Latest TigerDirect Barebones Kit - Deal or No Deal?

[jfotos]

Hey AAT Peepz. First time poster here needing your wisdom. I'm graduating from medical school in the next couple of months and need a PC upgrade as my current rig is 5 years old and is mostly held together with duct tape and moxy.

I am an avid TigerDirect watcher, and recently got this in an email:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/app...o=4601609&Sku=B69-1054

It seemed like an awesome deal to me, but I have been out of the loop for some time, and need some real advice on what kind of deal this is. I think the 12GB of RAM is a bit much, but other than that I am in the dark.

Heres more info:
1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
- Mostly gaming and photoshop/illustrator work. Want to run the latest games at the best FPS possible for my budget.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
- Budget is $1100, maybe $1200 but lower if at all possible.

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
- USA

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc, etc, etc, you get the picture.
- No real preference, I've been using AMD and ATI in my current rig but are not tied to them, but I understand that Intel has a leg up on AMD these days, so I guess I would lean towards them.

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
- I can use my old DVD and CD drives, have an ok monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers that I can live with in order to have a significant performance upgrade.

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.
- I have searched around, but have not seen this build up anywhere. There have been posts about i7 builds but most have been well out of my price range, which is why this TigerDirect deal caught my eye.

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
Not really. Don't have the time to manage that kind of thing at the moment.

8. WHEN do you plan to build it?
Within the next 2 weeks.


Thanks guys!

-J

 

[mpilchfamily]

go for it. just cause its bare bones doesn't mean its bad.

12gb of ram is a hell of alot.

 

[jfotos]

Oh yeah I don't mean that it would be bad because it's barebones, just if as a barebones kit it's a good deal.
-J

 

[mpilchfamily]

Do a price comparison. See what that same parts list will cost elsewhere.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Compare similar parts at Newegg.com. This is just a pile of parts they don't build the PC for you.

6 GB of DDR3 (1 of those Corsair 3-stick kits) should be enough for now (remember you need Vista 64 to see more than around 3 GB of RAM). Vista64 is very happy with even 4 GB

Do you need 1.5 TB? Would a 640 GB Western Digital drive work as well?

Do you like that case more than a Cooler Master or Antec?

Notice no video card is included. Just dropping to 6 GB RAM and a 640 GB hard drive should save you enough to get an nvidia GTX 260 or ATI 4870.

 

[Harvey]

I don't trust Tiger Direct. You can do as well or better at Newegg for most of the components, and Tiger Direct lists the same RAM for $10 less than they show on your link to their combo page:

Asus P6T + Core i7 920 Nehalem combo - 288.99

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB Hard Drive - $129.99 (same as TD)

Corsair XMS3 PC12800 6GB DDR3 on Tiger Direct - $99.99

Newegg lists the RAM for $166.00, but if you buy enough stuff from Newegg, they may price match TD.

I don't have time to research the rest, but overall, I think you can do better than TD for the same combo.

Hope that helps. Good luck.

 

[funkymatt]

It seems like a better deal than Newegg to me since I don't have to pay CA state tax... that combo + gtx280 is $1400 shipped.

 

[jfotos]

Thanks for all the help guys. It would seem that indeed there are better deals elsewhere, and looking at the new build guide by the awesome guys from this forum's namesake, they may have put together just the build I need:

Intel Performance Midrange

My price range is well under the listed full price, but I can do it for $850 if I keep my 500W powersupply, case, cd drive, and hard drive (buying the CPU, MB, cooling, GPU and RAM). Do I need to check for compatibility issues with these components, or is a drive just a drive in the MB's eyes?

Thanks again guys!

-J

 

[heyheybooboo]

PhII 940BE/Gigabyte 790X combo: $300
(Phenom AM3 955 comes out next week)

G.Skill 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1066: $55
(on the Gigabyte QVL list)

Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 1GB: $190

With a Corsair 750TX 750w power supply and a second HD4870 1Gb (prices should be 'nudged' down in the next month or so) you will be 'on' your $850 budget.

I guess you should consider the Radeon HD 4890 1Gb but it's still a bit pricey ...



Anand's Benchies

 

[jfotos]

True, I do like the PhII's pricepoint, but I really like the longevity potential in the Core i7, and the 4890 1GB. But will I be able to plug whatever I want into the motherboard (my components are around 5 years old - HD, CD, DVD, etc) and will my 500W powersupply(http://www.newegg.com/Product/...?Item=N82E16817371007) be able to handle it?

Thanks!
-J

EDIT: although after reading a lot of reviews it would seem the gain from the 4890 may not be worth the money, but again im not sure if my 500W PSU would handle two 4870s? I am bad at electrical theory so I need some help to figure this out so I don't harm any hardware I may purchase!

 

[heyheybooboo]

Your PSU will not handle 2 HD4870s - before you purchase the second card an upgrade will be necessary (see the Corsair above). When investing in new components it is advisable to update your PSU (if it is not a more recent purchase - which your Antec would appear to be).

The 750tx has a second 6-Pin PCIe power connector for Crossfire.

New motherboards have a single IDE connector which should handle a single hard drive and a single optical drive (master/slave). If you have separate CD and DVD IDE drives 'splurge' on a new $25 SATA DVD burner (you should then be able to install two IDE devices - one may be a second optical drive to complement your new SATA drive).

 

[Ausm]

Originally posted by: Harvey
I don't trust Tiger Direct. You can do as well or better at Newegg for most of the components, and Tiger Direct lists the same RAM for $10 less than they show on your link to their combo page:

Asus P6T + Core i7 920 Nehalem combo - 288.99

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB Hard Drive - $129.99 (same as TD)

Corsair XMS3 PC12800 6GB DDR3 on Tiger Direct - $99.99

Newegg lists the RAM for $166.00, but if you buy enough stuff from Newegg, they may price match TD.

I don't have time to research the rest, but overall, I think you can do better than TD for the same combo.

Hope that helps. Good luck.

:thumbsup:

Yeh I avoid Tigerdirect like the plague.

 

[jfotos]

Interesting. Yeah that 750tx is a lot less expensive than I thought it would be. And if I got a 4870 and waited a bit, saved up some more and got another one later, would that actually be better than just one 4890? (2 x HD4870's > 1 x HD4890?)

Thanks again heyheybooboo. And yeah I think I may need to pick up a SATA optical drive. At the same time I am tempted to get a bigger HD too. But then I am getting clearly out of my budget!

-J

EDIT: for those interested, if you buy it before the 15th at midnight, you can get the $20 rebate, and if you get it from Amazon, you can get it $16 on sale as well (~$88 total w/ free shipping)

 

[heyheybooboo]

Originally posted by: jfotos
Interesting. Yeah that 750tx is a lot less expensive than I thought it would be. And if I got a 4870 and waited a bit, saved up some more and got another one later, would that actually be better than just one 4890? (2 x HD4870's > 1 x HD4890?)

Thanks again heyheybooboo. And yeah I think I may need to pick up a SATA optical drive. At the same time I am tempted to get a bigger HD too. But then I am getting clearly out of my budget!

-J

EDIT: for those interested, if you buy it before the 15th at midnight, you can get the $20 rebate, and if you get it from Amazon, you can get it $16 on sale as well (~$88 total w/ free shipping)

Yes.

2 x HD4870's would be greater than 1 x HD4890 ..... but

You should always select the best single-card solution you can afford. The video card is the engine which will drive your gaming experience. If your Crossfire is 'down the road' I would highly recommend incurring the extra $50 expense now for the HD4890.

Because 6 months from now a second Radeon HD4890 will be much less expensive ... and 2 x HD4890s will be greater than 2 x HD4870s -

Paying $590 for the i7 combo is what is holding you back - see the Anand Benchies & article linked above (and maybe wait for a few weeks to see how the PhII 955/mobo combo deals shake out).

 

[piasabird]

Might compare it to www.directron.com in Texas I do believe. That looks like a pretty good deal, However; if you plan on putting 6 dims in a motherboard I would want to know if the RAM will still run at its rated speed. This is not always the case. Has anyone else run 6 Dimms on that motherboard?

Also with that motherboard, is that the Ver 2 motherboard or the older version 1. I dont know why they came out with a ver 2. Mayber version 1 has some issues with the BIOS or something like that.

I think 12 Gigs is a bit overkill.

 

[somethingsketchy]

As a first time build I would recommend something like a barebones kit (my first desktop build, which has morphed into what I have now, was a barebones) as a learning experience. Once you figure out what you liked or disliked you can change out parts, such as HDDs, heatsink, stuff like that. If you already have experience with building desktops from scratch, then I may offer the barebones deal as a small recommendation. Most times I would just tell someone to find a graphics card and PSU they really want to use, and go from there.

While 12GB is quite the overkill, 8GB is not a far stretch of the imagination. I mean 4GB nowadays is a bare minimum if you consider yourself to be a multi-tasker. 12GB will be quite future proof, since there's very little out there for software that would require a LOT of RAM.

My two cents.

 

[TC91]

I would go for it, that is a very nice deal. Just add in a GTX 260 core 216 or GTX 275 and you'll be set.