$298 Wal-Mart PC Has OO.org, No Crapware 422
cristarol writes "Wal-Mart has begun selling a $298 PC (Everex IMPACT GC3502). It comes with Windows Vista Home Basic and OpenOffice.org 2.2, as well as a complete lack of crapware: 'Users accustomed to being bombarded with trialware offers and seeing their would-be pristine Windows desktops littered with shortcuts to AOL and other applications will likely be pleased at their absence from the GC3502.' The machine is targeted at the back-to-school market. The hardware is nothing to write home about: a 1.5GHz Via C7 with 1GB of RAM and integrated graphics, but as Ars points out, it should be more than capable of performing basic tasks." Dell sells a low-end PC through Wal-Mart for $200 more, and one assumes it is loaded with crapware. Anybody know for sure?
Comparison (Score:5, Informative)
The other differences between these two machines is they have comparable memory, DVD burner & GPU, the Dell's hard drive & CPU are a lot better. The ArsTechnica article mentions upgrades at a price, you could probably get the IMPACT up to the Dell range and get it close which is probably pretty important for the average consumer who doesn't want to deal with the ordeal of reinstalling Windows just to get a clean slate.
Minimal crapware.. (Score:5, Informative)
They could have chosen a free AV package, like they chose a free office suite (or even a free operating system). But, they went with the try-now buy-later package.
It's in the processor (Score:4, Informative)
"With a maximum power consumption of just 20 watts (2 watts average), the VIA C7®-D processor sets new standards..."
How much do 1.5GHz processors normally consume?
It's not a bad deal at all (Score:3, Informative)
Re:One Question (Score:3, Informative)
These may actually not be cheaper. It depends on how much your own time is worth. Buying a used computer doesn't have to cost you extra time, whereas preparing your own food or building your own house certainly does cost time.
Also, I do cook my own food, because it's cheaper. And because it's better.
``And why doesn't everyone buy a used car, since it's cheaper?''
Again, it might not be cheaper, because of maintenance costs. However, I think the main reason is that cars are status symbols. A second-hand status symbol isn't worth that much...
``And why doesn't everyone use fluorescent lighting, since it's cheaper?''
That one, I don't have an answer to. Perhaps it is because fluorescent lamps have a higher initial cost than incandescent lamps?
I do use fluorescent lighting. Because it saves the environment. It's also cheaper, but I would do it even if it were (not too much) more expensive. And now we're full circle, because the exact same applies to me using VIA hardware, too.
Re:Don't sell the students short (Score:5, Informative)
1. It has Vista Home Basic so no Aero. It probably will not be stressing the harware.
2. It has a gig of Ram. I have NO problem running XP media Center and OpenSuse on a system with a Gig of ram as a duel boot. Open Office runs just fine.
3. It is under $300.
4. I has a DVD drive so yes you can watch DVDs on it.
5. It has IE on it. The sad truth is some sites require IE to work correctly. This is changing but having IE to fall back on does make life easy.
6. It has Open Office. Which gives you a lot of good tools.
7. Did I mention it is under $300. Less than a PS/3 or 360?
8. It only has an 80 gig drive. So it has 6 USB ports. Think Geek was selling 80 Gig external drives for under $50! Those are much better to put your music and videos on anyway. When the RIAA and Montag come knocking at your door they my not find your external drive with your MP3s or your collection of books.
9. It uses SATA for the HD. I bet you could put in another or a Larger drive if you really wanted it.
10. So it only has one gig of ram. It has an open memory slot. Go buy an extra gig.
For a High school kid or even a college student this would be a good machine. Frankly a lot of businesses could work just fine off one of these. It also doesn't use a lot of power thanks to the C7 CPU.
As to just building your own. Not everyone wants to build their own PC or even knows how. This machine with an LCD monitor would be a handy little system for many people.
I don't know if it has any open slots but even without them you could add WiFi with USB. You could also add a TV tuner so it could be you kids TV as well.
In other words it seems like a good deal for some people. The fact that it will not play the latest and greatest games I can only see as a plus.
Re:If it stops them from getting hooked on WOW... (Score:3, Informative)
P.S. I may be kidding about the pr0n, but not about the root cause of the slowdown.
Re:Minimal crapware.. (Score:3, Informative)
Yeah, the Epia and JetWay microATX/miniITX boards use that line, and I have one with that exact chip.
I'd say it compares favorably with the PIII, clock-for-clock. It works pretty well for a general purpose PC. You can use all your normal "productivity" apps no problem, it can handle audio just fine, some video (they usually have hardware MPEG2 and now even MPEG4 decoders, though I don't know what the exact setup mentioned has). Even some older gaming, but don't expect any modern FPSs to run well, if at all.
As a VERY nice feature, they suck very little power. For a system with one of these, using the on-board video, with one HDD, you can realistically expect to see under 40W peak consumption. And of course, that shows in the cooling needs as well - A single low-RPM CPU fan works fine, you won't even hear it outside the case (of course, for a dirt-cheap WallyWorld PC, you can probably count on getting a POS power supply with a nice loud 80mm fan in it).
Dell AthlonX2 $382.59 USD @ DELL (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.redflagdeals.com/deals/main.php/alldea
* AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor 4000+
* Windows XP Professional
* 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz - 2 DIMMs
* 160GB SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
* 16x DVD+/-RW Drive
* Microsoft Works 8
* Integrated 7.1 Audio, Video
* Dell USB Keyboard, Optical USB Mouse
* 1 Year Next Business Day Onsite/In Home Service and Tech Support
I think it's worth it for $100 more... even with possible crapware... XP Pro itself is worth like $150 OEM. (I'd still rather of XP than Vista at the moment)
Again, Wal-Mart not the cheapest (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Minimal crapware.. (Score:3, Informative)
Additional Software
CyberLink PowerDVD Suite
Norton Internet Security(TM) 2007 (90-day subscription included)
Norton Internet "Security". In my opinion you would have to search hard for worse crap ware.
Re:It's in the processor (Score:4, Informative)
Sam
Re:Has VIA improved? (Score:3, Informative)
Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Has VIA improved? (Score:3, Informative)