Cheap $200 barebones... Need opinions.

Not bad for $200 ... I mean, it's old technology and cheap parts, and I'd call it an average to below-average machine. But it'll work for what you want to do, and it's cheaper than most netbooks.

I would not recommend overclocking with that motherboard. Besides the fact that ECS (Elitegroup) motherboards are notoriously difficult to work with, that CPU is a 95W processor and the board's specs say it's rated up to 89W. Looks like a pretty delicate situation to upset even at stock.

For what it's worth, I came in cold building my first gaming machine and it turned out OK ... just hang around here for a few months and you'll learn a lot. Mainly, it's about choosing the right parts in advance, which you do not need practice on. And you probably do not need to spend $2K unless you're going for some kind of benchmark record. You can put together a SMOKING fast machine for $1K easy and it will last you for years.

Also, one tip so you don't have to learn it the hard way: Stay away from ECS motherboards. They're crap. I mean, they're perfectly OK and pretty stable if you're building a basic machine for office work or something, but way to quirky to consider for anything high-end. Also avoid Intel-manufactured motherboards because they're not designed for anything but low-performance parts at stock settings, and have hard-wired compatibility problems with gaming uses. Not worth the trouble.

It's not very good for $200. The parts are bad, but you can't put together a computer otherwise for that price. If you have a Micro Center nearby you can do much better.

Otherwise, you can build a much better computer for $250. I agree with the $1K machine being smoking fast though.

I realize I could easily just start with my large build, but I can't wait that long!!! I've been having mad crazy dreams to build a Pc. It's gunna be a year until I build my $2k build.
Ok, so you both said there were issues in the hardware, not that o didn't expect that, so should I build a 250 "temp build" or go with an open box netbook/laptop? I am set on this budget for right now and I need some form of a pc for school work and basic Internet surfing.

Hi Geeknation   ...For a start I would stay away from tiger direct & search the net for your own cheap parts if need be & check out all the overclocking sites & do an all out study of cpu's,gpu's & mainboards   ...They are the main essential hardware parts for overclocking   ...Also the power supply unit,but since you are just going after a cheapy,you can get pretty much anything 600watts and above & you'll be safe with that small amount of cash that you want to spend   ...

the build is old, hot, and MISERABLE.

The CPU is a 3-year old model (late 2008), ECS boards are cheap, and DDR2 is slower and more expensive than DDR3!

for about $250, you could build yourself a system thats is at least modern

If you're open to $250 instead of $200--I can give you a perfectly decent temp build for that budget. And it will be MUCH better than the Tiger Direct barebones kit. I need you to answer this question though:

Do you live near a Microcenter? Go to their website and check. They have the best prices and will get you the best computer for your targeted price point.

If you don't live near Microcenter, I'll give you a build with Newegg parts.

As far as that $2,000 computer...what is that for? If you spend three or four hundred now, the only thing you'll need to upgrade in the next two years is your graphics card. If you don't play games, then you won't even need to upgrade that. I'm pretty sure you're thinking of the time back in 1997 when computers cost $2,000. They cost $500 now and less if you build them yourself.

Thank you for your opinions, and well facts. I got my PS3 working again so I don't need to make a build now. (needed a winter hobby) As far as how much Im spending on my PC later this year, I'm set in that budget. I'm not building a cheap PC for the fun of it, I'm building a power house PC. But either way thank you. Also thank you for telling me about MicroCenter. I will have to check them out.

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I understand you're building a power house PC. I'm just wondering what kind of PC costs $2000. A $1,200 computer can have dual awesome video cards. A $1,500 computer can have SSD's in RAID. So the only way you have a $2,000 computer is if you get wicked overkill on graphics (two GTX 580's, two 5970's, etc.) and buy monitors or other things that typically wouldn't be included in a build. Dual GTX 570's (or 6970's) can run ANY game at max settings on two screens. I guess if you play on a 3D display, it can tax the cards more though. And I guess you can get 16GB of RAM for no particular reason.