I could get more use out of the cardboard box this thing comes in.

putting a lightweight linux distro on it would work fine (perhaps puppy linux, dsl, lubuntu)

it indeed would work fine for a linux powered grandma computer. you would also save money buy buying something on CL.

Old machines have there value, memory is low, XP Pro a + Good for e-mail web? and Microsoft apps, Not a great deal, just OK, new machines aren't that much more. Slow to boot up, I have one I use for guests, they don't complain

better keep iron hot and caps handy

^Negative. If you do a little research you will realize that it's more expensive to buy older, out of cycle DDR2 memory for instance than DDR3. XP Pro? Really? Do you want to deal with all the security headaches?

This could be good to run FreeNas, UnRAID, Mr House, ZoneMinder, MythTV Client, or Untangle on.

Not bad, I still regularly use a P4 machine on the side. The only limiting factor here is the 512MB ram. 1 GB is recommended and if you get 2GB ram then it's actually pretty fast. Don't discount old technology that is still relevant.

Oh, and even though the ram is old, it still costs a bunch. I recently upgraded my old P4 machine from 1GB to 2GB DDR PC-3200. It cost me $40 but it's a lot faster now.

Work was throwing these out. I grabbed one threw a cheap half height video card in it and a hard drive and DVD drive I had laying around and running XP works fine as a THPC.. I think I have $50 into it. I wouldn't pay $85 for this though. Yes it would be good for granny too. Can't be much worse than an Atom system although that's not saying much.

Is this the same PC Ben posted earlier, and again before that? I think Ben is messin' with the ghettodogs. If you've worked in an environment with PCs like this, you know darn well that they're not worth $85. They're not worth holding your door open! 80 GB HDD? How many years has that platter been spinning? And it's refurbished none the less!! HA!

Sizzling? Like a hot turd on the pavement in August.

Last year, I give 5 of these computer away. I keep two, I do own tons of games and software that require XP to run. I got one Xp hook-up with my X10 products and will not run on Vista or Window 7.. You can find these in Office or Company Garbage Can with-out a Hard Drive anytime. And you can buy these at Garage Sales for 20 to 50 bucks for the whole set with 15inch CRT Monitor and a very old printer.. WoW.. $85 bucks, I would party or get drunk with it..