Hi - I'm in a very similar boat as Bearblastbeats. Love the US Micro offerings. Any idea on how many years the refurbs tend to last? I keep my computers about 7 years on average and don't want to do this shopping more than necessary. Thanks!
Most Thinkpads are pretty rugged little laptops, but there is always a slightly higher risk of lessened lifespan with used (it's a very acceptable risk if you have a return window and you test the hardware immediately). If you take care of the thing and make sure you do a hardware check after purchase using something like
Ultimate Boot CD (check the hard drive for errors, run Memtest86+ for five cycles, and run CPUburn overnight to ensure hardware stability), it should tick along for years. My primary laptop is
still an X61 from 2008 that I bought refurbished myself, and it's showing no signs of ill health. If you're especially concerned, the great thing about buying used is that they've been on the market for a while. If there's specific flaws to a particular model, you can find out about them in advance before purchase with a little research over at
ThinkWiki and Bill Morrow's
Thinkpad support community.
Even the vaunted Lenovo turns out turkeys sometimes (like issues with poor BGA soldering on discrete graphics chips), but with the exception of the mechanical bits which can wear out and need to be replaced and consumables like batteries (which is true with any computer), usually it either works or it doesn't. If you're genuinely nervous about lifespan, normally I consider stuff like the tack-on SquareTrade warranties a waste of money, but US Micro offers the coverage on top of the laptops. However, this is why I recommend purchasing refurbished business-class hardware in the first place. It's typically engineered better and more durable than the consumer grade options from the same manufacturer during the same time period, as they can't get away with upsetting customers who buy equipment by the hundreds or possibly even thousands at a time with shoddier builds and planned obsolescence or failure.
All that said, it is important to remember that overall lifespan will be somewhat shorter in your hands as a second owner, but 1) you're reducing the unnecessary demand for the manufacture of new electronics, which slows down the total amount of electronic waste created, and 2) you're saving at least half of the sticker price (or more) from new for a machine that will most likely have far
more than half of its lifespan left in it.
