EVGA e-7050/610i Extreme Barebone Kit - Intel Pentium D 965 Extreme 3.73GHz, 4GB

[hinderpits]

heres a link to a pretty descent deal on a barebones kit. The mobo isn't great, neither is the psu, but for 200 its a pretty good deal.

EVGA e-7050/610i Extreme Barebone Kit - Intel Pentium D 965 Extreme 3.73GHz, 4GB DDR2 OCZ RAM, Mid-Tower Case, 300-Watt Power Supply
200$

http://www.compusa.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=4660161&sku=B69-1065&SRCCODE=COMEM259C&cm_mmc=EML-_-Main-_-COMEM259-_-barebone

[SeasonalEclipse]

Yeah a decent PSU and a decent GPU and you got a nice little rig there. So for around 350 I think you could get a gaming machine out of that.

[Adragontattoo]

toss a decent PSU in and a HS and you would have a decent little rig for non gamers.

Or a decent Linux box.

[doublejack]

As a bonus, it doubles as a space heater (although this time of year that's only appealing to those who live in the Southern hemisphere)

On a serious note, this is just an OK deal imo. I think someone could put together a low end C2D chip, mobo, 4gb of memory and a cheap case for about the same price. If you're replacing the PSU, buying a GPU, and adding the required hard drive (not included) then you're not looking at a $200 machine, it'll be more like $400+. At that point it becomes a non-deal.

[hinderpits]

As a bonus, it doubles as a space heater (although this time of year that's only appealing to those who live in the Southern hemisphere)

On a serious note, this is just an OK deal imo. I think someone could put together a low end C2D chip, mobo, 4gb of memory and a cheap case for about the same price. If you're replacing the PSU, buying a GPU, and adding the required hard drive (not included) then you're not looking at a $200 machine, it'll be more like $400+. At that point it becomes a non-deal.

At least the listed cpu is at 3.7.... iam loking at newegg and any c2d at 3ghz or higher and a 4gb ram kit already costs more than this 3.7gig processor, a mobo, a case, and a psu so its still a descent deal

[nyker]

that thing cost a lot of energy to run.

[benbaked]

At least the listed cpu is at 3.7.... iam loking at newegg and any c2d at 3ghz or higher and a 4gb ram kit already costs more than this 3.7gig processor, a mobo, a case, and a psu so its still a descent deal

Yeah but it's a Pentium D. Even though it has hyperthreading I think a C2D in the mid-2GHz range would be faster, certainly cheaper to operate and more efficient then that 130w monster.

[dealmaster]

Yeah but it's a Pentium D. Even though it has hyperthreading I think a C2D in the mid-2GHz range would be faster, certainly cheaper to operate and more efficient then that 130w monster.

Basically this. It's not all about clock frequency, instructions-per-clock is just as important (actually more important in some respects).

[doublejack]

Yeah but it's a Pentium D. Even though it has hyperthreading I think a C2D in the mid-2GHz range would be faster, certainly cheaper to operate and more efficient then that 130w monster.

Exactly. The fact that the CPU in the deal is 3.7GHz is not very relevant, because C2D CPU's are substantially faster clock-for-clock, while also being way more energy efficient.

4gb of DDR2 memory can easily be had for $30-40. You can pick up a cheap ATX case almost anywhere for another $40. So that leaves $120-130 for a CPU and motherboard.

Pair an E5200 for $70 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116072) and a 7150 / nForce 630i mobo for $56 ($46 AR) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813500006) and you'll have very similar performance for the same or a little less money.

I think the original deal is OK, but it isn't great.

[funnyperson1]

At least the listed cpu is at 3.7.... iam loking at newegg and any c2d at 3ghz or higher and a 4gb ram kit already costs more than this 3.7gig processor, a mobo, a case, and a psu so its still a descent deal

Not really, the Pentium 4 has a horribly inefficient architecture. Any 2Ghz+ Core2Duo system is going to be faster than this barebones.

Look at these benchmarks comparing that CPU to some C2Ds and some Athlon X2's, the 1.86Ghz E6300 came pretty close to the 3.73Ghz Pentium D's performance.

If you really need a cheap machine, you're better off with one of those $300 Dell deals that keep popping up with 2.5Ghz Pentium Dual Core chips, 3GB of ram, and a 320GB hdd.

[Evilsizer]

Put it this way the only way the Netburst arch could match a E6600(2.4ghz). is that it would have to be running at 4ghz clock speed. the only thing decent in that setup is the mobo/ram..... For the money i would rather build a AMD setup based around a 45watt cpu then buy a space heater.

[KGH]

for $200
I think better with amd X2 combo.