Low End Computers I might be thinking of buying.

[Calum]

any thoughts on this one?

IBM CYRIX 300MHZ CPU
32MB SD RAM MEMORY
SAMSUNG 4.3GB HARD DRIVE
24x CD-ROM DRIVE
FDD DRIVE
SIS 5595 GRAPHIC CARD
3D SOUND CARD
56K FAST MODEM
2x USB PORTS
VERY NICE MODERN PATRIOT CASE
NO OPERATING SYSTEM AND NO DRIVERS INCLUDED
TESTED AND WORKS VERY GOOD

how much is this worth? does anybody know if the hardware might be buggy and nonworking in linux?
will this machine run debian? or freebsd? are these cyrix CPUs compatible with x86 systems? do you think i'll be able to shove more RAM in there? and finally, can you think of a good reason i shouldn't get this? it's currently at £4 (US$6.50) on ebay with 2 days left to go, and the postage is £12 (US$20). of course then i have to buy a cheap monitor to go with it.

what about this one:

AT Mini-Tower Case
Pentium-166 Mhz CPU
3.5" 1.44MB Floppy Drive
64MB RAM
1.7GB Harddisk Drive
PCI Graphics Card
3xPCI Slots
4xISA Slots
2xSerial Ports
1xParallel Ports

it weighs in at £5 currently ($8) and £11 (18) postage. even i can see it's half the clock speed, twice the RAM and its hard drive is a lot smaller. maybe it's better to get the first one (or similar) and bung some extra RAM in? oh yes and it has

Keyboard and Microsoft Serial Mouse supplied free of charge

hey thanks... that's really made me feel a lot better...

and a third one, a little more promising:

Mertec PC Computer System!!!
Complete and Fully Functional!!
Ideal first computer for anyone who just wants to set up and go! As a basic start-up package, this includes all the essential elements for home computing.
Includes hard drive with 3.5 floppy drive, 13.5" monitor, keyboard and mouse. It also has space to upgrade to include a cd-writer drive if required.

Celeron 400Mhz Pentium MMX Processor
16MB RAM
1.98 GB Quantum Firewall Hard Drive
Windows 98
13.5" Monitor
Contains all power cables needed for specified hardware and comes ready for use with a modem so internet access is only a short step away!

only a 2G drive, but what is 'quantum firewall i wonder? i emailed the seller asking how much RAM the motherboard can take because 16M is just taking a little too much CeNsOrEd for me. the main plus to this one is it comes with a monitor. this one's up to £5.15 ($8.50) and it's £9 ($15) postage.

oho, or how about

Pentium 200 Processor
64 meg of ram
2.1 gig hard disc drive
LS-120 drive + Floppy drive combined
CD Drive
2* USB ports
1* com 1 port
1* LTP port
On board video
Network Card

that one comes with a 90 day warranty! it's currently at £10 (oh probably about $16.50) but i can't see how much postage will be.

or would i be better to buy some of those 'big box of unwanted PC parts' things i keep seeing for a fiver, and then buy a case and a monitor afterwards?
I'm just after a second computer that i can really try out all the sifferent software i have kicking about (linuces and bsds mostly) and also i'd like to be able to type rtf files on it and save to floppy, oh yes and being able to go on the internet would be good too.

just quickly, have a look at this one!

[X11]

Well nice find there, you should get that back yard accses, its worth it, and the cyrix 300mhz was at a great price, a "Quantum Firewall" is nothing but a typo, its a "Quantum Fireball" which is a popular and great harddisk (mainly because I have one). I can say they are pretty reliable.

[Calum]

well i would love the contents of that guys backyard except i would need to hire a van because there's no way i'd be able to make more than two or three trips between heathrow and clapham in the time he says, due to the rubbishy congested roads of london. also i would need somewhere to put all that junk!

i might go for the cyrix though, depending...

[ThePreacher]

Simply put, Cyrix processors are the crappiest processors ever made in my humble opinion.

[Calum]

good job i never bought it then. it went up to £50 so i didn't pursue it.