PC without windows

[static_void]

I'm looking to buy a new PC without it having a copy of windows pre-installed on it. I've seen a few PC's with the specs that I'm looking for but they are about £500 and I was wondering how much you pay for the windows license? I know that I had to pay about £170 once for a copy of windows vista.

The PC I was looking at is the dell inspiron 560 which has an nvidia geforce G310 and a intel quad core which is perfect except for windows. I was also looking at their business PC's which give you the option between a few different pre-installed os's. One of these is FreeDOS which is priced significantly cheaper but none of these have an nvidia grapics card which is what I need.

I'm considering buying the PC at £500 and then just overwriting windows with lucid but it seems a waste of money to just throw away a legally purchased license for windows 7. especially when it could cost hundreds.

The only thing that I want in a PC is an nvidia graphics card that supports OpenGL version 2.0 or (preferably) above and a decent intel processor (preferably quad core >= 2.0GHz). Is there anywhere else I can a PC with these specs?

[hakermania]

Check out how much microsoft is selling out its CDs...

[lukeiamyourfather]

The Windows license you get from Dell, HP, and other large manufacturers will be $30-40 of the total cost for the Home version of Windows. The retail versions of Windows are much more expensive because Microsoft is the support contact for the retail versions rather than the computer manufacturer with OEM versions.

[coolman98]

don't throw out windows it is useful for running windows programs if wine doesn't work and just dual boot.

[WorMzy]

Build your own PC. Saves you money, and you don't have to shell out for Windows. Plus, building a PC is a great learning experience, and at the end of the day, you have a PC that you can feel proud of.

[sydbat]

Build your own PC. Saves you money, and you don't have to shell out for Windows. Plus, building a PC is a great learning experience, and at the end of the day, you have a PC that you can feel proud of.This.

Also, find a store near you that can build one for you at a reasonable price if you are not comfortable building one yourself.

DO NOT buy from Dell. They are crap and over priced.

[philinux]

Moved to Cafe.

[Zorgoth]

If you are going for a desktop definitely learn to build your own. It takes a few hours to build a computer and you save hundreds of dollars and choose all the components to be Linux compatible and optimal for your purposes.

You basically need these components:
A processor (I would recommend one of the AMD 6-cores (1055t or 1090t depending on your price range) or else an i5-750/760 as the best value for money right now)

RAM
Motherboard
A case, power supply, fans etc. (cheap)
Graphics card (many processors have integrated graphics if you don't mind the weaker performance - but something like a GT 220 is often as low at 40 USD nowadays and will significantly boost your performance). Go nVidia.

Wifi adapter
Keyboard, mouse, speakers, monitor

It is not very difficult to put the pieces together once you get the tools. You need to make sure primarily that the CPU, motherboard, and RAM are all compatible with each other, and you should be sure to get a decent quality motherboard.

- check if there is a good store near you for computer parts. Here in VA there is a store called Microcenter which is like a big box store for computer builders instead of computer buyers. It would save you a lot of time and money, and you would have a person help you get all the things you need together.

[ajgreeny]

As you talk in £s, I assume you are from the UK. Have a look at Novatech who sell all their computers without an OS if that is what you choose, and have a fairly active Linux user forum. The company is also good at answering questions if you email them, in my experience.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/home.html
http://forum.novatech.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=53

[snowpine]

The price of a Windows license doesn't really factor into the final cost to the consumer, due to the complicated relationship between the hardware vendor, Microsoft, and the companies like Norton paying to preinstall their "bloatware."

That is like asking how much the chocolate chips in your cookie cost, or how much the pickle on your burger costs. Many times with a vendor like Dell, if there are two identical computers, the one with Windows costs less.

Whenever possible, I prefer to build my own computers or purchase with Linux pre-installed (yes, this is possible, even with Dell). That being said, I am not above buying a Windows-preinstalled computer if it's the best ration of price to options (I've done it once in the past 5 years) in which case I typically keep the Windows in a small partition and dual-boot.

[Spr0k3t]

+1 for build your own.

Look at the specs for a computer system that you want. Then put together all the components you will need for the computer system.

* Case (+ any additional fans you might want)
* Power Supply
* Motherboard
* Graphics Card (optional with onboard video)
* Sound Card (optional with onboard audio)
* Wifi (optional)
* CPU
* Memory
* Hard Drive
* Optical Medium (optional)
* Keyboard
* Mouse
* Monitor

You can build a robust computer system for far less than what you found in the field. For an extremely low cost bare system, you are looking under £130. Well geared for a "gaming rig", would probably put you around £500.

Once you have your own system built, you will feel confident about upgrading it, building more. Upgrading your own system you have built is far cheaper than purchasing new.

[ajgreeny]

Whenever possible, I prefer to build my own computers or purchase with Linux pre-installed (yes, this is possible, even with Dell)Not in the UK, I'm afraid. There are two companies as far as I'm aware that sell machines with linux pre-installed, and neither of those are especially good value for money. That is not to say they are not good machines; they are; they are just rather expensive compared to some machines you can find with windows pre-installed, and then simply uninstall the windows and install ubuntu over the top.

Self build seems to be the way to go, or back to the link I gave earlier to Novatech; machines without any OS at all. (actually Free-Dos on some if not all of them)

[kamaboko]

This.

Also, find a store near you that can build one for you at a reasonable price if you are not comfortable building one yourself.

DO NOT buy from Dell. They are crap and over priced.

I have a Dell Vostro 1400 laptop. It has been absolutely bulletproof. It's far from crap, and it wasn't overpriced.

[PRC09]

If you have a few extra dollars just find the system with the specs you want and purchase an extra hard drive.Just swap out the windows drive pop in the new drive and away you go.Also solves any warranty issues about no warranty for non windows os....

[murderslastcrow]

Any good places to buy OSless computers with no added price?

[PRC09]

If in Western Canada....Not sure if they ship outside the country but....


http://www.hltechnology.com/self_build.php

http://www.a-comp.ca/

[obithius]

www.pcspecialist.co.uk lets you configure your own system,if you choose no os you save £79