Refurbished Video Cards?
 

Anyone have any experience with refurbished video cards? I found some pretty awesome deals to upgrade my Geforce3 TI 500...

I've got an Asus A7V600-X and so I need an AGP video card.. I found an x800 XL for $316 new, and I found an x800 XT for $319 "refurbished." By refurbished, I dont get any of the software or cables (like S-Video). Any suggestions on which way I should go? I don't really plan on using S-Video anytime in the future, but I'd hate to go with the XT and find out that S-Vidoe cables are $30 or something, more than the difference.

Also, is the XT much better than the XL ? The benchmarks are pretty inconclusive..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102521

and

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16814102507R

...for details.

You seem to already know about the cables. It's luck of the draw, even if some keyboard jockey copied & pasted the retail information that lists adapters & cables.

Experience says, like cpu's & RAM, many of these refurb cards come back to newegg because they wouldn't overclock to the previous customer's goals. I've ordered for myself and customers and received good ones and bad ones with a slightly lower success rate than retail, but none of the refurbs overclocked worth beans. It can mean a good deal where overclocking isn't important but may not match your needs. For what it's worth.

I hadn't thought of the fact that these could be partially fried from OC-mishaps and still running. I decided to go with the XL just because the benchmarks were so close, and it'll be nice to have the CDs and cables.. just in case.

Thanks.

FYI-

You're buying from NewEgg... good JinnKai!

Also, the refurbs shouldn't be much of an issue. And the ultra-cheap S-Video cables that come with vid cards are only about $10 at Fry's anyhow. If you were using it for S-Video regularly, you'd likely buy a $30-50 cable anyhow, despite the craptastic one coming with the card.

Lastly, as for refurbs, brand is as important as it is for new. I don't believe there are many brands that make ATI cards that suck (or at all even). Jaton is a horrible card manufacturer anyhow, and I wouldn't buy a 24k Gold plated card from them. Bugger!

The cables that come with the retail boxed version are many times manufacturer specific and with ATI buying all those cables separately would be pretty expensive. I see you went with the XL although I'd pour extra money and get the XT retail version, why you may ask: because I'm good like that.