I mentioned this in a reply to a PF thread for someone who needed a laptop before school starts, but thought it would be useful info here:
Most public universities re-sell computers that have been replaced in a monthly surplus equipment sale, along with furniture/cabinets/chairs/etc at insanely low prices.
My particular school sells laptops and desktops for $25, though they don't include a hard drive for data security reasons. A 250gb SSD will run you $60, and if it's a laptop the battery will probably be dead so that's another $40. You're looking at $85-125 for a machine that is ~5 years old (which would be a 2nd-3rd gen i5 or i7). More than enough for anything short of gaming, and with an SSD you'll feel like it's a new machine with 15 second boot times and near instant program loading. It'll probably be an enterprise grade Dell, HP or Lenovo depending on who the school purchases computers from.
This is how schools get rid of equipment used by faculty/staff that is not worth enough to auction at a state sale. They also sell old desks, chairs, filing cabinets and various other furniture for prices that are as insanely low as the computer prices. Sometimes you'll see projectors at the sale that originally cost several thousand a few years ago for $35. They have a literal warehouse full of stuff that is not worth shipping off but they still want to get rid of, anything that is replaced on campus goes there.
June 15, 2018 at 07:09PM
