BA Frys - Barton 2500+ oem + ECS nforce 2 ultra400 $84.99

[Naruto]

I just saw this on the san jose mercury ad. Link That looks like a pretty hot deal to me.

 

[Praxis]

I'm on it like Oprah on a baked ham, Naruto. That IS a pretty hot deal. I don't think I've ever seen a Fry's Nforce combo for less than about $130. This combo Pricewatches for about $121. I'm not a big fan of ECS (Pcchips "elite" division), but it seems to have improved in QC over the years

 

[corinthos]

the mobo is decent, the chip is dope... too bad it's not retail, but hey.. considering retail barton is $79 right now... this is a deal

who wants to hook a Frys-less brotha up with a bundle?

 

[BatmanNate]

I wonder if this is running at the Renton Fry's...does the mobo have gigabit LAN?

 

[corinthos]

no gigabit lan or any of that good stuff...

it's a very basic mobo guys...

it'll get the job done.. has all the basic essentials you need, but no frills like gigabit lan or raid and i don't even think it has sata.. you'll be forking over about a hundie+ for that kinda stuff on an nforce2 board...
dunno why it is, but you see SATA and gigabit lan on sub-$100 intel 865 boards but not often on nforce2 boards...

anyway, from what i hear this board is stable and pretty fast. not sure if it's single or dual channel and one other thing to keep in mind is you'll be limited in your OC options to FSB adjustment.

 

[themelon]

If it is the Ultra 400 than it is Dual Channel. It is the Nforce 400 that is single channel.

 

[Praxis]

Apparently the M2U400-A is ECS' first foray in to a NF2 mobo. The board seems to get mixed reviews. This guy found it unstable and was frustrated by ECS' legendary lack of end-user support, but it gets a reasonable review (7.5 out of 10) at OCWorkbench. Pretty standard stuff, 5 PCI slots and an 8X AGP slot, 3 DDR slots, an Award BIOS with no multiplier control or voltage adjustments, but FSB controls from 100 to 232 MHz, etc. It seems to do pretty well in benchmarks. The DIMM slots were apparently way too tight, which is a slight nuisance. No RAID, not Firewire, no SATA, but this whole combo costs less than a mobo alone with those features in this chipset.

ECS' page is here.

The audio is apparently CMI 9739A 6-channel CODEC and there is mention of MCP. I gather that "Soundstorm" is MCP-T and that the sound on this board is nothing to write home about. Anyone know how it would compare to the onboard sound in typical VIA socket A motherboards?

 

[Unforgiven]

sounds like this makes a good distributed computing cruncher and not much more....still a great deal for a horse of a chip and if you can get a mobo that works (notoriously ecs is about a 50% chance of getting one that works right) then this deal is quality. hey batman nate if you find out that the renton fry's has this could you please pm me or post back on this thread?

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Picked one up at the Concord store during lunch. $92 with tax. Was waiting for a deal that didn't include an ECS MB, but couldn't resist this one. I'm not worried about any NF2 board since no manufacturer to date has managed to royal bork a revision. Most of the legendary ECS reputation was from the K7S5A and the SiS chipset.

 

[kenrippy]

Originally posted by: HeroOfPellinor
Was waiting for a deal that didn't include an ECS MB, but couldn't resist this one. I'm not worried about any NF2 board since no manufacturer to date has managed to royal bork a revision. Most of the legendary ECS reputation was from the K7S5A and the SiS chipset.

my sentiments exactly.

anyone know if this deal has hit so. cal yet? I picked up the combo last weekend when it was $99 w/ a retail barton (in FV). I'll return it if I can get in on this deal, I don't need the retail hsf.

 

[KennyH]

Anyone willing to hook me up with one? I will pay shipping and a little extra gas/troubles. Please PM if you will. Thanks!

 

[WA261]

Same here..Can anyone get this deal for me? I will pay/ TY =)

 

[gsethi]

You guys need to post earlier if you want fellow members to help you. Fry's closes at 9:00PM here.

If you would have posted like couple of hours earlier, i might have picked some for you.

 

[kenrippy]

Originally posted by: gsethi
You guys need to post earlier if you want fellow members to help you. Fry's closes at 9:00PM here.

If you would have posted like couple of hours earlier, i might have picked some for you.

he he, way to rub it in gsethi!

 

[Subodim]

Originally posted by: gsethi
You guys need to post earlier if you want fellow members to help you. Fry's closes at 9:00PM here.

If you would have posted like couple of hours earlier, i might have picked some for you.

"Some"? How would you have purchased more than one when there's a limit of one per person?

 

[gsethi]

Originally posted by: Subodim

Originally posted by: gsethi
You guys need to post earlier if you want fellow members to help you. Fry's closes at 9:00PM here.

If you would have posted like couple of hours earlier, i might have picked some for you.

"Some"? How would you have purchased more than one when there's a limit of one per person?

they never check for limits.....also, even if they force you, you can always go to your car and grab another....but in reality, i have never had any problems with "limits" at Frys. The CSRs dont even care that much...they just want to sell as much as they can as i believe that part of their salary comes from commissions on sales (i could be wrong)

 

[mrrman]

U just have to buy 1 leave and come back and get another, its that simple...Frys dont care they just sell stuff like gsethi said.

 

[RBC]

Anyone know if this is available in Dallas? (I don't live there, I just have a friend that will go out and get it for me).

 

[Subodim]

Originally posted by: RBC
Anyone know if this is available in Dallas? (I don't live there, I just have a friend that will go out and get it for me).

Naruto was talking about sale that took place on Wednesday and Thursday (the ad came out on Wednesday). It wasn't offered in the Dallas area.

A new sale just started on Friday. There wasn't anything similar in Friday's ad, but more ads (good through Tuesday) will come out on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. I'll let you know if I see anything really good.

The "Hot Deals" that usually sell out in in the first two hours aren't as good this Friday as they were a week or two ago. Deals on Page One include a bare Western Digital 160GB hard drive for $89.99, an Emprex 8x DVD+/-RW drive for $79.99, "Premium" 256MB PC2100 DDR-SDRAM for $29.99 (the brand will vary; the last one I got was actually a PC2700 module), and a floor-standing water dispenser with a built-in refrigerator for $99. There isn't anything like a 27" TV for $99 or the Athlon XP 2500+ combo mentioned in this thread. There are some smaller items, though, such as BTC keyboards for $2.99 and a Falcon Duster 2-pack for $1.99. Is there anything else in particular that you are looking for?

Originally posted by: Praxis
I don't think I've ever seen a Fry's Nforce combo for less than about $130...

I bought a Fry's NForce combo for $99 a couple of months ago. It included a Retail Box Athlon XP 2200+ and a Shuttle AN35N-Ultra. At the same time, I bought another combo consisting of an OEM Athlon XP 2500+ with an ECS K7VTA3 for $84.99. My intention was to pair the 2500+ with the Shuttle motherboard (and keep it) and to pair the 2200+ with the ECS motherboard (and sell it). To me, that would have been like buying a 2200+/ECS combo for $69.99 plus tax (a typical sale price) and a 2500+/Shuttle combo for $124.99 plus tax (about $25 less than it would have cost to buy them separately from NewEgg).

I'm hoping that Fry's will offer another combo special with the Shuttle AN35N-Ultra for $99.99 or less. It's a great overclocking board (unlike the ECS NForce motherboard).

 

[kenrippy]

Originally posted by: Subodim
I'm hoping that Fry's will offer another combo special with the Shuttle AN35N-Ultra for $99.99 or less. It's a great overclocking board (unlike the ECS NForce motherboard).

me too

 

[hytek369]

i wished i lived in bay area