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DEAD AND BURIED [B&M] Microcenter 2600K $199.99

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MoInSTL said:
I just picked up the i-5 2500k with the Asrock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 deal at MC on 4/3. The 2500K was $179.99. Should I return the 2500K while I still can?

Edit: I wonder if they would try and go back and charge me the full price for the mobo. Sounds like the $50 off combo deal is still going on though.
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I would buy the 2600k and list it on ebay at a good price say 250-265. you would be doing someone a favor since it is a good price. the lowest one on ebay is 268 as a buy it now. this would make your 2500k even cheaper. since you would make a small profit on the 2600k.
 
hyrule4927 said:
Thinking of bundling with the Gigabyte UD3H-B3 for $50 off.
Click to expand...

I have 2 of these Gigabyte boards. It's a nice board and once I got the BIOS figured out. The interesting part is the difficulties I had with updating the BIOS and getting random reboots until I did it 'right'. I think using the reset button is also a little wonky but it's my understanding from reading forums that this is common with Z68 boards.

To get the board stable I had to flash the BIOS and reset it to factory defaults and then flash the 2nd BIOS as well. Couldn't find any instructions in the manual on flashing the 2nd BIOS. You press Alt-F12 when booting up and the system will copy the primary BIOS to the secondary. Once I got that figured out both systems have been rock steady.

edit: Oh yeah, one odd thing I found is that the eSata port is not hot-swap capable as far as I could tell. The 'remove hardware' icon doesn't pop up in the system tray. I ended up using an eSata bracket connected to the Marvell controller to get hot-swap.
 
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Okay you all, the discussion is about what is the best bang for your buck (in gaming) RIGHT NOW.

While none of us have a crystal ball (at least I do not) what about for gaming 12 to 24 months down the road - Is it worth the extra $50 for the i7 and its discounted Motherboard now or not???

I am building one for my son's birthday and have the i7 even though I had considered the i5 but this will have to last him at least 18 months if not 24 months. I believe he plays Skyrim and a lot of other high end games. And, he will buy the video card as we both realize it is the key ingredient for him.

I simply want to ensure he has a solid base in which to operate from since I will add 16GB RAM, an SSD primary with a 1TB hard drive which should make life easier for him as long as the shytty Comcast doesn't keep crapping out on us!

Again, for gaming IN THE NEXT 18 MONTHS, is it worth it to buy the i7 and discounted Motherboard for $50 more or not in your honest opinion?

Thank you all (especially Zap) for your consideration and assistance!
 
zettler said:
Okay you all, the discussion is about what is the best bang for your buck (in gaming) RIGHT NOW.

While none of us have a crystal ball (at least I do not) what about for gaming 12 to 24 months down the road - Is it worth the extra $50 for the i7 and its discounted Motherboard now or not???

I am building one for my son's birthday and have the i7 even though I had considered the i5 but this will have to last him at least 18 months if not 24 months. I believe he plays Skyrim and a lot of other high end games. And, he will buy the video card as we both realize it is the key ingredient for him.

I simply want to ensure he has a solid base in which to operate from since I will add 16GB RAM, an SSD primary with a 1TB hard drive which should make life easier for him as long as the shytty Comcast doesn't keep crapping out on us!

Again, for gaming IN THE NEXT 18 MONTHS, is it worth it to buy the i7 and discounted Motherboard for $50 more or not in your honest opinion?

Thank you all (especially Zap) for your consideration and assistance!
Click to expand...

edit: misunderstood, if you are trying to justify the extra cost of the i7 over the i5 for a gaming system, it's not worth it-there will be no perceivable difference between the two. The only significant feature that the i7 has over the i5 is hyperthreading, which is only useful in applications that utilize a lot of threads (video editing/rendering software for example).

however, if you've already got the i7 in hand, you're better off just keeping it or selling it to someone else for a small profit-microcenter was practically giving these away at the $199 price point.
 
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zettler said:
Okay you all, the discussion is about what is the best bang for your buck (in gaming) RIGHT NOW.

While none of us have a crystal ball (at least I do not) what about for gaming 12 to 24 months down the road - Is it worth the extra $50 for the i7 and its discounted Motherboard now or not???

I am building one for my son's birthday and have the i7 even though I had considered the i5 but this will have to last him at least 18 months if not 24 months. I believe he plays Skyrim and a lot of other high end games. And, he will buy the video card as we both realize it is the key ingredient for him.

I simply want to ensure he has a solid base in which to operate from since I will add 16GB RAM, an SSD primary with a 1TB hard drive which should make life easier for him as long as the shytty Comcast doesn't keep crapping out on us!

Again, for gaming IN THE NEXT 18 MONTHS, is it worth it to buy the i7 and discounted Motherboard for $50 more or not in your honest opinion?

Thank you all (especially Zap) for your consideration and assistance!
Click to expand...

Nope, in my amatuer opinion an i5 2500k would be more than fine. Games just don't really require that much CPU power any longer.
 
zettler said:
Okay you all, the discussion is about what is the best bang for your buck (in gaming) RIGHT NOW.

While none of us have a crystal ball (at least I do not) what about for gaming 12 to 24 months down the road - Is it worth the extra $50 for the i7 and its discounted Motherboard now or not???

I am building one for my son's birthday and have the i7 even though I had considered the i5 but this will have to last him at least 18 months if not 24 months. I believe he plays Skyrim and a lot of other high end games. And, he will buy the video card as we both realize it is the key ingredient for him.

I simply want to ensure he has a solid base in which to operate from since I will add 16GB RAM, an SSD primary with a 1TB hard drive which should make life easier for him as long as the shytty Comcast doesn't keep crapping out on us!

Again, for gaming IN THE NEXT 18 MONTHS, is it worth it to buy the i7 and discounted Motherboard for $50 more or not in your honest opinion?

Thank you all (especially Zap) for your consideration and assistance!
Click to expand...

If you can go to a micro center and buy the i7 2600k for 199 plus tax buy it. the mobo is less of an issue as there are a boat load of mobos to choose from. If you can not get a i7 2600k for 199 buy a 2500k for 200 or so. I am not sure if micro center is pushing the 2500k at 179 any more that is what i paid for my 2500k.
 
philipma1957 said:
I would buy the 2600k and list it on ebay at a good price say 250-265. you would be doing someone a favor since it is a good price. the lowest one on ebay is 268 as a buy it now. this would make your 2500k even cheaper. since you would make a small profit on the 2600k.
Click to expand...

And this relates to my questions how? I'm talking about returning/exchanging it.
 
MoInSTL said:
And this relates to my questions how? I'm talking about returning/exchanging it.
Click to expand...

I read it as you had it in use and were not sure if the return was allowed.
I offered an alternative if the return was not allowed.
sorry for my misunderstanding.
 
Sitting outside the MicroCenter right now as I have one waiting to pickup. Still can't decide if the extra $40-50 is worth it for the i7....

Thanks everyone.
 
alaricljs said:
I have 2 of these Gigabyte boards. It's a nice board and once I got the BIOS figured out. The interesting part is the difficulties I had with updating the BIOS and getting random reboots until I did it 'right'. I think using the reset button is also a little wonky but it's my understanding from reading forums that this is common with Z68 boards.

To get the board stable I had to flash the BIOS and reset it to factory defaults and then flash the 2nd BIOS as well. Couldn't find any instructions in the manual on flashing the 2nd BIOS. You press Alt-F12 when booting up and the system will copy the primary BIOS to the secondary. Once I got that figured out both systems have been rock steady.

edit: Oh yeah, one odd thing I found is that the eSata port is not hot-swap capable as far as I could tell. The 'remove hardware' icon doesn't pop up in the system tray. I ended up using an eSata bracket connected to the Marvell controller to get hot-swap.
Click to expand...

Gotcha, I'm still trying to pick between the Gigabyte UD3H-B3 and the ASRock Pro3 Gen3. Don't know if you have any experience with the ASRock, but you would you choose the UD3H-B3 out of those two?

Price comes out the same, I'd just have to order the ASRock from Newegg if I went that direction, since it doesn't get the $50 discount.
 
Built an ASRock Extreme 4 Gen 3 box for my dad back in August '11. Nice board, worked flawless, no issues at all. Has graphical EFI BIOS which is meh. I have a thing for Gigabyte on my own machines, they've treated me right and even with the BIOS oddities I'll likely pick another for the next upgrade or new build.
 
zettler said:
I am building a new PC for my son who is a big gamer and it was recommended I get the Core i5-2500k, but that was before this new deal. I want something that should serve him well for the next 18-24 months. The lowest combo for the Core i5-2500k, is around $235 at MC and I am not sure what this will be. His next piece will be a good video card which is budgeted for under $200.

What are your thoughts on spending at least $20 more for this CPU plus whatever more for a combo MD deal as compared to the $230 - $260 for the Core i5 deal ???

Thanks in advance.
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I never thought I'd say this, but I'd stick with 2500k. It runs cooler, it oc's at least as well, and your son will never miss HT.
 
hyrule4927 said:
Gotcha, I'm still trying to pick between the Gigabyte UD3H-B3 and the ASRock Pro3 Gen3. Don't know if you have any experience with the ASRock, but you would you choose the UD3H-B3 out of those two?

Price comes out the same, I'd just have to order the ASRock from Newegg if I went that direction, since it doesn't get the $50 discount.
Click to expand...

That GB board looks quite similar to mine. I've been extremely happy with it.
 
What's the word on having someone else pick stuff up for you? I noticed they have an authorized pickup persons section but it says "returning soon". Will this be a problem to have someone else pick it up?
 
aphex said:
hate how micro center always does this in store only :/
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if Microcenter offered these prices online they'd be completely sold out in a matter of minutes with 99% of buyers buying nothing else. Not only would they not make any money in the long run, chances are you'd still miss out on the deal as there are bound to be enough other buyers quicker on the trigger

complaining about this you might as well complain about how intel simply doesn't give their product away for free, shipping directly to all of us as soon as its fresh out of production.


Gillbot said:
it's to get you into the store to buy other crap parts you don't "need".
Click to expand...
yeah, how dare they employ any sort of business practice that lets them actually make money so that they can sell these products in the first place while being successful enough at it to continue doing so (unlike Circuit City and now apparently Best Buy) 😛
 
bought an i7 with the facebook coupon ($250) a month ago and went with the Gigabyte Z68x-ud3h-b3 (which worked flawless for 3 weeks and then it started to reboot by itself .... can't even get to BIOS) ... just got the RMA number etc .... looks like there are a lot of fox who had problems with this board.
 
philipma1957 said:
I read it as you had it in use and were not sure if the return was allowed.
I offered an alternative if the return was not allowed.
sorry for my misunderstanding.
Click to expand...

No problem, I read it differently.

I got the i-7-2600K! I gladly handed over the $20 difference between it and the i5-2500K I returned.

Ran into Zettler at the store. (The guy who is doing a build for his son). Small world!

So I got home, pulled the board, installed CPU, h/s/f and fired it up. No post. I got the dreaded error code 45. :twisted: It suddenly would only recognize the RAM in DIMMS 3 & 4 in single channel mode. Tried various slot combinations, pulled the CMOS battery, flashed to latest BIOS again (grasping at straws on that one. LOL). Nada! Went online and read about error 45 for a couple of hours and tried suggested fixes like making sure DRAM was set to XMP.

Finally gave up. Pulled everything again and returned the board. Now I needed thermal compound as I had just thrown away some old old tubes. Used IC Diamond and the manager gave it to me half off. So something made the first two DIMM slots funky and now FINALLY everything is humming along.

Two trips to MC in one day is not fun. But I am happy I was able to exchange the i5-2500k for the -7-2600K + $20. :biggrin:

Zettler, did you get squared away with that Z77?
 
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Looks like it is 249 now. Hmmm.... still a pretty good deal (if they get more in stock). Unsure if I should wait for Ivy at that price.
 
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