$699 PC + Printer
Saw this on the front page of Target Catalogue this week:
Mercury PC $699, includes keyboard, speakers and Lexmark Z513 printer.
- Celeron 2.xxGhz*
- 256Mb RAM
- 40Gb Hard Disk
- 56k Modem
- 17″ CRT monitor
- Combo drive (burn CD watch DVD)
- Windows XP Home Edition
- 64Mb integrated graphics
* Can’t read the exact spec on the heavily distorted JPEG file.
Everything housed inside a dodgy-looking black case. Not bad a deal I think, if you can live with possibly sub-standard components. Lexmark Z513 costs around $50, and it prints colour. WinXP Home OEM would cost $100, and I am not sure what kind of computer you can build with $550.
Add another half gig of memory, and it would be a nice buy, if you need a new computer to get through student life. Deal closes 13th of July coming Wednesday.
yeh i work at target, and the computer was so popular we were sold out first day and we had a ton of them
This is a terrible, terrible, awful deal. Not that I recommend it, but if you really want a pre-built computer, watch http://morestuff4less.com. Pretty often, you’ll catch deals from Dell like the following:
Dimension 3000 2.4GHz, 256MB Ram, 40GB HD, CD-drive, 15-Inch LCD Monitor $299 after rebate. ($399 - $100 rebate)
As you can see, it’s the same machine as the Target offer, and for the $400 price difference, you could easily pick up a $20 DVD drive, a $35 color printer, and the $70 17″ LCD upgrade from Dell, making the same package — from a better vendor — $285 (41%) cheaper.
Hi J,
Sorry mate, but I think you have lost the plot. This site is mainly focus on my daily encounter of bargains in Australia, so that $699 PC is still considered a good deal. (1) there is a currency difference - $699 is in Australian Dollar (2) we Aussies just don’t get as much bargains as you Yankies do. I know about morestuff4less.com, and I wish we can have more bargain/hot deal sites like that here! Thus this blog…
Hi Guys,
You guys need to check out http://www.bargainseeker.com.au. They got brand name ex-corporate machines with a cheap price tag. For $699, you can pickup a Compaq P4 1.7, 256MB RAM, 80GB HDD, Dual Layer DVD Burner, 17″ CRT, Windows XP Pro. Definitely better than the K-mart deal.
Vincent,
Yes. Definitely. However I am not convinced that a 1.7Ghz P4 will be faster than the 2+Ghz Celeron, especially the 1.7Ghz P4 will definitely be the first generation Pentium 4, which is quite slow. Moreover, it is a refurb machine instead of new.
I am all for buying second hand stuff at bargain price, but someone else might differ.
Hi Scott,
Although it may be a first generation Pentium 4, it still has 2-4 times the level 2 cache that the Celeron has. It will definitely be a more powerful machine.
Also, I have never heard of the brand Mercury. The way I see it, if a company like K-Mart, Target or Big W are selling computers, I would be very caucious of what I am buying.
For $699, I would rather get a custom built machine from my local computer store than from K-Mart.
Vincent,
Nah. Pentium 4 1.7Ghz uses the first generate Willamette core, which has 256kb L2 cache, which is exactly the same size as the current Celeron D. Yet Celeron D runs at faster clock, uses smaller fab process, and has faster bus clock as well. Moreover, Willamette uses only RDRAM or SDRAM. Not sure which RAM type the Compaq desktop uses, but neither are faster/more efficient than the DDR used in the current Celeron D.
And we need to consider the printer as well (though it is probably worthless).
I’ve said that I agree with you that Compaq is probably a better box to buy, especially with 3 year warranty which is probably enough for its product life. But as a ready-to-use computer package that a student can pick up from local department store, I think that Target computer has its place.
Scott,
I know what you mean. For a student needing a basic all-in-one package, it is pretty good.
Have you used the new VIA processors? How would you rate them because K-Marts new computer system uses them.
Sorry I have no idea. What kind of VIA processor is it? Do you have a link?
Being someone from Taiwan as well, I would love to build my next PC using VIA computers, especially building a low-power server appliance. From what I have seen previously, I don’t think VIA based boxes have hit that sweet spot on the price/performance ratio yet. Maybe the new ones might give me some surprises.
hi scott, referring to the Target computer deal (Scott on 2005-07-06 at 9:33 pm), i can get one on special now for $299, from a Target shop in Sydney. is this too good to refuse. Should i go ahead and buy it.? it’s just for me and the kids to use. Nothing too sophiisticated. would it be good for pc games?
tree,
$299 is a nice price for such PC, but it is indeed a bit slow for any “advanced” uses like editing video, playing games, etc. Nice machine for a student to do school work, or a spare PC just to surf the net. Definitely upgrade the RAM and it shall be fast enough to get a uni student writing 4 years of essays.
Both the Target “iCom” PC and the Kmart Mercury PC use the same motherboard, both of which are based on the VIA Samuel 2. I paid $10 for it in pieces, and while it did work, performance was terrible and it was nowhere near upgradeable. I may even actually take it back as the upkeep on it costs more than the value of the machine itself, new or used.
I’ve got one I just recently bought it maybe about 3-4 months ago it works fine i accidentaly got a virus and it all started going slow so i left it a few day with two firewalls running and avg scanning but after it didnt get rid of the viruses i am stuck with them but my icom ignores them and runs fine. I bought the 2700+ with 512mb ram 80gb hdd and an onboard graphics of 32mb my option is to make the pc into a gaming computer by buying a new motherboard for maybe $150 and installing my 512mb ram aswell as another 1gb stick for about $50 then to get a 128mb graphics card costing about $90 dollars meaning a pc with 80gb hdd,128mb Graphics,and 1.5gb ram ending up to $590 dollars in price now thats pretty well spent money so dont give up on your icom there cheap and easy to upgrade!
I took it upon myself to take a photo of the motherboard. Clearly it is falsely advertised as having a Celeron CPU, due to the fact that this CPU is soldered down. Intel doesn’t offer a desktop CPU in that state. They are also only 766mhz, rather than the 2ghz they’re advertised at. Internet PCs? They take forever to load the Firefox web browser and can’t play YouTube video without lag.
Here’s the photo of the motherboard.
http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/9462/dcp2225fv8.jpg
We’ve had several of these come in for service due to board heat issues… usually easy to repair with a reapplication of thermal paste, a $10 fix. However in the long term they’ll quickly degrade due to their lack of expandibility and Ball Grid Array soldered CPU.
Just curious, had a repair come in with one of these systems, end up being a easy fix a psu.
Are the connectors stardard on these case are r they like compaqs where the make there own connection to connect to a certain
board only.
Eg is a 2 pin for pwr 2pin for hdd led etc etc.
Cheers
Matt
Forgot to look. (Incase they want an upgrade later on.