Barebone System BCM/ GVC GT133KT Motherboard $85 plus shipping, comments please!

[Ray06492]

MicronPC1035 Barebone System BCM/ GVC GT133KT Motherboard Sound on Board, 1.44MB Floppy Drive, 56K v.90 PCI Soft Modem, Mini ATX Tower "Made by Lite-On" Detla 250Watts ATX Power Supply IDE, Floppy, CD-ROM Audio Cables $85.00 The shipping is $17., for a total of $102.

I found this at: http://www.centrix-intl.com/
Reseller ratings are: 6.1 with 83 reviews.

Is this of any value?

Thank you for your help,
Take care,
Ray

 

[cremefilled]

The way I figure it, if everything is new, the values by part would be something like this:

generic, no-name motherboard limited to Duron 1.0 GHz $50
Winmodem $10
floppy $10
generic microATX case $15 to $20

So it's an OK buy, but nothing spectacular. You could probably assemble a system with a namebrand motherboard based on the KT133a chipset for maybe $10 more.

One caution is that many microATX cases make it impossible to fit in a CD-ROM drive, as the back of the drive will bump into the power supply. It's hard to tell, but it looks as if in the side shot of the computer case, a CD-ROM is not installed. Clearances will be tight, at the very least.

 

[cricky]

Um... It's another place reselling the Andara Barebones system from a few months back now.

Not a terrible case/MB. I had a few problems putting it together, but I think everyone did (1000+ posts).

Only can do up to 1ghz, if I remember correctly.

 

[shutrbug]

<< MicronPC1035 Barebone System BCM/ GVC GT133KT Motherboard Sound on Board, 1.44MB Floppy Drive, 56K v.90 PCI Soft Modem, Mini ATX Tower "Made by Lite-On" Detla 250Watts ATX Power Supply IDE, Floppy, CD-ROM Audio Cables $85.00 The shipping is $17., >>



This sounds just like the Andara barebones system from Overstock.com a couple months ago. I'm typing on my system right now. Check out the configuration in the signature line below for details. In net, mine has worked like a champ with the exception of turning on at random (I turn off the power strip now after shuuting down the system). Mine has crashed only occasionally when doing things I probably shouldn't like trying to do a video capture while simultaneously running FlaskMPEG. As I recall, the Overstock deal had free shipping and a $20 coupon, so the net price was something like $80 shipped for the barebones.

MisterE has a website with links to other fora here with the old Hot Deals and Technical support threads archived.

 

[MisterE]

Overstock sold a zillion of these a while back labeled as "Andara barebones kit." I bought 2 of the kits, sold one and kept one to play around with. There was a HUGE hot deal thread about it and also a technical support thread. We were getting these very same kits shipped from Overstock for somewhere in the neighborhood of $73 (as I recall).

I participated heavily in the hot deal and support threads for this kit, and put together a little website to centralize support. Please see The Andara Project. There you will find a lot of archived knowledge from many users of this bare-bones kit. Also available is a modified BIOS for the GT133KT.

I'm not crapping on your thread, but I don't know if I would recommend this kit. The motherboard has the KT133 chipset and only supports the 200MHz front-side bus TBird and Duron processors (not the 266MHz fsb models), and some people were having problems with 900MHz+ CPUs. The power supply is weak, and the modem is an average performer at best (and can be had for $6 at centrix-intl). The best thing about this kit is the mATX case that houses it. It is pretty darn nice, but not worth $85.

 

[wasamicron]

I really liked the quality of this case. It's built very sturdy. I was so impressed with it that I decided to build my new rig with a mid tower liteon case. My new case isn't nearly as sturdy as this one. Probably 'cause Andara case is oem. My Andara worked fine with a 1ghz thunderbird, cdrom, & cdburner. Modem is crappy like MisterE said. Also, MisterE was a great help to alot of people with this project. Highly recommend his modified bios.

 

[AirMail1]

Hey just another thumbs up to Mr E. He doesnt mention it but he developed a solid and stable bios upgrade that was better than the mfr's. I found the box to be a good deal (at the time) and solid if you wanted a plain jane box. NO tweak or OC capability (well unless your a hard core fanatic and want to solder new PCC capacitors)
One strong suggestion: NO more than a 900 Tbird.

 

[MisterE]

MisterE has a website with links to other fora here with the old Hot Deals and Technical support threads archived.

...MisterE was a great help to alot of people with this project. Highly recommend his modified bios.

Hey just another thumbs up to Mr E. He doesnt mention it but he developed a solid and stable bios upgrade that was better than the mfr's.

Thanks for the kind words, folks. I'm glad that I had the chance to help out a few people.

 

[Wik]

Yes this is the same as the Overstock system. I just ordered 3 of these last month. The only difference is that this one did not come with any thumbscrews or power cord. I have built a total of 5 of these with no problem at all.

 

[WolverineGator]

This barebones was my first build and it worked perfectly. Then Flight Simulator 2002 came out and I had to sell it for a $75 profit to get an XP1800 system. Now I have no money to buy the game! :|

The Overstock deal was hot because you could get the system for $73 shipped! This deal is warm at best. Some problems you may encounter:

Problem: nothing happens
Solution: clear cmos by using jumper

Problem: keyboard/mouse malfunction (flickering lights, doesn't work)
Solution: get USB keyboard/mouse (Overstock Logitech Cordless Freedom Navigator Set is great at $31.77 - $5MIR or first time customer discount)

Problem: frequent crashes
Multiple Solutions, see Delphi forums.

Can you overclock? Limited, using software. Get the w230.pll from the Delphi forums (link on MisterE's) Andara page.

 

[DaveF]

Actually, the Centrix barebones system is slightly different from the Overstock one. The stock bios is much more limited, but doesn't seem as crashy. The motherboard layout for the built-in sound is different, and makes connections much easier. I bought 2 of the Overstock bb's and had problems with both. The Centrix is running like a charm. No problems with power up/down and sleep modes.

I also saw recently at Andara's site that they had refurbs (all of these should be considered refurbed, since they were Micron's with most of the guts pulled out) for about $70.

 

[MisterE]

"Actually, the Centrix barebones system is slightly different from the Overstock one. The stock bios is much more limited, but doesn't seem as crashy. The motherboard layout for the built-in sound is different, and makes connections much easier."

Are you certain of this, DaveF? The BIOS .BIN available in the Zip file at Centrix is identical to the revision 1.04 found at BCM (motherboard manufacturer) website. Also, how is the sound layout different? The colour and layout of the audio jacks is part of the ATX specification, I think.

 

[ScrapSilicon]

its the same...hi WolverineGator hi MisterE and wasamicron....http://www.centrix-intl.com/...surprised no one linked it at least both the ones I threw together(with all the help from AT thread and esp. MisterE's BIOS ) are still chugging along ...yeah they were headaches til the BIOS and power management mods...S1

 

[Aceman]

I built three of theses systems. I did not bother to upgrade the bios on any of them. All three are going error free. Two are 900mhz with CDRW and DVD drive and one is a 950mhz with a DVD drive. The 950 was given to my 5yr old, who has successfully tweaked previous systems to the point that I had to format and start over. This system has not had one problem at all!

 

[MisterE]

Greetings, WolverineGator and ScrapSilicon! Glad to see that you guys are still kickin'!

E.

 

[RickyBaby]

I got in on the overstock.com andara system too. Running misterE's bios like a lot of folks. The system works pretty good but is flaky as you will find out if you look at the web site previously mentioned. My keyboard/mouse kept acting up so switched to usb for both. Just installed WinXP on it this last weekend and everything is working like a champ. Be aware though, many people have problems running any processor greater than 950. It seems that if you disable ACPI (or even better install windows with acpi disabled) it doesn't strain the on board power supply as much and the system runs much more reliable.

Over all, its not a bad little system for cheap.

RB

 

[MisterE]

RickyBaby, Greetings to you! Haha! We should have an Andara Bare-bones reunion party.

EDIT: GT133KT... Fear It.

 

[flight23]

order the titaneum case and modem from ability for like $55 shipped
order the k7s5a and floppy from newegg for like $80 shipped
for $135 youll have a much better barebones

 

[tommigsr]

it's a great comp! i have it as my LAN machine, runs like a champ! 1ghz TB in there, took out the modem cuz it was crap and put in just a gf2mx400 and a network card. it was ready to roll. i also added 24x lite-on burner from newegg.com too and it is a sweet deal. and the girls DIG it! cuz it's so freakin cute and small hehehehhehehhee i'm running windows Xp without a hitch on it.

 

[AlphalphaPB]

950 T-Bird in mine, no problems at all with Windows 98. I'm going to put XP on this box too.

My HSF (Volcano 6Cu) is a little loud though, compared to my PIII Compaq's wimpy fan. Might be an airflow problem.

tommigsr, I don't see how girls would dig the case. I have two computers in my dorm room. Whenever people step in and take a look, the first thing they say is, "You have two monitors?!" Next thing, when they see my Andara, they say, "That is soooo 80's!" The black plastic and the 3 slits in the front top off the 80's look. I think that the case looks better without the front panel on (the industrial look)

 

[DaveF]

MisterE,

As far as I can tell, the mobo from Centrix is the same as Andara's, but has the cd-in, modem-in and aux-in connects in front of the game/midi port. No need to slip it under the AGP card, let alone PCI slot1. The bios screen was different also- comes up with a Micron logo screen and doen't show what bios was doing until Win boot. You can press a key and the bios boot will show.

Anyway, the bios chip is labelled 1.02 but, in the cmos setup utility, lists as 'micronpc.com bios version 1.04'. Has zilch for options. The Advanced, Advanced Bios Features tab only gives the options of boot device order and numlock status!!!- under Advanced Chipset Features it lists only AGP aperatue size and mode!

Anyway, seems way more stable than the Overstock version. May be due to WinXP vs Win98SE, but haven't upgraded this pc yet to check. I still can't do a 'suspend to ram' sleep mode without lockup on either of my Overstock bb's, the second's (sent up north to mom-in-law) power supply is acting buggy. Maybe I just lucked into a good Centrix system.

edit: BTW, you can pick up one for $79 (+19.95 shipping to OK!) at Andara site

edit2: 950 tbird doesn't seem to matter with this mb, never tried >=1 ghz. Why don't we see 133a bb's for this price by now!

 

[MisterE]

Gotcha, DaveF. There is a 1.02 download at the BCM website (not Micron branded, as I recall, though) and it warned me against flashing it to my GT133KT. I flashed anyways and it was successful, but it seems like the time and date had some sort of weird display problems in the bios. I went back to the 1.04 and then modified it. I guess that I now know what the 1.02 flash was for.

 

[UncleJohn]

Hi MisterE,

All 3 units with 900`s seem to be doing fine, kinda miss them as they went to friends and relatives..Yea if I were building one now I think I,d go with a more advanced unit that could run a 266 front side bus..I still stop bye and check the website, I,m like somebody else that just mentitoned the case...really liked the small size, thumb screws and stuff like that...nice and sturdy..
Last unit I got, I had that think going so fast it wasn,t even funny...If I remember right, think I had it going in about a hour..

 

[gtd2000]

The Andara barebones kit was a very decent deal via Overstock.com.

I'm not sure why people complain about the supplied Zoltrix modems though? I've used Zoltrix modems ever since being online (both soft and hard versions) and never had any complaints. The Andara supplied modem usually connects at 50666bps to net zero at home, however my laptop seems to connect at 46666bps from the same phone line and it uses a 3com card. What is about these modems people don't like? Tell me what it is then I'll see if I have that problem too - but so far I don't see any?
In fairness my mother has fried a Zoltrix modem during a storm - but it was replaced under warranty - hehe

I also have the famous keyboard flickery lights problem - which actually only developed after I shipped my PC down from PA to FL a couple of months ago via Fedex. I suspect heavy handling caused this problem!

There is a very cheap and easy solution to this problem though - one so simple it is uncanny - buy a cheapo PS2 to serial connector - I'm gonna grab one from Best Buy tonight - they have them for $1.50 on clearance After all - what do we use serial ports for nowadays unless you are stuck with WinNT?

One thing that I will say about this system is that it is not the fastest - it does however do everything that is required of it though.

Currently I have the following installed in it.

Andara Barebones Kit (Overstcock $79)
Leadtek GF2 Pro (@460/230) (newegg $140)
512MB KByte RAM (BB thanksgiving deal $19.98 AR)
Delta x16 DVD ROM (Circuit City deal $19.99 AR)
Panasonic 7856 CDR(8x4x32) ($80 - six months ago)
Duron 700 @ 700Mhz ($30)
SB Live 5.1 retail ( $29.99 Staples deal)
IBM 30Gb Deskstar ($150 - 8 months ago)
Labtec 424 speakers (Staples - free AR)

Also picked up the KDS 19" 190i from OD for $133 (AR)
And will be installing the WD 60GB 5400 for $50 AR from Best Buy.

If the motherboard was "tweakable" to overclock etc then it would have been a fantastic deal

 

[magis123]

Ok, I have a question about this system...my older system that my g/f works off of (see it link in my sig. as 2nd System) is getting a bit dated (and a bit flukey, even at the normal clock speeds)...so I have considered this deal...

I have a spare DURON 800 MHz CPU laying around plus a standard AMD HSF combo. Would this be worth updating my second system with? I mean MHz to MHz it's faster but I am concerned about the chipset, etc.

Oh, and I am no stranger to building systems...I am an AMD Sys. Integrator for my company and we deal strictly with AMD & IWill systems (nice and stable)...it's just that seems to be even a better deal then I can get through work...