news.eternal-september.org wrote:
> For instance, does this seem like a reasonable deal?
>
> http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...9&Sku=B69-1373
Well, to prevent me from doing any real work ( :-) ),
let's look at the power supply.
Tigerdirect uses a ThermalTake case, they pull out the 450W
supply and install a Diablotek PSDA600 600W in its place.
Now, the picture on the Tigerdirect page looks kinda purdy.
If we go to Newegg, and look up that part number (PSDA600), the
supply I found, isn't exactly the same. A couple of the
specs are slightly different. And the color scheme is a plain
gray.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...13&Tpk=PSDA600
The unit costs $29.99 .
Some of the comments in the Newegg review.
"this psu will not support more than a 300watt pc"
"Only worked for three days"
"Works for a while, and then just doesn't."
This is one of the problems I have with bundles. If only one
item of the N items is a "dog", it kinda spoils the deal. I'm
a bit picky about power supplies. I don't necessarily need
"expensive" ones, but I do need ones that aren't of
the "only worked for three days" variety.
I wouldn't give up on the deal just yet, but would have to
correct the project cost by the cost of the additional
power supply I'd have to buy.
That's why I favor computer cases with no power supply. I'm not
forced to toss the power supply into the garbage, and can search
for something with a decent reputation. The last cheap power
supply I bought, cost me $45, and the main reason for buying it,
was the approval rating was around 83% instead of 20%. That
doesn't guarantee the supply will last forever, but I won't
have regrets on the first day of usage.
*******
For the motherboard, I couldn't find a Newegg review. And there
were no reviews on the Amazon entry. I did find this, and the
board is a cheap version of a Z68 based board.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/mot...ap-d3-review/1
I could kinda tell that, from the three-jack audio tree.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...L._AA1500_.jpg
The parallel and serial ports, are a mixed bag. I've actually
used those ports here. I have a programmer adapter that uses
the parallel port, and I occasionally connect computers with
the serial port (while working in Linux and needing a console).
So while I can find uses for them, some people absolutely
hate to see legacy connectors. Things I could do without,
are stuff like SPDIF or TOSLink (as I've never had a receiver
with that on it).
*******
As for whether it's a deal or not, you're going to have to
dig up prices for everything. If all the items are worthwhile,
then it might possibly be a deal. But if any items are iffy
after analysis, that puts the damper on things.
*******
I suppose one way of looking at this bundle, is considering
the rising cost of hard drives. Maybe the hard drive they're
giving you, is actually a high point in the deal :-)
Paul
Good Place to Buy Barebones 
Linear Mode
