Well – previously the Dell Linux Workstations were discussed here and the end thoughts were that while it was a great idea the price was far from “right.” To make matters worse, UK customers would be charged an arm and a leg shipping and import duty. All in all, not in our top ten purchase lists.
However, today, thanks to the wonders of email, we have found out about a similar offer for people in good old blighty. This time it is Ebuyer (a legitimate online shop – do not confuse this with eBay) is having a warehouse clearance sale. Part of this is an “eSys ePC” for £127. The machine is not a top of the range monster, however at that price it seems almost trivial to get enough to run a Beowolf cluster at home.
The specs are:
- Processor: Intel Celeron D 315 (2.26, 533, 256MB)
- Memory: 256MB DDR expandable to 2GB.
- Disk: 40GB 7200Rpm
- 52 X CD-Rom, additional slots available to add more optical drives.
- LAN 10/100
- ASROCK/ ECS Intel 845GV chipset with built-in 64 MB Intel Extreme graphics
- Audio on board incl. Front Pannel Audio
The on board video is a bit of a downer, but at the end of the day this is a fully functional home PC for next to nothing.
One word of caution, some of the reviews talk about this coming with a monitor – as far as I can see, this offer is for the PC, keyboard and mouse, nothing else.