What is your opinion of this as a budget barebones system?

[yellowperil]

Mobo: Biostar M7VKB KT133, refurbished $75 (tcwo)
CPU: Athlon Thunderbird 900MHz 200FSB Socket A $90 (tcwo)
Case: Enlight 7237 300w $62 (tcwo)
Fan/heatsink: SuperCool Socket A ball-bearing $9 (tcwo)
RAM: Crucial 256MB PC133 $60 (Crucial)
Video: Radeon LE $78 (newegg)

With shipping/taxes it comes out to ~$375. I have a HDD, CD-RW, DVD, and sound card from my current system that I would like to put in this one.

 

[TheOddball]

<<Mobo: Biostar M7VKB KT133, refurbished $75 (tcwo)>>

Man, for like 15 bucks more you can get a good, works the FIRST time EPoX or MSI board... I wouldn't waste my time with might will work stuff.

 

[novice]

I gotta agree with Oddball on this one. Not to disparage Biostar, since I have no personal experience with them, but I would look at the MSI or Epox boards. Newegg has the non raid MSI K7T Turbo for $95, and it is a full featured board. I love mine. And I would think the extra $20 for a new retail board is money well spent. You could probably find an Epox 8KTA2 for $82 or so. (check here ) Good Luck, Chuck
PS Actually, reviewing Mutiwave's motherboard bundles, you could get a brand new Epox 8KTA2, Athlon T-Bird 900 and including a heatsink and fan for $186, which is only $12 more than your refurb from TCWO and is a motherboard well regarded for its' stability and performance, if not for its' overclockability. But then I don't believe the Biostars are known for their overclocking either.

 

[murdock2525]

The boys at Thompson will change the motherboard to something else for you. The board is fine, I'm sure, or they wouln't sell it !
Thompson is a first rate , no bullsh!t, outfit.
When you call punch in #125 for the extention......Talk to Jamey........He knows whats up.........

 

[yellowperil]

Thanks for the advice. I think I'll go with the Epox EP-8KTA2L for $13 more at newegg. I don't know if I have the money for all this right now (lots of other expenses), but maybe I can start on it in a month or two. At least it's not as expensive as I originally thought to build a decent system.

 

[TheOddball]

<<<The board is fine, I'm sure, or they wouln't sell it !>>>

keep dreaming...

 

[mcveigh]

TCWO is great, I live close to them and they are solid professionals

 

[novice]

I have heard that TCWO is a good outfit, although I haven't ordered from them. I can, however vouch for Newegg.com and Multiwave (mwave.com). Ordered many times from Multiwave without a single problem, only recently tried newegg and both orders were executed flawlessly. I was just pointing out that he could get a new board with more features for a very small increase in cost. Much cheaper than ordering a $20 cheaper board, being disappointed with it within a couple of days (or less) and then having to purchase what he should have bought in the first place. (Been there, done that - twice :disgust: )
Chuck
Edit - At least if you have to wait a month or two, chances are all your components will be even cheaper!

 

[Idiot56209]

I got one of those Refurb boards for my wife's machine. Slapped a Duron in it and BATTA-BOOM! Instant speed (She had a PII previously)

Felt confident with the refurb board just like I did the refurb monitor I bought 4 years ago! I figure the manufacture goes over the boards with a fine tooth comb second time around. No problems here, knock on wood.

Hey Murdock2525, have you talked to Jamey since his brain surgery (or something like that)? Is he OK? I talked to him with my last order and when I called back to get some more small items and Mark told me he was out of the office for three weeks!! :Q :Q

 

[dcpsoguy]

What is your budget, including shipping?

 

[yellowperil]

I want to try to get a case, mobo, CPU, and fan/heatsink for around $250. I think with the case/CPU from TCWO and mobo from Newegg, it comes out to around that much.

 

[OverclockMe]

yellow pearl, just letting ya know you can get the AMD t-bird for 80 at www.krexdirect.com

 

[dcpsoguy]

Why dont you try to up your budget about 100 dollars. That way, you get better parts, and they last longer

 

[yellowperil]

I found a vendor through Price Watch called Premier System that has some very fair prices and unbelievable shipping (3 or more items, the order ships free). The problem is that reviews of this reseller are very polarized (either excellent or horrible). There are horror stories on resellerratings.com, yet they've gotten high ratings at BizRate with over 1000 responses. Searches here at AT turned up the same; people either had hell with them or a painless experience. Here's what's in my shopping cart:

Enlight 7237C 300W case $61
Athlon T-bird OEM 200FSB 750MHz $57
Micron Original 256MB PC133 CAS2/CL2 SDRAM $59

On top of free shipping, they have a 2.5% promotion this weekend, bringing final cost to $172. Should I go for it?

dcpsoguy: price is my main concern, and I don't need a whole lot of performance, just more than I have now.

 

[novice]

I would be a little leery of any resellers with a lot of negative comments. I realize no one is perfect and the other dealer may be fine, but I would be more confident dealing with vendors like multiwave, newegg, or TCWO. These are well established dealers with tons of info on resellerratings, the vast majority of it being positive. I would hate for you to have join the negative side of the reseller raters on this other vendor. I am still going through a very frustrating situation with a internet merchant (Baysoftgames.com) who seems to think it is okay to charge someone's credit card for an item that is backordered and then credit back the customer whenever they get around to it (if ever, they haven't yet). I regret ever ordering from them, and now am one of the majority on resellerratings that are relating our negative experiences.
Good Luck,
Chuck

 

[yellowperil]

I decided not to order from them. I changed my mind again and I'm going wait a couple months and build a DDR system. I've been looking at the EPoX 8K7A, and hopefully I can find a cheap 1 GHz 266FSB T-bird then.

Novice: good luck with the situation