Boxed 366MHz Systems for $180 (Hard Drive and CD Included)

[hardwarejunkee]

PC Liquidator has refurbished eTower Systems for $179.99

<--Cut and Paste -->
Boxed 366MHz Systems etower | 366c Specs

• Super Socket 7 ATX Motherboard
  Cyrix? M II-366 (w/ 512KB L2 Cache) Processor
  32MB SyncDRAM (up to 256MB)
  ATI Rage IIc 3D AGP with 4MB SDRAM
  Crystal CS4235 3D Audio
  32x Max. CD-ROM Drive
  3.2GB HDD (Ultra DMA EIDE)
  3.5&quot; 1.44MB FDD
  56K ITU V.90 PCI Fax/Modem
  PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse
  Stereo Speakers
  2 USB Ports (1 is on Front)
  1 Serial / 1 Parallel / 3 Expansion Slot
  Audio In &amp; Out / Game Port on Front
  Internet Ready

<--End Cut-->

I have one of these, and they are pretty good Motherboards. I yanked out the Chip and put in an AMD K6-2 500 and it runs great!

Its a great deal for a second system or for a primary if your slower at the moment.

 

[Wedesdo]

socket 7 = dogcrap

 

[Chatterjee]

refurbished emachines are gonna screw up on you...
-S

 

[hardwarejunkee]

Actually, I don't think that they are actually refurb. The box was sealed and it doesn't look like it has ever been touched?


The board also accepts and AMD easily.

And I disagree, Socket 7 is ALIVE AND WELL!

 

[robsdeals]

I had a problem with a machine from their and am still waiting for an answer .. beware... a call back ... anything.

 

[Fritzo]

<< Cyrix? M II-366 >>




BBBLLLLEEEAAAACCCHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! Sorry, but I'm meaning to threat crap here

This was possibly the worst processor ever made (next to AMD's 586 chip). Not a good deal.

 

[Zach]

maybe if you replaced the motherboard and processor..

 

[hardwarejunkee]

The motherboard is good! The processor is probably a replace though, but at that price it is still a deal!

 

[samanvahedi]

This is great if you want to emulate or just have a computer for the kids... just go and pickup an AMD K6-2 or 3 450mhz proc and replace it... kinda good deal... but computer geeks used to have a dell 100mhz that you can replace the proc on... for about $69

 

[GoldenTiger]

Not bad for someone who just wants a machine to word-process and send email .

 

[KarmaWahoo]

You can *BET* that this deal is gonna meet the current needs of *some* of our compadres here...for one use or another. Kudos to Junkee for helping them out!!!

 

[ziplux]

<< This is great if you want to emulate or just have a computer for the kids... just go and pickup an AMD K6-2 or 3 450mhz proc and replace it... kinda good deal... but computer geeks used to have a dell 100mhz that you can replace the proc on... for about $69 >>



They still have it, go to http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=XPSP100C. Only downside is it's only got 16MB of RAM, but hey, it's in a tower case.

 

[Homie]

hardwarejunkie, where did you get info on the emachines mobo?

 

[jayR]

I don't want to thread crap but ...
(I am typing this in on a super7 board and love it, for all the simple things in life.)
If this includes an OS and maybe an expensive software package its pretty good. Without software, hmmm...

ATX case $40
CDROM $20 (free after rebate?)
Floppy $15
HD 3.5GB $30? (hard to find one that small, so use the smallest you can find)
Super7 board on board sound $40 (less?)
32MB SDRAM $10?
ATI Rage IIc 4MB $20? this may be worth something
speakers $10
keyboard/mouse ? (free after rebate?)
win Modem $10 (free after rebate?)
-----------------------------------
Total ~ $175 or less for better

I didn't include the cost of the CPU because the Cyrix is a throw away. Your also going to have to upgrade to at least 64MB RAM. (I know someone out there is going to say that they run win2000 on 16MB and think its plenty fast.)

What I'm saying is, if you keep your eyes open around here you can probably do better for the same price. Of course, then you have to put the puppy together. If you don't want to put in the effert it may be worth it to get this one assembled.

The one thing that can make this deal IMHO is the inclusion of the MS O/S. There is no way to get this below the OEM rate unless it is included with a system. I think latter versions of win95 go for ~$50. The cheapest I have found win98se for is ~$70.

good luck.

 

[hardwarejunkee]

To answer your question, I have one. I got one about a year ago when PC Liquidator had K6 3+ Processors. I had to play around a little bit to get it running full speed, but I did get it running.

It is a standard system, but I know the secret about eMachines

DONT USE EMACHINES DRIVERS!!!

if you use generic drivers from the oem chipset manufacturers then almost all of the problems go away.

 

[ConnCarl]

Sam:

You mention that you can replace the processor on the Dell...it looks like a Dimension 100 to me, I would have guessed that the highest this beast would go would be P-166, which means that the Cyrix will beat it up and take its lunch money.

Do you know something I don't about the Dimension? Will it take a K/2-500 or something?

 

[breweyez]

what is the highest speed cpu &amp; fsb you use with this board? Did you try running win2k on it?

 

[hardwarejunkee]

From Inside the box:

Voltages - 2.2,2.5,2.7,2.8,2.9,3.2,3.3,3.4,3.5
CPU Freq - 60,66,75,83,95,100
Multiplier - 2.0,2.5,3.0,3.5,4.0,4.5,5.0

Hard Drive - Seagate ST22112A
Video - ATI Rage IIC AGP
Sound - Crystal CS4235
CD - SCR3232 32X
Modem - PC Tel 789 56K

 

[Zach]

So it takes K6-2's, not too bad.

 

[samanvahedi]

I think that the BIOS has to be upgraded on old mobos like the one that the dell has....

 

[Sanjoelo]

Not a bad deal, but if you buy one, do yourself a favor..take that PCTel modem out and squash it like a grape. Run over it with your car a few times. Throw it in the litter box. Whatever..just don't try and stay connected to anything with it.

Just a word of warning from a guy who has tech-supported a good many E-Machines. Not sure whether the PC-Tel or the Rockwell HCF would win if there was a &quot;worst analog V90 modem ever&quot; contest.. but in either case, you're better off with some kite string and a couple of tin cans
-JB

 

[Salvador]

I heard that this Cyrix 366 chip will give a 486 a serious run for its money.

Sal

 

[Zach]

Even a 486-120 can't keep up with it!

 

[Billsguy]

emachines are refurbished already. They are made of refurbed parts, or at least thats what I was told when I used to sell them at BB.

 

[Praxis]

The Cyrix MII is a very fine CPU for what the vast majority of folks spend the majority of their time doing: word processing and surfing the net. I've built a couple of systems with MII 300 CPUs and though they run at 3.5x66 (233 MHz) they subjectively feel faster to me than a PII 233-300 and on a par with a Celeron 366 for those tasks. I wouldn't game with it, but I wouldn't throw the CPU away either. Also, I haven't had too many problems with the PCTel winmodems that I've used. They seemed as good as a Creative or 3Com winmodem if the modem wasn't DOA.

All that being said I don't think this is too good a deal, at least for Californians.
There is $14 shipping and California residents pay sales tax (perhaps another $14). For $100 you can often buy a FIC AZ11 motherboard and Duron 750 CPU at Fry's. Tack on $25 for a decent computer show generic ATX case, $10 for a floppy, $25 delivered for 128 MB of PC133, $30 or so for an ATI Xpert 8 MB AGP card, $50 after MIR for a 15 gig hard drive (you might have to wait a couple of weeks for this deal to resurface, but I've seen several like that) and with a little patience you can probably get a CD-ROM and modem for free (at least if Prime Peripherals ever honors its rebates). Right now Staples has a Creative PCI 16 sound card for $10 after $10 MIR. Maybe an extra 1/3rd more geld after tax and rebates for something that is twice as fast, has 4 times the memory, 5 times the hard drive space and is upgradable to a 1 GHz+ Athlon when those become reasonable &amp; has far superior video and audio. Plus, Emachines has a reputation for using low quality parts. Still, if you don't know how to build a computer and don't have time to shop for parts I guess you could do worse.