the bottom of the unit. I discovered that MS lets you change from 32 bit to 64 bit Win 10 for NO CHARGE in the same version of Win 10, i.e. home to home, or pro to pro. You go to the MS website and create a Win 10 install disk using "Media Creation Tool". It took some time but I successfully performed a clean install of Win 10 64 bit.
Once I was running in 64 bit mode it made sense to upgrade the RAM from 4 GB, so I ordered another 4 GB SODIMM for $30. I installed it today and ran the Dell BIOS RAM tests.
This is an amazing bargain. I'm only in it for $190, and this laptop sold new in 2012 for around $1,200. Apparently these Latitude laptops were sold in quantity into the corporate world, and get dumped into the refurb market after five years or so. The performance compares favorably with the cheaper laptops offered today: Intel i5 quad processor, 8 GB RAM, 500 GB 7200 rpm disk.
These days Newegg appears to be the broker for the corporate/commercial grade Dell refurbished PCs. They offer among other refurbished items the Dell Latitude laptops. These were built with a sturdy mag alloy case - a better choice than their home-use Inspiron offerings. I decided to try one of their refurb e6420 laptops, which was offered on a Black Friday week special at $140, free shipping. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834854944
The unit showed up and I plugged it in with the AC adaptor. After waiting a while I turned it on and it booted right up into a new clean install of Win 10 (32 bit). This was disappointing. I checked for the as-built configuration using the Dell tag number. It was shipped originally with Win 7 32 bit for some reason. At least the original 250 GB 5400 rpm disk had been replaced with a 500 GB 7200 rpm disk.
The DVD was read-only, so at the same time I ordered a DVD-RW that was the Dell original for $20 from a Newegg partner. You have to reuse the Dell latch and bezel but otherwise it's just a slide in fit. I then performed a Win 7 image backup to DVD-R (yes I'm paranoid).
The Win 10 32 bit was a disappointment, but at least the refurbisher, US Micro, stuck an official Microsoft Win 10 Home product key sticker on the bottom of the unit. I discovered that MS lets you change from 32 bit to 64 bit Win 10 for NO CHARGE in the same version of Win 10, i.e. home to home, or pro to pro. You go to the MS website and create a Win 10 install disk using "Media Creation Tool". It took some time but I successfully performed a clean install of Win 10 64 bit.
Once I was running in 64 bit mode it made sense to upgrade the RAM from 4 GB, so I ordered another 4 GB SODIMM for $30. I installed it today and ran the Dell BIOS RAM tests.
This is an amazing bargain. I'm only in it for $190, and this laptop sold new in 2012 for around $1,200. Apparently these Latitude laptops were sold in quantity into the corporate world, and get dumped into the refurb market after five years or so. The performance compares favorably with the cheaper laptops offered today: Intel i5 quad processor, 8 GB RAM, 500 GB 7200 rpm disk.
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