Yes, he is definitely seeing the bottom line machines here. Paying
$20-$25 for the Pc and $75-$80 for the monitor. Could probably get
something better for another $20-$80. The HD is really the sticking
point. But you have a very good point with the CD. I would go one step
further. Make sure you can boot from a CDRW disc or homebrew CD. You
really want more than this today, but if it is a good monitor, and you
can use the PC for a backroom server, or you want an entry level
DTP/office PC and can spring $25 for a bigger HD, get these. You can
probably find similar/equivalent PCs elsewhere in the Metro though for
the same price. Nothing exceptional value wise here. Just the state of
the market.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Charles Steinkuehler [mailto:charles@steinkuehler.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, September 18, 2002 1:01 PM
> To: kclug@kclug.org
> Subject: Re: MicroCenter Systems
> 
> 
> > MicroCenter is selling OS'less systems for $99. The package 
> includes a
> > monitor and PC, spec'ed at:
> >
> >  - Pentium 100mhz
> >  - 35mb RAM
> >  - 1.7gb HDD
> >  - FDD
> >  - No CD-ROM
> >  - NIC
> >
> > Assuming I have a CD-ROM drive, can this system run a 
> modern distro of
> > Linux? I'm looking for either:
> >
> > A) a home/office machine with StarOffice and a GUI, or
> > B) a command-line-only httpd/ftp server with all the bells and
> whistles
> > (php, mySQL, Perl, etc).
> >
> > These machines worth $100?
> 
> It depends a lot on the monitor.  A year or so ago, I paid $20 for
> several HP Pentium-75 systems with FDD and 16 Meg of RAM (No 
> CD-ROM, no
> HDD).  I've also typically paid $70-80 for a working, used 15" svga
> monitor (1024x768 capable, but illegible at anything over 800x600).
> 
> These days, you can probably get much faster hardware for $20-30 used,
> and you can probably pick up the monitors separately, if 
> required.  With
> the CPU unit being apx 1/4 of the price of the system by my 
> estimation,
> you're definitely at the point in the price-curve where 
> spending another
> $20, or carefully shopping around, could get you a system many times
> more powerful.
> 
> Also, I'd make sure the systems can boot from CD-ROM before you buy.
> I've found this *WAY* too useful to be without, especially on hardware
> that I'm typically using for test systems, and/or doing frequent
> experimental re-installs.  Of course, if you just want to let the
> systems run for ages w/o upgrading, you might not care, but it's
> something to consider.
> 
> Charles Steinkuehler
> charles@steinkuehler.net
> 
> 
> 
> majordomo@kclug.org
>