Best value in laptop purchasing? Go used, refurbed, or new?

This came up recently for me. I'm building a DIY rig at the house for around $2k, but I'll need something portable for school. I'll be looking to buy within the next 2-6 months. I'm talking less here about the best value out there at this exact moment than about general trends and what people's experiences and opinions are.

Three years ago I bought a "desktop replacement" / "gaming" laptop. Although it's been good to me, I definately wouldn't go that route again in light of my overall usage trends and the presence of a desktop system. So this time around, I definately won't be looking for the newest, high-powered premium laptop on the market. This begs the question of where can a savvy buyer with some technical knowledge get the best value for their money while purchasing a laptop? Used? Refurbished? Or is new the best way to go?

I see a variety of inexpensive used laptops on ebay and craigslist. You're usualy getting an older product that may have suffered under the ownership of others relative to how you would treat your own computers. Driving around to check out local machines or the potential hassles of purchasing used electronics over the internet from private parties can also be potential downsides, but the cost is usually good to very good, since laptops depreciate rapidly. Everything is usually "as is", with no warranty or support for laptops from private owners.

Then there's the refurbished products. While they usually represent a decent value, often times those of us with access to student/military/job-related discounts can equal the value in a built-to-order system when buying new (or could, last time I checked). Refurbs usually come with 1 year warranties and limited support.

New laptops come with the latest features and hype. They can be built to order and are offered at a variety of price points. Financing is available. New laptops tend to come with a 1yr warranty and tech support, with the option of upgrading.

Personally, I skipped the extended warranty/tech support on my Dell Inspiron and never regretted it. IMO, a savvy user can usually troubleshoot just about everything but mobo and screen issues...both of which tend to occur in the first year as far as i can tell. *shrug* This is subjective, of course, but I haven't had anything happen with the Dell that I wasn't able to handle myself.

-Hyber

I already did, really, but more by process of elimination. Let's try it the other way.

I'll mainly use a laptop for the internet and mobile productivity (word processing, etc) around campus. I'm looking with good all-around performance (dual core, 7200rpm hd 80gb+) and at least a 15 or 17 inch screen. I probably want discrete graphics of some kind, but am not really too picky about it. Good battery life and low heat are also important.

Also, I'm told a laptop computer is required for the major I'm going to xfer into at a 4-year university, but the specs are pretty low. I think they're thinking more along the lines of setting up networks in class, etc, than for compiling/editing/etc.

In short: I'm looking for a fairly mainstream rig, on the higher end of CPU performance with little regard for graphics performance or gaming.

-H

Pretty sexy stuff.

The only thing I'm not wild about is the 5400rpm drives. I know some companies still go with those to save battery life or for bigger storage capacity, but imo there's no excuse not to at least have a 7200rpm HD as an OPTION for most lineups.