A4-3400 APU (CPU) + MSI A55 FM1 Motherboard + 8GB RAM - $74.99 AR

Pretty slick deal!

wish it was mini-itx. i'd have bit.

Good deal. Why can't these damn deals come with HDMI for a HTPC? Been waiting to build.

Quote from cheapsense007 : Good deal. Why can't these damn deals come with HDMI for a HTPC? Been waiting to build.

:x because the ones with HDMI don't need sales to sell!

Quote from cheapsense007 : Good deal. Why can't these damn deals come with HDMI for a HTPC? Been waiting to build.

A G210 G Card under $15 after MIR can be found on sale oftenly. Add that to this combo and it will make a good HTPC combo.
Do a quick search here or create an alert.

DVI to hdmi adapter work on this baby?

If this was an A75 board it'd be a done deal for me.

How does this processor compare with Core2duo E6600?

Quote from mnagesw : How does this processor compare with Core2duo E6600?

Beating E6600 up at all. E6600 is totally crap. Even Intel Dual Core E5200 is better than it.

Thanks baonguyen312!

I see that the MB is only SATA II only. No SATA III?

Quote from demn : wish it was mini-itx. i'd have bit.

I was thinking the exact same thing

Quote from mnagesw :
How does this processor compare with Core2duo E6600?

The E6600 is NOT a Core2Duo, its a Pentium Dual-Core.

Quote from baonguyen312 : Beating E6600 up at all. E6600 is totally crap. Even Intel Dual Core E5200 is better than it.

Wrong! Even the E6600 is faster than this A4. The A4 is the very low-end of the A-series lineup. According to passmark, the E6600 scores a 1902, while the A4-3400 only scores 1629.

The main advantage to the A-series is the integrated GPU. The integrated GPU performs on about the same level as the sandy-bridge graphics.



I'm going to have to pass on this one. That's alot of money up front...I'm sure the rebates will come, but considering that a Sandy Bridge G550 celeron is around $35 (retail, with fan), the ram is worth around $20 (after rebate).

Assuming we see a decent deal on a socket 1155 motherboard soon, the G550 is definitely the way to go. These sandy bridge celerons are actually quite impressive. Every older generation celeron was crap, but the sandy's hold their own.

At ~$35 retail, the G550 scores in at an impressive 2353


EDIT: Looks like only microcenter has the G550 @ $35. Tigerdirect and Newegg list it at $47.99 and $59.99 respectively

Man.. too bad FM1 is not really upgradable.. I heard FM2 is not backward compatible..

Agreed...this is a very cheap price but also a very weak CPU. I had a laptop with the mobile version of this processor and returned it...even for basic word processing and a sub $300 price it was a drag. And no, I don't hate AMD. I've always built my desktops with their processors.

However, passmark is not always accurate but it can give a rough idea.