What have been your best/worst computer deals?

[KBD]

I'm almost a computer junkie and can't resist a good deal on a computer.
I was recently thinking about the best and worst deals I've gotten on computers. Most of the Thinkpads I have bought have been good deals. My X220 and T420 were especially good deals. And I've been given a few nice computers over the years.
The best deal I've gotten price-wise was a HP Chromebook that was listed incorrectly on ebay and had problems and missing features like only 2gb ram instead of 4 gb. I was going to return it, but told the guy I'd keep it if he made a price adjustment, he sold it to me for $35 and I'm still using it. My worst machine deal was also a Chromebook. A Toshiba Chromebook that was refurbished for $188. It lasted about 6 months before the lid got cracks in it and shorted out the lcd.
I have a pretty good selection of computers right now, so the only way I'll buy one at this point is if it is a very good deal.
Just curious what your best and worst computer deals have been if you want to share them.

[Ghost67]

The best computer deal I've ever had is my little £200 netbook which I bought in 2008.
It's an ' Akoya E1210 'Mini' ' which is basically just a re-branded MSI U-100 'Wind' netbook. It has a 32bit Atom processor, 2GB ram (came with just 1GB), onboard intel GMA graphics and a 1024x600 display. It came with Windows XP but very soon was converted to a Linux machine, having hosted Mint, Ubuntu, Arch, Salix, and of course various releases of MX. It now happily purrs along using MX-18.3 32bit.
This machine has worked flawlessly and on a daily basis since 2008. I've never had any other hardware that has lasted so long without croaking or needing replacement parts.
(edited to remedy early morning typos)

[mxer]

Hmm, worst, for me, was a Nova N1 netbook, you had to remove the keyboard every time you wanted access to the ram or HDD, eventually the keyboard became non functional, & it now sits as a test machine, used very occasionally, because it boots from the SD card slot - but it is minus its screen, keyboard, HDD, & wifi chip - but it does now have 2GB ram - it would work as a router or NAS, but I can't be bothered.

Most of my laptops date from 2008~2011, & have been upgraded to 2GB ram, & remain in service, thanks to having Linux on them.

I do have one laptop with 6GB ram & a 500GB HDD, I mainly use it for remastering, as it gets a bit noisy for regular use - otherwise, I have a SBC as my main desktop, 4GB ram, 240GB SSD, it's great, 4" square, 1.5" thick, & perfectly silent in operation.

[richb]

Color dot matrix printer around 1994. Cost was $1500. I just had to have it. Color was produced by a movable ribbon. Needless to say quality was awful. But at the time I was gadget crazy. Maybe I still am.

[KBD]

The best computer deal I've ever had is my little £200 netbook which I bought in 2008.
It's an ' Akoya E1210 'Mini' ' which is basically just a re-branded MSI U-100 'Wind' netbook. It has a 32bit Atom processor, 2GB ram (came with just 1GB), onboard intel GMA graphics and a 1024x600 display. It came with Windows XP but very soon was converted to a Linux machine, having hosted Mint, Ubuntu, Arch, Salix, and of course various releases of MX. It now happily purrs along using MX-18.3 32bit.
This machine has worked flawlessly and on a daily basis since 2008. I've never had any other hardware that has lasted so long without croaking or needing replacement parts.
(edited to remedy early morning typos)

The early netbooks were tough little beasts. I had one I particularly liked and still miss today. It was an Acer KAV60. I'd still probably have the thing but a hard drive burned up in it and filled it with toxic fumes so that I had to pitch it.
I still prefer small form factor laptops. I only have one laptop out of 5 that is over 12" screen.

[timkb4cq]

Well, you can't beat free.
During the real estate crash ~ ten years ago I was given a used Brother laser printer/fax machine from a closing title office. It's still in use as my default printer. Print quality is good, the toner is cheap, so was the replacement drum cartridge it finally needed last year.

[KBD]

Well, you can't beat free.
During the real estate crash ~ ten years ago I was given a used Brother laser printer/fax machine from a closing title office. It's still in use as my default printer. Print quality is good, the toner is cheap, so was the replacement drum cartridge it finally needed last year.

I love our Brother laser printer. Free is great. I was thrilled when my wife brought home a Lenovo all-in-one from her office. Her boss replaced it and there was nothing wrong that a fresh install of Windows 10 couldn't fix. It had 1 tb hard drive, 4gb ram, ivy bridge cpu. I keep Windows on it for her, but have external drives with Linux on them to boot into when I use it.

[Cristobal]

Regarding computer, I think a good deal is when you feel that you have paid a fair price.

After my eeePC died 3 years ago, I was enchanted to pay less than £100 for a refurbished Thinkpad; it was some kind of revelation (discovering this range and the "cult" around it). Cool little laptop with clever design (drain holes for instance), of which some parts are easy to replace/repair, built like a tank and which works like a charm with an OS such as linux. Got the same kind of deal recently for my back up laptop (same model).

[KBD]

Regarding computer, I think a good deal is when you feel that you have paid a fair price.

After my eeePC died 3 years ago, I was enchanted to pay less than £100 for a refurbished Thinkpad; it was some kind of revelation (discovering this range and the "cult" around it). Cool little laptop with clever design (drain holes for instance), of which some parts are easy to replace/repair, built like a tank and which works like a charm with an OS such as linux. Got the same kind of deal recently for my back up laptop (same model).

Business class laptops are great, especially Thinkpads. They regularly come off of lease and if you are looking at the right time can get a good deal. I've had 7-8 Thinkpads over the years. They are great machines for the money and incredibly durable. Also they run Linux well, at least the intel ones do.

[NGIB]

When my eldest daughter was in the early stages of founding her company (Policygenius.com), her first business purchace was a Lenovo X230 that was to be her road warrior. After 5 years it booted to the blue screen of death and she bought a new X1 Carbon. I told her to mail the X230 to me as I like tinkering with old stuff. I pulled the hard drive, installed an SSD, installed Linux, and have been using the machine for the past several years. In fact I am posting from it now. So free is a pretty good deal

I recently bought a Lenovo T440s with I7, 8GB RAM, 1920x1080 touchscreen, and 500GB drive for $280. I swapped the hard drive for an SSD and it is now my media machine as it has a great display. My newest laptops are Intel Gen 4s, which is plenty new for me...