your chance to buy an HP desktop without MS Windows!

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Fri, Nov 30, 2007 at 01:16:10AM -0500, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
> 
> Canada Computers is selling refurb desktops without MS Windows.  A 
> reasonable dual-core Athlon 64 is $284.99 today (after today, $299.99).
>  http://www.canadacomputers.com/main.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=016399&cid=170.45
> 
> I've bought "debranded" refurb HPs without a MS Windows license.  They 
> worked well.  I've never seen branded ones without the license.
> 
> Without MS Windows, it is tough to apply firmware updates.  HP supplies 
> them as MS Windows executables, not as DOS ones.  Grrr.

It's still an HP pavilion, which is something I would not want to have
to deal with.  My experience over the last few years is that all HP
consumer products are terrible.

AMD Athlon X2 4000 $72
Asus M2NPV-VM GF6150 Motherboard $93
DVD-writer $40
WD SATA 250GB $70
Mitsumi card reader/floppy $26
mouse/keyboard $20
2*512MB DDR2-5400 $30 (or spend $50 and get 2*1GB)

Throw it in a case with a decent power supply (not that HP has one of
those) and you have something new with full warrenty, and the ability to
upgrade the BIOS and everything without the need for windows for about
$400.  Refurb machines really do not seem like that good a deal in
general.

Of course for en extra $20 you can double the ram, for another $30 you
can double the HD space, and for a few dollars more you can get a much
faster CPU too.  Oh and that mainboard has DVI so it can drive an LCD
monitor properly.  I doubt the HP does.

--
Len Sorensen
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