Very cheap Chinese PC $100-200 [Archive]

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mips

November 28th, 2006, 02:17 PM

http://www.ioltechnology.co.za/article_page.php?iSectionId=2890&iArticleId=3565994

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longmeng
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godson

Wonder how many they will sell. At that price it's pretty cheap and would be well suited to poorer countries. Oh, and Windows cannot run on it.

tribaal

November 28th, 2006, 02:21 PM

Incredible to see how fast China is picking up on "developped" countries... A few years ago making their own chips would have been completely impossible!

Let's just hope they make the same improvements on the human rights bill in the not so distant future...

It would be a good candidate for many uses, including cheap school desktops. Not the fastest CPU around of course, but more than enough power for most shool applications.

- trib'

MedivhX

November 28th, 2006, 02:24 PM

Oh... There are Chinese jeeps too... For 15.000 euros you can get a cool jeep... But nothing is like Mercedes... So these PC are among the worst in the class, I wouldn't buy it...

tribaal

November 28th, 2006, 02:28 PM

Hey I didn't say it was good for home users... But for schools etc... Where computing power isn't needed so much. It's just a matter of cost-effectiveness. :rolleyes:

- trib'

mips

November 28th, 2006, 03:10 PM

Incredible to see how fast China is picking up on "developped" countries... A few years ago making their own chips would have been completely impossible!

From what I gather they copied some MIPS stuff, http://www.mips.com/

mips

November 28th, 2006, 03:12 PM

Oh... There are Chinese jeeps too... For 15.000 euros you can get a cool jeep... But nothing is like Mercedes... So these PC are among the worst in the class, I wouldn't buy it...

But for people who cannot afford more these might just be ideal, not everybody can afford a Merc. It also introduces them to Linux which is not bad.

ago

November 28th, 2006, 04:42 PM

This is where Linux future lies... Forget about dell... I bet the little ones will invade most countries within 2 years, and will come with Linux preinstalled.

We should start working on a zero-configuration soho/home serever...

NorthCoast

November 28th, 2006, 05:07 PM

Bah humbug. Cheap low quality crap won't help the poor countries very much. First off, if it is cheap it will be sold mostly in the west, a la Wal Mart. If it survives the van ride home it will soon fall apart and end up as toxic waste along with last week's purchases. Second, if it survives the bumpy jeep ride to the poor village it will soon fall apart where the locals will have limited access to spare parts and won't be able to afford them anyway.

Political noise aside I'm first concerned with China's horrible record on labour and environment directly related to these products. Everything else is a different story. Stick with what is directly related to the manufacturing of these products and it is enough for me to say no freakin way.

For us old enough to remember "bad freon" and how the west bought a clue and decided that we must ban it and move to better freon and regulated procedures for dealing with repairs might know that all the old factories were shut down and replaced. Those factories were sold to the Chinese where they are now happily producing the same bad freon we banned and since then have built many more with no concern of the lessons learned in the past. In my area we're so happy to have shut down a local aging refinery that can't be converted to cleaner production. Yep, we're so proud. The factory is being dismantled and being shipped to China.

The air has no borders. China doesn't care and apparently neither do we as long as we can buy their crap cheaply. Poor countries need *higher* quality computers that can handle the harsher conditions and poor quality electrical systems. They need to be suited to repairs and upgrades which is different than our throw away system. Cheap ain't the answer.

But running Linux *is* part of the answer. Getting them the right pc to run it on is the hard part.

ago

November 28th, 2006, 06:11 PM

Those things are going to be low quality in the sense that will have low spec CPU and lower memory, which, is not an issue:

1) because the specs will be more than enough for ubuntu using lighter desktops, which is more than enough for most users,

2) because the specs will improve rapidly and should be able to accomodate full ubuntu with 3D acceleration within 2Y.

In terms of construction quality those little things will be far more durable than an ordinary desktop. The full PC has no moving parts, they are basically composed by a single motherboard encased in a single aluminium box (for heat dispersion). And if you take an aluminium box the size of two sigarette packs, it is going to be tough, very tough... You can probably drive over it with a car and it will still be working...

The question is: would you rather spend $1000 for something you can do for $100 and takes a fraction of the space?

I do not think developing countries are the only target here...

mips

November 28th, 2006, 06:28 PM

1) because the specs will be more than enough for ubuntu using lighter desktops, which is more than enough for most users,

Ubuntu will not run on these PCs as Ubuntu has no port for the MIPS processors. Does not mean it cannot be ported though.

Brunellus

November 28th, 2006, 06:36 PM

quality is in the eye of the beholder. an absolute increase in output expands the market for all things.

"High quality" is irrelevant if you simply can't afford the item at any price. The first printed books--Gutenberg's 42-line Bibles--were of beautiful quality, but aimed at a narrow segment of the market. Gutenberg himself went bankrupt, and his creditors Fust and Schoeffer ended up paying the bills with much cheaper, lower-quality books, notably a long run of a Latin grammar text by Donatus.

As printing spread, costs came down to the point that the literate working class could buy a ballad-sheet for a penny. These were uniformly DREADFUL things--cheap paper, broken, second- or third- hand type, horrible woodcuts (if any at all). But they were printed matter, and could be read and disseminated. That was enough.

History is on the side of the cheap, the ugly, and the unwashed.

ac7ss

November 30th, 2006, 06:09 PM

Hey I didn't say it was good for home users... But for schools etc... Where computing power isn't needed so much. It's just a matter of cost-effectiveness. :rolleyes:

- trib'

It is a better speed and HD than the $30 "Kids" computer I have at home. Sure it is slow, but what do you really need in a basic computer nowdays but Firefox, Evolution and a word processor. Sure, it won't play the latest shootemup games, but that is not what people who buy $200 computers do with them. It also won't show video files very smoothly, so what.

The $30 computer is a P-400, with 256M ram, 9G HD, and a 17" CRT. I had to supply the KB and Mouse. My wife uses it for games and internet, I use it to indoctrinate the g-kids and wife to Linux and X. Planning on using it as a file server eventually. (Gotta get a second IDE interface, or lose the DVD-ROM drive.)

vanbillybeer

February 5th, 2007, 12:58 PM

Apparently it can play smooth video. Toxic? don't breath this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elZBzu9Gdl8

ago

February 5th, 2007, 01:13 PM

mips

February 5th, 2007, 02:10 PM

The CPU in that PC is a Godsun II which is basically equivalent to a PIII in performance. I would like to know what the future Godsun III with 8-16 cores will perform like.

jethro10

February 5th, 2007, 03:03 PM

Give it 1-2 years and those little things will be able to run the latest version of Ubuntu in full 3D glory, without any noticeable difference from their big brothers. I repeat my mantra: the Chinese will bring Linux to the masses, forget about Dell and HP...

I thinks that my opinion too. There are more 3'rd world people that "1'st". They will start cheap, but more importantly 'learn' linux. Windows will be of no use to them.

Give it 10-20 years.

so, these cheap Pc's will probably be only the beginning.

J

RAV TUX

February 5th, 2007, 03:25 PM

argie

February 5th, 2007, 05:00 PM

The CPU in that PC is a Godsun II which is basically equivalent to a PIII in performance. I would like to know what the future Godsun III with 8-16 cores will perform like.

I remember somewhere a post saying that so far the one in development is faster than a Pentium IV.

At 123 euro for everything but monitor, keyboard and mouse, it's cheaper than anything around right now where I live I think, though it'll only be released in 2008, so by then maybe prices will drop. That lack of a monitor is a pain though.

ago

February 5th, 2007, 05:42 PM

I thinks that my opinion too. There are more 3'rd world people that "1'st". They will start cheap, but more importantly 'learn' linux. Windows will be of no use to them.

Give it 10-20 years.

so, these cheap Pc's will probably be only the beginning.

J

I think that Chinese PCs costing ~$100 will take over the PC market ALSO in developed countries.

I cannot see many people preferring to shed $1000 over $100 for a machine that does the same things. And it is not just a matter of money, the $1000 machine is also far bigger, far noisier, far more power hungry = far more undesirable (unless you are an hardcore-gamer).

Such $100 machines will NOT run Vista, because of tight margin and ludicrous hardware requirements (and not least, Chinese national pride). And remember that since it is preinstalled there are no issues about hardware compatibility. Those will be the trojan horses to bring Linux in the western world.

mips

February 5th, 2007, 07:50 PM

Such $100 machines will NOT run Vista, because of tight margin and ludicrous hardware requirements (and not least, Chinese national pride).

It's not and issue of hardware requirements. It wont run ANY version of windows period. They use a cpu based (or should i say copied) from the MIPS (R10000) architecture which is not compatible with x86. Only way to run any form of windows on it would be if ms ported their code to the mips arch.

mips

June 1st, 2007, 01:24 PM

I remember somewhere a post saying that so far the one in development is faster than a Pentium IV.

If one looks at benchmarks the 1GHz Godson IIE outperforms a P4 1.4GHz have a look at this very interesting document:
http://jcste.ict.ac.cn/paper/hww_071.pdf

I would actually love to have one of these:
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS8003782690.html
http://www.cyrius.com/debian/loongson/fulong/gallery.html

AMD & BLX (Godson CPU manufacturer) working together:
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/VirtualPressRoom/0,,51_104_543_10218~80806,00.html

argie

June 1st, 2007, 02:48 PM

Yeah, it sure does seem like a nice alternative. I even saw a story on digg where it was running Beryl and seemed to manage okay. Any idea how much the 8-core Godson 3 versions will cost? Those sound really interesting.

mips

June 1st, 2007, 03:50 PM

Any idea how much the 8-core Godson 3 versions will cost? Those sound really interesting.

No idea but I know I want one.

stmiller

June 1st, 2007, 05:09 PM

Check this out:

http://www.genesippc.com/efika.php

mips

June 1st, 2007, 05:59 PM

Check this out:

http://www.genesippc.com/efika.php

Thx, but that is a completely different architecture to MIPS.

stmiller

June 1st, 2007, 10:08 PM

Thx, but that is a completely different architecture to MIPS.

Ah, well sorry. Didn't mean to hijack the thread. ;)
That little board is $100 and runs Linux PPC. (Though you do have to add the hard drive).

mips

June 1st, 2007, 11:52 PM

Ah, well sorry. Didn't mean to hijack the thread. ;)
That little board is $100 and runs Linux PPC. (Though you do have to add the hard drive).

No problem but I'm specifically interested in the mips arch.

RAV TUX

June 2nd, 2007, 12:51 AM

Brunellus

June 2nd, 2007, 01:04 AM

without reading the links or the thread:

Are they coming out of the same factories that make Apple computers?
no. wrong architecture.

RAV TUX

June 2nd, 2007, 03:09 AM

no. wrong architecture.

Ahh....yes.

How about the same factory that the Dells are made in?

mips

June 2nd, 2007, 10:16 AM

Ahh....yes.

How about the same factory that the Dells are made in?

Nope, none of the intel stuff. Maybe a bit of the Geode stuff.

jgrabham

June 2nd, 2007, 10:28 AM

I bet the little ones will invade most countries within 2 years,.

are we allowed to talk about invasion and the chinese in the same thread? You'll get us banned from china. :]

mips

June 2nd, 2007, 10:36 AM

I think that Chinese PCs costing ~$100 will take over the PC market ALSO in developed countries.

I cannot see many people preferring to shed $1000 over $100 for a machine that does the same things. And it is not just a matter of money, the $1000 machine is also far bigger, far noisier, far more power hungry = far more undesirable (unless you are an hardcore-gamer).

Such $100 machines will NOT run Vista, because of tight margin and ludicrous hardware requirements (and not least, Chinese national pride). And remember that since it is preinstalled there are no issues about hardware compatibility. Those will be the trojan horses to bring Linux in the western world.

I actually have no problem with that. If you look at what most people use a pc for then this will more than do the job. It also means more computers to more people. If it can reach the masses of Asia, Africa & S. America and give them computers why not.

They have many advantages like you mentioned.

Also not being able to run any form of Windows is not a bad thing. They are effectively helping MS with their piracy issue and entrenching an alternative like Linux/BSD wich will run on mips architectures. It's another thorn in MS side.

The Godson IIE sounds like it is powerfull enough to compare to more recent pcs out there (P4). The Godson III would be plenty for any average user.

PartisanEntity

June 2nd, 2007, 10:56 AM

So these PC are among the worst in the class, I wouldn't buy it...

You have missed the point completely. It is not a computer for people like you and me who have the luxury to choose. It is a solution for people who have extreme budget limitations. You would not buy it because it is not intended for you.

I think it's a great idea and other countries which are able to should do the same IMO.

Another great idea would be to offer free internet for poor people, with limitations such as a download limit. But at least they would have free access to information, data and knowledge which would otherwise remain out of their reach.