Frys -- AMD BE-2300 45W CPU + ASUS M2A-VM - $108.99

[zoiks]

As seen in the San Jose Mercury news. May be available in other areas.
I was waiting for a deal with this processor that did not include a rebate.
Text

 

[cheapgoose]

Originally posted by: zoiks
As seen in the San Jose Mercury news. May be available in other areas.
I was waiting for a deal with this processor that did not include a rebate.
Text

is this a pretty good deal? I need to replace my desktop and was thinking about the other amd combo, the 6400 with the ecs board. I'm replacing an opteron 165/asrock 939dualsata2 combo.

 

[zoiks]

Its great for a HTPC. The 45 watt cpu generally radiates less heat and is desired for small boxes or cases with less than adequate ventilation. This comes in handy when you place your HTPC along with your other electronics such as an A/V receiver or dvd player etc. I'm not sure how it'll fare against an Opteron however.
The motherboard seems to have a HDMI output on a riser card. Though I'm not totally sure about that.

 

[Morro]

It is about the same as your Opteron. The only reason to upgrade is that your new box will use 30-50W less power.. It doesn;t make sense to spend $108.99 for that. I have 165 Opteron and it runs @ 2.7GHz without a problem.

 

[cheapgoose]

Originally posted by: Morro
It is about the same as your Opteron. The only reason to upgrade is that your new box will use 30-50W less power.. It doesn;t make sense to spend $108.99 for that. I have 165 Opteron and it runs @ 2.7GHz without a problem.

sorry, should have clarified. My box is dead.not really an upgrade, more of a replacement.

 

[jrichrds]

Anyone know if this is available in southern California?

Fry's has been advertising the AMD X2 BE-2300 with ECS Geforce6100SM-M motherboard for $88.99 in the last couple of months. With this combo, you get a better Asus motherboard for $20 more. At first glance, the Asus board has 2 more DIMM slots, 2 more SATA ports, a true PCI-E x16 slot (the ECS has an x16 slot that runs at x8), and integrated graphics with dual output (DVI/VGA).

The ECS has a more energy efficient chipset (single chip solution for northbridge, southbridge, graphics) and supposedly better integrated graphics (GF7-derived Geforce 6100). The Asus appears to have the edge everywhere else. Integrated dual output DVI/VGA is especially nice at this price point.

 

[jiffer]

There is a review of the Asus M2A-VM at Hardware Secrets which compares its performance to the ECS GEFORCE6100SM-M:

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/432

The ATi 690G chipset performs better in synthetic benchmarks, but the NVidia 6100 chipset performs better in Quake 4/Doom 3. But that's not really saying much, since neither chipset's on-board graphics are suitable for gaming. If you install a high-end video card, the performance in a PCI-Express x16 slot could be up to 19% better than the performance you'd get if you put the same card in a PCI-Express x8 slot, judging by the benchmarks in another review at Hardware Secrets:

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/411/9

The Asus board has Japanese capacitors, but I'm not sure about the ECS board. Both of them have a 3-phase voltage regulator. The Asus board has slightly better overclocking options--namely, voltage control--but it apparently lacks adjustments for memory timings. Both boards have limited audio input/output capabilities due to port limitations and a relatively poor S/N ratio.

I just checked some prices for the CPU alone (the retail box version). Directron has it on sale for $82.99 plus shipping (plus tax for me in Texas). TigerDirect has it for $89.99 plus shipping, so it would be about the same for me without tax. Let's just say it costs about $97, give or take a little. The ECS combo for $88.99 plus tax basically gives you the motherboard for free and $1 off the CPU. The Asus combo for $108.99 plus tax basically gives you the Asus motherboard for $21. I can't tell you which one is a better deal because it depends on your own needs, but that ought to help you put things in perspective.

 

[onelove]

you GO jiffer - thanks for the refresher.

 

[HopJokey]

Is the CPU the retail version or OEM?

 

[szechuanpork]

some info from anandtech Text

 

[jjmIII]

Originally posted by: onelove
you GO jiffer - thanks for the refresher.

Ya, jiffer usually has lots of good info to add. Welcome aboard .

 

[zerodeefex]

I'm trying to find out with Asus if it's possible to get the HDMI replacement bracket to add HDMI and SPDIF out to this motherboard.

 

[szechuanpork]

not a bad combo deal. the board is solid and the integrated graphics is nice. it overclocks as well as an ecs 6100. i got it to 2.67 (9.5 x 281). i say if the be2300 and the ecs 6100 ever rolls around again for 70-80 dollars i'd pick that up. the asus is a good board but not great. other nvidia boards might do a better job of overclocking the beast be 2300.

 

[cheapgoose]

picked up the combo on friday. it's up and running. I upgraded from an AGP system so it's nice I can still run dual monitors without buying a new video card.