and an ugly grey case.
I'm wondering whether or not to get it going again.
ALL DRIVES (HD & optical) ARE MISSING, and the RAM is gone too.
Is it worth spending on?
1. New case - the gf won't have the sight of the thing in the house.
2. RAM - I think I remember these boards like matched simms, and its gonna need at least 2 x 512MB, preferably PC3200 in order to get the 2GHz CPU to do some decent work.
3.Hard disk. I have a couple of small hard drives to do for now, and even a 3.5" to 2.5" adapter to use the new 2.5" 7200rpm drive I just got.
4. Optical drive is taken care of via an external Sony drive,but will my IDE-connected 2.5"drive suffice to boot & install the other drives?
5. I have a 64MB AGP card to throw in too.
And whilst I'm asking, the board supports SATA drives. Are these much better than IDE?
OR:
Shall I just salavage the soundcard / supply / and build on a better board with faster CPU / RAID / Gigabit LAN / better sound options?
2006-11-30 21:59:15 · 3 answers · asked by Anonymous in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Desktops
I would actually suggest getting an internal optical drive. This will probably eliminate any issues with trying to install windows in the first place. a DVD burner is pretty cheap nowadays and will only cost about $30 from Newegg.com. I would also say go with a SATA drive. Usually they are a little faster with transfer rates and use better cables as they don't constrict air flow nearly as much. This is really only if you decide to actually go with trying to do something with this.
I myself would rather build a newer Vista-ready machine. keep the soundcard and look into a better PSU and build a faster pc. It really seems like you're leaning to that direction anyways. Stick with that SATA though. This really depends on what you want to do with this new computer though. For anything like current gaming or video editing and stuff like that, go with a new sytem. for just surfing and chating, build up the current one.
2006-11-30 23:42:16 · answer #1 · answered by xxplalmxx 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Case: this one has a window in the side access panel, "tool-less" drive installation.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811119077
Lighted CPU fan:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835118118
Lighted Floppy IDE cable:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16812104012
Thermal grease for CPU fan installation:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835100007
You have a socket A mobo, I built a computer with the same processor that you have there. If you can find another Athlon XP processor, it will be much more money than it is worth, stick with what you have now! I have 1GB (2X512MB) of DDR 400 PC3200 of RAM. That is plenty to make this computer move right along. If your looking to play modern games on this unit, upgrade the video card to at least 256MB. If your currently using IDE hard drives, stick with those. SATA drive setup for winXP can give you a headache. Go with internal optical drives, get 2 DVD burners (Lite-On 16x cost about $30 each), it just makes more sense. Don't bother trying to hook up laptop parts into a desktop. They use much diffrent cables from the drives to the mobo. Using a case with a window in the side panel and adding the lighted CPU fan and lighted floppy cable will probably be much better with the GF! Buying all of these componens for an upgrade, it would make more sense to get a AM2 or 939 mobo and a new processor, a copy of winXP Pro and just build a whole new computer!
2006-12-01 11:53:27 · answer #2 · answered by mittalman53 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
sounds like a good computer, I would get it going...get the parts here: http://www.tigerdirect.com
2006-12-01 07:37:08 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋