I received an email several weeks ago from Buy.com advertising many older Dell models refurbished on sale. Some of these systems came with Windows XP which I needed for better compatibility with some of our apps. I settled on the Optiplex 755 model because I liked the small form factor to fit in tight spaces and it ranged in price between around $250 – 350 depending on the specs and if it included a monitor. I also decided to stick with one model so I could make a base image to save time getting other similar PCs ready to deploy.
Although these systems are advertised as refurbished, I thought it was interesting than one reviewer described them as “used.” These are off lease computers around 3 years old (I checked the date on the hard drives) and the exterior of the systems were a little beat up. But I reloaded XP and both units I bought are functioning just fine. These systems came with a 60 day warranty from the distributor U.S. Micro. As long as only the hard drives go out I figure I’m fine (remember I have a disk image for quick reload).
I checked Buy.com a few days ago, but they were sold out of all the different units including Optiplex 745 and 760 models. I did some searching and found similar deals at Overstock.com. I purchased 3 more systems from them so I will see in the next few days if they are from the same distributor. At these prices, I think if you need some cheap Windows XP systems with decent specs (dual core, minimum 1 GB RAM, minimum 80 GB hard drive) you might want to take a chance on these systems.