Help- Quick!

[drdan]

Hi again, I am looking at what seems to be a good deal on ebay from a seller with fewer than average complaints. I will post most of the specs at the end. Two hesitations. One, I cannot find any info on the listed motherboard. It is a PC chips board but couldn't find anything on that exact version. Also I did see something on PC chips site about the Alt Alladin TNT2 chipset only supporting up to 800mhz. Here are the main specs, the "quick" is because I only have 5 hours or so before it closes. I am going to try to get it for under $425.

Intel Pentium™ III 1000Mhz Processor Retail Boxed with 3 year warranty


Alton A631M Socket 370, TNT2 133MHz BUS ATA100 Controller Motherboard


256MB PC-133 SDRAM Major Brand not OEM (Life Time Warranty)


30GB ATA 100 Hard Disk Drive


48X Mitsumi CD-ROM Drive for Reliable reads on CD's and CDR's.


TNT2 Highest Performance, 128-bit 3D AGP Graphics Accelerator 32MB shared memory


AC 97 Digital Full Duplex Sound Card


10/100Mbps Ethernet Adapter


56K V.90 Fax/Data/Modem


Mitsumi 1.44mb Floppy Drive for Reliable read and write


Mid Tower Case with 250 WATT Power supply and extra Case Fan 3 5.25" bays and 2 3.5" bays


All Systems are BRAND NEW with 1 year limited parts and labor warranty.

The HD is 5400rpm and I believe the front side bus is 133mhz.

[Ghost_Hacker]

The Alton A631M does support a 1GB processor but it comes with only 3 pci slots.( or should I say that most Alton MBs come with 3 or less expansion slots.) Alton makes cheap OEM motherboards that are very popular with OEMs. But be warned they have limited upgradabilty.

Edit: some of the information I got says it only supports ATA66.
Here's their home page : http://www.pcware.com/pcware.htm

Also It seems that I was wrong it supports 1GB of memory but I can find no documentation that says it supports a 1GB processor. ( it sister MB does support a 1GB processor.)




[This message has been edited by Ghost_Hacker (edited 06-25-2001).]

[Randy_tx]

BUY IT ! Even if you decide to throw the mobo in the nearest river....the rest of the stuff is well worth the $425.......trust me!! The only thing you will want to consider changing is the power supply...too light for modern duty......you need 300+ watt ps.

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Will XP save Me ?

[AwARe]

Id say worth a shot drdan...........

Id be kinda curious who makes some of the components, but for $425....why not....

I seriously doubt I personally could build you a 1ghz PIII "complete system" of "any" kind for $425 over the net.......

Would be nice to know exactly what Ram that is, would be nice to have a faster HDD, would be nice to have a MotherBoard that didnt have everything built in, and better Video and sound etc etc etc........

.......but like randy said, even if it turns out to be crap, you got enough good parts there to build a complete other system and still just about break even..............The CPU alone is worth at least a buck 50

"close to" cant lose deal.........and it comes with a warranty, so what the heck.........

Good Luck!

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What I meant by what I said is hopefully less confusing then the contemplation of the question that led to the confusion in the 1st place.......

[This message has been edited by AwARe (edited 06-25-2001).]

[yawningdog]

I must say, I feel a litle beleaguered on this one. If this system can be had for $425, I say avoid it like an oncoming train. It's bound to have cheap components, and one thing I tell all my customers is to always remember how easy it is to buy junk. And anybody who places faith in warranties should talk to a guy in A/V troubleshooting calling himself axlsalinger. Here's a guy with a 7 month old machine who is ready to hurl it from atop a tall building, warranty and all.

At the very least, find out some of the exact details having to do with the hardware.

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He thrusts his fists against the posts but still insists he sees the ghosts.

[drdan]

Well, I got it. I didn't get home until less than 20 minutes before the auction closed. I didn't have time to log on here but spent the time researching instead. Since I still couldn't find much on the hardware itself, I researched the seller. He has one of the best reputations and turnaround time for selling these type of systems on ebay. At least of the ones I compared him to who are currently selling. He has considerably fewer complaints and most seem to be somewhat stupid like " the auction was over Friday evening it's now Sunday afternoon and I don't have my system yet!!!!". An exageration but not much of one. I also researched his previous sales. He has sold about a dozen of these exact systems over the last six weeks (along with numerous other types). The lowest one of this type went for $455. Most were $550 to $600. So I increased my bid and just barely got it for $472.52. I won it in the last few seconds by $2.52 As long as it actually works (and keeps working) I think it is exactly what I was looking for and I won't have to add anything. Thanks for your help guys.

You know, bidding (and winning) a bigger item like this is a lot of fun in and of itself.

[AwARe]

just dont end up like some other people I know, addicted and buying toasters with no plugs cause they are only $4, and they think they can fix them and sell them for $15 hahahaha

Good Luck! drdan

Dog's got good points and I kinda have to agree, as I said before would be nice to know exactly blah blah blah, but hopefully you wont have any trouble........let us know how it works out http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

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What I meant by what I said is hopefully less confusing then the contemplation of the question that led to the confusion in the 1st place.......

[drdan]

I agree with that I am taking a risk buying a cheaper system, especially from someone who is not local or a big company. It was pretty much that or nothing at this point. I had reached the limit of what I could talk the other guy into spending. One reason it is not as risky as it sounds is that we we still be running the office software from two (or more) separate computers. The reason we were replacing one was it was our main "back office" computer for data entry and billing and it was costing three to four extra hours per week in data entry time because it was so slow. We will still have all our data on both in addition to backup discs so we can always bill off of the Gateway that we know is reliable. That is also why I was influenced by the sellers ebay rating and history. Sellers are jealous of their rating because it means easier sales for more $ because the buyer feels more confident. I feel more confident that he will do what he says and correct problems if they arise than I would with some of the other sellers. Since having that computer out of commission is not fatal I think I can probably live with the risk. Hopefully I won't come to regret saying that. See how good I am at explaining why I was "right" to spend the money. Can you tell I've been married a long time?

[tjaymadison]

Easily !! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

Good luck! I think for a bit of a 'low end' system, you did very well.

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"I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."
-- Charles Babbage, mathematician, computer pioneer, analytical engine designer (1791-1871)
-- (Question: 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?')

"Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand."
-- Homer Simpson