What is Digg?122 Comments
- Termina, on 10/11/2007, -7/+48$99? Impressive. Well, $119.
Wait, I need to get another hard drive because the one provided has a locked boot sector? Let's say a $40 (80GB) from newegg... $159
Oh, only 128MB of ram? So firefox or any modern browser is going to have trouble. Add some more for a 512MB stick of ram... $179
No sound? Probably will need a USB sound card then... $200
$200 for a USB 1.1 machine that looks cute, and performs as well as a $20 surplus machine you could pick up at your local college. - inkyblue2, on 10/11/2007, -3/+36$119, true.
hard disk: may or may not be unlockable. don't take my word for it. also, who doesn't have an IDE drive laying around (or at least a friend with a spare IDE drive)? most people seem to want to stick a flash drive in there anyway.
firefox works fine in 128MB. openoffice works fine in 128MB. this isn't vista.
the sound device (cs5535audio) is theoretically supported, i just haven't had time to sort it out yet.
so, $119 for a USB 1.1 machine that draws 8 watts (or more like 1-2 watts with a flash drive). not everyone's cup of tea, but it fits a niche. - Dankoozy, on 10/11/2007, -2/+29this would be ideal for my 'home server'. currently a 350MHz pentium 2 is doing the job but i bet this thing uses a lot less power. of course I'd use a SSD or compactflash card instead of that 10gb drive.
there was some story about a Zonbu, zomba, or some other computer based on linux but with a 1GHz VIA Cyrix processor. but they bundle in some offsite storage from amazon that you pay for every month. i just wish the $99 comp in TFA had a slightly faster processor - Dankoozy, on 10/11/2007, -8/+32something i just realised
its got no ethernet
NO freakin ethernet!
no good for a server so. we all know how much USB 1.1 -> ethernet adaptors suck. - inkyblue2, on 10/11/2007, -0/+17yeah, the site is kind of misleading. when they say "ethernet" they mean "comes with a usb ethernet adapter."
- wilecoyote7, on 10/11/2007, -4/+20Umm....Read the specs directly from the the manufacturer:
http://www.dataevolution.com/dectop%20info%202.htm
It's GOT ethernet AND a modem - drjekelmrhyde, on 10/11/2007, -4/+19I'll get one just to learn Ubuntu
- monkeywaffles, on 10/11/2007, -2/+17What the hell is this crap?
https://store.dataevolution.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=DT%2DA
$30 bucks to 'unlock' your DEC's drive
"This service unlocks your decTOP device and reformats the hard drive thereby allowing installation of a new operating system. This service is available for decTOP and predecessor devices such as the Personal Internet Communicator, Telmex Internet box, Cable & Wireless MAX, etc."
Article requires you to replace your harddrive to get it to work, that is fine, but are other options locked as well? - Rhino2, on 10/11/2007, -1/+13Could be used for a lot of things. Don't know why people are digging you down.
Firewall/Router
small development LAMP server
Wonder how powerful the processor is? Good enough to play mp3s and/or video?
My home server is a dual AMD MP, but run a ton of junk off it and it's also a file server. But something like this would save me (I'm guessing) a lot in monthly power bill. Plus it's a lot smaller (physically)
Also wonder how hard it would be to make this into a "car computer?"
gps, mp3s, maps, wireless internets ?
It's also small enough, I bet you could "hack" it up into some type of weird home build laptop if you could get a small lcd and power issues sorted out.
Also make a good thin client. - inactive, on 10/11/2007, -3/+14@Termina:
"Wait, I need to get another hard drive because the one provided has a locked boot sector?"
If you're buying a $100 PC, this will surely not be one of your concerns. You're bringing up an irrelevant point in your attempt to artificially inflate the price.
"Oh, only 128MB of ram? So firefox or any modern browser is going to have trouble..."
Both Firefox and Opera require only 64MB of RAM to run, though 128 is recommended. This point is therefore null and void.
"No sound?"
I spend all day on my work computer, which doesn't have any speakers connected to it. I don't have any problem whatsoever with the fact that the computer has no sound. Why would someone who buys this for $100 give a damn? If they're this cheap, chances are they're willing to accept this limitation.
However, you ARE right about one thing. You can buy a used computer that is more powerful, and costs less. People have their old PCs lying around all the time, and their only alternative is to give them away to their poor relatives or throw them in the trash. Surely you can buy one from them for like $50. In the end, this product really is just a custom-made pile of garbage and antique hardware.
The rest of your points? Complete and utter HORSE *****. - KingFah, on 10/11/2007, -0/+10It comes with a usb ethernet adapter. I picked up a decTop last week.
- wapp, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9I don't think this has the power to be a front end nor back end for mythtv.
- manicallday, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9I'll just wait for the $200 asus laptop.
http://linux.wordpress.com/2007/06/08/asus-presents-199-umpc-eeepc-701/ - inactive, on 10/11/2007, -3/+11How is "Mac" more marketable than "Ubuntu"? What the ***** is an "iPod"? What about "DOS"? Ever heard of a "Wii" or "Xbox"? Hell, what about "Windows"? I mean, are Microsoft in the home improvement business?
Look at ANY product, especially tech products. Even from well-established manufacturers. How are any of those brand names more "marketable" than Ubuntu? You make them marketable artificially, through advertising. Ubuntu as a name is not any more disadvantageous than any other technology brand name. - nsummy, on 10/11/2007, -3/+10Why would this have a modem but no Ethernet card? I know this is a cheap machine, but I think 99% of the users would rather use a network card.
- daftman, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8Yea I hate linux too. I mean it runs from mobile phones to supercomputers to clusters. It's so cheap and versatile. But you know what I hate more? People who hate things for the sake of hating things.
- slartybardfast, on 10/13/2007, -0/+6Most of you don't get it. It is a small computer that runs off of 12V. This isn't a server. It isn't even a workstation. It's an embedded PC with a decent CPU. That is the market and in that market, $99 is a steal! I just ordered 2.
The fact that it supports Ethernet and USB is a bonus. Mine will use a CF card to boot from instead of the IDE drive so there will be no moving parts at all. - tomarocco, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6Minimum Shipping and Handling: $39.43 Funk dat. It don't weigh more than a book.
- thenativeraver, on 10/11/2007, -2/+8http://store.dataevolution.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=DT%2D7001
I was thinking about getting one of these for my granny... - dmurray14, on 10/11/2007, -3/+8car computer? it would suck. 1GHz barely does the job.
- Ryuuzaki, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5There's also the Efika: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efika
It is based on a 400 MHz Freescale MPC5200B SoC-processor and adds 44-pin 2.5" IDE, USB, serial port, stereo audio in/out, 100 Mbit/s Ethernet, 33/66 MHz PCI port and 128 MB DDR RAM. - monkeywaffles, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5Yea, this thing is pretty well suited for a carputer installation the more I think about it.
12V, small, fanless, run a USB extension cable up into your glovebox so you can stick a USB drive on for moving mp3s around. Throw on a GPS unit and a car LCD, and you are ready to go.
And it looks fairly rugged to boot. - superkendall, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5I think this system may be more powerful than what I have at work...
- inkyblue2, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6i get about 350kB/sec over the adapter between local machines.
- monkeywaffles, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5But only 8W of power drain ;)
- mygrayarea, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6This would be great for doorbell / sidewalk cams, and print server type stuffs.
- Dankoozy, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4From TFA: "Included accessories: USB keyboard, USB 2-button mouse, USB ethernet adapter, USB extension cable, AC adapter, telephone cable"
i doubt they would throw in a ethernet adaptor if it already had ethernet built in. This might give you speeds of 10BaseT, fine for running your own web/mail server but if you are doing any sort of hardcore file transfer stuff its gonna suck. and forget about running a NAS off it - bloaty, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Crappy and simple are two different things, your grand parents dont want or need a 4000MHZ 64 bit overclocked computer with 10GB of ram to check the news and maybe e-mail every other day.
this is a perfect solution for grandparents, a small, efficient, simple, secure way to check the news or buy a sweater, they dont need a power user pc that's pverclocked hot enough to cook and egg on.
BTW is it just me or did the new comment system break the spell check? - plarp, on 10/11/2007, -3/+7find a dell post lease distributer.. i bought a dell p4 2ghz 512 20gig hd for 135 last week.. it now runs osx and is my media center
- Aldhelm, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4I love the Geode proccessors. They have low power requirments. According to wikipedia this version uses 1.0W. That's right. While AMD/ATI,Nvidia and Intel have decided that HUGE chips with HUGE power requirmeients are the latest thing. Someone in AMD had the sense to produce a chip like this.
Pity that it's only 500 mhz. If it was about 1.5 GHz it would be in a lot of laptops like pink on pig. - Technopundit, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4It's almost just like a computer. But not really.
- setdosa, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4@rudy23
Just because it doesn't sound english, doesn't mean its not marketable. Ubuntu is perfect. People might not be familiar with it but once it gets popular it won't matter. Take toyota, subaru for eg. - thecompkid, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Unfortunately, this machine is for the 1% of users who would be better off with a modem. Think about it. If you were paying $50+ a month for high speed internet, are you going to be buying a $99 computer? I think (hope) not. It wasn't designed with us nerds in mind :P.
- drewskyjones, on 10/13/2007, -0/+4I was in until I saw the shipping was $40. There are not many things I can imagine being worth paying 40% of the cost for shipping...insane. $20 maybe, but for $40 they can keep it.
- Darkhacker, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4In a follow up to ilyag, it actually might be more marketable because Ubuntu is a name that really stands out in someones mind. Not many words in the English language begin with U and that alone helps people remember it. Yes, it is an odd name, I thought so too. However it is all psychological. If you had grown up with it and knew about Ubuntu at age five, by the time you are a teenager it would seem very normal to you. Especially if it is as popular as Windows is. Windows is something on your house and Macintosh is a kind of apple but no one seems to question their names.
- Phocion55, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Not to mention:
Do-It-Yourself Linux Billy Bass
http://bigmouth.here-n-there.com/billy-howto.html - anarchytv, on 10/13/2007, -0/+3The real $0 PC: "I run Damn Small Linux - Not!" on a bunch of Pentium 1's, 2's, and it even runs on 486.
Damn Small Linux: http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/
Screenshots: http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/shots.html
Damn Small Linux, runs off a CDROM & loads into memory (needs more memory)
Damn Small Linux NOT!, can be installed onto a harddrive (needs less memory, but needs harddrive).
Download an ISO, burn it to CDROM, and boot it on your main machine to try it out. It won't touch your harddrive or your system at all. Basically a 'run from cdrom' distro that fits into like 50mb. - flessa, on 10/11/2007, -2/+5Id say taking an older box at home, you know an old Dell with a celeron @ 2ghz or something with 256mb of ram and putting ubuntu on it would be easier, and more cost effective.
- winstonc, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2My last electric bill showed that one kilowatt-hour cost 9.4 cents. Suppose you have a machine that you run 24 hours a day, and it takes 120 watts. Then it would cost $98.81 to run for the entire year. This machine, at 8 watts, would cost $6.58, so buying a cheaper used computer isn't always more cost-effective in the long run. Newer AMD and Intel machines have lower power requirements, but P4's are especially power-hungry.
Here's the math:
120 W * 0.094 $/kWh * .001 kW/W * 24 h/day * 365 days/year = $98.81 - patosan, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4For about $100 you can get a nice little MP3 machine that only uses about 8 watts total. :-)
http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS6828123924.html
"A Bangkok-based company is shipping a tiny, sub-$100 PC capable of running Puppy and other lightweight Linux distributions. NorhTec's MicroClient Jr. measures 4.5 inches square, draws 8 Watts, and has a 166MHz Pentium-compatible processor with three integer units. It targets thin-client, kiosk, and electronic signage applications.
"Fanless Design
VESA mounting support (as depicted at right)
Processor -- SiS 550 166Mhz x 3IUs
Memory -- soldered-on 128 MB SDRAM
Input/output ports
IDE
10/100 Mbps Ethernet
3 x USB V1.1
Optional RS232
Expansion -- CompactFlash slot
2.5-inch hard drive mounting
Ultra-low power
PXE diskless boot" - monkeywaffles, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4"also, who doesn't have an IDE drive laying around (or at least a friend with a spare IDE drive)?"
Probably the people this type of computer is intended for... I could be wrong.
I think where this thing is going to shine, is inside cars. It is pretty small from the look of it, and lower power. carputers for everyone!
Apart from that, the computer is rather expensive for what you are getting. Craigslist/ebay/goodwill/whathaveyou would have much better machines for a fraction of the cost. - OrangeTide, on 10/13/2007, -0/+2it can suck MPEG2 over the network faster than it can decode them, so I don't see what you're complaining about the usb 1.1 networking for. the issue is really that the CPU just isn't powerful enough to watch fullscreen DVDs on it. and forget about mpeg4.
I think of it as a cheaper non-portable version of Nokia's internet handheld.
a 3Ghz dual-core full-tower desktop with dual nvidia cards and 2GB of RAM is also useless for tons of things. - OrangeTide, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2yea. Ubuntu is a terrible name. like Yahoo, Google, Prius, ...
I've worked for so many companies with weird made-up names that I am pretty much desensitized to the stupidity of it all. - rhett803, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2This actually would be a nice machine to use for some custom car jobs. I've always wanted a normal computer in my car for my media.
- Sk3pt1k, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2It doesn't appear to have video in or out ports. However, the actual GEOD system on a chip does - that would make the processor demands quite low if the system has hardware dedicated to video decoding. I'm scratching my head over why they didn't include the ports on this system if it support it. It would be a minimal expense manufacturing wise and would turn this system into an awesome myth box (one of my great reserves about using a standard pc for myth is the power usage and fan noise). There's more on the video in & out at the following links:
http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/Additional/SC1200-Diagram_large.gif
http://www.amd.com/us-en/ConnectivitySolutions/ProductInformation/0,,50_2330_9863_9883%5E9884,00.html
If they built the video in/out into the box I'd snatch one up in a second. As it is, I bought the system I'm using right now (a Sony VAIO, 2.8 Gz P4, 768MB Ram, 120GB drive, firewire) for $12.50 at a thrift store. Seems the prior owner monkeyed with the wiring inside and couldn't even get to POST. I popped the box open and reinserted all connectors and it booted right up. Nice. So yeah, you can get something far more powerful at a thrift store for much less, but for embedded applications or dedicated applications for kids or the non-techie this would probably be great because there's so little to monkey with. - Makurosu, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Yeah, especially since it only weighs 3 lbs. What's with $40 to ship?
- SteveMax, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2You can keep the whole system on all day and it'd use as much power as a regular lamp uses in two hours. Heck, it uses almost as much power as many devices do while in stand-by!
- thestagemanager, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2So, in other words: regardless of what upgrades you may make to this thing (making it more than a $99 computer), your biggest pathway in or out of the machine is a USB 1.1 port with a peak transfer rate of 12 Mbit/s. That's going to make putting any content on (or, for that matter, downloading from) it a very painful experience.
This thing is useless as a server, useless as a secondary machine for downloading torrents or other content, and mostly useless as a media playback machine (could probably serve well for audio, but there are cheaper/simpler options out there for that), all for one reason: you just can't get data in or out of this thing fast-enough to be worthwhile. - GrendelT, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2As a high school teacher, I'm waiting for OLPC to hit.
- framitz, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I give away more powerful obsolete systems than this piece of crap.
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