The main reason these Microtel Computer systems are selling is because of their price and availability through Wal-Mart. Their prices fall between $199 and $300 depending upon what options and operating systems are installed at the time of purchase. The hardware is far from the computing power available in most value priced systems today, but your are not buying performance here.

The SYSMAR402 and SYSMAR715 share the same basic hardware specifications. Both are based around the VIA/Cyrix C3 processor running at 800 MHz. They include 128 MB of SDRAM, 10 GB 5400 rpm hard drive, 52x CR-ROM drive, a Trident 3D/Pro video card with 8 MB of RAM, integrated AC'97 audio, integrated 10/100 Mbps Ethernet, and 56 Kbps modem. For expansion, the system has an available 5.25" and 3.5" external drive bay, 4 USB 1.1 connectors, a game port and one available PCI slot. Both require the purchase of a monitor separately for them to be functional.

Of course, the hardware is only going to be functional provided you have software to use with it. This is where the two systems vary. The 402 system comes installed with the Lycoris/LX LINUX operating system while the 715 comes with the Lindows 3.0 operating system. What's the different between the two? Not a whole lot really other than the graphical interfaces. Both use the same base applications that include web browsers, email, games and media players. Of the two, the Lycoris/LX is the better choice because the Lindows OS requires a subscription fee for updates through its Click-n-Run service after the initial trial.

Both operating systems claim to have support for some Microsoft Windows application through a system called WINE (Windows Emulator). Unfortunately, there is little in the way of true compatibility for many windows applications to run on these systems due to the state of the emulation and the hardware provided. The level of hardware included in these machines is barely sufficient to run Windows applications natively and definitely insufficient to have to do it through emulation. If you need this system to be a home system for work or school and require Microsoft applications, these are not the systems to look at.

While the hardware is not the fastest out there, it will be sufficient to run the Linux operating systems. I personally have a Linux server running on an even older Pentium 225 MHz processor with 128 MB of RAM that provides sufficient computing power for the base OS. If complicated programs or a large number of applications are run, it will slow down these systems due to the limitation of the RAM, but both can be upgraded to a total of 1 GB of RAM (something my Pentium Linux system can not).

The driving force selling these systems is their price. It's very hard to find a computer (without monitor) for such a low price. This is especially true if you are not already locked into using the Microsoft operating system or its applications. It does make for an excellent spare computing for those who are looking to learn more about the LINUX operating system but don't want to have a dual boot configuration or spend a lot for a second machine.

Manufacturer's Site