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$199 - Q8200 and ECS G31T-M combo at Fry's B&M

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spinn

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Sounds like a deal. Retail boxed CPU.

Worth getting over a Q9300/Gigabyte combo (~$280)?

Edit: o, it's a micro-ATX board...
 
I'd prefer the gigabyte combo only because that board will handle overclocking better. Those ECS boards have little to be desired.
 
This is not a hot deal. Newegg will sell you the cpu, retail boxed, for $169.99, free shipping, no sales tax (for most). The Fry's deal will cost you $216 out the door, which means the ECS motherboard just cost you $46. Most definitely not a hot deal (IMHO).

 
Warm if you need something quick and they set you up with retail CPU. If it's not a retail boxed CPU... I'd pass.

That ECS G31T-M isn't a bad board at all. It's not for overclocking. But that didn't keep it from being the board I recently used to build 4 budget gaming rigs.

E7200/E8400 + G31T-M + 4GB RAM + 8800GT + mATX Case + 250GB drive = cheap, small, stable, and effective gaming rig.

The ECS G31T-M is not one of the POS 2nd rate VIA/SiS chipseted boards we've ll come to know from the ECS brand. Will it hold up for 3 years of heavy use? No idea. But it doesn't have any build issues or driver conflicts. And I've yet to hit a DOA board between myself and a friend of mine who's also build a few mAXT boxes with this board.

Now that's not to say that I wouldn't get a G31 based Gigabyte or ASUS for $10 to $15 more if ordering from the Egg. But, when you are effectly getting the board for free, I've grabbed mroe then a few of the CPU/ESC G31T-M combos from fry's. For Free to $25 it's a great value if you aren't overclocking.

I still wouldn't buy this board outright for $45 just due to the history of ECS boards.
 
Speaking of sis chipsets, I actually still have an ECS k7S5A that still works, even after having to replace the top part of the ZIF socket.
 
Originally posted by: Metanoia1
It's been as low as $159 for the same combo at Fry's within the last 4 weeks.
Click to expand...

Really...ok. BTW, it IS a retail box CPU. And I did see Newegg had it for $40 AR.

I'm gonna take the plunge with the Q9300/Gigabyte combo instead.
 
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