Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/02/29/save-60-on-this-certified-ref.html
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I like the cheese grater better than the trash can.
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Finally, the 7 year old, un-upgradable, outdated computers pros were desperate to replace are now available as used computers! What a deal!
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I would be wary of a refurbished solid-state drive. They wear out over time as flash cells go bad and the reserve sectors are brought into play. Once you run out of reserve sectors, they drive will throw data errors.
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I challenge that assertion.
BB’s prior primary DB actually had consumer-grade SSD’s in it for as a “test” on one raid array. They were installed around 2011/2012 or so. Around 2017, they started throwing SMART usage errors, at which point I figured I’d just wait for one of them to fail and replace them all. After all, I had drbd backups and slave DB’s.
When I retired the server in December 2019, they still had not failed. And this is a DB server, mind you. Not exactly low-IOPS.
Google, infact found that overall age, not usage, was the biggest indicator of potential drive failure:
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Do they sell wheel locks ?
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60%, eh? That brings it down to only twice what the hardware’s worth, what a deal!
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My Lenovo laptop is also from 2013, has a quad-core CPU, 16GB RAM, and a 480GB SSD. And a 1TB spinner. And USB3.
And two GPUs.
Man, that GHz wall is a bitch.
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Only six cores, though.
One of IBM’s mainframe chips was 5.5 Ghz.
2013
$1600
Just say no.
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Only about a year or less away from being officially declared “obsolete” and unsupported and unrepairable by apple. The 2012 model already is.
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Exactly. And from a company that puts planned redundancy in the boxes, like some dodgy washing machine manufacturer.
Apple: for when you absolutely need to tell the world that computers are not your field of expertise.
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I wonder if Boing Boing Store has any refurbished Zunes I can buy? 
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I once gave a client a Xmas gift of a iPod shuffle (the postage stamp sized one w the like click wheel/ring thingee) I also gave her a Zune. But instead of an actual Zune, I painted a brick white then copied the Zune UI onto one side with markers. She loved that brick so much! Had it on top of her cubical for ages. The iPod shuffle was stolen at the gym…
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The Zune got a lot of crap but it was a really good music player. It had a great DAC, solid build, and a well designed UI.
It had some pretty forward thinking features like library sharing, wireless syncing, subscription store, and interesting social features.
You can’t say Microsoft didn’t make an effort, but at that point the iPod was just too firmly entrenched. Then the bottom fell out of the market for portable music players when smart phones became good enough to do everything.
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You only need something to prevent rolling in these… unless you put them on their side, in which they will DEFINITELY roll away unless you brace them. 
my 14 year-old pro is still working just fine although the storage is beginning to get a bit wonky. the 26gb of ram still allows me to plow through my work.
So you’re saying it had a user community, yet when M’Soft or someone else told it to die, that was that? It’s like getting a Misery era Kathy Bates in the box!
Alexa, order 3D TVs and draft UK edition euros! And Tim Cook’s Joeboy.
That’s cheery, 14 year old computers starting to get into off-socket Chinese CPUs, FPGA heapwatch tools from Singapore and some splinter cell GLAAD work. Next it’ll be taking off with my unwatched sous vide kit.
Hang on. Pay $1,600 for a seven year old system that was kinda crappy when it came out?
Have you started smoking crack, or is the financial situation at the boing really bad enough to entertain this kind of drivel?
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