The Best PCs for Under $1000: How Low Can They Go?

Breaking the Stereotype

As low-cost PCs continue to attract buyers, people are getting increasingly price sensitive. "If I can get this much for under a grand," they reason, "what can I get for less?"

Low-cost refurbished models offer a fine alternative for cost-conscious small businesses, home-office users, and schools. And these PCs aren't 8086-era relics. Their specifications often read like those that appeared on last season's Top 20 Budget Desktops chart. Packard Bell/NEC's refurbished systems division, for example, sells a K6-2-233 PC--with 64MB of memory, 10GB hard drive, 12X­24X CD-ROM drive, and modem--for under $700.

And though the term refurbished may conjure up images of preworn, flawed, or repaired systems, many vendors' refurbished-PC programs primarily offer undamaged, practically new units that were returned by customers and thus can't legally be sold as new. To reduce the risk of inheriting someone else's problems, buyers are commonly given the same warranties on refurbished models as on new PCs. Some manufacturers also clear their inventories of recently discontinued new systems through their refurbished-PC outlets.

Big-League Brands

Nearly every major build-to-order PC maker offers a selection of refurbished systems: Gateway, Compaq, and Packard Bell/NEC hawk refurbished PCs both online and through retail stores; Dell, Micron, HP, and IBM market refurbished models only on the Web. Other firms--like Pre-Owned Electronics, ReCompute, and Computer Renaissance--deal exclusively in selling reconditioned systems direct to end users via the Web.

Weighing the Trade-Offs

Though refurbished systems cost less than all but the very least expensive PCs on the market, most offer current technology rivaled only by that in the newest models. In addition, vendors clean and test all their refurbished PCs, and repair or replace faulty parts.

But buying a refurbished system also has drawbacks. The biggest disadvantage is limited model availability. Because manufacturers' inventory changes constantly with the ebb and flow of overstock and returns, a system you see online in the morning might be gone by the afternoon. In addition, you're unlikely to encounter cutting-edge processors or multimedia components in a refurbished PC. On the other hand, if you don't need the world's fastest system or FireWire ports, you'll probably find everything you need in a reconditioned system.

A Growing Trend

If you do decide to buy a refurbished system, you can count yourself among a growing contingent of consumers. According to industry experts, the market for this kind of PC is just starting to take off. International Data Corporation analysts anticipate that reconditioned-PC sales will climb to an estimated 9.8 million in 2002 from 5.5 million units in 1997.

Already, today's refurbished systems offer solid value and performance, and the benefits will only multiply as technological advances continue to be achieved, rendering today's breakthroughs obsolete within the lifetime of an aphid. Web bargain-hunters may see powerful Pentium III systems--like those that currently dominate our Top 20 Power Desktops chart--available as refurbished bargains as early as summer's end.

--Tom Spring