TigerDirect

[G Man]

Buyer Beware:

TigerDirect sells barbone kits with incompatible motherboards. Result: Misery for you as a hobbyist or builder. Case in point a recent barebones kit provided with a really smoking Core 2 Duo 3.2 Ghz, but problem is TigerDirect furnished a motherboard Intel says on the Intel website cannot support over 2.2 Ghz processor!

The issue was the Intel Express board provided in the barebones kit I bought is cheaper than the board the processor really needs to operate properly. The board needed for the 3.2 is an Intel Executive series, only about 45.00 more on the street than the Express series provided with the kit. Once you commit to a kit like this, you expect to have bought it from a reputable seller that knows what he is doing when he bundles a product package such as this. The result has been very disappointing. The computer is very slow, crashes and is just no where near the performance it should be. It took a ridiculous 3 days of build time (I spent hours chasing down why I could not use my Promise IDE card, why the machine would not boot from a CD, the SATA was strange,etc, etc.) where I would normally only spend about 2-4 hours putting such a machine together. All the problems I was having became painfully clear when my local retailer told me right out of hand that the processor was just too fast for my board.

I have made a commitment of sorts to a local retailer that is reasonable in price and good on service to avoid using people like TigerDirect any more.

TigerDirect sells related product items as accessories that often or incompatible or just will not work together at all!. Another case in point: A cooler for the above processor that was SO LARGE it would not fit in the case! Yet is was listed as an "order with" item to accompany and cool the 3.2 processor.

TigerDirect pushes Mach Spped boards, which I believe to be at best only just OK (stay with Asus, Gigabit or Intel boards). The problem is TigerDirect uses price as with everything really) to push the Mach Speed boards using somewhat heavy rebates. Mach Speed is harder to get a rebate out of than you can believe. They will toss your rebate request after you have waited for 12 or more weeks for any reason they can dream up. I follow rebate instructions to the letter, and have had to refile up to 3 times with Mach Speed just to get a 20.00 rebate. This again reflects on the character and good will of TigerDirect once again pointing out they want the sale and are not the least bit concerned with the customer's opinion after the fact.

I recommend you avoid these people and find you a good local or regional retailer that is competitive and can provide you some amount of support if you need it.

[Gordman]

Thank you for your suggestions, it was all very interesting and i' ll keep it in mind.

[Bobs]

thats, sorta retarded, the did the intels come underclocked or something? because i dont know if they would work, maby overheat or cause crashes, ive never done something like that before, my little socket A barton never met the hand of overclocking, my ASUS Kelut motherboard wont let me overclock it