Is a pre-overclocked kit worth it?

[Caudovittatus]

While pondering which components to buy for my next desktop build, I've been rather tempted by a pre-overclocked kit:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...id=339&subcat=

I know the cost rather exceeds what it would cost me to buy the components separately, but a couple of advantages are:

1) I can be lazy - just put the bits together and put the thermal paste on properly
2) If they're selling it as a 4Ghz overclock then that must be guaranteed - as you'll see from my other thread, my last overclock (and indeed system build) was for an AthlonXP so I'm a little rusty, but that seems pretty good on air... or is that typical of what most people are getting from a D0 stepping on air?

I like the look of the Gigabyte EX58-UD5 - I'm veering towards that anyway I think, not sure about the memory (though I'd like to go to 12Gb - but I guess I can pick up another three pack of the same type).

So I guess the question is - am I being too lazy in envisaging spending weeks getting the overclock right (weekends are the only time I'll have to work on it as I work long hours with a long commute during the week - and even at the weekend there's obviously household duties/and showing my face to my family (poor them!) ), the point is spending a good number of hours does mean weeks probably, but I don't want to rush it either an blow the components out.

And am I being paranoid in thinking that I wouldn't be able to get an overclock like that on air using components similar to those in this kit?

As always, thanks for your help

[Blaineoliver]

My friend got this kit, had nothing but trouble, rma and everything to get overclockers to sort it out. Was sent out with the wrong configuration. And the rma took a while, im sure i could get a copy of his forum posts on another forum. He had a phone call where he was chasing it up, and the excuse was that the motherboard and parts were underneath someones desk?!!?

[Caudovittatus]

My friend got this kit, had nothing but trouble, rma and everything to get overclockers to sort it out. Was sent out with the wrong configuration. And the rma took a while, im sure i could get a copy of his forum posts on another forum. He had a phone call where he was chasing it up, and the excuse was that the motherboard and parts were underneath someones desk?!!?

Ouch! I've used overclockers before, but only for individual components and they've been fine for that but I've never had them build anything - I'd only want to pay a premium if I were getting my money's worth (which means taking hassle away ). If there's a reasonable chance of having to RMA then I think I'd rather spend weeks getting a good overclock - it's much more fun tweaking things than having to arrange collections/redeliveries (which is difficult without taking time off work). RMAs are one thing that I really hate in a system build (and there always seems to be something in a build - at least there always used to be and I guess things haven't changed greatly in the last six years).

Did your friend get it sorted out in-spite of the lame excuses?

Thanks for the quick response on that one!

[Infinite]

lol, all they have done is connected the motherboard up to the CPU and RAM, changed bios setting to known values that will achieve the described overclock. A 2 minute job.

You can do that yourself with google and searching online forums to see what setting other people used.

Edit: The weird thing is, is that that bundle costs less than buying each component individually from them...

[Clunk]

Edit: The weird thing is, is that that bundle costs less than buying each component individually from them...

Probably a good way of getting rid of returned items too.

[drisie]

Don't waste your time with crap