Hi Everyone.......any idea why places like Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy and others sell mostly "Refurbished" Windows 10 Computers rather than new ones?

Didn't know that they did. A lot of places do do so but normally as a secondary business.

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Have to do something with open box stuff or stuff sent back for warranty repair.

And I would imagine that this would be a high volume time for such stuff returned after Christmas. Refurbished/re-certified is not always a bad thing. My laptop was bought re-certified and has been running fine for ~9 years. I paid less than half the retail price.

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Ok, so bascially it is not 5 to 10 year old computers that they are refurbishing........also, most of them are Dell's so what hardware specs should I be looking for to get a top of the line Windows 10 Pro computer? My only requirement to start off with is that it must be at least a 1tb hard drive.

First it must be understood that there is a risk in buying such a system as the warranty will be shorter. That said my laptop is not my only refurbished/re-certified unit. I also have 2-3 hard drives and my router. I have had zero issue but the the possibility is still there.

Hard to answer as to top of the line as what you need to make a system top of the line may be different than mine. Also don't know the budget.

I know that you use Paint Shop Pro so I assume that you do graphics editing. If memory serves I also know that you have had Windows 10 systems and wanted to revert back to Windows 7.

On any recent machine the main bottleneck is the hard drive so I would suggest that you look at a system that has a solid state hard drive as the system drive. Look at a configuration such as a 500 GB solid state for the system drive and a 1 TB mechanical drive for data. As to the CPU go with a minimum of an Intel I5 or an AMD Ryzen 5. Really, to be top end, that should be an Intel I7 or I9 or an AMD Ryzen 7 or Threadripper. Even refurbished these types of systems may still be pricey. For even a moderately top end system do not go with integrated video but, rather a dedicated video card with at least 4 GB of video memory, preferably 8 GB memory. Even refurbished such a system may cost you $1000.00.

You mentioned Dell, be careful. You could initially save some money by... say going with a system that just has a 500 GB solid state drive intending to add another drive when needed. Be VERY sure that a drive can be added as that is not always the case.

Now that I've scared you half to death... Why don't you outline exactly what you want the system to do? Your top end is not my top end. I'm looking at the possibility of building a new main system late summer, early fall. If I go in the direction I hope I'll spend close to, if not over, $1000.00 just for the AMD Ryzen Threadripper CPU I'd like. Hey, what can I say? I'm 66 years old and like computers that are a beast. I can afford it so why not?

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You have to watch the Walmart.com site, many of the computers are sold by third party people, not by Walmart themselves.

Also some Walmart systems are not the same as the actual manufacturer's system. You have to compare the specs of the Walmart system against the actual machine provided by the manufacturer.

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Same situation for Amazon and even Best Buy these days...

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stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

I bought a refurbished iPhone 7 Plus last year from Amazon and that came with a year warranty that if it went wrong you could send it back. I got it a lot cheaper than buying new and so far it is working out fine for me and I've had no problems with it, I wanted one bigger than the 6 SE that I had.

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Joan Archer
http://crossstitcher.webs.com

Newegg.com and, I think, Tigerdirect.com have also gone that direction.

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After reading all the comments, I may have to re-think about whether or not to buy another Windows 10 Desktop, be it used or new. This whole thing was brought about by Turbo Tax who made the decision not to allow their product any longer be downloaded to Windows 7 Pro.

I recently had a very nice fully functional Gateway Laptop with Windows 7 installed on it given to me and I am wondering if it is still possible to upgrade from 7 to 10. If that's possible, it might be less costly than buying a new computer.

Yes, you can still upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10 but not for free. While you can no longer upgrade to Windows 10 you CAN go to Windows 10 by doing a clean install but will lose all data and program installs on the system if you have an unused Windows 7 product key. What you do is to NOT enter a product key during the Windows 10 clean install. Once Windows 10 is installed you go to activate. The activation will ask for a product key. You just enter a Windows 7 product key and it works however the Windows 7 product key must match the version of Windows 10 installed. For instance, if you installed Windows 10 Pro, you would need a Windows 7 key for Windows 7 Ultimate. While I HAVE tested this I cannot say if an OEM Windows product key would work. You MAY need a full retail key.

If Turbo Tax is your only concern I might recommend installing Windows 10 as a virtual machine but would want to see the specifications of this Gateway system to see if it is likely to do a usable Windows 10 virtual machine. Most important would be the CPU and amount of memory. If the gateway is Intel based you would want at least an I5 CPU and 4 GB of memory. Preferable would be an I7 CPU and 8 GB of memory. While a virtual machine is not going to do any high level games or do well with photo editing it should do just fine with Turbo Tax. Here is a link back to my tutorial for installing XP as a virtual machine. It would be quite similar installing Windows 10.
viewtopic.php?f=34&t=2522

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I just want to upgrade the Gateway from 7 to 10. What is the cost to do that and where do I go to do it? It is a Model NV755 AMD A8-3500M APU Radeon HD Graphics 1.50 GHz 6 gb ram 64 bit OS

To upgrade you would go through the Microsoft site and buy an upgrade license.

I have strong doubts about this system doing well as to running Windows 10. It may run it but I doubt that it would do so well. I don't have the time at the moment to search possibilities but have doubts just from the above quote.

1. The CPU being an AMD A8-3500M denotes it being a mobile processor. Such a CPU running at only 1.5 GHz. is not likely to give a pleasing experience with Windows 10. The "M" at the end specifies a mobile CPU which is normally used in mid to low end laptops and tablets.
2. The 'APU' statement in the specs you supplied indicate that the graphics are done through the CPU. This is also not good.
3. 1.5 GHz. CPU speed? My initial opinion is that this system is not going to run Windows 10 well if it runs it at all. I seriously doubt that you could even find Windows 10 drivers. Shoot, my ~9 year old laptop runs an I5 CPU at 2.6 GHz..

Just from what you described I would not even consider upgrading this system to Windows 10. The only thing positive for doing so is the 6 GB of RAM. When I have time later to actually research the system a bit my opinion MIGHT change but I doubt it. Odd thing is that this system just might run Windows 10 better in a virtual machine than as an installed OS as the virtual machine would be handling the graphics.

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I thought about doing the Virtual Machine thing Jay but decided to go with the existing Windows 10 Computer that I already have. I didn't want to use the Windows 10 because it's tied in with my Direct TV as well as an outside antenna that picks up all my local stations and the monitor for that whole system is up on a wall. My thinking at the moment is that I can move Just my Windows 10 Box out into the kitchen along with a much smaller monitor that I am using on Windows XP, get my taxes done, and then put everything back. It's a lot of work but the thought of spending $1000 is something that I can't afford right now. Thanks for all the help and comments from everyone.

Personally, just being concerned with one program, I'd go the virtual machine route but that is just my opinion. Go with whatever works for you.

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