Need advice from you guys,Is this a good barebone deal?

[ReDxKiNG]

To make a long story short i am in need of an upgrade. I am on p4 3.0ghz with 1gig of ram and a 7800gs(which has died on me recently). In plain english i regret investing money into that 7800gs as well as that p4 when at the time i couldve gone the amdx2 & pci-E route and am now suffering because of it. So basically I need a new system badly because ANYTHING is better than the crap i have now ESPECIALLY considering that I am an avid gamer. So i need opinions from you guys about this barebone deal i found somewhere..


CPU = AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Dual-Core Processor
Motherboard = ECS/Elitegroup KN1 Lite Extreme Motherboard
Motherboard Chipset = NVidia NForce4 Ultra Single Chip
Case = Ultra Wizard ULT31580 ATX Tower Case
Power Supply = Ultra V-Power 500W ATX PSU
VGA Card NOT INCLUDED
Sound = Realtek ALC655 6-channel audio
Network = Marvell 88E1111 Giga LAN PHY
Expansion Slots = 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, 2 x PCI Express x1 slots, 3 x PCI slots
Ports 4 USB (external); 6 USB (internal); 1 Serial; 1 Parallel; 1 PS/2 keyboard; 1 PS/2 mouse
System Memory 4 x 184-pin DDR SDRAM DIMM sockets support up to 4 GB
PC3200 DDR400 DDR-SDRAM (NOT INCLUDED)
Hard Drive NOT INCLUDED
Optical Drive NOT INCLUDED


I can use the hard drives and memory that I have on my current system for now and upgrade those in the future as well as purchase a 7900gs. I realize this is prob not the cream of the crop as far as HIGH END machines are concerned but its a hell of alot better than the horse s*it i have now and I am just looking forward to playing games such as Crisis,Splinter Cell Double Agent and a couple of other nextgen titles. Anyway I can get all of that for $341.80. What do you guys think? Should I go ahead and do it?

[crainger]

I dunno... The motherboard isn't all that good. My gf was using an elitegroup board and it was and piece of crap.

[ViN86]

Case $40
PSU $40
CPU $198
Mobo $99

Combined: $377

Nah man, you can do better. youre not really saving that much money.

[Imbroglio]

just paid $170 for my 4400 oem, your prices are a little high there Vin :p

yea, wouldn't say it is a good deal at all

[ReDxKiNG]

Case $40
PSU $40
CPU $198
Mobo $99

Combined: $377

Nah man, you can do better. youre not really saving that much money.


well can u at least point me in the right direction as to where i can get those 4 items (pre-built if possible but not a neccesity) for lower than 400 dollars? What would you recommend, newegg? ebay or what? I want to jump on the Dual Core and PCI-E Bandwagon

[AthlonXP1800]

Well back in 2001, I was build a system for my uncle but on the next day my previous motherboard MSI K7T Pro2-A died. My uncle wanted to pay me £300 for my system so I had to looked around local stores for good £50 motherboard and found ECS K7S5A V1.1 I heard good things about ECS compared to ASUS. I was very impressed with the quality of ECS motherboard and stablity, it was better than MSI motherboard that didnt last a year and my uncle system never failed with old ECS K7S5A, 1GHz Athlon Thunderbird, 512Mb RAM and 32Mb Geforce 2MX for 5 years now.

Not bad for £300 budget 5 years ago. :D

Yes I suggest you to go ahead to get items.

I wonder is your Geforce 7800GS still under warranty? If so you can RMA it for replacement then installed in old system and sell it on ebay along with some very cheap second hand or your current memory and hard drive once you bought new memory and new hard drive when you have money ready.

I can get you the same items for less than $341.80 with 2 choices:

Option 1

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Dual-Core Processor retail $182 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103747)
Elitegroup KN1 Lite Motherboard $45 (http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-ECS-KN1-Lite-Socket-939-Motherboard_W0QQitemZ230042816524QQihZ013QQcategor yZ99245QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)
Ultra Wizard ULT31580 ATX Tower Case $36.99 (http://www.fadfusion.com/selection.php?product_item_number=10024202074)
Ultra V-Power 500W ATX PSU $19.99 (http://cgi.ebay.com/BRAND-NEW-Ultra-V-Series-500W-Power-Supply-ULT31841-ULT_W0QQitemZ140048822310QQihZ004QQcategoryZ42021Q QssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)

Total $283.98

Option 2

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Dual-Core Processor OEM $143 (http://cgi.ebay.com/AMD-Athlon-64-4200-X2-Dual-Core-2000MHz-FSB-939-CPU_W0QQitemZ160047669376QQihZ006QQcategoryZ80139Q QrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)
Athlon 64 X2 heatsink of your choice $10
Elitegroup KN1 Lite Motherboard $45 (http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-ECS-KN1-Lite-Socket-939-Motherboard_W0QQitemZ230042816524QQihZ013QQcategor yZ99245QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)
Ultra Wizard ULT31580 ATX Tower Case $36.99 (http://www.fadfusion.com/selection.php?product_item_number=10024202074)
Ultra V-Power 500W ATX PSU $19.99 (http://cgi.ebay.com/BRAND-NEW-Ultra-V-Series-500W-Power-Supply-ULT31841-ULT_W0QQitemZ140048822310QQihZ004QQcategoryZ42021Q QssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)

Total $254.98

[Imbroglio]

i'd use option #2 and use the money that you saved to buy a nicer mobo, as they are the backbone of your computer :)