Dell ships first budget Windows, Linux PCs for China
updated 10:15 am EDT, Wed March 21, 2007
Dell EC280
Dell on Wednesday introduced a brand new desktop PC, the EC280. The computer is the first to result from the company's Global Consumer initiative and is geared towards the Chinese market, where many are buying computers for the first time: the system ships with Windows XP Home instead of Vista, and uses a 1.2GHz Celeron M to reduce the cost and trim both the cost and case size to a minimum.
A base system with currently ships for the equivalent of $336 but includes 512MB of RAM, an 80GB hard drive, and a DVD reader; a $388 version halves the storage and memory but includes a 17" CRT. Either can be ordered today and ships by March 23rd.
An equally significant development is the C521-n. In contrast to the American Dimension N series where Microsoft license restrictions prevent the company from selling systems with competing operating systems, the slim tower is available in China preloaded with Linux to reduce its price and work with the country's official OS of choice.
A standard configuration of the system ships with an Athlon 64 3200+ processor, 512MB of RAM, an 80GB hard drive, and a 17-inch LCD for $517; it too should be available by the 23rd.
