Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Was up at CostCo the other day and was kinda surprised to see this in one of the aisles:

Looks interesting enough. For someone who simply wants a turnkey system it would have some appeal. No getting parts from five different vendors, wire/outlet compatability issues, etc, etc. So..what does $300 get you from CostCo? Lets look:

Now I am no expert, not by a long shot…but I think that a careful consumer could get a lot more bang for his buck shopping ala carte rather than going for the combo platter here. Im not really sure, to be honest. I’ve been meaning to investigate setting up a small system for quite a while now but it keeps getting shoved on to the back burner.

Before anyone asks, yes the label that I saw did say “Made In China”. I bet youre not surprised, right? I noticed these kits are available on eBay at various prices…most of them north of $300.

Anyone have any comments or opinions on this versus putting something together on one’s own?