[size=18]Earlier this week Everex launched the
gPC TC2502, which is a sub-$200 PC sold at a major US retailer [WalMart], but what makes this unique is that it runs the gOS. The gOS (GreenOS) is designed to be a conceptual Google Operating System that is based upon Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon.
I have one! I got it just last night.
I wanted to see the Via processor. This one is labeled C7-D. I have not been able to find any documentation on the motherboard, so I'm not sure if this one uses the 133MHz FSB or the 400MHZ FSB.
The one I got was a return. I can say right now, WalMart employees absolutely loathe these. They tell people, "That's not Windows. You cannot install Windows games." In replay, the people (like the one who bought the last one in the store in front of me a few days ago) argue, "Yes I can! I have the CD's! I know how to use a computer!" From what I've heard most either get returned, or people try to install Windows and hate them.
Since it was a return, and I had to re-install the OS, I ended up installing Kubuntu instead of gOS.
Blazing speed, it has not. The benchmarks on mine are this;
357 floating point MIPS
1311 integer MIPS
The floating point computation power is, well, dismal. This will hurt BOINC crunching. I'm hoping that more integer-friendly projects like SIMAP will do well. I have not even attempted math-heavy projects with large WU's like Einstein and SETI. I will try WCG and LHC, and see how they go. So far, it has only crunched Malaria WU's. The last two I've had (it's been crunching less than ten hours) were both due tomorrow, so both were/are running in priority mode.
Also, with BOINC projects assuming more robust computers and requiring more memory, the 512Mb this comes with is not ideal. I will have to break the warranty on this thing to add more memory. The problem is, like I said, I cannot find information on the memory. I assume the memory in it is cheap. I have to decide if I want to just get another 512Mb of "acceptable" ram (much cheaper), or if I want to invest 50% the cost of the PC and get a gig of good RAM. While good memory could help performance a bit, it's not as if the PC has a whole lot to work with anyway, and price comes in to play with this. (This is not a primary workstation, so a little degradation is acceptable.)
Graphics could be an issue. It has a built-in low end graphics card. For BOINC, this could cause the screen savers to put more drain on the CPU. It comes with two PCI slots, one of which has a modem. (I think the modem may be removed.) For better graphics, you have to find a PCI video card, though those are cheap.
One thing that bothers me is that according to the VIA web site, the processor has the 3DNow and SSE3 extensions, but these are not listed by BOINC or the KDE hardware manager. I was looking forward to SSE3 (that was supposed to offset the low FP power of the CPU), and I figured 3DNow was pretty ubiquitous. (I thought even Celerons used MMX and 3DNow. I'm pretty sure they were among the very few extensions kept in the TransMeta processors.)
The really nice thing is the low power consumption. The CPU heat sync and fan look like something on a low end P3. The PC is quiet, and the back doesn't feel like a hair dryer. I feel comfortable leaving this thing on all day.
I'd be happy to answer what questions I can. Like I said, I don't have gOS on it, though there are already many reviews on that (it's Ubuntu with Epiphany build 17). (Personally, I question using a graphics-heavy windows manager like Epiphany on a PC like this. I do think Epiphany is visually quite beautiful. However, I'm thinking of trying to install XFCE on this and using that as the window manager, just to reduce load.)
