AMD bare bones system - hot from some, cool for others.

[CoffeyCan]

BCI Computers in Seattle is offering bare bones Thunderbird systems for $399 you get:

Gigabyte GA-7ZX-1Mainboard
AMD Socket "A" Processor
Athlon CPU Fan
64MB PC133 SDRAM
Mid-Tower ATX Case
1 Year Parts
$399

I priced the parts seperately off of pricewatch and it came out to $375 without shipping, and this would assume that they were in stock.

This is a good deal for people that dont have access to decent hardware stores in their area, I live in a midsize Michigan town and all of the computer hardware store sell roughly 20-30% above what I see online. The other thing that makes this a good deal is that they have excellent customer service and work hard for the business. You can also tweak the system as you see fit, adding more memory, new mobo, etc, etc, and the price remains reasonable. When I got the comp, I had an my disk drive cable flipped and had the problem fixed in 5 minutes after speaking with them. You cant beat service. This said, this may not be a good deal for those of you that have access to hardware retailers that have little markup when compared to internet cost, but hey, such is life.

linkified

 

[pmark]

what is the speed of the CPU?

 

[GoldenTiger]

No CPU is included, they are telling you that the motherboard takes Socket A CPU's .

 

[gittyup]

Well, I just went to monarch computer and built a custom PC with the following items for $508, which includes
a 1Ghz TBird...

Custom PC $40.00
Cases:100303 - Enlight 7237 Mid ATX w/ 300 Watt Power Su $79.00
Motherboards: 110101 - MSI K7T Pro 2-A Socket A $110.00
Processor: 120287 - AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1000 MHz $198.00
Memory: 140452 - 64 MB PC133 $39.00 $39.00
Warranty: 000007 - 1 Year - Parts Only - Barebone/ Case & Mo
Heat Sink Fan: 130205 - Tai-Sol CEK733092 CPU Cooling Fan $27.00 $27.00
Case Fan: 100510 - Add-On Fan for Enlight 7237 and Fulltower $15.00 $15.00

Total: $508.00


Edit: I ofcourse would not buy only 64MB of Ram, but I was trying to mirror the above options....

 

[Richard98]

<< Deleted Original Message. With the processor included, this is a HOT DEAL. >>

 

[CoffeyCan]

It come with CPU, for the above price its a TBird 1ghz. But there are a bunch of options depending on CPU, just check the link. Best time to buy seems to be around the first of the month, that was the last time I saw a price drop. Also the case was an AOpen w/ 250 UL listed power supply.
CC

 

[bargingunner]

if you go to the site, that $399 gets you a 1 gig amd cpu. i would say this is a pretty hot deal. it looks like they use good components in their systems.

 

[briddle]

Ths looks like a good deal, I just ordered the parts for an 850 t-bird with th ram for about 20 bucks more.

 

[Richard98]

I just placed an order with these guys - great deal considering the price includes the 1 ghz chip.

Base Price $399 64mb ram - Acer A-Open case
Upgrade to Enlight Case - No Charge - (they said this was better than Acer)
Upgrade to 1.2 GHZ $85
Upgrade to Asus A7V-133 $45
Upgrade Fan $10
Upgrade PS $35


Total $574
Charge for using MC $18
Total before shipping $592

 

[Cyberian]

Richard98

If you don't mind, how much was shipping on that unit??

Thanks!!

 

[Richard98]

<< Richard98
If you don't mind, how much was shipping on that unit??

Thanks!! >>



Cyberian,
Shipping/Insurance to me was $46, but that's from Seattle to Nashville,TN. I don't think it's a horribly unreasonable amount.

 

[Phunktion]

I live about a mile away from this place.. I wish they had this deal in January when I bought my new system with a 1 gig Thunderbird.. DOH!

 

[Phunktion]

Then again.. being able to buy all the components you really want from different places (the Case and HS mainly) enriches the idea of building your own system anyway..

BTW.. I recommend Monarch.. they have good prices and have good heatsinks on their motherboard combos..

 

[Cyberian]

Richard98

Cyberian,
Shipping/Insurance to me was $46, but that's from Seattle to Nashville,TN. I don't think it's a horribly unreasonable amount.

Not bad at all - I'd have to pay more than that in tax if I bought the same setup here in NY State.

 

[digim0rtal]

Gigabyte GA-7ZX-1Mainboard
AMD Socket &quot;A&quot; Processor
Athlon CPU Fan
$278 combo on Pricewatch

64MB PC133 SDRAM
$28 - TCWO or anywhere else

Mid-Tower ATX Case
$59 - TCWO or anywhere else

I looked around for 30 seconds and found the same thing for $365, how is this a &quot;hot&quot; deal??? Do you work for BCI or something?

 

[Richard98]

<< I looked around for 30 seconds and found the same thing for $365, how is this a &quot;hot&quot; deal??? Do you work for >>


digim0rtal,
Don't know about you, but I'm willing to pay a total of $34 for someone to put it together, test it and give me a 1 yr warranty.

 

[DRDEATH]

IT is..... or it isn't a &quot;hotdeal&quot;...............IT AINT

 

[yodayoda]

a note about that gigabyte motherboard. it is excellent if you are interested in a nice stable system, but it is not very good for overclocking. it only reads internally set multipliers and will only let you change the bus speed to overclock. very stable, has a useless AMR slot, but not anything to be excited about. now my abit kt7a-raid that arrived today, that's another story....

 

[CoffeyCan]

Whatever. Feel free to bang away. I posted the thread for ppl who dont have decent retailers in their area, like me- if you do, fine. You can build it off price watch, but 1. Have a great time getting support from 1/2 of the dealers, 2. In my experience half the crap on PW is not in stock, 3. The parts listed are not entirely the same. 4. Factor in the $8-15 for shipping per supplier. 5. No warranty.

Yes, I work for BCI computers, that why it says I live in MI, and they are in WA. Thats why I pointed it out in the original post. Its all a very crafty, crafty scheme to help them out. Boy you hit the nail on the head with that one, you MUST work for NASA or something. To me, they have a good deal, coupled with good service. A hard combo to find, and deserving of peoples business.

And as for &quot;a hot deal is a hot deal&quot; thats garbage, a free pen to me is not a 'hot deal', a crappy surge protector, while even free, is not a 'hot deal' to me, same with a crappy keyboard, videocard, winmodem all that is not a 'hot deal', because its not worth my time and effort to go to the store to get the garbage, deal with the insane lines, take the significant chance that you may not get your rebate $ back, all for poorly made low quality components. Garbage is garbage, even if its free, let alone having a to pay a reduced amount for it. So a hot deal is not a hot deal to me, but you dont see me crying to the people that post about it.

Good comment about the OC ability of the stock board, it does have a decent utility that Gigabyte does put out that runs under windows, but I know for most gearhead its not enough. I agree that it takes something away to not be able to build your own off of seperate components, but, I was willing to do. Thanks to all those that were able to post constructively.
CC

 

[xcheckers]

digim0rtal,

Did you figure in all the SEPARATE shipping charges (and possible tax for some people) too? 35 bucks to put it together, test it, warranty it and not have to deal with 3-5 places if their are any issues seems very reasonable.

 

[digim0rtal]

I went and dug a little harder and found this for ~$370 assembled and shipped at several places.

Read my profile, I am Houston. But just b/c I am in Houston don't assume I work for NASA! I wasn't really concerned with the pricing, it's just the way your post was written it was a little too promotional (hence other than just a friendly low price posting).

Since you wrote into a hotdeals forum with the title &quot;hot for some, cool for others&quot; you obviously new this wasn't the best pricing (You say I work for NASA, but you are the ROCKET SCIENTIST!). You go on to say that pricing is not all that matters, but to most of us in this forum THAT IS WHAT MATTERS. If I wanted support I would go down to Gateway and PAY for it. However I would not be looking to pay for it in the HOT DEALS forum.

I guess I am a fool for looking here for the LOWEST PRICES, perhaps this forum should be called &quot;cold deals, but awful friendly sellers&quot;

That's it, have a nice day.

[edited for typo]

 

[Richard98]

<< I went and dug a little harder and found this for ~$340 assmebled and shipped at several places. >>


digim0rtal - This is a smokin hot deal. You found several places that would sell you an assembled bare bones system for $25 less than the sum of the lowest priced component parts and would be foolish enough to warranty and test it! Would you provide links to a couple of these deals?

 

[digim0rtal]

Here's how it works out, ($340 was a typo, $340 not shipped)

POS Mobo + POS Fan + 1GhZ = ~$250
POS 64MB Ram = ~$25
POS Case = ~$40
Assembly charge = $20
=$335
Plus shipping = ~$370 (I graciously put in $35 for shipping, but TCWO has shipping at $6.95 for everything)
[Warranty on chip at the least]

These are estimates b/c they will vary a bit between sellers, but look Accubyte, Micropro, etc (pricewatch). I would put a cart together, but these deals are for phone only. I used POS components b/c that is what BCI probably uses. You could do a nice Mobo, Case, More ram for just a lil' over $400. And if you used some of the deals on here that come up on here(of course this would mean no warranty and you would have to put it together) you could do it for even less. I am putting together a Duron overclocked system for $500. I bet I'll get 1ghz + I'll have good parts, a HD, more ram, a vid card, all for a hundred dollars more. (I understand that is not for everyone though).






360+6.95(shipping)+18(assembly)=$384.95 SHiPPED TO YOUR DOOR! This is almost equivalent to $340 from somewhere else w/regular shipping.

Have a nice day!

[Had to edit because of the cart, hell get 128mb for almost the same price SHIPPED!]
[Had to remove cart before I broke their system, kept adding items]

 

[Richard98]

You're comparing POS components to what BCI actually uses, a completely meaningless comparison. See the original post by CoffeyCan. They use a Gigabyte GA-7ZX-1 MB

The lowest price on Pricewatch for the Gigabyte GA-7ZX-1 is United Distribution @ $104. Absolute Labs had the lowest price on the 1 GHZ Thunderbird @ $173. If you throw in another $10 for a fan, you're at $287. Through pricewatch, Accubyte had the lowest price for the Gigabyte GA-7ZX-1/Thunderbird 1GHZ combo at $289.

The lowest price I could find on an Acer Aopen case was at Axion Technologies - $50.

My Parts list:
GA-7ZX-1/Thunderbird 1GHZ combo at $289 (Accubyte)
Acer Aopen case $50 (Axion)
POS 64MB Ram = ~$25
Parts Total included in BCI system $364
BCI's price including assembly, 1 yr warranty $399

For $35, you get everything assembled/tested and a 1 yr warranty which I consider a fairly good deal.

 

[ExplodingBoy]

I thought about ordering from this place but three things stopped me:

1. You can't order online
2. You have to call, and they don't have an 800 number
3. There aren't any entries at resellerratings that I can find

If anybody has info to counter these points I'd appreciate hearing it.