I picked up a refurbished Dell Inspiron 537s desktop computer the other day. While it’s not quite as small or low power as your typical Intel Atom powered nettop, it was certainly priced competitively at just about $350 including shipping thanks to a Dell Outlet coupon. Keep in mind, this is a refurbished model, but it has a 2.93GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, 640GB hard drive, 4GB of RAM.

The Inspiron 537s is a relatively new desktop model from Dell that measures just 4.2 inches thick. It’s 14.9 inches high and about 17 inches deep, so it’s not exactly going to compete with a Nintendo Wii or Asus Eee Top in the space-saving department. But as you can see from the image above, it fits snugly onto a shelf on our TV stand and actually looks a bit like a TiVo — which is exactly the sort of device I plan to turn it into.

The model I picked up came with Windows Vista Home Premium, but I’ll be upgrading it to Windows 7 as soon as Dell lets me into the upgrade program (It can take up to 10 days to register for the free upgrade). At that point I plan to slap an AverTV Duet dual tuner ATSC TV tuner in there. I’m also thinking about upgrading the video card, but the integrated graphics might be good enough. It can already play HD video smoothly as well as high quality Flash video from web sites such as Hulu. I have an RF remote that I purchased to use with BeyondTV several years ago and it also controls Windows Media Center and Hulu Desktop nicely.

Overall I’m pretty impressed with the little unit so far. I’ve been using a larger tower-style desktop PC as a home theater PC for the last few years. But it has a noisy fan, rather loud hard drive and an AMD Athlon X2 dual core processor that consumes more energy than the Core 2 Duo CPU in the Inspiron 537s. The new computer is cheaper, smaller, and quieter.

I had been thinking about building my own HTPC from scratch, but while the extra control you get when you do that is nice, it’s almost never cheaper than buying a preconfigured unit. The case, operating system, and CPU could easily have run almost as much as this entire computer (assuming you want to stick with Windows instead of building a Linux MythTV box).

I’ll probably post an update after I’ve installed Windows 7 and set the computer up in the living room, but for now here’s an unboxing video:

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Mwave is continuing to clear out its inventory of 8.9 inch Asus netbooks. You can pick up a refurbished Eee PC 900A with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, 1GB of RAM, a 4GB SSD, 4 cell battery, and Xandros Linux for $165 including free shipping.

If you need more storage, the Eee PC 900 with a 900MHz Intel Celeron processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 20GB solid state disk and Xandros Linux is going for $190.

For $180, you can pick up an Eee PC 900 running Windows XP. This model has 1GB of RAM and a 12 GB solid state disk.

All three models are refurbished and come with 3 month warranties. They also all have 8.9 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel displays, 4 cell batteries, and 802.11b/g WiFi.

Or if you’d rather pick up a cheap Windows PC,

Best Buy

Today we’ve got two netbook bargains from everybody’s favorite mini-laptop makers with names starting with the letter A (at least until someone else decides to enter the field).

First up, Best Buy is offering an Asus Eee PC 1000HEB netbook for $350, which is about $50 off the suggested retail prices, and $25 – $40 less than it typically costs. This model comes with a 10.2 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, a 160GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, 802.11b/g/n, and Windows XP Home. You can order it for in-store pickup or pay an extra $20 for shipping. Update: It looks like this is an Eee PC 1000HEB, not an Eee PC 1000HE as originally described. What that means is you get the new chiclet-style keyboard found on the Eee PC 1000HE, but the same 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU found on ealier models. It also lacks Bluetooth. No word on whether it has the same 6600mAh battery as the Eee PC 1000H or the 8700mAh battery found in newer Eee PC 1000HE models. It comes with a 6600mAh battery instead of the 8700mAh battery that comes with the Eee PC 1000HE.

If you’re looking for something a bit smaller, TigerDirect is shipping refurbished Acer Aspire One netbooks for $240. This model comes with an 8.9 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel screen, 1GB of RAM, a 120GB hard drive, 802.11b/g WiFi, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, and Windows XP Home. Since this netbook is refurbished, it comes with a limited 3 month warranty, not the 1 year warranty you would expect from most new computers. This deal seems to be for Aspire One models with blue covers, although you may be able to find other colors if you search the TigerDirect web site.

You can read more about the Asus Eee PC 1000HE and Acer Aspire One in the Liliputing Product Database.

via Portable Monkey

Sure, Dell just started shipping shiny new Inspiron Mini 10 netbooks the other day. But it’s never too early to start adding refurbished units to the stockpile, right? The company is now showing a number of refurbished Inspiron Mini 10 models with prices ranging from $369 to $389 in its outlet store.

The netbooks are described as “previously ordered new,” but I’m not entirely sure how there was time for 80 or so customers to order these computers, decide they didn’t want them and return them to Dell. I’m wondering if these are open box samples that Dell might have sent out to partners or trade publications for review. Anyway, they’re going for a little less than full price, so if you’re cool with ordering a refurbished unit, you can save a few bucks on a Mini 10.

You can read more about the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 in the Liliputing Product Database.

via Portable Monkey and MyDellMini Forums

Sure, it’s no $10 laptop, but for a limited time, you can pick up a Dell Inspiron Mini 9 netbook for as low as $178 from Dell’s Outlet store. Keep in mind, what you’ll get is a refurbished netbook with an 8.9 inch display, a 4GB solid state drive, and 512MB of RAM running Ubuntu 8.04.1 Linux. But you can’t beat the price.

Here’s how to do it. First visit the outlet store, then find the section that says “Check Availability & Prices.” Choose Laptops from the drop down menu. Then filter the results by Inspiron Mini. Finally, click the Price link in the chart to sort by price and you’ll find some netbooks going for $209.

To bring the price even lower add one to your cart, and during checkout apply the coupon code $C$TXXP1CT3BLC. The final price should be under $178.

via CNet