Thanks to the "you need to buy a new PC for running W11" bullshit, scammers are selling ewaste at full price to inexperienced people
Thanks to the "you need to buy a new PC for running W11" bullshit, scammers are selling ewaste at full price to inexperienced people
And from the glowing reviews it's clear that
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W11 doesn't actually need a new PC to run and the limitations are completely artificial
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For many people, a ten years old PC is fast enough (or even faster than a brand new Intel N100 PC that is officially W11 compatible). They won't even notice that's something from 2015, as long it has a shiny new case, enough RAM and SSD
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Amazon doesn't care that the PC comes with pirated software, or that someone is scamming their customers, as long they get their 15% cut from marketplace sales (the cost of a genuine license of W11 pro and office exceeds the price of those ewaste specials)
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Could you explain why you consider these overpriced/scam? If those use new parts and come with warranty, at least the top one, seems fine. Can you do a breakdown of what it should cost?
My Windows PC has i5-6500 in it and I definitely don't consider it e-waste.
I call it ewaste because it is coming from that. Banks and corporations change computers every 3-5 years because accounting love to lease rather to buy
Those computers go to ewaste centers, then some not honest sellers take the components (that usually were left on 24/7 because in offices nobody bothers to turn off computers) and put them in brand new cases
That's why is a scam, selling old stuff that came from an ewaste center as brand new
So keeping it from being actual ewaste it's now going to be used by someone... That seems like a good thing.
The only downside I see is that it isn't disclosed
My gripe with that is that the seller is scamming inexperienced people, they think that they are buying a brand new PC while instead it's not
(The fact that a 400 euro PC includes 600 euro of software licenses should ring a bell about the legitimacy to the buyer, though)
How are they scamming? They list the specs right there again the only issue is that they are used parts potentially, but I'm not sure how you know these examples are specifically sourced as you claim.
It is unrealistic that parts with that age are brand new, available in that quantity. It might happens that some distributor misplaces some box and a couple computers are old new stock after a decade, but hundreds?
Also: W11 pro OEM is 120 euro and office 365 perpetual doesn't even exist, and if they meant office 2024 home and business is 299 euro. 120+299 exceed the listing price
But "e-waste" means something so outadet that it's useless. Or unrepairable. Those computers are perfectly fine for 80% of users.
And are they explicitly saying that these are new? While you know for sure it's heavily used equipment?
"NUOVO" in Capital letters means NEW
But are you certain they aren't new and this is a scam? I'm interested to know how you determined those are used.
Btw, where does it say "Nuovo"? I can't find it. Is it not on the screenshot?
these are at best new old stock, not truly new
Of course it's not new new, the CPU is 10 years old. But who would think that it is?
unfortunately most people don't keep track of CPU generation names.
But "new" in the context of shopping just means "not used", not that it was released in the past year or two.
And as I mentioned in another reply, they are not advertising anything false if those components are actually unused. If the buyer expects some band new, recently released machine with those specs, it's on them. When you're buying electronics, some minimal amount of research is required, or you outsource it to your family/friends.
First row of the 400 euro one
Banks and corporations change computers every 3-5 years because accounting love to lease rather to buy
3-5 years is a pretty standard depreciation schedule for IT equipment like computers, peripheral accessories etc.
Computers and laptops (using Straight-line method): 31.67% with a useful life of 3 years.
Computers and laptops (using Written Down Value method): 63.16% with a useful life of 3 years
It really has nothing to do with leasing vs. buying.
Yes ok from an accounting point of view.
But from a functional point of view?
I see how my bank teller works: they connect to a terminal server
I see how my other bank works: a VM that runs AS/400 that is acting as a terminal to their mainframe
Why they're changing computers so often? The first one can use any PC released in the past 15 years and the second one can use any released in the past 30 years
I can't speak to your specific examples since I don't work there.
The reasons beyond CapEx considerations are things like security, compliance, warranty coverage expiration, standardization across the org, general employee satisfaction, hardware falling out of vendor support.
I doubt the banks computers are single purpose or purchased specifically for each job role. Sure a 15 or 30 year old computer might technically work but there's no way it'll meet regulatory security compliance rules.
The home user/hobbyist approach really doesn't scale to corporate IT.
They don't support Windows 11
Not officially, but I have, in the past, installed W11 on a computer from 2010. And it worked fine, all things considered.
That is generally a bad idea as it can mean broken updates
microsoft is building newer versions of the kernel to rely on cpu instructions that are not present in old CPUs. you can't "hack" around that. At some point, the kernel will ask the CPU to do something it doesnt understand.
Ok, I think I now understand the point of this thread. The implication is that some people might assume that these are brand new machines that will have software support for years to come. Even though, that's confusing to me, as no new machine with those specs costs only 200 Euros. Like, that CPU alone, if used, cost 40-60 Euros. But IMO it's still a stretch to call this a scam, as they are selling what they are selling. Can these machines run W11 right now? Yes. If the buyer expects something else for that price, it's on them. The target audience could still be tech-savvy ppl who just need an older machine for simple stuff and W11 is pre-installed there just for convenience.
The only time a tried to buy a laptop from Amazon it was advertised as 16Gb of RAM. What was delivered was 8G with an 8GB SD card taped to the box and Amazon refused to give me an actual refund. So i just assume any computer you buy on Amazon is fraudulent now
Should have done a charge back
I bought a stand mixer with the credit i was given instead and cancelled my Amazon account
At least you got something out of it
That seems like an entirely different problem from the one being discussed.
It can't be legitimate because licences for the bundled software cost more than the machines are being sold for. Also, the hardware included isn't officially Windows 11 compatible, so selling it with Windows 11 installed is misleading the customer into thinking they're buying something much more recent than they really are. For a decent number of people buying these, they're likely to own something just as new already, and could get a free upgrade to Windows 11 by doing the same configuration tweaks as the sellers did.
Do you mean you wouldn't consider it a scam if it has W10 preinstalled instead? How much is MS Office anyway? I know there are $5 W11 keys all over the place.
The $5 Windows keys have never been legitimate - either they're just people selling keys they've generated with a keygen or bought with a stolen credit card, or it's students reselling free keys they've got from Dreamspark or a sysadmin selling keys from their employer's enterprise licence, which, in Microsoft's eyes, are all piracy. An OEM copy of Windows 11 Pro is about €150 and can't be transferred to a different motherboard, and a retail copy which can be transferred is about €300. A one-time purchase copy of Office is about €120 (it's also available as a subscription). These machines either have at least €270 of software on them, or €0 worth of pirated software on them.
What does it matter that Microsoft considers it piracy? If they got the keys for cheap somewhere, it's a real licensed version anyway and will work fine.
I can order retro emulation handhelds from China and it will arrive with 1000s of ROMs, which is literal piracy, but that doesn't make it a scam.