Well, I've had one exactly like an AC before, but a bit smaller. Nice big condenser to remove heat, nice slightly smaller evaporator (the cold part - in this case the part to gather moisture from the air) and a standard 1/2 hp rotary compressor. My awesome dehumidifier I am saving for a chiller build cost me $5 at a yard sale. This baby has a quiet but powerful fan, a large piston compressor, like one off a chest freezer, and both the condenser and evaporator have nice large tubing, not that tiny stuff on modern ACs.
So basically, it's an air conditioner in a smaller shell, possibly a lot quieter and possibly cheaper second hand. You might get one that you see little benefit to over just using an AC or you might get lucky like I did.