Should I buy this HP/Agilent 33120a????

[ticktock3t]

Hi, I'm a university student majoring in EE. I've been looking for a function generator for a while now to complete my lab set-up. This guy on craigslist is claiming to be selling a practically brand new 33120a function generator with all the cables and everything. I would really like to have this unit because it's the same model that I use at school and I am familiar with it. However, i'm worried that it's overkill for someone who's only starting his EE career. Other cheap-o models that i've looked at go for around $150-$250+ without many features or much else. The seller originally wanted $750 but I offered him $430 which he said he would accept. Would this be too much for me or is it a good buy?

Pics of the function generator: http://imgur.com/a/iXhbk#0

[EEVblog]

That's a good price. Whether or not you should spend your limited funds on it, only you can answer...
Look at it this way, you won't ever really lose money on it, you can always sell it easily on ebay for the same or more.
You can also get a brand new Rigol  20MHz DG1000 ARB for the same price, or a lesser name 20MHz Siglent for under $300.

Dave.

[saturation]

When I was in school, I spoke to the Chair of the Physics department to be allowed to work in the lab so I could use gear, for free.  In return I would help around the lab with inventory, cleaning, etc., gives access to things you have no space to store, or worse, get stolen.

[alm]

It's a good instrument and a decent price. The Rigol DG1000 series is better in some ways, worse in others. One step down would probably be the ~$150-200 DDS function gens without advanced features like arb or modulation. As Dave already said, it's up to you to decide how much funds you want to allocate to a function gen at this stage in your career.