I just snagged a free case...I do also have an Inwin mATX case/PS I could use instead..but free was good enough for me to pick up a spare. :p

I'm on the lookout for the ridiculously cheap combos that Frys/Outpost.com puts out...trying to see how inexpensively I can build a halfway decent computer. My target is to beat my Dell 3Ghz by a reasonable margin, without spending much more than a couple hundred $$. I can scavenge a few parts (DDR2 RAM, video card, hard drive)..but I would like to get as many unbelievably-good-deal new parts as possible.

Anyway, if you happen to run across an insane deal, please let me know...or if you just want to stick around and see how this turns out...or want to ignore it completely...it's all up to you!

Whatever you do, don't get an ECS brand motherboard.

*noted*

I can scavenge my X800XL, 2x512mb DDR2 and my Seagate 7200.10 400Gb SATA drive out of my system, and still have a running rig to sell off, stick in a corner, or whatever. So I mainly need a cheap motherboard/cpu that'll trash a P4 3Ghz easily...not sure how much luck I'm going to have, though. A power supply would help too, come to think of it.

These Core 2 Duo processors are doing good right now, but I don't think it would trash your regular P4 3 GHz unless you overclock it. The goods news is that apparently they are overclocking really well.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819115013

There's nothing wrong with ECS motherboards--in fact, many of them are very high quality. Don't listen to Dredd. Oh, and the Conroes would absolutely destroy your P4, sorry, but once again, don't listen to Dredd.

Yeah, I have an ECS motherboard, and even though it's a low end one, it's pretty stable.

Sorry, but I worked at Fry's Electronics for a year and a half, and I can absolutely say that ECS boards suck. Sure, they work for some people, but for the most part, there are a lot better brands to be had for not much more in money. I'd say that you don't know what you're talking about. Also, did you even look at the link? Yeah, it a C2D, but it's the 4300, which is 1.8 GHz. Of the bat, I don't think it would beat the crap out of a P4 3 GHz, but that's also dependent on what he's using it for. Which is also why I mentioned that he should overclock it, another thing that you probably wouldn't want an ECS board for.

Lastly, you kind of come off as a dick when you just reply to a thread bashing my suggestions and not making any suggestions of your own to help out the OP.

No, I just know when I see something that's bull**** from someone who doesn't know what they're talking about. ECS boards are very good, just not full of features. You worked at Fry Electronics...that makes you about as qualified as your average Best Buy employee (non-Geek Squad)--not at all. I've been in the computer game for quite a few years, seen more interviews than I can count, and have yet to see a bad one on an ECS board; in fact, I've seen quite a few good ones.

Any Conroe will destroy a P4, sorry. Even the 4300 will destroy most AMD64 non-X2 flavors, meaning it wouldn't have a problem eating up a P4.

[url]www.slickdeals.net[/url]

Right, because Frys Electronics doesn't work on commission so they can hire any idiot just like Best Buy, except that it's exactly the opposite. Because they work on commission, people who knew what they were talking about held up in the sales spots, and I was one of them. Occasionally, we had to work returns too. If an ECS board didn't get returned because it was DOA, it got returned because it was utter junk. Even their "high-end" boards for overclocking got returned all the time. After that, most people actually went with a good brand such as Abit or Asus, and the lesson was learned. It's just like power supplies. People buy the $30 generic 500-watt pos, they get burned, and find out you get what you pay for. Sorry, ECS will always be a junk brand in my book.

Dude, my ECS is serving me perfectly. No problem with it yet. What's wrong with ECS?

Q F T. Also the E4300 over clocks like crazy. I herd of one guy getting 3.5 on air, but that was probably exceptional. 3 Ghz should probably be quite easy though.

Remember that a 2 GHz Athlon 64 does a number on a 3 GHz P4, and a 2 Ghz core two owns a 2.4+ GHz Athlon 64.

I had a Socket A ECS board a few years back. It was ok apart from it would not run my hard drives in DMA mode (and i tried 3 differnt drives in every combination possible different positions, changing jumpers to/from cable select etc) which made the entire computer slow down dramatically every time I copied a file and caused stuttering in gaming. Eventually (Albeit after several years) a component on the motherboard blew. Not sure what it was or what caused it but the board had to be replaced.

I remember trying to install a PCI USB2 card and having all kinds of problems getting it installed, i think it was a chipset driver issue but I ended up having to do a whole load of registry hacks to get it to work.

No, I won't be buying an ECS board again.

Bwahaha!

ECS is fine. Writing off an entire brand name because of a few experiences is irrational and naive. Sennheiser is well known for making some of the best headphones and microphones in the world, yet they still produce a dozen low end models that are crap. They also produce a dozen low end models that are amazing.

The lesson here is, search for reviews and tests done on the board you're looking at. If you find forums full of Q&A about say, a faulty chipset, stay away from it. If all you can find is glowing reviews, it's probably fine.

That said, you can usually find boards with similar features from various manufacturers. There is seldom a time in the low end and mid range markets where one offering from a particular company is significantly better than another.

It doesn't hurt to stick with brands that you like, but it would also be stupid to ignore a better offering from another without investigating it.


The only brand I would stay away from is Ultra. There isn't anything inherently wrong with their stuff, it's just that it has a significantly higher failure rate than others. They tend to make flashy stuff that doesn't last. I put a freebie Ultra power supply in my dad's new Core 2 system. Honestly it works fantastic, except that the fan busted from the start. The impeller actually sheered off the shaft. I reglued it with superglue, and it holds just fine, especially considering that it's a low RPM 120mm fan. But still that should not happen.

You have no idea how hard this is to explain to people at work. "What do you mean my new laptop is only 2.13 GHz (c2d)? My old one was 2.4 GHz (p4). ":rolleyes: