First post, by Evert
- Rank
- Member
I was browsing through my local Junkmail and I stumbled across someone who wants to sell an old Pentium III desktop computer for R200 (roughly $20). He said I could come and have a look at it this weekend (and I most definitely am). The computer has the following specs:
- Pentium III 700MHz (not sure if it's a Slot 1 or Socket 370 model)
- 160Mb RAM
- 4Gb + 40Gb Hard Drive
- Beige AOpen CD-RW and CD-ROM
- Windows XP Pro
- Office 2000
Now, I don't care too much for the OS or Office 2000, I'm more concerned with the form factor of the case than anything else. I asked him to send me a picture of it, and I got this:
Now, there are some worying signs. Firstly, this is a Proline computer. Proline is a South African OEM known for making very low-quality and unreliable PCs. Although, my very first PC was a Proline and that lasted surprisingly long. Another thing that bothers me is that the case could be a Baby-AT form factor, which means I could have to deal with bad airflow and just an awkward motherboard layout in general. I had a Slot 1 & Socket 370 Baby-AT Celeron 466 machine back in the day with a Jetway motherboard in it. It was quite a temperamental little machine, but it lasted a while. That was my last ever experience with Intel. Since then I've been using AMD processors exclusively. Is this a good deal? What should I look out for (apart from bad capacitors)? Thank you in advance for your replies.