Decent Deal on Refurb ALL in One Computers - Gateway Astro $316

[The Stigenator]

Deal @ Egghead.com's Clearance center.

I am assuming one can upgrade the processor with a faster one (it runs an 810 chipset) and add in more memory.

Should be a good system for a carry around system. Dont know how good it would be to play video games on but should be awesome if modifications are made.

 

[CanOWorms]

Anyone know if you can put in a network card in there? How about a USB one if you can't put a normal one in there?

 

[The Stigenator]

I believe it has USB ports.. its an standard 810 mobo. I guess it should take USB.

However check with Gateway Sitee first otherwise someone else on this board may know about it.

 

[CanOWorms]

Looks like it can accept USB network cards!

gateway faq

Is this a good deal? I want a spare computer to put spreadsheet on that I keep up most of the time.

 

[PCAddict]

It works perfectly fine with a USB ethernet adapter. When I used to work for Gateway we had the demo model set up with one.

 

[magicbrillo]

fyi - Tiger also has these for $299

link

 

[TKE96]

It's gatway's underpowered iMac!

 

[Doomer]

Does it come with free AOL ?

 

[pyr]

many of these 'legacy free' computers, while a great idea, just dont work all that well. Its nice to have everything USB, but since USB bandwidth is limited you cannot plug that many devices in. Compaqs ipac is the worst example of this. I work doing ethernet installs for students at my school, and we have been getting a lot of these, and they almost never work since they cannot handle so many devices plugged in at once. Wether this specific one will have the same problem, i dont know, but dont expect to be able to plug a bunch of stuff in and still have them all work, even with a USB hub

 

[NotAClue]

If you are interested in purchasing this computer,do yourself a favor and check out evaluations of it on the net. A friend of mine was just about to buy it and he searched for reviews... his conclusion is that it is junk. He was going to buy a used one for $200.
Just food for thought... check into it.
NOTE: I have not done any research on this and am basing the above solely on what my friend told me.

 

[Kwad Guy]

Oh yeah...That legacy free Compaq Ipaq is really annoying
and barely usable. Not only are you stuck with only USB
peripherals, but it also doesn't boot with any floppy/CD
device EXCEPT a special Armada (notebook) drive. Don't have
one of those? Then there's no way to boot from a floppy or CD.

TOTAL pain in the butt, as far as I am concerned. There's another
version of the Ipaq that includes the legacy ports, and this
is a bit better, but it STILL won't boot from a CD/floppy unless
you have that expensive Armada unit.

Much preferable is the HP e-Vectra. Not only is it smaller than
the Ipaq, but it also has all the legacy ports, you can install
a standard slimline CD/DVD/CDRW drive, and you can boot from
an attached USB device.

Kwad