Everex's $199 green PC: attention ignorant Wal-Mart shoppers
By Thomas Ricker 
posted October 31st 2007 10:16AM
posted October 31st 2007 10:16AM
Make no mistake, Everex can build 'em some kind of ugly. Still, they have learned to spin their gear as green, not underpowered, which counts for something. The TC2502 gPC (that's "g" as in "green," not crap) is out cluttering Wal-Mart shelves with a low, low $199 price tag. Inside, you'll find a 1.5GHz VIA C7 CPU sitting daintily on a Mini-ITX motherboard. A Linux OS, 512MB of memory and an 80GB of disk are tossed in just for kicks. So why that huge-ass case? That's the best part. Research indicates that Wal-Mart shoppers equate the size of the system to its capability. As such, Everex swaddled all that nothingness in a 2-foot by 2-foot monument to plastic. Now go ahead, Greenpeace, we beg you, rip it apart and let us know just how much non-recyclable polymer and dangerous PVC and BFR this pup really contains.
[Via Gadget Lab, thanks Rob G.]
While the concept is certainly admirable, as with many just like it, the product has become a victim of corporate deception (not that the masses of sheepish, uninformed consumers help). Not everyone needs the fastest processors, the biggest HDDs, or a plethora of this or that. Sometimes people just need a basic computer that can do basic things, like writing emails, storing photos, or what have you.
I see this PC has being a great buy for simple purposes, but shame on Everex and Wal-Mart (the NEW evil empire) for trying to deceive people.
What is so deceiving about this? It is capable of doing exactly as you outlined in your comment on a processor that uses far less energy than other processors.
Well I'm talking about the size of the machine and such, how consumers equate large with powerful.
The case is a standard issue PC box that remains largely unchanged for many years. It even look smaller than my last ATX box. At $200 most consumers should know what they will be getting.
yes, what you say is very true. but a $200 pc is insanely cheap, all things considered. I just don't like the fact that their machine is taking up space for the sake of psychological deception. granted, I believe that it's up to the consumer to know what he's buying, but still. it's a matter of principle, I think.
Its cheaper than buying the components for it off of newegg (1.5 Ghz C7 & Mini-ITX mb is $200 open box). I've been looking for something to throw in that TI-99/4A case. Now I just need to figure out how to make the keyboard work with a USB or PS/2 connection. I wonder if this thing has a serial port....
$200? Not bad. I may buy one, slap 2GB in it and put a copy of XP on it.
eh i used to work for everex so i know better enough not to buy one, although i would take it for free... ok maybe i'll buy it for less than a hundred just cause i had some fun memories working there.
Why all the hate? Given the general ignorance of most wal mart shoppers, this should sell like hot cakes! The benefits of these going at least somewhat mainstream are pretty substantial.
1. a computer that uses waaay less power than the average pc.
2. many more lesser well off people will be able to have a pc.
3. many more people will get exposure to linux.
4. via will sell more giving them a more prominent role in the processor market.
5. other processor manufacturers will be encouraged to compete in the low power arena.
6. competition always = good for the consumer.
this is all of course if it takes off. Me personally, I would buy one just for the mobo/ram/hdd/psu. Could make a decent little media box.
@Chris
I know this is hard to follow, while your vaunted "800 year lag" claim sounds compelling, it is in fact completely irrelevant. It's clearly the result of a feedback system and even if it weren't none of those measurements cover a time when humankind is pumping CO2 into the atmosphere. Just because CO2 appears to follow temperature in the ice core record does not mean that is the only possible relationship between CO2 and temperature.
How exactly is that a "huge-ass case?" Judging from the size of the USB ports on the front, it's a smallish mini tower, which really is about as small as you can go and still have expandability and reusability.
If this article even has a point, it's "don't bother even trying to please the greens."
@Jon,
Hit the read link, "Product in Inches (L x W x H):
23.0 x 23.0 x 11.4."
Mini-ITX components fit in much, much smaller chassis:
http://www.engadget.com/tag/mini-itx
Thomas
That has to be the size of the box it is shipped in.
There's no way that case is 11 inches wide, look at it, it's maybe an inch wider than a standard drive enclosure. That puts it at a maximum of 7 inches wide, and less than 18 inches tall. Add an inch and a half of crush space around it, and you've got the dimensions listed.
WE NEED A UNBOXING!
Does it have a X16 slot? pci? how small is it? What exactly softawre is included. Any problems adding 2GB of ram? How would it run as a windows home server?...
I think this is a great buy, Ive been putting off buying a via chipset for a long time because of the fact they ship from England. Anyways, the price of the motherboard/chipset alone equates to $250 US dollars. If anyone is a case modder looking for cheap parts for a form factor system, this is an excellent system to buy as the parts would cost you at least $400. I know I'm going to pick one up tonight and get started on my NES case mod...
Dude, 20W is max power (under load). Which is typical to VIA based mini-itx boards. Your Mac Mini be it G4 or Core based will eat more power either way. Second, just because a power supply is rated at 300W max, doesn't mean it will actually consume 300W. Do your homework before you say stuff like that. Different power supplies have different efficiency however, so some eat more power than others on idle. I don't know the efficiency rating on the power supply in computer however. Still, this is a pretty nice system what what it has in it. Considering that the mini-itx in this computer would run arond $200 alone (retail), at the very least, make the price were appealing. I personally hate WalMart and never go to buy stuff there. But either way, $200 is very nice for this pc. Would make a great NAS or other project computer where price is a huge factor.
I wouldn't call a Mac Mini a "no compromise" system. The video hardware is pretty low end and there's no expandability. It has most of the same tradeoffs as a laptop.
"Research indicates that Wal-Mart shoppers equate the size of the system to its capability." Wow! My 1998 P-II Toshiba laptop must be amazing! Its got 3 times as much stuff in it as a brand new Macbook Pro! 3x the volume! 3x the weight! 3x as long to boot! Must be AMAZING!
Too bad Walmart shoppers are to stupid to realize that price is a factor in capability as well... (aka: you get what you pay for. ) Wish I could sell my laptop for $6000 (3x$2000 of a MBP).
You think this would run Windows Home Server. It meets the system requirements, but i wonder if Microsoft has drivers for the parts inside.
cant beat that price
Attention ignorant engadget writers. Why all the hate? Yeah, it's kinda ug but $200 ain't bad.
What wrong with Rush. He was a pill head while critisizing drug addicts.
@mattclarke - You are a moron and I'm not a hippie. In fact, I don't like hippies because they smell bad and are lazy, but that doesn't change you being a moron.
Why are you criticizing such a large case?
I guess many people would criticize my "large" Antec case that's ridiculously durable (I'm pretty sure it'll outlive me), and heavy (I can stand and twist around on my case - and it won't flinch or bend at all).
But that's what I like - case where I don't have to constantly cut myself on all the side components, or struggle to take out/put in my mobo and such.
Not that people would be working on their computers buying this, but still... its nice to have space.
Where is the CD-ROM drive?
The system is RoHS.
The CPU is RoHS.
The case, power supply, memory, hard disk? Well we don't really know.
"Green" is not all about power savings, which it also does.
I totally agree with the bigger it is the better it will perform mentality.
I used to live in east Texas where nascar was on every night, budwieser was king of beer, walmart was your favorite place to pickup chicks, and your sister might be your mom.
I did IT work in a place like this for several years. If a redneck can go in to there favorite store and find a big shinny box that says internet ready for 199 they will buy it by the truckloads.
If they were to slap a 4X4 sticker on the side of their case or offer it in camo color they could triple their sales.
I might get one to play with and maybe do a little custom case thing. However.........
Is Mr/Ms Wal-mart shopper going to be able to get their cable modem to work with this thing? I don't know much about the distro in question, but I hope and PRAY that it doesn't require them to go into their /etc/ and tweak a few lines in a file or two (or five) and then do a bunch of vi surgery on their smb.conf and so forth just to get on 'the intermwebs'.
So what happens when they go out and buy Quicken or some Windows game and it doesn't load up? It's cool that it won't have as many virus/spyware problems, but do they know what they're getting themselves into?
Frankly, they'd be better of with some sort of Mac or even a Dell with Vista Home or whatever they call it.
However, whatever it is, it is still friendlier than Solaris x86!
I don't get all the hostility in this article either. But wal-mart bashing is the bandwagon to be on now-days if you call yourself an environmentalist. I'd be reall interested in seeing what the author throws away each day in their trash and how much it contaminates the environment. I'd venture to say a great deal more contaminating than this PC over it's lifetime. But then again, it's not as sensational as attacking Wal-Mart which probably does more to reduce carbon emissions by selling inexpensive CFL bulbs to it's 'ignorant shoppers'.
If you were truly outraged by the environmental impact of this PC (assuming you are talking about land fill contamination), you'd be more concerned about reducing landfill use or teaching proper recycling of it's materials.
Let us know when Greenpeace does a search of your trash and lets us know how 'green' it is. Then you can crawl on your soapbox as preach to those of us that don't know better and we can bow to your supremacy. What a joke - get a life.....
EFFECTIVE green means reducing parts to as few as possible, reducing manufacturing process to as efficient as possible, minimizing packaging to as light as possible. It requires A LOT of research, trial and failing, requiring creativity and lots of hands-on hard work. But the end design would save tons and tons of energy required to produce the product. It'll have a high R&D cost of human resources but low on mass production cost of the end product.
This huge box with so many unnecessary parts is not green. Flame me, but I think the greenest computer out there is the iMac, as it probably requires only 1/4 of energy required to produce a regular computer with a flat screen and speakers setup.
No, $200 for that is bad. I got my Thinkpad X31 with Win2K for that price on eBay.
Linux users would probably want to build their own, and Wal-Mart shoppers would probably end up paying another $200 for XP.
I've been thinking about making a carPC and that just about matches the specs of what I'd like to put in. Hmm... With a case that ugly, I wouldn't mind rescuing the mini-itx board inside!
Hmmm, do i want this... or a 1994 Ford Aspire??
It's hard out here for a pimp.
So has anyone seen what is exactly inside this yet? From what little research I have done, I can't find any thing thats runs a VIA C7-D and takes 2 gigs of ram...?
Shameless plug:
www.koolu.com
This is essentially the exact same thing, in a much smaller box. Maybe not a direct desktop replacement for the gamer enthusiast, but if you want something for just pure internet appliance, this thing goes pretty much anywhere. You can even mount it behind your super-awesome plasma TV.
The point here is really this. Windows, while useful, common, and familiar causes most people I know to complain bitterly due to various headaches involved in installation,maintenance,repair,upgrading, etc. Now, here is a $200 pre-configured computer with an OS which people rave about. Jump in. Vote with your dollars against the company which gave you the OS which drives us many of us crazy. By the way, that OS made Bill very rich. Bring on the competition. Freedom to computer users. (Sorry Sir Stevie, can't afford a Mac even though its cool). Competion drives everything important-innovation, developement, solutions to global warming (ego competitions). If Linux sucked that bad, it would have faded. Oh, by the way, it's a pretty much free OS. Volunteers work on it. No-one's really getting rich off Linux. Why a cheap computer with Linux? Why NOT Linux????
I am no Hippie, I love to leopard crawl through mud with an automatic rifle on my back, but every time I get to a beach, there are more glass shards, more hypodermic needles, more discarded razor blades buried in the sand. The water is becoming increasingly filled with sewage, chemicals, carcinogens. This beautiful, pure earth is being turned into a slicing, mutilating wasteland. Humanity needs to wake up or be exterminated. The biggest problem with humanity waking up are the ignorant, greedy scum who call those who love this earth 'hippies' or 'treehuggers'. With their insistence on unlimited population growth and building development in the few pristine regions that are left, they are destroying this planet for profit while the rest of us have to look on while our mountains turn into suburbs for the rich, while our last pacific paradise islands are turned into private estates as the rich run away from the pollution that their factories are causing.
Greed used to destroy the finances of the non-rich, now it is destroying the very environment in which the non-rich lives! This is the dawn of a new revolution. The ignorant scum who fight those who are trying to turn the tide will soon be blasted off to Mars. Let these concrete-loving couch potatoes go and f@#k up Mars if they're too stupid to GET how fragile and intensely beautiful this planet is!
I remember my software development days, when if I put a small, lightweight box, the size of the disk, out on a shelf, no one would buy it. I started filling a larger box with foam, and hid a metal plate within the foam, to give the box size and heft. Sales jumped. It is still the same today. Most "off the shelf" software still goes into a box that is much larger than needed for the contents. (although, thankfully, the heft of a metal plate is no longer needed) Why wouldn't it be the same for "off the shelf" PCs. At least they don't have to load the case up with metal to make it heavier.
The Ipod, PSP and cell phones continue to be reduced in size and are considerably more powerful than earlier models.
The question begs... why not the desktop PC?
Society generally accepts that technological devices are constantly becoming more compact; so why not market desktops in a similar manner. Linux is awesome! Ubuntu/Debian are very easy to use and similar enough to windows that almost anyone can learn to use it.
It would work with xp but would fly on a linux operating system. Linux doesnt need as much ram and is able to work on dinosaur computers. Did you ever try "puppy linux"? If so then you know what i mean.
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