The attraction for win7 pro is that you can set it up to accept an RD connection, making it easy to manage remotely. If any of them have win8 one hopes it would be Pro.
I have been looking for a win7pro machine to get some programs off my laptop (some stuff I’d rather run remotely) and this might be a nice cheap way to do it.
Been looking for a cheapy desktop to install Ubuntu on and use it as a box I can remote to while I’m away. I assume Ubuntu (or any other mainstream version of Linux) install on these suckers?
My refurbished computer was basically inop on arrival…which I’m thankful for, as HP’s customer service basically spent a bazillion dollars on tech support for me, and in the end swapped out my mother board…power supply…hard disk. 
right now…it’s flawless, and btw…specs were way better than the minimum spec that Woot! advertised. I looked it up online for a refurb of the same spec off of sites like newegg, and it would’ve been at least $300+ for a refurb of the same spec.
Why don’t you just woot the models available and sell them on a first come first serve basis ?
There’s tons of free electronic recycling programs.
The previous purchase from the exact same previous offer died within 6 months.
Mine is due to arrive within a few days time, I will post screenshots and real life specs when it arrives!
Just hoping for specs above the min. I was considering adding this into a Beowulf Cluster believe it or not!
I’ve been working with mine that I got by accident in the Woot off. It’s a Lenovo Think Centre M58p that got rave reviews years ago. It’s really solid. I still need to upgrade it, but am in the process of installing Ubuntu server on it. Evidently, Ubuntu server is a bit more problematic installing from a USB stick. If the server version won’t work, I’ll just put the desktop version on. Was just trying to save some memory.
Anyway, it seems to be a solid computer. It was well packed in shipping. The mouse was smashed to bits, but I have mice around so wasn’t really a problem.
I’m going to serve pages inside my house and use it to develop sites and such and for my daughter’s schooling. Will probably run headless, hence the server edition. For an accidental computer, it’s actually pretty good.
Received a Dell Optiplex 380 today. The automatic coffee cup holder doesn’t work. Waiting for Woot customer service to respond. Very happy otherwise. Could ruin my day if the auto cup holder can’t be replaced. Don’t want to return for refund, it’s a good PC for 5 years old. It will replace a 10 year old pc that is out of upgrade capabilities.
Update: Dell service tag says that it originally shipped with a DVD+/-RW. It now has a DVD-ROM 3 years older than the PC. Nice downgrade while in business use.
Update 2: upgraded RAM to 8 GB, added video card and 2nd hard drive (2 TB), all for under $100. It is a workhorse!
Lenovo Thinkcentre m58p with bonus Pirates of the Caribbean DVD pre-loaded.
I also received a Lenovo M58p.
It’s got 2.93GHz and a DVD writer! Already burned some recovery disks on it. The computer looks brand new. The keyboard has a half-dozen non-functioning keys so I had to copy and paste a capital “L” from one of the pop-up pages before I could activate Windows, but the computer is working flawlessly. We’ll see if customer service will send a new keyboard.
I plan to upgrade to Windows 10 after the 90 day warranty is up (the main reason I ordered it).
Just got finished installing Ubuntu 14.04 LTS on my not so new Lenovo M58p. Took less than 10 minutes. Now the server version wouldn’t install from a USB stick. I went to Walmart to buy the USB stick so I didn’t want to go back to Walmart to buy blank DVDs to burn the silly thing on, so I just installed the desktop version. Works very very well.
Received a Lenovo M70e 0830W2T with a 2.93 GHz E7500, 160 GB HD, DVD reader, and 2 GB of RAM. The model was introduced in August, 2010. Windows Experience scores are 6.5, 5.5, 3.9, 3.5, and 5.9. No hardware warnings in the device manager.
The case is beautiful with only a few minor scuffs. It is very clean. No dust inside. The wide keyboard works well, has a numeric keypad, and feet in the back to angle it up. It’s very light and slides around a lot on a laminate desk. The mouse is cheap feeling, pointy, and evil looking. It has a hard plastic scroll wheel instead of smooth rubber. Setting up Win7 and doing updates was easy. I was lucky and happy to get something faster than my Celeron E3300 Linux machine.
It’s cool to see Vista style Flip 3D when task switching. The machine will need headphones or powered speakers though, since sounds are barely audible with passive desktop speakers. The 720p version of a 4K video on YouTube played perfectly with minimal frame dropping in IE11.
I’m sure this will make a great general purpose PC and HD video editing machine. Woot was great to take orders on Sunday and ship from Indianapolis to Tampa by Thursday.
Windows Live Movie Maker was excellent with 720p Quicktime files. Very responsive and easy interaction. Taking a risk with Woot’s tempting mystery deal saved me about $40 compared to similarly equipped M70es. Thank you!
Day 5. Disconnected optical drive (Philips Lite-On from September 2012). Connected a hard drive with its unplugged SATA cables and did a full system backup with the PC case open. Transplanted a DVD writer, burned a repair CD. System has been very smooth and stable. No keyboard problems. Looking forward to Windows 10.
Day 13. Installed Windows 10. Uninstalled it 2 hours later. It’s pointless to have Microsoft Security Essentials protecting the machine when the operating system itself is spyware. At least now I know that restoring the system to Windows 7 worked easily.
It was bizarre that I couldn’t even play around with Cortana without having to undo my privacy settings. Windows 10 is useless.
Day 22. Since rolling back to Windows 7 was fast and painless, Windows 10 was tried again. It’s good. The PC is fast and responsive. Editing 720p video and doing audio projects are a breeze. There were no endless reboot problems from Windows Updates. The hardware works fine with a new USB hub and wireless mouse. I’m very happy.
Got a Dell Optiplex 755 with core 2 due 1.8 GHz, 4 Gb DDR2 Ram and 320 GB hard drive. Works well and am happy for it (Got it for sister who needed a comp for family). Hopefully no issues!
P.S. Case is nice and in g8 condition 
You contacted HP and they were still willing to work on the hardware???
I got a Lenovo Thinkcentre with 2GB of DDR2 ram 160GB HDD, 3GHz Dual Core Processor.
The machine detects and loads bios fine but is stuck in an infinite boot loop that resets very fast when trying to load drivers. I tried using a linux live usb and that won’t even load past the drivers… 
The keyboard is smashed and worthless but the mouse survived the trip. The case took a serious hit during shipping which added more scratches and dents. I’m hoping none of the hardware got cracked which is why I can’t boot up. I’m trying to problem solve it but I’ve already initiated the return.
If that Linux Live USB is an Ubuntu stick, then it will have a memory test utility (memtest) on it. Use it to thoroughly test the memory before attempting install. You can get 8gb of DDR 333 for about $65. It sounds like you’ve got a bad memory chip.
I’ve never personally had an issue with Ubuntu server installing from a thumbdrive. Though I did learn the hard way that if you use automatic partitioning it will install onto the USB drive because it is the /dev/sda device.
Anyhow, I got an Optiplex 380. Box says 2 gb ram and C2Duo 2.93 Ghz. Haven’t messed with it yet. I’ll report back.
I reseated the memory (it’s 2GB of DDR2 
)
Ended up grabbing a windows pro ISO that wasn’t corrupt from my laptop and used the still good refurbished activation key from the case!
All is mostly well now I’m installing updates and planning on reserving a copy of windows 10 on the machine. From what I’ve seen so far win 10 is working quite well on old hardware!
** I was able to finally run the installed memtest with the newer ISO installed to the windows 7 partition.