I have a client who bought five of these for himself and his kids (home business/gaming network) a while ago. I configured them for him. I had no trouble and he has had no issues in the three months that they've been using them. He added Western Digital hard drives, Creative Labs Sound Cards, Linksys Wireless Cards and memory from Pony. The seller has a high satisfaction ratio so we weren't too concerned. If I remember correctly, he got the machines for about $80 including shipping.
Hell of a deal, even with the their gaffe shipping charges how can you go wrong for just over a$100? (I sent a fully loaded box FedEx Ground coast to coast for less than half of what they charge).
Yea, we figured that's how they recoup some costs as the purchase price was so low. I don't begrudge them a profit. That's what business is all about. My client was prepared to spend about $300 in the auction if he had needed to. As it turned out after getting the other parts on eBay also, he had invested under $400 for each machine. And in using high quality parts like the WD hard drives and Creative Labs Sound Cards, I think that made the whole thing better. I easily would recommend going this route.
I haven't checked the specs on the MB in the auction you posted, but 5 PCI slots? Most of the semi-big dog Dells only have 3. Again, a hell of a deal. I'd complain about the lack of a large cache in the Celeron, but it should still run as fast, if not faster, than the PIII's I've been carping about.
when you check out you are given a chance to upgrade things if you want to. there are several mb upgrades and cpu upgrades. you can upgrade to p4 2.4 for $63 more.
The difference is close to raw wholesale. http://www.sharkyextreme.com/guides/WCPG/article.php/10705_2224371__2
I mean the difference between the Celeron and the P4 alone is not much of a markup for the better CPU.