Wootalyzer's Pricing Post! - The price of today's woot item is saved here for future reference
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HP Pavilion Dual-Core Desktop
$259.99 + $5 Standard OR $25 One-Day OR $23 Two-Day Shipping
Condition: Refurbished

*DISCLAIMER* Wootalyzer! is in no way affiliated with Woot!, and this post may not always be here!

Ok woot, a laptop one day a desktop the next. Then I noticed your current poll "Desktop vs. Laptop" we should have seen this coming.

I bought one of these when it was on sale during Walmart's Black Friday sale. This makes an EXCELLENT server. It's very light on power usage, generates almost no heat at all, takes up to 8GB of DDR3 1333, and has enough ports and devices to make it perfect for a headless server. Put it in a place where it's got a bit of airflow and you'll be golden.

Everyone that was complaining yesterday that the Lenovo notbook was too slow, this is where you have a right to complain about processor speed.

The benchmarks for these basically put them in the class of a netbook. The E-450 is 743 at passmark and the E-300 is a paltry 598, making it netbook from 3 years ago slow.

If you have to get one of these, get the E-450, but I can't say stay away loud enough. We are talking Intel Pentium D speed here.

About the only good use for this would be as a media/file server.

And with all that performance from the 10/100 built-in in NIC you could do... oh wait... never mind. Seriously? It's not 1998 anymore.. Gigabit should be a given, even on 'value' hardware. Pass.

redmachined wrote:I bought one of these when it was on sale during Walmart's Black Friday sale. This makes an EXCELLENT server. It's very light on power usage, generates almost no heat at all, takes up to 8GB of DDR3 1333, and has enough ports and devices to make it perfect for a headless server. Put it in a place where it's got a bit of airflow and you'll be golden.

theguruguys wrote:Everyone that was complaining yesterday that the Lenovo notbook was too slow, this is where you have a right to complain about processor speed.

The benchmarks for these basically put them in the class of a netbook. The E-450 is 743 at passmark and the [url=http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+E-300+APU]E-300 is a paltry 598[/ulr], making it netbook from 3 years ago slow.

If you have to get one of these, get the E-450, but I can't say stay away loud enough. We are talking Intel Pentium D speed here.

It's essentially a low-power notebook in a box. If you look inside the system itself, you can see it's a very small form factor motherboard inside a bigger case. It wasn't meant to be a god-slaying juggernaut that rules universes, it's meant to be for people who need a cheap server or who just browse and productivise.

This is the same processor as my super cheap and super SLOW laptop I got about a year ago. DO NOT BUY THIS! THIS IS INSANELY INSANELY SLOW!

No side cover off pics? What is Woot coming to!?

redmachined wrote:It's essentially a low-power notebook in a box. If you look inside the system itself, you can see it's a very small form factor motherboard inside a bigger case. It wasn't meant to be a god-slaying juggernaut that rules universes, it's meant to be for people who need a cheap server or who just browse and productivise.

I'd spend $50 more and get a Zotac Zbox or for a bit more an Acer Revo if I wanted that type of thing. They are the proper form factor, still very low power, still tons of USB ports, esata, memory stick, etc. ports, faster ethernet, digital audio out, etc etc.

You know with the recent changes to Woot! I feel like they're showing less pictures...

When this was previously posted, they showed a picture of the inside.

For those unaware or haven't looked else where there is a mini-itx motherboard in a mid size tower, should also note the external power brick.

Anyway...!

Be warned, this as others have already pointed out is a computer with netbook equivalent specs (trade-off here is that it takes up more space than it should).

That being said, this is great for people who just want a simple computer for internet surfing and light tasks like using Microsoft Office.

Or for people looking for something for a DIY project.

I could use this to access my BITNET email!

While I can't really recommend this buy, the E-450 system does have a few practical uses.

Firstly, it makes a decent HTPC. If you install XBMC, the E-450 has enough power to drive a 1080p picture. It's low power usage allows you to leave it on continuously if you like.

As previously mentioned, it also make a decent server, so long as you don't mind the limited performance.

On the other hand, if you'd really like an affordable HTPC, I'd recommend the AMD A-series processors.

I agree. This box seems woefully underpowered for the price.

For those who are really on a tight budget and just can't spend more, and for for comparison... Here is a new Asus latptop with a processor that rates twice as fast (1510 at passmark) for the same price ($259).

Here is an E-machines desktop with the same E-300 processor for $179.

Here is an E-Machines desktop with a twice as fast processor, same ram and larger hard drive for $229.

Here is an Acer Aspire with the E-450 processor, larger hard drive and more ram for $10 less.

and so on... Unless you have a specific purpose for these netbook's in a desktop case there are better options out there.

P.S. Why am I am so against these? I simply can't stand having to work on them... I come across customers who buy these because they are cheap then call me out to speed them up which can't really be done. They are slow enough that even complex web pages will take noticeable time to load. When something goes wrong with them they take me twice as long to fix. Try downloading HP's massive bloatware All in One printer drivers and installing them on one of these (it has to decompress the files), there goes an hour... etc etc.

Thank you! I also do not like the slow Atom processors. I tried using a netbook as a desktop and the web pages loaded so slowly, if someone had told me, I would have saved my money! I would not even try Office with one.

theguruguys wrote:For those who are really on a tight budget and just can't spend more, and for for comparison... Here is a new Asus latptop with a processor that rates twice as fast (1510 at passmark) for the same price ($259).

Here is an E-machines desktop with the same E-300 processor for $179.

Here is an E-Machines desktop with a twice as fast processor, same ram and larger hard drive for $229.

Here is an Acer Aspire with the E-450 processor, larger hard drive and more ram for $10 less.

and so on... Unless you have a specific purpose for these netbook's in a desktop case there are better options out there.

P.S. Why am I am so against these? I simply can't stand having to work on them... I come across customers who buy these because they are cheap then call me out to speed them up which can't really be done. They are slow enough that even complex web pages will take noticeable time to load. When something goes wrong with them they take me twice as long to fix. Try downloading HP's massive bloatware All in One printer drivers and installing them on one of these (it has to decompress the files), there goes an hour... etc etc.

This makes an excellent paper weight. My papers stay put, don't fly around, and I feel comfortable with a fan pointed at them as long as this is sitting on top. Excellent brick.

The last two notebooks offered on Woot have been comparable to this machine in terms of performance. It's got zero portability compared to their decent portability (though neither one was exactly an ultrabook in that matter), requires an external monitor, and, thanks to its too-large-for-its-guts case, it takes up a ton of space. The fileserver ideas make some sense, but you could build something better for the same price and run your favorite Linux distro instead.

Definitely scratching my head at this one.

Like other said this is netbook class specs, with a netbook price, but none of the advantages of netbooks which is portability. This wouldn't even be a proper home theater pc because it doesn't have an HDMI port.

Wow..I think HP is just dumping these things on the market. Who is the marketing genius at HP that thought that there was a market for these underpowered, overpriced desktops.

Here's the previous discussion . The previous listing shows the 90% empty box. If you want to use it as a file server, remember it won't power more than one drive with the power brick. I'm not even sure of the board had more than two SATA ports.

Will this play Diablo 3 on its highest settings? If not, could someone recommend a cheap desktop that will?

Will this work for iRacing? Here is what is required:

http://www.iracing.com/membership/system-requirements/

I am not experienced in hardware and don't know if the graphics card i sgood enough. The rest seems OK. Suggestions on where to get something adequate?

How can you justify this price for a 1967 desktop? Dual Core? HP? Two things you'd need to pay me in order to take. Pass.

Does anyone have Fedora or even Arch Linux running on this? Any issues getting all the devices to work?

theguruguys wrote:I'd spend $50 more and get a Zotac Zbox or for a bit more an Acer Revo if I wanted that type of thing. They are the proper form factor, still very low power, still tons of USB ports, esata, memory stick, etc. ports, faster ethernet, digital audio out, etc etc.

Looks like a nice piece of hardware, but if anyone is looking to buy keep in mind it is barebones. The SSD and RAM are not optional, unless you happen to have some already lying around. Don't forget you have to get an OS, if you use Windows $99 for system builders or $179 if you want support.

Today's deal is ready to go out of the box, may not go very fast but it will go

Ok here is a pic of the MB,small MB CPU soldered in.not many upgrades.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&taskId=120&prodSeriesId=5151858&prodTypeId=12454&objectID=c03052631

I personally wouldn't buy it.
JFB

For those not afraid to build their own- this deal gets you a 6 core processor (passmark 5577- 7.5X the performance of whats offered today), 4GB RAM, 500GB 7200rpm HD, DVD burner for $300, only $35 more to have a real computer. It's a shell shocker, so the deal is over at 1P eastern.

http://www.newegg.com/Special/ShellShocker.aspx?cm_sp=ShellShocker-_-976987-_-06052012_1

For those not familiar with BYO, you will have to purchase the Operating System separately... That said, still a nice deal!

gak0090 wrote:For those not afraid to build their own- this deal gets you a 6 core processor (passmark 5577- 7.5X the performance of whats offered today), 4GB RAM, 500GB 7200rpm HD, DVD burner for $300, only $35 more to have a real computer. It's a shell shocker, so the deal is over at 1P eastern.

http://www.newegg.com/Special/ShellShocker.aspx?cm_sp=ShellShocker-_-976987-_-06052012_1

QuantumRand wrote:Firstly, it makes a decent HTPC. If you install XBMC, the E-450 has enough power to drive a 1080p picture.

How well does this processor encode - for PVR purposes?

tgrills wrote:For those not familiar with BYO, you will have to purchase the Operating System separately... That said, still a nice deal!

True- I should have mentioned that. Unless you are doing a linux box,want to do Windows 8 evaluation or have some other means to get a free windows OS- you will need to pay at least about $80 to get an OEM version of Windows 7 64 bit.

Any ideas about how this would run Diablo 3?

Here's the recommended settings:


Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz or AMD AthlonTM 64 X2 5600+ 2.8 GHz
Video: NVIDIA GeForce 260 or ATI Radeon HD 4870 or better
Memory: 2 GB RAM

Can anyone tell me how this compares? Thanks.

greatsunjester wrote:How well does this processor encode - for PVR purposes?

I do windows mediacenter, and there is no way that this processor would be a good choice. XBMC probably has lower hardware requirements, but I still would not choose this processor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XBMC
Hardware requirements
XBMC has greater basic hardware requirements than traditional 2D style software applications: it needs a 3D capable graphics hardware controller for all rendering. Powerful 3D GPU chips are common today in most modern computers, and even some set-top boxes and XBMC is designed to otherwise be resource efficient. It runs well on what (by Intel Atom standards) are relatively underpowered OpenGL 1.3 (with GLSL support), OpenGL ES 2.0 or Direct3D (DirectX) 9.0 capable systems that are IA-32/x86, x86-64, ARM, or PowerPC (G4 or later) CPU based.[4]
When software decoding of a Full HD 1080p high-definition video is performed by the system CPU, a dual-core 2 GHz or better CPU is required in order to allow for perfectly smooth playback without dropping frames or giving playback a jerky appearance. XBMC can however offload most of the video decoding process onto graphics hardware controller that supports one of the following types of hardware-accelerated video decoding:[44] Intel's VAAPI, Nvidia's VDPAU, AMD's XvBA, Microsoft's DXVA, Apple's VDADecoder/VideoToolBox, OpenMAX, and Broadcom Crystal HD Enhanced Media Accelerator.[45] By taking advantage of such hardware-accelerated video decoding, XBMC can run well on most inexpensive, low-power systems which contain a modern GPU. However, Intel Core CPUs with integrated-GPU (or APUs) are not properly supported yet.

brandonhorner wrote:Any ideas about how this would run Diablo 3?

Here's the recommended settings:


Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz or AMD AthlonTM 64 X2 5600+ 2.8 GHz
Video: NVIDIA GeForce 260 or ATI Radeon HD 4870 or better
Memory: 2 GB RAM

Can anyone tell me how this compares? Thanks.

Poorly. You might be able to run the credits and the screen saver.

Radeon 4870 G3Dmark 1738
Radeon 6320 G3Dmark 238

gak0090 wrote:Poorly. You might be able to run the credits and the screen saver.

Radeon 4870 G3Dmark 1738
Radeon 6320 G3Dmark 238

Yeah both of these computers are no good for gaming. The one with the Radeon 6320 would be slightly better due to 600mhz gpu than the 6310s 500mhz gpu. But both are going to be not so good at playing games.

gak0090 wrote:True- I should have mentioned that. Unless you are doing a linux box,want to do Windows 8 evaluation or have some other means to get a free windows OS- you will need to pay at least about $80 to get an OEM version of Windows 7 64 bit.

I looked at it and certainly with the 6 core AMD processor it is very tempting, but looking at the reviews for some of the other components doesn't wow me. The case/power has reviewers calling it basically junk and the RAM, HD and motherboard got 4 stars which generally means good, but certainly not as good as if you hand picked them.

kirkhilles wrote:I looked at it and certainly with the 6 core AMD processor it is very tempting, but looking at the reviews for some of the other components doesn't wow me. The case/power has reviewers calling it basically junk and the RAM, HD and motherboard got 4 stars which generally means good, but certainly not as good as if you hand picked them.

It's a budget build, the case gets 3 stars, and 4 stars for the other components isn't bad considering what you get for $300. Of course you could hand pick better components, but you are going to pay more also. It's light years beyond what is being offered today.

gak0090 wrote:It's a budget build, the case gets 3 stars, and 4 stars for the other components isn't bad considering what you get for $300. Of course you could hand pick better components, but you are going to pay more also. It's light years beyond what is being offered today.

Umm it's the only item being offered today. Newegg's shell-shocker for today is about 6 times the computer for $40 bucks extra. You would have to add a video card and windows to it, but still, it would be an extra $200 much better spent.

Woot has jumped the shark. The interesting things are gone, and marginal junk like HP dumped referbs come up day after day. Like we can't get referbs practically anywhere? Somewhere else on the web are young, ambitious Woot-alikes with more spunk and imagination and pride. It's been fun, but see ya around, Woot

Gateway - DX4200-09 AMD Phenom X4 DX4200-09 Phenom X4 QUAD CORE 9100e with 4GB Memory 640GB Hard Drive DVDRW Desktop Computer sys; ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics; DVD?R/RW Super Multi Drive Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit HDMI, Read More ...
Price:$252.99
Shipping: $19.99 - $9.99 ups / usps
$272.98

If you upgrade to windows 7 add $30

Not great by any means, but better for about the same price.

http://www.ascendtech.us/gateway-dx4200-09-phenom-x4-9100e-quad_i_pcgatdx420009x4.aspx?agent=pricewatch

I bought one of these for my wife the last time it was on woot. The processing speed is great, but there was a problem with the on-board video that I couldn't fix via software (tried new drivers, different refresh rates, etc) I finally bought a new video card and now it works perfectly (almost as good as my gaming PC). They might not all have the video problem, but beware.