Everex's $200 gPC back in stock at Wal-Mart

You've watched, you've waited, you've sent lengthy, shameless requests to Santy Claus... and now your dreams have come true. The gPC, Everex's $200, Linux-based, Google-tinged-OS sportin' machine is once again available at your friendly neighborhood Wal-Mart. If you'll recall, the desktop PC (known in good company has the TC2502) was quickly snapped up by shoppers hoping to avoid the wallet-burning prices of typical Windows-equipped offerings. The system, sold without a monitor, includes a 1.5GHz VIA processor, 512MB of RAM, a DVD-ROM / CD-RW optical drive, and an 80GB hard drive. Not to outdo themselves with all these exciting, open source vibes, Everex also offers a Vista-endowed version of the system for $298. Both are available now wherever you get your Chinese-made popcorn.

[Nathan @ Nov 21st 2007 6:28AM]

Vista is hard enough to run on a real computer let alone something like this.

Now if they could jam all this into an EEPc form factor (perhaps replace the 3.5" HDD with a 1.8" HDD) and load up a bare bones OEM of XP I would seriously consider buying one, like right now. Hell, even Ubuntu would sell me on this for the same 300 dollar price point.

[mike_p @ Nov 21st 2007 6:46AM]

"Vista is hard enough to run on a real computer let alone something like this."

You don't HAVE to run all those bells and whistles that come with Vista, you do know this eh? Ubuntu is free so why not take the copy of Vista at $300... bargain I say.

[V.I. @ Nov 21st 2007 6:50AM]

I'd rather spend the extra $200 to $300 and get a PS3 and try my luck at installing Linux on that before buying this waste of metal.

If you don't have 2gb of RAM, you can forget any form of Vista...LOL!!

[Nathan @ Nov 21st 2007 6:59AM]

@ mike_p

I have a 3.0 GHz P4, 2 GB RAM and a GeForce 7800. The ONLY way I could get Vista Business to run on this computer and be able to do ANYTHING else that was mildly CPU intensive (IE. any game at all) was to format my formerly fresh install and re-install with a whittled down vLite image that had been stripped of all those bells and whistles you mentioned earlier.

Yes, I am aware that you don't need them and no, I am not using them because I removed them from the install package entirely.

Basically what I am running a themed version of XP with a very anal WGA authentication system, because without all those bells and whistles you are talking about, that's all Vista is.

And if you are going to do that, why not just run a stripped down OEM XP anyway? Hence my initial post.

That is why I don't want Vista on anything as anemic as this Everex beast of a PC, and that is why XP or Ubuntu would be a better choice. Free or not, if it sucks and frustrates the user then it's worthless.

[Joe @ Nov 21st 2007 7:01AM]

Wow, so if they completely change thr product to say, a $300 Windows machine, you'll buy it? I bet you're EXACTLY their target market, you should write them. Really.

[Mile @ Nov 21st 2007 7:21AM]

I agree with you as long as battery life was at least 4.5 hours and it played all my DVDs and most games (I need DIVX and DirectX 10 support because I don't want to have to spend another $300 6 months later just to play the new games). Flash support goes without saying but if it doesn't have 802.11n built-in then you may as well go ahead and charge $350 because I won't be buying it anyway.

[Lou @ Nov 21st 2007 7:50AM]

Ever heard of installing ?

[Eric @ Nov 21st 2007 8:40AM]

Well Nathan I guess you have a really poorly constructed PC, I also have a P4 3.0ghz and 2 gigs of ram and have no problem running windows media center, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere or batch converting video while I watch dvd's. I also have a laptop with a 1.8ghz Intel Core Duo with 1gig of ram running vista easily. Both these computer are running all the visual enhancements as well.

[ryan @ Nov 21st 2007 9:18AM]

Nathan

I call bullshit, I have Vista Business on a Pentium M 1.7 with 1 gig of RAM and a Radeon Mobility 9000 and it runs just fine.

[Ayle @ Nov 21st 2007 6:29PM]

@Nathan

vista business is running fine on my p4 2.4 512mb of ram and 6200 gpu... It flying as long as I don't do anything too ram intensive(fs2004 and the sims2 run great)

[shuard79 @ Jan 7th 2008 8:27AM]

i can run vista ultimate fine on a laptop running a 1.5ghz cpu with 1g of ram and htc can run vista on one of there pda smart phones... http://www.htc.com/product/03-product_htcshift.htm

[Phil @ Nov 21st 2007 6:47AM]

Umm - it's $200 with Linux.

But I just bought a $200 laptop on ebay with a Pentium M 1.5 GHz and Windows XP Pro. Sure it's used - but it's a laptop.

By the way - engadget's new f-ing flash ads are crashing my browser.

[Tim Brown @ Nov 21st 2007 9:47AM]

Get firefox and ad blocker plus extension, no ads ever again

[mdm-adph @ Nov 21st 2007 10:28AM]

engadget has ads?

[L.Cyphre @ Nov 21st 2007 11:13AM]

Sucks for those of us who're engadgeting at work and whose company policy is to use IE.
MR. ENGADGET, TEAR DOWN THOSE ADS!

[Alex @ Nov 21st 2007 6:53AM]

... they cant even find a box that has built in frontal plugs.. they have to add it in the floppy drive.. nice..

[Joe @ Nov 21st 2007 8:20AM]

Not nice, it never claimed to be, but rather cheap, which it is.

[Joe @ Nov 21st 2007 7:03AM]

The article says there's and optical drive. The picture is hiding it.

I love the VIA CPUs. Granted you can cut their clock speeds in half and get a better guess of actually performance, they use so little power. I want to buy one just to buy one- a squid server or something.

But it's Walmart, so screw them.

[Adrian Williams @ Nov 21st 2007 7:43AM]

They failed to mention that the 299$ Vista model comes with keyboard, mouse, DVD-+RW , speakers, and a 17" CRT

[Adrian Williams @ Nov 21st 2007 7:45AM]

sorry here's the link to my last comment
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5673669

[Eric @ Nov 21st 2007 8:42AM]

Holy crap! Thats a damn good deal.

[Esat @ Nov 21st 2007 7:46AM]

This is relevant to my interests.

[Adrian Williams @ Nov 21st 2007 7:52AM]

Also it's one with Vista home basic, one GB of Ram ,keyboard, mouse, and speakers for $278

[NLN350 @ Nov 21st 2007 7:56AM]

You get what you pay for...

[strider_mt2k @ Nov 21st 2007 8:46AM]

Makes me hope someone will post a detailed hands on with one of these systems.

Speaking as a hobbyist, getting an idea of how different OSs run on one would just be gravy for the goose and would probably make for some good reading as well.
I'd probably set the bar for ram at 1GB personally, but 512MB of ram is enough to make it go.

This is probably a perfectly workable system if you set your expectations to low and work from there. Personally I'm interested in lightweight systems like this for basic stuff, as long as they run a browser well.

[Aaron @ Nov 21st 2007 9:17AM]

Windows FLP screams on this thing.

[garbageINgarbageOUT @ Nov 21st 2007 9:28AM]

I would spend the same amount on a used PC with better build quality & decent history. If it is in Wal Mart, corners have been cut across the boards, and that will show though from the get go. I see computers the same way I see cars. I can go out & get a brand new Kia for the same price that I would spend on a car that is a couple years old, but a better car. You get what you pay for. So when the handles are falling off the KIA, or the windows no longer roll up or down, electrical failures, or worse, mechanical problems like brakes (actual problem co worker is having with a new Kia)you realize the cost of cheapness. And yet my three year old Subaru that had 30k on it when I bought it is still problem free @ 60k and a freakin' joy to drive.
My home computer was purchased in September of 2002, and with the exception of adding a second hard drive, has not been upgraded. it is still used constantly by the entire family (5 of us)and can handle the latest OS without a hitch. Where do you think this PC will be in 5 years? I'd guess in a recycling heap. Good think it is 'green'. You get what you pay for. Some go for quantity, I go for quality. I always win in the end.

[mikebabin @ Nov 21st 2007 2:47PM]

I've got two Kias, each with over 100k miles on them. No major problems on either.. YMMV (literally...)

[Oinquer @ Nov 21st 2007 9:41AM]

1 x Ecs GeForce 6100SM-M SKAM2

1 x AMD SEMPRON 3200+ Socket AM2 64Bits BOX

1 x Linkworld Fonte Atx 450w

1 x SAMSUNG DVD/Rw 20X DLayer Black Bulk

1 x Kingston DDR2 1024MB 667Mhz

1 x Caixa ATX 8707 Branco

1 x Hitachi Disco Rigido 80gb Sata II

Total:199.7 €

...Linux on it and it flies by himself......
256MB Graphics Card Onboard.....
756MB RAM

[kinda_fellin @ Nov 21st 2007 9:59AM]

I think some of you are missing the point about the whole performance issue. This box is geared at people that don't have any computer or any computer experience. As for the hardware specs, ITS SUPPOSED TO BE GREEN!!! Sure you can have a 3ghz P4 with all the nice bells and whistles for around the same price as this. That same P$ machine will probably consume 3 times as much energy!

[jperry @ Nov 21st 2007 10:07AM]

So let me see if I have this right, they put out an inferior machine and call it green because it will consume less energy. If it works(which apparently it has been)...good for their marketing campaign.

[insertAlias @ Nov 21st 2007 10:07AM]

http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/31/everexs-199-green-pc-attention-ignorant-wal-mart-shoppers/

Yeah, but would a "green" computer be massively oversized? How much less material could they really have made it out of. It's not really supposed to be green, it's supposed to make you think that it's green (and not underpowered).

[kinda_fellin @ Nov 21st 2007 10:14AM]

Well I guess they could have went ahead and spent more money/time/engineering efforts on using a smaller case, but in the end they really would have used even more energy on the production side if they would have used less materials on a smaller case. Besides, it having a regular ATX case means that when the board thats in it fails (or when the user decides to upgrade) they wont have to buy a special board to do so.

[insertAlias @ Nov 21st 2007 10:39AM]

I don't know, since the other article shows that they are preying on the average walmart shopper's ignorance, I doubt that they are bothered engineering anything. That box looks like an off-the-shelf design; I'm sure if they were really committed to being green they could have taken an off-the-shelf slim case design and used less manufacturing materials, less packaging materials, and saved space in the process.

I'm not saying its a bad computer or a bad idea, just that its become a fad to call everything "green" and a lot of things with that label aren't even close.

[insertAlias @ Nov 21st 2007 10:00AM]

Has anybody else tried the OS this thing comes pre-installed with? gOS is very unimpressive. It's completely built around web aps, so dial up users aren't going to have much fun with it. It's also inefficient and very unfamiliar to the average windows user.

Not a bad deal for the price, but I would download the latest Ubuntu/your favorite distro and use that instead of gOS.

[drmike @ Nov 21st 2007 10:30AM]

Hmm, Chinese-made popcorn....

[vman81 @ Nov 21st 2007 12:53PM]

the mobo/gpu/cpu/onboard audi/networking runs as low as 2W when idle on this thing, THAT's one of the main reasons it's interesting.. :) passive cooling ftw!

[Qsat @ Nov 21st 2007 6:26PM]

Close-out and old un-sold real PCs are selling for this price every week at your local CC, with much better specs than that crap, vista included.

[Sean DL @ Nov 23rd 2007 3:30AM]

If you can point links to such desktop computers that are $199, That'd be swell...

[Qsat @ Nov 23rd 2007 6:07PM]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=3169445&sku=E400-W3619&CMP=ILC-RNV-DOD

It took me 30 seconds to find one, if you would just look before challenging someone ....

[Cammerv8 @ Nov 23rd 2007 11:53AM]

gOS is ubuntu 7.10 but not Gnome is Enligthment, cuz it uses less resources!!!!