What do you think of BareBone Kits

[Man0Man]

Intel DX38BT Motherboard & FREE GRAW2 - Qty: 1 $ 229.99

Intel C2Q Q6600 2.40GHz OEM - Qty: 1 $ 189.99

Corsair XMS3 2048MB PC10600 DDR3 - Qty: 1 $ 98.99

Ultra M923 Full Tower ATX Case - $ 149.99

PowerUp GEN-6803 800-Watt Power Supply $ 99.75

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB Hard Drive $ 79.99

Total Price: $ 729.99 - $25 rebate

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3949931&CatId=2626

what do you think?
just need a fan and a Video Card any suggestions

[0mega]

Hint: That rig isn't technically a barebones ;) Way too much to it.

It IS however, a good deal (Except the more-than-likely dodgy PSU :p )

Don't know your budget, but banking on the rest of the specs, I'm think a decent chunk of change for the graphics card soooo.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130372 or better.

That said, this type of topic is better in General Hardware just for future reference :)

[Man0Man]

well i thought because it's a set it belonged here.
Did see this one ?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3905991&CatId=2405
or
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3948251&CatId=2405

i think this would work better with a Ge Force, i was thinking of going with and ATi's new cards

[Danny Bui]

All three barebones kits you have posted so far are crap for a few reasons:
- Nvidia's Intel chipsets are not as stable, reliable or cooler running as their Intel counterparts
- The inclusion of a generic no-name PSU (the Power up) that I would not trust
- The inclusion of DDR3 RAM. DDR3 RAM has not shown to provide a single iota of real-world performance increase in real world apps.
- The OEM version of the Q6600 is only $5 less than a retail version. I rather pay the extra $5 for that 3-year warranty rather a 90 day warranty for the Q6600.

It looks like your budget is roughly $900 once you factor in the cost of a new video card. So I recommend going with this setup:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 CPU (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017) - $195
Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L Intel P43 Motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128347) - $95
G.Skill F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ 2 x 2GB DDR2 800 RAM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122) - $80
VisionTek 900241 Radeon HD 4850 512MB PCI-E Video Card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814129112) - $190
Western Digital WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136218) - $90
Samsung SH-203N 20X DVD±R SATA DVD Burner (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151154) - $27
Corsair 750TX 750W PSU (http://www.provantage.com/corsair-cmpsu-750tx~7CSMC05E.htm) - $98
Antec 300 ATX Case (http://www.amazon.com/Antec-Hundred-Gaming-External-Internal/dp/B000GQMHBI/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1215492829&sr=8-1) - $56
---
Total: $831 plus tax and shipping.

Key difference between the build above and all three barebones kits:
- Better quality PSU
- Significantly faster and larger hard drive
- More RAM
- More stable motherboard (Except for the Intel X38 kit)

If you plan to overclock or want a cooler CPU, I recommend getting this HSF:
Xigmatek HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle HSF (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233003) - $37 & Retention Bracket (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233019) - $7

[Zero82z]

I'm going to have to go with Danny on this one (as usual); although that first barebones kit is decent, you can do a lot better by picking out the components yourself.

[steakman1971]

I agree with the other folks here - I think you are better off picking the parts yourself. I recently considered a few different approaches:
-Buy a Dell - upgrade it's PSU, graphics card, etc. You can get a decent price - hard to match sometimes (although you are very limited by the mobo it comes with)
-Get a barebones kit. You might find a decent deal. From the research I did, the PSU's were on the low side. However - it might be just fine for your needs.
-Build your own.

It comes down to what you are planning on using the system for. If you are a gamer (I'm not really a gamer anymore - not enough time in the day with work/family/sleep) - I'd build your own. Get a Crossfire/SLI mobo - something you can expand.

If you are just a general user - the Dell might work fine.

[bholstege]

One other thing - the dx38bt is crap for overclocking, I haven't been able to get me e8400 above stock.