Tim Lamb wrote:

Andy Burns writes:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/171424219178
That's about a 5 year old model

Are they all likely to be that old? Is there an easy way of checking
vintage?

The clue on those ones is that it is a "Pentium D" which pre-dates the
Core and Core Duo processors, and the current Core2 processors, likely
to be a bit more power hungry if leaving it on 24x7.

Some of these "refurbs" are machines from a large corporate that have
been used, abused and replaced, then someone's bought up the job lot and
made 50 usable ones from 100 half-dead ones.

Some might be brand new old stock that's been sat in a warehouse or a
cupboard as spares for 5 years.