I have a client that uses used PC's for point-of-sale terminals. They
currently use IBM Netvista 6649's (P3 1Ghz) boxes. They have stood up
well over time but are getting harder to come by, so I'm looking for a
replacement. What would be the most common system one might find on
the used market? Obviously the specs are not terribly important (the
POS application is written in Clipper and has modest requirements) so
the most important aspect would be general availability.

Does anyone have any insight into what PC platform over the last five
years would be considered the most widely used? Or put another way,
what make/model would be the easiest to find on the used market?

Previously Scott Coffey <none (AT) noemail (DOT) com> wrote:
Probably none. One thing you can try is fully integrated mainboards,
such as the C3/C7 mainboards from VIA. They should be available for some
time...

Arno

On 20 Apr 2007 17:02:58 -0500, Scott Coffey <none (AT) noemail (DOT) com> wrote:

The problem is that above 1ghz you start getting into bad cap
territory. I wouldn't touch a 1-2ghz used machine with a 10-foot pole
unless I opened it up and checked the caps carefully. Considering
what is likely needed; case, mb, cpu, mainboard, some ram and maybe a
hd, I'd just build a bunch of cheap new ones and improve the
reliability.

Thanks for the replies Arno and Chris.

But both solutions are too labor intensive. The Netvistas sold for
$35 to $50 apiece on Ebay in lots of 20 or more. Prep time took me
about 30 minutes apiece which added another $30 or $40 at my hourly
rate. I need them in fairly decent quantities (about 100 total) and
building them would simply be too labor intensive.

I'm a programmer and not a hardware guy. I build my own gaming rigs
and personal boxes, but I'm not too keen on building PC's for my
client.

On 23 Apr 2007 08:13:01 -0500, Scott Coffey <none (AT) noemail (DOT) com> wrote:

I understand. The trouble is that I wouldn't consider anything made
before about two years ago and after the 1ghz era to be reliable. If
these are businesses, I'd suggest they pony up or be prepared for
downtime.

Previously Scott Coffey <none (AT) noemail (DOT) com> wrote:
Ok, so this has to be cheap. Unfortunately the PC market is not yet
stable enough for smaller boxes to be a) standard in hardware and
b) available cheaply. The Netvistas were obviously a stroke of good
luck...

Personally I hope that the acceleration will stop soon. To some degree
it has, with people only replacing PCs when the old ones start to
fail. But AMD, Intel, ATI, NVIDIA and Microsoft still depend on the
"new, better" paradigm to keep their businesses going. I see hope that
this will stop in the not too distant future, when they hit hard
technological obstacles. The n-core madness going on at the moment
is a sign of that. After all, nobody needs a 4-core computer as
desktop and only very few need a dual-core. However that seems
the only way to push new CPUs currently.

Arno

On Mon, 23 Apr 2007 08:54:00 -0500, Chris Hill
<chill_mapsfree_000 (AT) centurytel (DOT) net> wrote:

Reliability isn't too big a deal if you have a spare unit on hand for
each deployed unit. At the prices we have been paying for the last
three years, it made more sense to have 75 installed units and 75
spares at a cost of about $7500 than to have 75 new units and (say) 20
spares. The cost of that would be around $35,000. If you were CFO,
which would you rather pay? :P

On 23 Apr 2007 15:08:20 GMT, Arno Wagner <me (AT) privacy (DOT) net> wrote:

I hope not. :-(

Very large corporations and government offices buy hardware in very
large lots. It's a lot easier to deploy and maintain units when they
are all the same... just slap on an image an you're good to go. They
generally keep those units for anywhere from two to five years and
then replace them with a large number of newer replacement units,
generally all at the same time... once again to cut support costs.

What I'm looking for is: what unit was most likely deployed prior to
the current replacement cycle. Right now we're looking at the P4
follow-on product to the Netvista 6649, which is the M2 model.

Previously Scott Coffey <none (AT) noemail (DOT) com> wrote:
Hmm. Convincing.

Why not have a look on Ebay to see what is sold in quantity? Or
ask potential sellers? Maybe an email to some IT department is
all it takes to get a set of 100 or so machines at a very good price?

Arno

On 23 Apr 2007 22:57:35 GMT, Arno Wagner <me (AT) privacy (DOT) net> wrote:

Pursuing both as we speak. Thanks for the replies!