In a study that compares new IT equipment to refurbished IT equipment, there are a number of assumptions that need to be made so that the study can be useful. First, we will be assuming that you have purchased refurbished IT equipment that actually works (or at least if you decide to purchase refurbished IT equipment you will make sure that you find stuff that works before making the purchase). The main drawback of refurbished IT equipment is that not all of it is reliable and while different articles will deal with how to make sure the equipment is reliable, this article deals specifically with a comparison between good refurbished IT equipment and new IT equipment.

The first category that needs to be evaluated is the newness of the technology. In the technology world, a lot of importance is placed on the newness factor and in many ways if you aren't able to keep up with the technology then you are not going to be tops in the industry. So, when you look at it from the newness factor what you find is that quite naturally new IT equipment has refurbished IT equipment beat. Therefore, at the end of one category being evaluated, new IT equipment is leading 1-0 in categories.

The second category is cost. Obviously cost is a very big part of operating a business and one of the main reasons that people keep IT staff on the actual payroll is so that they can use them as consultants and as maintenance workers in order to cut costs. IT equipment is very expensive, but depreciates quickly. This means that if you are able to find refurbished IT equipment, it is almost always going to be less costly than the new equipment. Therefore, at the end of the evaluation of two categories, it is a 1-1 tie.

The third category is cost efficiency. This is different from cost. Cost refers to the absolute value of the actual product that you are purchasing whereas cost efficiency takes a look at not only how much money the product costs, but how much money you are likely to bring in as a result of the cost. Therefore, a product that costs $1 million and generates $1.1 million is more cost efficient than a product that costs $1 and generates nothing. Refurbished IT equipment can do anything that new IT equipment can do in the every day running of a business; something that makes it more cost efficient. Therefore, at the end of three categories, the score is now 2-1 in the favor of refurbished IT equipment.

The final category to be evaluated is durability. Now, here you would think that new equipment would win hands down, but refurbished equipment frequently undergoes more quality testing than new equipment to make it sellable and therefore it is not a given that new is automatically longer lasting than refurbished. We can call this category a tie and make the final score 2.5 to 1.5 in favor of refurbished IT equipment. Therefore, it is definitely more worth it to invest in refurbished IT equipment.