[geeks] Rip-off computer rental companies

[roosmcd at dds.nl]

> >> I see there a HP 715/50 with 32 MB memory, 1 GB harddisk for a
> >> whopping: 1149 Euro's (For the US people, about $ 1100?)
> >
> >  Hey, it's an asking price. Can you blame them? It's worth a try.
> 
> And they're tring for more than 8 months now...

 Well, have you called them with a more reasonable offer? They can't be selling 
equipment for those prices; it's just not possible unless they have extremely 
stupid customers. 

 SGI:
O2 300 Remanufactured O2 Workstation, 300 MHz R12000 1MB SC, 256MB Memory, 9GB 
System Disk, 19" Monitor - 5 Available $5900 

 Livingston.de:
W12-300S-9G128V
O2 , R12000SC, 300MHz SC, 128MB RAM, 9GB HDD,Video-IO, 19" monitor
7.500,00 

 SGI:
Remanufactured OCTANE/SE, R12000 300MHz/2MB cache, 512MB Memory, 9GB System 
Disk, 21" Monitor, 2GB Maximum Memory--Price Includes One Year Warranty and 21" 
Monitor! $4995 

Livingston.de
WT5-1P300SE9
R12000, 300MHz/2MB cache, 256MB RAM, 9GB HDD, 20" monitor
8.500,00 

 Yes, the SGI workstations are available for Europe. Maybe they will goldplate 
your Octane for the price difference? 

> > there last year. By the looks of it, they were going to throw a lot of
> > stuff  out soon (which would be about now). But so far I haven't seen
> > any unusual  number of Hp machines for sale.
> 
> Hmm, where should i go to catch some interresting stuff?

 In Limburg. But from what I saw it was mostly 700's and a few earlier C-
series. From what I heard they were planning to migrate to windows, but I have 
no idea if they actually did that. I have no contacts whatsoever within the 
company.

> >  Noname alpha boards sometimes went for fl. 5,- at computer markets in
> > .nl,
> > there were times when stands had multiple pallets stacked with noname
> > boards  MIB behind them.
> 
> I got mine for fl. 25,-. The memory i bought for it was actually more
> expensive than the whole board...

 Yes, that seemed to be the business plan behind selling noname boards so 
cheap :). The cache chips were also surprisingly expensive for an item which 
you can get off almost any old pentium/486 board.

  greetings,
   Michiel