Barebones PC check

[Belteshazzar]

Hi there, my wife and I are looking to replace an old, dead machine with something we can play wow on. We don't need to play on Ultra or have absurd FPS,... I'd be happy with medium settings. $500 is about the cap on our budget for this, so we were planning on using the setups from chaud and Fuzzykins as a guideline. But then today, I came across this deal on Tiger Direct: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...Id_31_B69-0347

Now, full disclosure here: I'm very novice when it comes to a lot of the hardware stuff. I know the basics, and I've read through the What Should I Build/Buy thread, but I'd rather give people who know what they're looking at a chance to weigh in. I feel plenty comfortable putting everything together (I've built a machine before and replaced a couple motherboards), but I just don't have the

Knowing I need to upgrade the RAM and put a graphics card into it, would I need to get a better power supply, or does 450W suffice for medium WoW without anything more intensive than that going into it?

Thanks ahead of time for any and all help!

[ispano]

ECS is probably the worst motherboard manufacturer there is. And that's an original Phenom, so it's pretty old tech already.

[vesseblah]

Not recommended since the motherboard+cpu+ram are all 3-4 years old parts. Upgradeability is very poor on it.

[noteworthynerd]

I've bought five or six barebone kits from TD for clients/work and have had some luck, but a couple of times they shipped with incompatible motherboards or faulty PSUs, so you have to be pretty diligent and research what you're getting. There are other's on this board more knowledgeable than myself, so they may know something I do not, but here's my opinion:

- I've never heard of ECS before (the mobo manufacturer) and generic mobos make me nervous.
- That CPU is pretty dated, I'm sure you could find a fairly cheap CPU that is much more current.
- You've already pointed out that you'll need more RAM, and I agree (4gb should be plenty).
- 450W is pretty low on a PSU, especially if you plan on putting a decent GPU into the computer - but the 12V rail is the most important part, unfortunately I can't find specs for that PSU.
- Keep in mind that this PC ships with no software (including no Operating System).

Conclusion: I wouldn't buy it, even for $200 it isn't very good. Check out Fuzzykins' $500 Build or Chaud's Puppy Build both should perform for you just fine (I prefer Fuzzy's because I prefer Intel CPUs).

Edit: Looks like most of my concerns have already been pointed out.

[Fuzzykins]

Oh, hello! I'm glad you read my guide!
If you're trying to put a "barebones" PC together, using an AMD is almost mandatory. Could you give us some more information on what you want?
However, if you want a little more flare to your computer, you won't go with a prebuild. It seems like a pretty no-name brand, which can sometimes have hundreds of problems. This is echoing the people above me. That's also a pretty mediocre deal, as despite the fact that you're paying less, you're getting less quality on your parts. I'd advise putting together an i3 build with a 460. You could probably cut down on my $500 dollar build.

[coldfiredragon]

Oh god no you do not want ECS, you will have nothing but troubble. They are terrible motherboard manufacturers. Also you want an AM3 not AM2+ socket DDR2 is getting pashed out for DDR3 so it will start going up in price.

If I was in your shoes I would to spend just a little bit more and get something a little better like this:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...300&CatId=5294

[DeltrusDisc]

Also, a lot of those barebone kits I've noticed come with the slow 5900 RPM HDDs.... do try to avoid those!

[Deleted]

Also, a lot of those barebone kits I've noticed come with the slow 5900 RPM HDDs.... do try to avoid those!

Hardly a problem if you're building a barebones system.

[Belteshazzar]

Wow, all of you are amazing... thanks for the quick replies and the straight forward answers. I'm just not familiar with brand reputation and the age of different products.

With the MSI bundle coldfiredragon posted, is the 450W power supply still a liability if I have a low-end graphics card and don't overclock anything? Also, how dire is the 5900 RPM HDD?

Or maybe I should just go with my initial gut feeling and aim for Fuzzykins' basic i3-based machine.

[vesseblah]

- I've never heard of ECS before (the mobo manufacturer) and generic mobos make me nervous.

ECS and FoxConn makes 99% of all OEM motherboards for Dell, HP and other big companies. You might not have heard of the company name before, but you have most likely seen their products.

---------- Post added 2011-04-26 at 09:04 PM ----------

Or maybe I should just go with my initial gut feeling and aim for Fuzzykins' basic i3-based machine.

Would suggest that one. And you can upgrade it quite far by changing PSU and CPU later if needed.

[NymdaliEveningfall]

If you have to have a "combo" deal, I'd look at newegg's "Core i3-2100/H61/4GB/1TB SuperCombo" (just search for it, don't think I can put a link with my post count). It comes with a Rosewill case that includes a 500 watt power supply. While it may not be much better than the 380 watt Antec (like mentioned earlier, it's the 12v rail that matters most), the benefit to the combo is after the combo discount you are getting a better motherboard and bigger harddrive for basically the same cost. You'd still need to buy a dvd-rom drive (if you don't have one laying around) and graphics card, but with that you should be able to come out under $500 before any shipping/tax.

[noteworthynerd]

ECS and FoxConn makes 99% of all OEM motherboards for Dell, HP and other big companies. You might not have heard of the company name before, but you have most likely seen their products.

I see, well if they're anything like FoxConn branded motherboards then I'd certainly steer clear. Last Barebones kit I bought for work has a FoxConn mobo that would only power on if the PSU was set to 215V, and I'm in the US so none of the other parts would work. I switched it out for a better mobo and it started right up.