Looking for semi-barebones system

[BillRubin]

I need to upgrade my son's machine (I bought him the force feedback steering wheel at Amazon and Nascar 2003 is running like sh*t), and seeing as how it is still Baby AT form factor, I suspect it's time for a new case (even though I really like the mega-case it's in now). I have an 80gb drive in the existing system (AMD K6-2/450) so I don't need to buy a new one, and I have an AGP GeForce2 in there so I could use that as well. I also have a CD-ROM and CD-RW that I'd like to reuse so the really tiny cases with a single external 5.25" bay don't excite me much.

CSO seems to have a decent deal on an XP2600 system with 256mb RAM but no hard disk. It's $299 and allegedly they have free shipping. Info is here. Am I going to find anything better than this for that price, or will I regret the quality of that machine? bought my system last year at Cyberpowersystem.com, and have been happy with it, but I went to configure a system and while I can get it down to $260 or so, I'll end up paying $65 for shipping which is ridiculous. Same thing for ibuypower.com, where a friend bought a system. The CSO system is an Amptron, which I guess isn't typically a good brand, but I'm not sure.

Any suggestions? I'm not really in the mood for ordering all the parts myself.. especially if I can find a system with comparable pricing to what that would cost. And I'm in New York so I don't have places like Fry's to go buy the components at.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Does it have to be a barebones sytem or can we order parts through newegg? It'll be the same, only not assembled.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

If it can be ordered through newegg, heres what I would get: All prices are from newegg

Epox 8RDA+ Motherboard $84 shipped
XP 2600+ $96
Corsair 512MB PC3200 C2 $112 OR Corsair PC2700 C2 $80

The speed will be same with both sticks of RAM, but the PC3200 will be able to be used in systems later on requiring more speed.

The only thing I did not include is the Heatsink and Fan. You can either get the retail CPU for a few more bucks, or you can ask someone else which one to get, I don't know about which to get.

 

[BillRubin]

I could order from Newegg and put it together myself, but I think you forgot a case . Anyway, I've discovered that there are some good deals on systems on ebay. XP2400 systems have been going for $150 plus $22 shipping (memory and diskette drive not included). Another guy has an XP2600 system for $235 with 256mb PC2700 memory, plus $49 shipping (boo!). I think that may end up being my best bet.

 

[Johnbear007]

Is buying that stuff on ebay a good idea?

 

[DaveSimmons]

I'd check the FS/FT forum before settling on eBay, good people and sometimes much better prices.

Also consider newegg for warranty but getting a 2400+ and PC2100 DDR to save a nice chunk of money over 2600+. The Antec SLK3700 is a great case, especially for $65.

 

[BillRubin]

Well, I ended up buying a barebones machine from a guy who sells low-end stuff on ebay, but with a better mobo and XP2600+ chip and a cheap case. I have not had a great experience.. I had upgraded at the last minute to the MSI K7N2 Delta-L NForce2 chipset board, and it turns out to be incredibly picky about the memory it likes. I had it hanging all over the place (in Prime95 and some games), and I couldn't go back to the guy I bought from and complain because I did not have memory that was certified to work with the system. Finally after about a week I got lucky and got a piece of PNY memory with Samsung chips which was known to work with NForce2. That worked for a bit, then it started failing again, after a little longer than before. I underclocked it to 133FSB and that worked fine, but it started hanging again when I went back to 166FSB. The mobo temp when the system failed seemed to be 46c, which I was told elsewhere is too high. Finally, last night, I put in a case fan (the guy who sold it to me said I did not need one and sold it to me without one) and all of a sudden my problems went away -- no more hangs, even after Prime95 runs for several hours. The board temp never got above 42, and when I finally got around to closing up the case, the temp dropped another 5 degrees in 5 minutes.

I guess we learn from our mistakes. I definitely would have gone with a better case (I figured I didn't care about the lights and windows but didn't realize that better airflow would have been nice). I did get a boxed processor so I get the warranty. I probably also should have bought my memory from the guy I got the system from, so it would have been HIS problem with it died almost immediately after starting Prime95. I certainly would not recommend him as he ignored my email saying that I was having problems (in fairness I never called and asked for tech support but he could have responded and offered help). I didn't end up paying very much more than Newegg prices.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Ah, thanks for the follow up I didn't notice Johnbear007 had bumped a month-old thread. I'm glad the case fan seems to have helped, and you'll know next time not to trust eBay.

If you haven't done it before, putting together a barebone from parts really is pretty easy. The only mildly hard / annoying part is carefully pulling the CPU heatsink clips over the lugs without losing control of the screwdriver and gouging to death your motherboard

 

[BillRubin]

Well, I didn't just find the guy on ebay. Someon at FW had recommended him as a good person to buy from. But I didn't look into him seriously until I saw him on eba with something like a 99.7% positive rate. There is one guy who had a 95% positive, but that was on a few thousand so there were 150+ negative/neutral. And when you left him anything other than positive feedback, he blasted you back with really venomous negative feedback. This guy was willing to sell me a fan for $4.50 when I bought the machine, but he said I didn't need it. I guess maybe he doesn't sell a lot of XP2600 systems, or maybe the MSI K7N2 runs really hot.. it's been an educational experience, that is for sure! And at least I only had to pay $5 for the piece of PNY Samsung memory that I found worked in the system. I'm hoping that a co-worker who ordered the same thing on Friday gets another Samsung piece, and he is willing to trade it to me for what I have (K-Byte).