Topic awaiting preservation: New computer and stuff, need help.

Some of you may remember me posting a thread about a month ago titled 'What the fuck happened to my computer?'

Well I finally figured out what the fuck happened to it, the motherboard is fried and gone.

So I was needing to get a new mother board as well as upgrade some other stuffage and one of my good friends who happens to be a computer tech recommended that I keep my hard disk, ram, cards, drives and such, and simply purchase a new case, motherboard, processor, and PS.

He said that I could get all of those in one package if I search for barebones on ebay. Well I did that and I see a whole of good but I have some questions.

First off, my former computer is (or was) a Dell Dimension 4400 with 1.8 GHZ, Intel P4 and 256 RAM. I also have a Geforce 2 Graphics card and whatever standard sound card came with my Dimension 4400. And of course I still have my 40 GB hard drive which is what I REALLY must have up and running again.

What I need to know is, can I just buy any type of barebones hardware with random stuff or do I need to have a specific motherboard to fit my cards, can I switch from Intel to AMD in my new PC, and can I stick my old hard drive in one of those and still have it functional and running like on my previous computer?

Also, if I get my hard drive working like it formerly was, and I have all my cards correctly placed in along with a phone jack to my wall, will I still be able to immediately run on Cable or will I require a technician to come and get it working.

I hope I gave enough information to expect a good solution . Feel free to ask anymore questions if necessary.

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can I just buy any type of barebones hardware with random stuff

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Pretty much. Generally the only issues are drivers. If the new MB has onboard video and you really, really want to use your old GeForce, be sure you can turn off the onboard video in the BIOS. Same applies for sound card.

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can I switch from Intel to AMD in my new PC, and can I stick my old hard drive in one of those and still have it functional and running like on my previous computer?

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Yup. Except that Windows on you current HD may have some drivers specific to your old MB. Expect to spend some time uninstalling those reinstalling new ones.

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will I still be able to immediately run on Cable or will I require a technician to come and get it working

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I can only speak from experience with RoadRunner and the local DSL provider--YMMV. In my experience, all the software crap they say you have to install is just that--crap you don't need. Plug it into the jack, fire up the PC, and you're good to go. And wherever possible, avoid those stupid USB/Ethernet converter things.

HTH!

Well, what is onboard video?

That means there's a graphics controller on the motherboard itself, so you wouldn't have to have a separate graphics card. AFAIK, they usually aren't that great, though, just basic ones for the average user. You can disable it and use your own card.

As for the cable, did you have the connection working previously? I mean did you already have the cable modem and were using it for Internet access with the previous computer? If so, all you should need to do is make sure you've got your ethernet adapter working properly and plug it into the modem.

If at all possible, stay away from motherboards that have anything integrated (onboard video, sound, etc...) I tried to fix that for a friend of mine for him to use a different video card and it was a pain in the ass.

Check out tigerdirect.com and newegg.com for some barebones stuff. I don't trust buying stuff like this on ebay.

Later,

C:\

hm. Both of my current systems (one linux one windows) both use integrated sound and network cards with integrated video cards turned off. I've never had a problem with most integrated cards usually there's a fairly straightforward method for turning these off in the BIOS.



.:[ Never resist a perfect moment ]:.

Thanks for that link to tigerdirect.com CPrompt . It's definitely a more reliable source than ebay for purchasing electronics.

I've also found what I think I need here.

As far as I know I need to insert a hard drive, disk drives, floppy drive, video card, audio card, cable modem, fire wire card/port, and I already have 256 MB of ready decent RAM.

Before I order this mofo is there anything I'm forgetting or need to know?

you might want to check www.mwave.com
they have a good selection of barebone systems. and i know that they will deliver because I have ordered plenty of stuff from them. Like Cprompt said, New egg is also another good place to check for them. The only thing that you should check to make sure of is that the motherboard is compatible with the processor and the ram. Everything else from the old computer should be good to go as long as it wasnt damaged with the mainboard.

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The only thing that you should check to make sure of is that the motherboard is compatible with the processor and the ram.

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And how would I go about doing that?

You need to check the specs on the motherboard.
The one in the link that you have above gives a link to a page with MB specs. It lists:
Specifications
Processor Interface Socket A
Processors Supported AMD Athlon AMD Duron


So this board will run AMD Athlon/XP/Duron with DDR memory.
Since you are running a P4 so no go.

__________________________
Eagles get sucked into jet engines and weasels are oft maligned, but beavers just make nice hats.
tj333- the semi-Christ

I also usually get my systems from some sort of pricewatch listing. Actually what I frequently do is price out a barebones system on there and then go to my local computer place and I can usually get them to match the price.

Personally if you're building a new system I'd go ahead and get more and new RAM if you can afford it. 256MB is pretty 1998



.:[ Never resist a perfect moment ]:.

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So this board will run AMD Athlon/XP/Duron with DDR memory.
Since you are running a P4 so no go.

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So does this mean that I can't use that system completely or that I can use it with all my stuff inserted but I just can't insert my previous 256MB Ram card in it giving it a total of 512MB because my RAM from the dimension is Intel P4 compatible?

(Edited by InSiDeR on 07-22-2005 20:48)

Actually that meant you can't use your processor, however since the processor is included in that bundle then that points a bit moot.

Your RAM should be okay but I'm not entirely sure.



.:[ Never resist a perfect moment ]:.

Yea, I don't plan on using my old P4. That's why I'm getting a whole new motherboard with the package.

And this one already has 256MB of RAM with it, I was just hoping to add another 256.

So yes on this package?

512 won't be enough really for any modern games or intensive apps (video editing and the likes). 1-2GB is what you're looking for - preferably dual channel.

Another thing that's important and almost always overlooked is your PSU. Make sure there is enough power to supply all your peripherals, and make sure that you have enough ampage per rail as well (a 500 watt PSU is useless if it can't spit out enough volts that most machines crave).



(Edited by synax on 07-23-2005 02:32)

I have said it before and I will say it again....



Whatzz Up Nizax!?


oh... eh... dont skimp on your PSU.

Well, I've been running on 256MB of RAM for about 4 years now and everything has been pretty smooth with the occasional lock ups and jitters in UT2k4 and Buzztracker. So I figure 512 would be a serious upgrade regardless of how little it is =). Is it possible to put a 512 card in 1 slot and a 256 in the other? Or do they have to be the same # in each slot, I remember hearing that somewhere.

I also really want to get a second hard drive to migrate all my media files like .mp3's, .mov's, .psd's, and etc onto another hard drive. I really don't need that much space to do so, either, I'll take the bare minimum of 40GB just because it's the cheapest. My question is if I want to put another hard drive into my barebones but not use it for OS and just storage purposes, what kind of Hard Drive would I need and what would be a credible brand to look for.

I don't have much money, really. Otherwise I'd be upgrading as much as I could but I just recently lost my job due to a technicality so all this computer hardware that I'm purchasing is with birthday money and charity =\.

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Is it possible to put a 512 card in 1 slot and a 256 in the other? Or do they have to be the same # in each slot, I remember hearing that somewhere

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Yep they need to be the same size in each slot.
Talking hard drives When I got a new 40 and 80gig hard drive I realized that the speed of the new hard drives were much faster than the hard drive I already had with my OS on it.
So I put the OS on the new 40 gig and it ran a fair bit quicker.

::tao:::: ::cell::

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Is it possible to put a 512 card in 1 slot and a 256 in the other? Or do they have to be the same # in each slot, I remember hearing that somewhere

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Actually they don't need to be the same size - that only matters when you're jiggering it up to work as dual channel. You can stick any configuration of sticks in your mobo as long as it's supported.

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Actually they don't need to be the same size - that only matters when you're jiggering it up to work as dual channel. You can stick any configuration of sticks in your mobo as long as it's supported.

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Really, I did not know this, thank you for edumacating me synax.

::tao:::: ::cell::

Yes, I've been quite edumacated myself in this thread.

So, this package is a go?