$250 AMD x4 635 system -- newegg shellshocker

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frostedflakes

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Mar 1, 2005
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Very good price, would make a great little system for web browsing and other basic stuff. :)

Is missing a hard drive now that I look more closely, but seems to have everything else you would need other than an optical drive, which is kind of optional these days.
 

Termie

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Aug 17, 2005
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Is missing a hard drive now that I look more closely, but seems to have everything else you would need other than an optical drive, which is kind of optional these days.

To be a bit more direct, it's not really that great a deal. It includes both integrated graphics and a barely-faster HD5450, which Newegg prices at $35AR. It also includes a $15 aftermarket CPU cooler that entry-level users won't need. It then discounts the bundle by $50, exactly the cost of the unncessary parts. Anyone building their own wouldn't buy this configuration. It makes little sense. The graphics card does have some advantages for an HTPC, but the case, PSU, and CPU aren't particularly good for that purpose.

If you're interested in an Athlon build, just order these parts without the graphics card and aftermarket CPU cooler, add a hard drive/DVD-Rom, and you're set for just a bit more money. You'd still need an OS, but you'd need one anyway.
 

frostedflakes

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Well you need the heatsink since the 635 in the combo is OEM. The cheapest retail Athlon II X4 NewEgg has is the 640 and will set you back an additional $10. So 635 with a cheap aftermarket heatsink or 640 with stock cooling doesn't really make too much difference, you're paying about the same.

Some fair points, though. For example, if I was building a budget system I'd probably get an Athlon II X2 instead of an X4, don't really need quad core for web browsing and other basic stuff. Would probably also go for a better integrated GPU like the 785G or 880G instead of lower-end chipset and discrete GPU. But for what you get, it seems like a pretty good deal to me with the combo savings. Add a 500GB HDD and you have a quad core system with 4GB RAM and discrete GPU (albeit a pretty low-end one) for <$300. That isn't bad at all in my book.
 
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