Intel Dual Core Kit - Worth it?

[Saint Stryfe]

Could someone well-versed take a look at this Barebones kit sold by Circuit City (ha) and give me an idea of what kind of box it might be, and if the board is more-or-less compatable? My brother is an experienced system builder and is eager to do a Hackintosh project, while I'm chugging on a Dual core iMac which is not keeping up to my #1 task: Playing World of Warcraft.

 

if this is not going to fit the bill, could anyone suggest a soild board/GPU combo that'll give me Windowed Mode WoW at a high resolution with high graphics settings?

[pirloui]

Yes, that will work, but you will need a video card, as the integrated graphics aren't supported.

nVidia is most compatible.

Good luck with the build

[Zaap]

It'll work, but it's a bit of a rip off since they pull a common trick of bundling: unloading some substandard parts, CLAIM that they are worth more than they really are, then charge you the ACTUAL price that's not really any great deal. (Weird how it's Circuit City, but really just seems like TigerDirect in disguise).

 

Since you're going to have to put the system together anyway, why not hand pick better parts even if it means not 'saving' a few bucks on {censored}?

 

The motherboard is great-it's universally about $65.

 

The CPU- bleh. $65 for a E2200? You'd be better off with an E5200, E5300 or best of all E6300 over that. Personally, I don't think it's worth the price they say it is, so they're just charging the actual price for it.

 

DDR2 667 for $60 is an absolute rip off. You can get much faster DDR2 1066 RAM for near the same price, IE: this set of G.SKILL for $64.

 

The hard drive $80 for only 8MB cache and a mystery spindle speed that I'd bet is 5200RPM. For around $85 you can get the same capacity, 32MB cache, and definitely 7200RPM.

 

{censored} case, with a {censored} mystery brand 300W PSU- meh. Again, they're really just charging you what that's worth- which is a lot less than the $40 they claim. Unless you want a barely stable system, I'd personally recommend not skimping on the PSU- get one that's well rated and that you know what it is. Just about any microATX or ATX case will do.

 

It's not a 'terrible' deal or anything- just that it's not really $400 worth of stuff like they claim- it's really only just the $280 worth of stuff they're charging. You can get a lot better quality/performance with around $300 (plus the amount you need for a graphic card and optical drive) than that. In the end, I don't think it's worth it just to save a few bucks.

[Saint Stryfe]

Thank you both for your kind and detailed replies!

 

I understand what you're saying, and my brother agreed with all of your statements. I'm pleased the board is a good value, and I'm budgeting myself to see what I can do. I would like to try one for "resale" if nothing else. He is getting more and more request from clients to investigate hackintosh systems, but his boss is steadfast against it (not because it's against the Agreement, but because he hates Apple products). And with my iMac aging, I keep on coming back that it might be a good idea.