Nice Computer Deal at NewEgg.com

[erik_f]

Just purchased a IBM 2.4Ghz with 40gig drive and 512RAM and XP Pro for $135 with free shipping. Promo code saves you $15 off the $150 price. You can try the promo code it will tell you if it worked at check out. EMCLNMV34

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883108197&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL021709&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL021709-_-DesktopPCs-_-LI1A-_-83108197

[john_l]

Thanks Erik.. I had to have one of those.

[blackhawk]

Guys - Let me know how that computer works out. It looks like a good deal. I have been thinking about buying something cheap just to run the SB control software. Is 512MB enough RAM, you think?

[erik_f]

got mine today...it was in a IBM box that said "IBM refurbished, better than new". Very clean a few scratches, but overall very clean and started right up no problems with XP Pro. I'm very happy with it. Two usb in the front and 4 in the back. Haven't loaded anything on it or gotten it online to update it, but so far so good. 512 should be fine to run XP especially if it is mostly a dedicated machine and not running all sorts of other hoo hoo in the back ground...I don't leave my shop computer hooked up to the net. The only thing I use it for is on the fly file changes and running the bot. So Rhino, Partworks, and the control software are pretty much the only programs on there besides the free version of AVG.

[frank134]

Hi thank I just order mine. the prome work too. that a real good deal. yes it will run xp just the way it is, but for the price I order the extra mem.
thank again
frank

[bcammack]

One of the benefits of living on the "trailing edge" of technology is that you get to snap up deals like that. My personal opinion is that the new stuff simply waits faster for me to do something. If you're not composing videos or doing complex computer graphic 3d animation, you probably don't need anything that was manufactured after about 2003.

Check out www.geeks.com (http://www.geeks.com), www.surpluscomputers.com (http://www.surpluscomputers.com), www.pacificgeeks.com (http://www.pacificgeeks.com), etc.

Another good place for off-lease Dell laptops and accessories is www.e-topco.com (http://www.e-topco.com) out of Houston, TX. You can get a 1ghz+ Dell Latitude with XP Pro for $275+s&h almost every day there.

I bought a pair of Rackable Systems refurbished dual 2.0ghz Opteron servers. Only 1.75" high, with 4 gig of RAM and 120 Gig of IDE hard drive (although I discovered they support SATA drives as well), and two network interfaces for $409 *delivered* from www.surpluscomputers.com (http://www.surpluscomputers.com) . No operating system, but that's not an issue for me. They were virtually pristine and as-new when they arrived and they rock!

[erik_f]

I won't shop at geeks.com anymore just my opinion.

[dauntless]

Excellent timing...thanks Erik! The computer I have been using to run my 'bot died on Monday and I have been using my personal laptop since then.

Anyway, I ordered one of the computers from Newegg this morning, and upgraded the memory to 1 gb. My personal laptop has XP-Pro and came with 512 gb of RAM. After getting tired of it locking up after a few hours of use I upgraded its memory to 1 gb, which made a huge difference.

For anybody else contemplating purchasing one of these computers, I strongly recommend adding as much memory as it'll take. The benefit will come on long cutting runs. Some of my files have more than 3/4 of a million lines of code, and I don't want the computer hanging up in the middle of a job.

Thanks again!

[bcammack]

Sorry to hear that, Erik. I've been a geeks.com customer for over ten years now. I know they had a security issue at one point, but that's all been corrected and it never effected me so...

What with the economy these days, I don't mail order much of anything unless it's a part for something mission-critical that is down.

I am a huge fan of newegg.com as well.

[br928]

I picked up one of these today as a backup. I also got the extra 1GB memory. The promo code worked so all told around $170 delivered. Not bad. It also has a parallel port so I can use it as a backup for Mach3 applications as well. It has taken about a half a day to update the XP OS!

[dauntless]

Mine arrived today, and the machine looked brand new out of the box. I too bought the extra gig of memory, so now it has 1.5 gb of ram. This will be a dedicated Shopbot computer, so I didn't bother updating XP. I just loaded the USB driver, then the software and a freshly downloaded update (3.5.17) and was ready to go. Completely painless.

Thanks for sharing this with us, Erik. You saved me serious money and a ton of time and headache. If you are going to attend the Oakland Shopbot Camp, let me buy you a cuppa coffee!

[erik_f]

Oakland would be a lot warmer than Syracuse, NY! I'll take you up on that cerffee someday though.

[blackhawk]

Stan & Stan - What is the correct NewEgg part # for the 1GB RAM stick for this computer? Thanks.

[dauntless]

Brad, here's a link:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134036

[blackhawk]

Stan - That one is out of stock. Would this one work? I can't tell what the difference is except this one costs $4 more.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820141429

[dauntless]

Brad, that one looks like it'll do fine. Same thing, just a different photo and price. Stan

[blackhawk]

Stan - Will the 1 GB memory add into the existing 512MB to create 1.5GB total? I have heard that sometimes you can't mix and match.

[dauntless]

Brad, yes, that's exactly what it does. From the hardware manual:

- Use 2.5 V, 184-pin, 333 MHz double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (DDR SDRAM).

- Use 128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB or 1.0 GB (when available) memory modules in any combination.

So, you can use any brand of memory that fits the spec in the first bullet above, and you can mix-n-match memory. My computer came with two 256 mb sticks, so I just added the 1 gb stick, and when the computer booted up, it showed that it had 1.5 gb (actually 1.4 because of the funny way binary counting works).

You can download the manual here:

ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/thinkcentre_pdf/74p2661.pdf

(Hint: right-click and "Save As" to your computer's hard drive.)

Have fun! Stan

[mjindustry]

I think I need a new pc to run the bot. Mine keeps freezing searching for bot, among other issues.
Look at the deals here...
http://www.surpluscomputers.com/featured-products/cg-77/dell-systems.html

and the Memory upgades here...
http://www.surpluscomputers.com/featured-hardware/cg-63/desktop-memory.html

[mjindustry]

I finally ordered newegg's IBM from the original thread post by Erik. Thanks for the link. Today it's $114 plus shipping, no coupon code.

Would it be ok to have this sit on it's side? The only thing I don't like is it's horizontal orientation. (no room on my shopbot workstation for that)