What's this combo worth?

rlasker3

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Jul 14, 2003
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I've been offered a MB/CPU/RAM combo for $475. I don't know much about how well these perform together so is it a bargain or a bust?

P4C800 Deluxe
2 GB Kingston PC333 (2700 ?) - 4 x 512MB
Intel 2.8 - 533 fsb
 

jurians

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Apr 27, 2003
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thats not bad at all... the ram itself is mostlikely 200+ dollars and the motherboard is like 150 bucks or something around there and the chip is around 233 bucks or so. The problem i see is that it doesnt maximize the boards potential.
The board would be better off with some 400mhz memory and a 800mhz ht enabled processor. but its one hell of a deal.
 

BrettJRob

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Jul 29, 2001
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A good deal, but mostly because of the massive amount of RAM that would normally run you almost $400 by itself. The P4 2.8B is becoming a little outdated, as even the 2.6C can normally outperform it, not to mention the 533FSB processors lack HyperThreading. On that note, the PC2700 RAM will work fine in sync with that CPU, but if you want to upgrade to an 800FSB (be it P4 Rev C or Prescott) in the future, you'll have to ditch that entire 2GB of RAM! A tough decision.

All in all I'd say you're saving upwards of $100 when compared to buying those components individually, definitely a tempting deal. The motherboard is very nice and supports Prescott (according to ASUS website), which is a big plus. Just make sure you aren't planning on upgrading again anytime soon so you'll have plenty of time to take advantage of your 2GB of RAM before it becomes obsolete!
 

confoundicator

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Feb 15, 2002
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I agree.
If it was me I would spend the money on a matched group of components. Two GB of RAM is great but it's the wrong speed and there's not much out there to take advantage of it that much memory. I'd rather have 512MB of RAM on a faster mobo. Of course that's all IMHO.

<font color=blue>Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
-Einstein</font color=blue>
 

rlasker3

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Jul 14, 2003
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Great thanks, this was exactely the type of feedback I was looking from everyone.

The combo seemed like a great price for what I was getting but I knew that there was going to be some interesting quirks with the RAM speed and CPU.

The question is whether I'll be happy with the performance I get long enough before I need another upgrade.

Thanks alot everyone - this is a great board. I'm thouroughly interested in getting more and more into the dynamics of the hardware.