Building a cheapo PC

[Cajun]

i think you be wrong skelstar

I have upgrade main dell machines with new drives/ram

Often the biggest problem is onboard video, and no agp slot to upgrade, so i have been known to install new motherboards dell boxs, with dell cpu, cdwriter and more ram

and what have you.
---

I still build computers for people, really depends on what they are after, if you just after something yo surf internet, do email, go warehouse whatever and get a dell, but if you want to look at games, or video editing it always best to custom make the parts so they work well together.

[skelstar]

i think you be wrong skelstar

Ok, cool. Thats why I asked.

[Drunken Monkey]

To clarify, Dell, IBM/Lenovo, HP/Compaq "etc..." don't build much proprietary hardware into their machines these days, so non-OEM hardware can usually be installed without any issues. The days of machines only accepting manufacturer approved parts are generally long gone.

[lb99]

well depends no matter how hard you try whatever you get will be super seeded and your chip won't be used in like 2 years.

Decide if you want intel or amd chip.

Next do you want onboard video (if don't play games or such onboard video is fine, even some modern boards have some pretty good video (128/256megs ati/nvidia video) and that in some way can point you in direction, personally i only realy use gigabyte or msi motherboards, but that is personal preference, its what i used and know work, and if have a problem, can be fixed simple & quickly.

And if you already have hdd/dvd writer, thats all you need bar some ram

youre on to it, I am happy with my OS, hdd, and dvd, but I want to expand my ram, processor, video, and sound, on a new main board, mainly cause mine only has pci slots, I dont give a toss about what the case looks like, and power supplys are easy enough to get hold of, I just need a shopping list,

mainboard
processor (whats the difference between amd and intel?)
ram
video
sound
ethernet
usb (lots of)

[Cajun]

youre on to it, I am happy with my OS, hdd, and dvd, but I want to expand my ram, processor, video, and sound, on a new main board, mainly cause mine only has pci slots, I dont give a toss about what the case looks like, and power supplys are easy enough to get hold of, I just need a shopping list,

mainboard
processor (whats the difference between amd and intel?)
ram
video
sound
ethernet
usb (lots of)

Well most motherboards now have video/sound/ethernet/usb on board, it realy depends on what sorta video you are after. if you are just web surfing email and what not anything will be okay, but if play basic games, you might want something which has a good onboard video card (but in turn this steals some of your ram)
Aka the computer i just build for dmnt, on the motherboard a 'ATI Radeon X1250' which you can tell it to be 32,64,128,256 megs of ram,
Ram cheap as chips 1Gb around $100ish
And well the chip realy depend son you, like i said earlyer i perfer amd, but others intel,
Intel/AMD are they only two companys that make chips for home computers, Intels are more expensive since often you are paying for name, at the moment they have the edge at higher end of marked. but they normally that fast average user not notice the difference.

since the chip also decides what motherboard you get. you decide from there.

If ya want to know more, drop me a pm, with sorta $$ you wanting to spend, and i can tell you what you could get in nz for that same money

[lb99]

Well most motherboards now have video/sound/ethernet/usb on board, it realy depends on what sorta video you are after. if you are just web surfing email and what not anything will be okay, but if play basic games, you might want something which has a good onboard video card (but in turn this steals some of your ram)
Aka the computer i just build for dmnt, on the motherboard a 'ATI Radeon X1250' which you can tell it to be 32,64,128,256 megs of ram,
Ram cheap as chips 1Gb around $100ish
And well the chip realy depend son you, like i said earlyer i perfer amd, but others intel,
Intel/AMD are they only two companys that make chips for home computers, Intels are more expensive since often you are paying for name, at the moment they have the edge at higher end of marked. but they normally that fast average user not notice the difference.

since the chip also decides what motherboard you get. you decide from there.

If ya want to know more, drop me a pm, with sorta $$ you wanting to spend, and i can tell you what you could get in nz for that same money

I'll sort out a budget and get in contact, cheers.... by the way, my hdd is faulty, how do I transfer my OEM install to a replacement one?

[Lias]

No I wasn't, I meant the Dell hardware/motherboard not liking you putting in upgrades (ie DVD drive. memory etc) that are non-Dell parts. I'm sure that this has been the case in the last 5 years.

Dell have been known to use non standard parts as have all the other major OEM's (IBM, HP/Compaq, Gateway etc). Mostly they are reasonably standard though.

And I agree about not buying from Malaysia to save a few bucks.

[Lias]

I'll sort out a budget and get in contact, cheers.... by the way, my hdd is faulty, how do I transfer my OEM install to a replacement one?

You dont.. If your old PC has an OEM copy of windows its LEGALLY only allowed to be used with that PC.. You change PC's you buy a new copy (which is why OEM copies are cheaper, and the COA is generally stuck on the side of the case)

If the only "media" you have is a HDD recovery partition its also damn near guaranteed to not work on another PC, recovery partitions(or discs for that matter) are almost invariably locked to the manufacturers hardware, and the drivers etc are generally part of the install so it would fail to boot on alternative hardware.

If thats not what you mean ignore me lol

*edit* Also if your old piece of shit happens to be a PC Company PC let me know, I can modify the bios on most motherboards to take their OEM XP install..

[lb99]

You dont.. If your old PC has an OEM copy of windows its LEGALLY only allowed to be used with that PC.. You change PC's you buy a new copy (which is why OEM copies are cheaper, and the COA is generally stuck on the side of the case)

If the only "media" you have is a HDD recovery partition its also damn near guaranteed to not work on another PC, recovery partitions(or discs for that matter) are almost invariably locked to the manufacturers hardware, and the drivers etc are generally part of the install so it would fail to boot on alternative hardware.

If thats not what you mean ignore me lol

*edit* Also if your old piece of shit happens to be a PC Company PC let me know, I can modify the bios on most motherboards to take their OEM XP install..

I want to install the OEM software on the origional pc, with a new hdd, so that should be ok surely, how do I do that?

[Lias]

I want to install the OEM software on the origional pc, with a new hdd, so that should be ok surely, how do I do that?

If the old HDD is so stuffed that it cant be read, then your pretty much stuffed. You'll need to contact the OEM and see if you can purchase a set of restore discs for your particular model. Otherwise if the HDD has issues but is readable any computer shop should be able to ghost the partition over onto a new HDD for you.

[Gremlin]

im going to build a comp soon, 4gb ram 500meg+ vid card some trick mobo and as much hdds i can fit.

meh... got that, going from 2gb to 4gb didn't make much difference at the moment, but if I run virtual machines (highly probable) I'll need the ram. If you have 1gb single channel, going to 2gb dual channel makes a massive difference, spesh when tabbing out of a game, for example.

If you know what you're doing, and can source parts with warranty without a massive mark up, I would build your own. I despise all the crap that comes installed automatically, even Dell has started that. I enjoy building mine anyway, as they aren't normal, so its fun to drool over the parts.

Re amd v intel, it depends what your going to get, and what fan you speak to. amd outclasses intel a lot, especially regards to heat, but the dual core ones need drivers, and take a bit of work to run stable (mine did). Intel core 2 duo's are proving quite cool and well priced tho, spesh the Exx50 series that are coming out, but you need 1333fsb, etc, so hmmmm got off topic... anyway...

no such thing as a future proof pc... ever...

[breakaway]

I bought a new asus board, via chipset etc... 1gb ram with a celeron 3.2ghz for under $400 - all brand new and boxed with warranties.

Celeron? $400? Sounds like you got ripped. However, if you aren't in the know, I guess it's a good idea to get a upgrade kit.

PS Be very careful buying computer parts on trademe. They will almost always rip you off.

Check out http://www.pricespy.co.nz/ for the cheapest prices in retail stores in NZ.

If you need help building a computer, PM me, and I'll sort you out.

[imdying]

Ouch, I didn't wanna say anything