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Hardware

Where Can You Buy Low-End Computers? 30

Posted by Cliff from the when-you-want-slower-than-600-Mhz dept.
yamla asks: "These days, just about the slowest computer you can buy new runs at 600 Mhz. For a lot of people, this is overkill, a waste of money. Are there any online sites in Canada (or elsewhere) that specialise in selling new, low-end systems for bargain prices? Any other alternatives I haven't considered? I am thinking of two situations specifically here. I would like a firewall to place in front of my LAN. Now, I know there are products like FreeSco and the like that can run comfortably on a 486 with a floppy, but I'd rather run something like Storm Firewall and so I need a bit more power. I am also thinking of my mother who wants to upgrade her 200 Mhz system a little but needs neither the power nor the price that $600 Canadian would get her." Aside from surplus shops like Computer Surplus Outlet where can you find new or used older computers at decent prices?
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Where Can You Buy Bottom-End Computers? More

Where Can You Buy Bottom-End Computers?

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  • you can sometimes find a good deal on late model refurbished pc's (without monitors) on the auction section of egghead.com [egghead.com].

    I have picked up a few 400mhz Celeron emachines for about $300 each to use as simple web/email access nodes on my home network. A lot of folks will trash emachines but I haven't had any problems with them and they have suited my purposes just fine. Like you I wanted something fairly recent - mainly cuz I also wanted each node to have USB support. All the emachines I have bought have also had Win98SE so USB support is pretty solid.

    egghead.com [egghead.com] also usually has some other brands such as Compaq or HP available but they often get bid up to the point where you really aren't saving much/any money.

    Again, as long as you're not in any hurry (availability and prices varies from week to week) you may be able to snag a good deal on a fairly recent pc there.

  • Re-PC is the bigest one... they're located down by Safeco Field. If you look in the Yellow Pages under Computers - used you should find them, they've also got ads in the monthly free computer magazine (Puget Sound Computer User) that you find at grocery stores and whatnot...


    For those who don't like subtlety, these (or the local equivalent) are more good places to look for dealers close to you.
  • I don't recommend doing business with Computer Surplus Outlet. They are the most unprofessional, dishonest bastards I've ever had the displeasure of doing business with.

    I sold them a large amount of computer surplus recently and I was originally quoted $1909 for all the parts. After repeatedly sending emails and bieng told "the check will go out tomorrow", I finally got paid $1800 almost a month after I sent the parts. I've emailed them several more times asking about the rest of my payment and they refuse to answer my emails.

    Apparently I'm not alone in my hatred for this company. Check out Reseller ratings [resellerratings.com]. They have a very low score compared to many other retailers.

    LiNT

  • I was just in the halls of a community college and saw 4 seperate ads for cheap (>$250) complete systems on the bulletin boards. Most were Pentium I/II, with 8/16 MBytes RAM. The monitors were mostly SVGA, but still... one such system was only $75. Worth just taking a walk through a local school--maybe post your own "wanted" ads.
  • You cannot have new old. It's an oxymoron.

    Essentially you want to find new parts of older equipment. However, the older equipment is not produced for consumers. It is produced to maintain older more expensive installations (gov't, industry, science, etc) which can handle the fact that it costs the same to produce a PIII 900 as it does to produce a PII 300. They pay more for their chips becuse they have to maintain their current equipment, consumers, however, won't buy something so low-powered becuase it is the same cost as something higher powered.

    It's a basic question of capitalism. Intel cannot sell the older chip for much more than it costs them to make, but they can sell the higher chip for a higher margin. Which do you think they will sell then? This is why cyrix and other low-end cheapo processor producers fell out of the consumer market.

    So, you have a choice. You can have low-power used equipment, or higher power new equipment. It is not going to be worth your time to find someone selling cheap low end new equipment. To paraphrase a common saying: "Cheap, Low End, New. You can have any two at once."

    -Adam

    My users already cower in fear before me. Now I'm working on the gifts and offerings...
  • ebay [ebay.com]
  • My school system each year has an auction for old obsolete and not working equipment (ie. chairs desks sewing machines, etc). This year they had an auction and had some 486s and a P75. They had monitors, HD( 3 550MB and a 800MB), keyboards. I took all of them and some NICs and now I have two linux boxes running and they are networked to my main computer. I paid nothing for them. B/c if no one bids on them they are free and that is exactly what I did!
    JNS
  • Just A Second [albany.net] is a computer store in Albany, NY that specializes in low-end computers and parts for older computers.

    Imagine, an entire aisle of VT terminals. Not sure if they have that many anymore, but it was a nice sight.

    --
  • Any places in Canada, apart from Ebay?

  • Re:Check out schools (Score:3)

    by jheinen ( 82399 ) on Friday December 08, 2000 @02:46PM (#571474) Homepage
    Government auctions are a great place to get stuff cheap. In Denver they have monthly auctions, and I've gone there and seen hundreds of computers on the block. You have to buy in lots, and I've seen a lot of five machines go for as little as $75. They also have cool things like industrial lasers, microscopes, and all sorts of weird stuff.

    -Vercingetorix

  • 486 is fine for a firewall (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    A friend of mine uses a 486 with 16MB of RAM and it doesn't slow down even his collegiate ATM connection.

    But on the helpful side, you should look into auctions. I'm looking for cheap computers (pentium 1s). There was an action here where they went for $30 per pallate with 6 computers per pallate. So you can get older stuff very very cheap if you know where to look.

    Don't go for the laptops or anything over 233MHz since everyone else will be fighting over that.
  • Jeepers, we just gave away over a dozen Pentium II class machines and 17" monitors to a couple of schools in the Silicon Valley / South Bay area. You would figure that being in the middle of the world's technology mecca, schools would have plenty of computer equipment, instead they have next to nothing - what a truly sad state of affairs...
  • compgeeks.com has a decent selection of older computer sets/desktops...

  • .. (Score:2)

    by ameoba ( 173803 )
    Of course, the obvious answer would be to pick up a >500MHz machine to do the upgrade with (my personal rule of thumb is that un upgrade isn't worthwhile unless it doubles performance), and then claim the old 200MHz system for your firewalling needs.

    I know that Seattle's got at least 2 large used computer stores, look around, and see if you do. (I wouldn't reccomend buying a whole used system through the mail... shipping a $20 comp. is just rediculous).

    You might wanna try getting friendly with the staff of a local computer store that does a bit of business in system upgrades; all those old P-166s have to go -somewhere-.

    Finally, don't forget about usenet. Your local forsale newsgroup is a good place to look for 'obsolete' systems...
  • check The MarketPro computer show [marketpro.com] There you can usually find people selling old computers by the pound.
  • I used to work in academic, and they served us well. A bit expensive (you can get cheaper through classified ads), but their stuff are clean and working. Oh, BTW, it's a canadian business.

    And no, I don't work for them !

  • You can usually find fairly good used computers if you look in the classifieds or on the *.forsale newsgroups. If you format and re-install the software you want, you're usually okay.

    For example, I bought my P90 ThinkPad last year from a PennySaver ad. $600 CDN, runs fine and in a year or so I'll probably sell it.

    Also, if you're near a University or College, check the for sale bulletin boards. Students are often selling off systems in order to buy cooler ones. (Or in order to pay tuition.)

  • I can't believe no one has suggested pricewatch.com [pricewatch.com]. Pricewatch has whole linux systems for $450 to $500. You still need a monitor, but if the machine is going to be headless, or just something you use infrequently, consider using ssh, or even VNC [att.com] which comes in both Winders and Linux/Unix flavors. It's even GPL'd. You can use it to "PCAnywhere" a system (I.E. remote control it) that has no monitor, keyboard or mouse. It rocks.

    Fawking Trolls! [slashdot.org]
  • Canadians should check out Calgary's Computer Surplus [compsurp.com] store. If you buy from there you save $$$ because Alberta doesn't have a Provincial Sales Tax. Hopefully your shipping costs don't blow away that savings.
  • You must be kidding... running VNC or PCAnywhere is asking for script kiddies to own you.

    ... please mr. script kiddy, come 0wn me.


    Besides that, I've seen VNC almost cripple a 500 MHz NT server, these software packages would be almost useless for low end systems .. buy a monitor, or use ssh.
    --
  • pricewatch has a "used" section, and often prices that beat stuff discounted elsewhere. www.pricewatch.com

    I just happened to have gotten an ad for a sale:
    Celerys:
    466/64/8.4 onboard everything... $295
    333/32/2.1 onboared lots.. HP Brio $195
    both USD
    I sent you he whole email... but apparently it didn't have (at least in the plain txt)
    www.imaxx.net or
    815 578 1000 All in USD and US phone numbers... *shrug * they were the ISP of a company I worked for, and at least they used linux servers.
  • Many goodwills sell old computers and computer parts. They even have stores in Canada: http://www.goodwill.org/find/findgw.htm
  • Your friendly nearby college or university should have a surplus store. I've purchased a number of computers and some cheap ethernet hubs from university surplus.
    --
  • I've purchased a number of used computers from Computer Strippers [computerstrippers.com] in the past and they have always had very reasonable prices. They also tend to have some really good prices on new machines.

  • I didn't even bother looking at the prices for NEW machines, but the harddrives and network cards are WAY overpriced, old OR new. I can't see how they can possibly justify $60 for a 1 gig drive or $50 for a 500 meg or $20 for a 10 mbps network card when you can buy them BRAND NEW in the STORE with warranty and everything for half that price.

    Of course, if they're actually selling stuff at those prices, more power to them. I should switch my line of work. I can make a 10 fold markup on some of the products they're selling and still undercut them.

    -Restil
  • Computer Geeks [geeks.com] has nice prices and a good selection. Sometimes they have simply incredible bargains, but they sell out very quickly, so you have to pay attention. I've ordered from them a couple of times, and they are a bit slow, but OK otherwise. -pm
  • Wow, they must have really, REALLY marked up since the last time I bought something from them. I bought four computers (486 class) complete with monitors for under $150 (including shipping). I wouldn't have suggested it if I knew they had marked things up that much since then.

  • Computer Renaissance [compren.com] sells both used and new machines, and their franchisees have in-house repair shops. They operate in Canada as well... check the locator on the site.

    My friends bought their machine new from the local CR shop, and haven't had any trouble with it. I will note that they put a "Warranty-void-if-removed" sticker on the case seam, so you may be concerned if you like to swap HW around. And, of course, they preinstall Windows. But if there's one in your area I think they're worth looking at.
  • > It was a notebook. A Pentium classed ThinkPad for
    > $600 isn't a TERRIBLY bad deal.

    He said $600 Canadian.

    1$ Can == 0.65 $US

  • P90 for $600 is quite expensive, I would say it was worth maybe $100-$150 realistically then.

    It was a notebook. A Pentium classed ThinkPad for $600 isn't a TERRIBLY bad deal.

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