Buying open-box items

[Doougin]

Is there a higher risk for DOA products? Im looking for some feed back of peoples experiences purchasing things open box like motherboards or video cards and other hardware. I just wanna know what im getting into before buying one.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Maybe not dead, but a video card or CPU could have been abused -- overclocked too high, overvolted, run without proper cooling.

A video card or motherboard might have a bad BIOS flash attempt.

A video card or motherboard might be missing manuals, drivers, cables, adapters like DVI to VGA, mini-HDMI to full HDMI, or the I/O shield for the case. If a video card normally comes with a game code it may be gone or already used.

If the bare card is all you need then maybe it's worth the gamble if the price is low enough,

 

[Nizzzlle]

Where are you thinking of buying from?

 

[Doougin]

The main place i buy from is newegg. And usually the accessories im not worried about because i usually have extras. As for an I/O shield, im not afraid to make one out of and old one . The main thing that worries me is do they actually test the product. Because its not that hard for someone to return an item thats faulty and not say anything.

 

[ElFenix]

i bought open box from newegg before and had to return it. iirc it was a mobo that everyone liked (a cheap biostar?), s754 maybe.

i've also bought open box from fry's without issue.

 

[BD231]

It's great for finding good deals. Usually with newegg their open box items are 99% refurbs. Once in a blue you come across stuff that's just been returned but for the most part I've had great luck with their open box motherboards networking equipment and video cards. The great thing about the re-furbs/open box items is that they're most all still under warranty from the manufacture so even if you did have an issue you're covered.

I bought a open box 2tb hd before the flood in the east for $61 bucks, it was garbage, click of death ect. Seagate sent me a brand new retail box drive and they shipped first. This drive is worth well over $100 now with a new warranty so there are definitely some deals to be taken advantage of. I bought my buddy an open box 2500k for $139 on the egg, works fine, runs at 4.5ghz no sweat. Definitely smart to hunt down the deals but as long as you can get what you're looking for *NEW* instead of going refurb you'll protect the resale value with all the original documentation/packaging. Again I really don't understand the risk involved though ... warranties negate any drawbacks I can think of.

 

[kingkung]

I bought an open box mobo and gpu from new egg. Both products work fine, even after a year, its been a total of a year and 3 months. The only think i noticed was the gpu was missing the x-fire connector and dv-i to hdmi adaptor, the mobo wasnt missing anything

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