(DEAD) Budget CPU & MB Combo at 'egg for $56.98 + ship (AR)

[shinson]

Select the link below and look for combo about half way down.

Linky

CPU is $43.99 with free shipping...
MB is $39.00 + $5.84 shipping - $7.00 combo discount - $20.00 rebate = $17.84

Total is $82.82 shipped - $20.00 rebate for $62.82

I don't know much about the CPU or MB but they both have good reviews at the egg.

Gonna put them in one of the CoolerMaster Elite 340's for family member or upgrade the Windows Home Server...

 

[cmv]

Good deal on a single core Celeron that is very energy efficient (35 watts). Other combo deals:

E2140 combo: $102.98 - $20.00 rebate = $82.98
E2180 combo: $112.98 - $20.00 rebate = $92.98

Both of those CPUs are 65w. All of them are retail though so fan included. I might just be in on a cheap Celeron for a friend who wants a low end basic PC. Can't go wrong with that price.

 

[shinson]

Thanks for the additional info.... Good price on those as well.

I was considering the E2140 or E2180 and can always upgrade later.

I like the socket 775 alot.... no pins to bend/break on accident.

 

[cmv]

The no pins thing threw me for a loop at first when I got my E2180 (got in on the Tiger Direct deal). I've been using laptops so my newest CPU before the 2180 was an AMD Althon 64 3200+ . I like the 775 too -- it seems like a good design.

The rebate says:

"One rebate per person/per product."

I wonder if they'll allow two to the same address but different people.

 

[Jeeper94]

How well do you think this combo would fair as a HTPC for 720P & 1080i playback as well as some DVD recording? I also have a ATI Radeon 2600XT and 2GB DDR2 to round out the combo.

 

[v8envy]

Sorry to squat down in your thread, but any potential customers should consider doing a google search on 'pc chips quality'

This is definitely a hot deal, but you should budget a few tens of $ for an after the fact mboard replacement. You'll have reasonable odds of needing one.

Oh, and a core2 celeron + 2600XT should decode/play any HD-DVD or Blue-Ray disk easily.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: cmv
"One rebate per person/per product."
I wonder if they'll allow two to the same address but different people.

I doubt it. It's usually one per household.

 

[cmv]

Originally posted by: v8envy
Sorry to squat down in your thread, but any potential customers should consider doing a google search on 'pc chips quality'

This is definitely a hot deal, but you should budget a few tens of $ for an after the fact mboard replacement. You'll have reasonable odds of needing one.

Oh, and a core2 celeron + 2600XT should decode/play any HD-DVD or Blue-Ray disk easily.

I'm well versed in PC Chips quality of old but I wonder if their track record is all that bad for today amongst other $40 motherboards. I suspect quality has improved. The ratings are okay for the most part on it besides one RMA and two from some idiot (overclockt'n).

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry

Originally posted by: cmv
"One rebate per person/per product."
I wonder if they'll allow two to the same address but different people.

I doubt it. It's usually one per household.

Yeah but it doesn't say it on this one. Probably not worth the risk.

 

[Zap]

Don't forget that an easy pin mod for overclocking!

I'm still waiting for the Fry's B&M $49.99 deal to come back - Celeron 430 (not 430) with an ECS 945GC chipset board that can pseudo run 1333FSB. I missed out on it and it's only come back at $59.99... I'm a Hot Deals hound, so I can keep waiting...

 

[SpeedEng66]

Originally posted by: Zap
Don't forget that an easy pin mod for overclocking!

I'm still waiting for the Fry's B&M $49.99 deal to come back - Celeron 430 (not 430) with an ECS 945GC chipset board that can pseudo run 1333FSB. I missed out on it and it's only come back at $59.99... I'm a Hot Deals hound, so I can keep waiting...

I wish there was a frys in NY

 

[Steve]

Let's not forget that many PC-Chips quality issues are ultimately user error.

 

[Jeeper94]

Originally posted by: Zap
Don't forget that an easy pin mod for overclocking!

Zap, how much of an overclock would that be on this Celeron 420?

 

[trevor0323]

Zap, how are you getting the Fry's B&M deals in Wisconsin?

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: Jeeper94

Originally posted by: Zap
Don't forget that an easy pin mod for overclocking!

Zap, how much of an overclock would that be on this Celeron 420?

There are two possible pin mods. One is for FSB1066 and the second adds to the first, for FSB1333. Those correspond to 266MHz and 333MHz settings in BIOS, while stock speeds are 200MHz. The Celeorn 420 has an 8x multiplier.

8x200=1600MHz
8x266=~2133MHz
8x333=~2666MHz

I currently have one of these pinmodded and running at the 2.66GHz speed on default Vcore in a Dell Vostro 200.

Originally posted by: trevor0323
Zap, how are you getting the Fry's B&M deals in Wisconsin?

I live in Kenosha, so the Chicago Fry's is about 1½ hour drive... or I call in a favor to a buddy who lives 25 minutes from them and get it from him when we hook up for LAN parties. I don't go there often though, because gotta pay $5 in tolls and tax is 8.25%.

 

[htne]

I have purchased three of the Fry's combos at $59.99 with the Celeron 430. The first two came with an ECS 671T motherboard, and the third with the ECS 945-GCT-M motherboard. All three overclocked to 2.4 ghz with the BSEL mod (9 x 266 = ~2400 mhz). Neither motherboard supports 1333 mhz FSB, so I couldn't try 9 x 333 = ~3000 mhz. I doubt the cpus would run 3 ghz at default voltage anyway.

 

[onelove]

Originally posted by: Steve
Let's not forget that many PC-Chips quality issues are ultimately user error.

idunno man, these pc chips boards left a bad taste in my mouth... I love a deal as much as the next guy, but I wouldn't buy a PC chips board nor let a friend buy one. Not under any circumstances.

sorry to squat +1

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: htne
Neither motherboard supports 1333 mhz FSB, so I couldn't try 9 x 333 = ~3000 mhz. I doubt the cpus would run 3 ghz at default voltage anyway.

I have my doubts on default voltage too, but 2.4GHz is a shoe-in. As for 1333FSB, the 945 board does "support" it by overclocking the chipset. Indeed I tried it (with friend's board that he got with E4500 for $119) with an E6550 and it auto-detected and worked at the proper speed... except the PCI-E card we used didn't want to work at the higher speeds* but onboard worked fine. Perhaps other PCI-E cards might work - we used an EVGA 7600GT.

*The 945G/GC (and maybe other 945-series chipsets) have a pseudo PCI-E lock. It seems to work until you push the chipset a bit above the maximum 266MHz setting. By the time you get to 333MHz (for 1333FSB) you have to set the PCI-E to 115MHz or the board won't POST. This I learned from some ASRock boards. The ECS board does not let you directly set anything, but does it automatically.

 

[deadken]

Originally posted by: Zap

Originally posted by: htne
Neither motherboard supports 1333 mhz FSB, so I couldn't try 9 x 333 = ~3000 mhz. I doubt the cpus would run 3 ghz at default voltage anyway.

I have my doubts on default voltage too, but 2.4GHz is a shoe-in. As for 1333FSB, the 945 board does "support" it by overclocking the chipset. Indeed I tried it (with friend's board that he got with E4500 for $119) with an E6550 and it auto-detected and worked at the proper speed... except the PCI-E card we used didn't want to work at the higher speeds* but onboard worked fine. Perhaps other PCI-E cards might work - we used an EVGA 7600GT.

*The 945G/GC (and maybe other 945-series chipsets) have a pseudo PCI-E lock. It seems to work until you push the chipset a bit above the maximum 266MHz setting. By the time you get to 333MHz (for 1333FSB) you have to set the PCI-E to 115MHz or the board won't POST. This I learned from some ASRock boards. The ECS board does not let you directly set anything, but does it automatically.

So, if I understand you correctly, this combo will do 2.4Ghz with a Video Card or 3.0Ghz with onboard Video?

I was considering this to use with a 8600GT or maybe even 8800GT, so I'd really like to be able to use that PCI-e slot!

 

[SpeedEng66]

Originally posted by: onelove

Originally posted by: Steve
Let's not forget that many PC-Chips quality issues are ultimately user error.

idunno man, these pc chips boards left a bad taste in my mouth... I love a deal as much as the next guy, but I wouldn't buy a PC chips board nor let a friend buy one. Not under any circumstances.

sorry to squat +1

I have 2 pc chips mb thats still running just fine to this day
(slot 1 M-AT , and slot 1 ATX board)

not the best bios/oc in the world but for a basic pc it's just fine

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: deadken
So, if I understand you correctly, this combo will do 2.4Ghz with a Video Card or 3.0Ghz with onboard Video?

Depends...

2.4GHz means a 9x multiplier. Yes, pretty much all Celeron 430 and Pentium Dual Core E2160 can probably do that with an easy pin mod, default voltage, PCI-E working. 3.0GHz is not a sure thing on default voltage. Also, the PCI-E working depends highly on whether the motherboard sets it properly at that speed (or has manual settings and YOU set it properly) and whether your PCI-E card can do the higher speed of 115MHz.

BTW, Newegg lists 11 different 945GC chipset boards supporting 1333FSB. That's a lot of "factory overclocked" budget motherboards, LOL.

I've played around with a friend's ECS 945GCT-M/1333, used to have an ASRock ConRoe1333-DVI/H (okay, that's 945G chipset, not 945GC, but it did support 1333FSB too) and currently have an MSI 945GCM5-F. My impression of these boards are that if you just want a CHEAP solution and are willing to BSEL mod, then these can fit the bill.

Note that the chipset only support up to DDR2-667. To me this means these are a perfect fit for those $3AR HP RAM deals!

Other details: The PCI-E is indeed 16x. RAM is dual channel. Some boards (such as my MSI) have gigabit ethernet. All boards have HD Audio. All the mATX boards have only two memory slots. All are passively cooled. All have SATA 3Gb/s. All have "native" single EIDE port (courtesy of older chipset). VGA output only, unless you buy a DVI card separately.

 

[htne]

I have had the chance to play with the ECS 945-GCT/M-1333 motherboard. I bought this in a Fry's combo with the E2200 cpu (11x multiplier). I followed instructions for the voltage mode (1.55 volts) as well as the BSEL mod (266 mhz FSB). This gave me a cpu speed of 2926 mhz (11 x 266 = ~2926) and a fairly high voltage. The system would boot, but overall it was just not stable. I could not, for instance, finish a clean install of XP. With XP already installed, it would boot and run XP at 2926, but would not pass Prime95 for more than a few seconds. This was with the onboard video, but with the FSB at 266 mhz, it shouldn't matter. The same cpu, when placed in a Gigabyte 965P-DS3 motherboard, had no problem running 3000 mhz with only 1.4 volts. Obviously, you get what you pay for, and a really cheap motherboard is just not going to overclock as well as a more expensive motherboard.

I do strongly feel that the Celeron 430 pushed to 2.4 ghz on a cheap motherboard is a VERY cost effective solution.

Those close to a Fry's might also note that this combo (Celeron 430 and ECS 945 GCT motherboard) is on sale today for $59.99. I have no idea when or if they will bring back the $49.99 price, which I have only seen once.

 

[cmv]

The CPU price went down $1 and it's the last day for the rebate.

 

[SpeedEng66]

no more combo deal!!

but the pcchips have a new rebate
(still 20 tho..)
baut valid til 3/31