Good deal on Ebay?

[windoze victim]

All i want is a computer to mess around with, without doing anything to my family's comp, not looking into high graphics/audio

Comp 1
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2077595168

Comp 2
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2078223497

Main list
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&query=linux&cgiurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.com%2Fws%2F&ht=1&from=R10&currdisp=2&itemtimedisp=1&st=2&SortProperty=MetaEndSort&category1=3736&BasicSearch=

[Cgawd]

comp 1, total POS

comp2, i would get, u can mess around with the dual procs and its pretty decent specs for the price

[kevinalm]

Cgawd

Couldn't agree more.

#1 I wouldn't have in my junk pile unless they paid me to take it.

#2 Dual processors, fair sized hd, decent graphics card, 192mb ram. Personally not thrilled with on mb sound, ethernet, etc. but will give windoze victim a lot for his money. I'd do a fresh install of rh8.0, they seem to have killed a lot of bugs with the new release. Have to go minimal with a 2G hd though.

[Necrodeemer]

Hate to break it to you, but looking at the second Computer. The BIOS photo shows it doesn't have a HDD.
Only a CD-ROM drive on the BIOS...

[face_master]

#2 looks like its just as bad as #1! Doesn't even have a HDD!!

[rick barclay]

I've bought two computers on eBay. Never, ever again will
I be so stupid.

Buy locally, even if you have to pay more. You'll be happy
in the end instead of getting it in the end.

rick barclay

[face_master]

i'd never buy a computer from ebay; my friend last year sold a POS laptop that he found in a dumpster for 500 which had a massive crack the the middle of the screen. No wonder he didn't include pictures :p

[kevinalm]

Necrodeemer, face_master

Look again, the 2GB hd listed as a scsi, probably because it's on an ultra ata controller.

[windoze victim]

An ultra ata controller?

Whats that?

[kevinalm]

An ultra ata controller is an addin card that allows UDMA 66 (or in some cases higher) hd access for motherboards with onboard ide ports aren't capable of udma. I have one in my system so I realized immediately that there is some sort of hd adaptor card when I looked at the bios. Necrodeemer and face_master misread the bios pics to mean that it had no hd installed.

However, in the case of computer #2 I see now that what you have is in fact a for real scsi card and hd. This is a plus for you because you can add up to 3 more ide drives (cdrom, cdrw, etc.) and probably several scsi devices. Your options are pretty much wide open and you can fill drive bays to your hearts content. ;)

[windoze victim]

So its ripe for addons, while a good deal for playing with it. (comp 2)
And, could the hd be upgraded through the ide ports?
I assume so.

[kevinalm]

Right. Looks like three motherboard ide "positions" are available, specifically primary slave, secondary master and secondary slave. Plus whatever more the scsi card will support. You should check adaptek's website about that. I imagine you'll run out of drive bays first. :)

One thing I don't know is the maximum transfer mode of the on mb ide ports. I imagine no faster than udma33, but that's a guess. If you eventually do upgrade the hd, (probably a good idea) you might be better off going with scsi hd.

Anyway, I think it's not too bad a deal if you get it bought right. My opinion, usual safe harbor statements apply. :D