I have it with my stupid dell....

[Falco4088]

Ok Hi,
let me start by saying i'm not technically superior to the normal person but I know where everything goes in the computer and what not and how to take it out and all that jazz......ANYWAY!
My dell E310 is just annoying, not PCI-E x16 slot, maximum of 2 GB and few other things i cant take. However, if i tried and replaced the mother board, with one i liked off of new egg.....well is that even possible other wised i'm gonna tear apart my dell, by a case and mix and match wat ever i can. I no certain processors and what not wont work but any guidance at all is appreciated.....i'm at the end of my rope with this thing.
-Falco

 

[Cinders]

I just took a quick look at your computer and it seems that the only things that will transfer to a new computer will be your keyboard, mouse, monitor and optical drive.

I thought for a moment about a possible motherboard change but almost none of the new boards support DDR2 400. The ones that do will be very similar to your current board and will not provide you with any real advantage. Unfortunately you have an IDE/ATA hard drive and optical drive. Most new boards only have one IDE/ATA header with two channels. It's not a good idea to mix hard drives and optical drives on the same ribbon cable and you would have to do that on a motherboard with only one IDE/ATA header, so you'll need a new SATA hard drive also.

In all you'll need a new motherboard, processor, memory, power source, video card, hard drive, and case. How much to spend on what will depend upon how much your budget is and what you want to do with your computer.

 

[Falco4088]

Well i wanted it for........well yea, i'm a gamer. I go to college for video game design.....it's what i do. I like computer games but when you buy the computers through dell and all these dudes, doesnt seem to make the mileage. Now I wanna make one of my own so if i can sell this computer off to someone i figure i got like maybe 800 bucks to work with, to have like a working computer but have the room for more power when i get the cash.

 

[Cinders]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115029
Processor 200

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128059
Motherboard 100

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231098
Memory 55

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150252
Video Card 277

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119142
Case and Power Supply 181

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148262
Hard Drive 70

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827129007
DVD Burner 36

I overspent a bit but you can adjust your budget or you can scrimp a bit on the processor, hard drive, case and power supply. I'd leave the video card alone. It's an excellent card for the money; it's just a bit hard to find at the moment.

I forgot to add the operating system!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116059
Windows XP Pro 140

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116056
Windows XP Home 90.00

There is no pratical difference between Home and Pro for the average user.

 

[guitto]

Have you encountered any problems with Vista and SATA drivers?

 

[Falco4088]

thank you very much. This is definitly my next prject if thats all its gonna take to get the computer functional. I'm sure i'll have more questions in days to come though.
Thanks,
Falco

 

[Cinders]

I edited my previous post to include an operating system.

 

[samjohnson]

I would definitely build your own. I have a E310 also and was thinking about striping it and using some of the parts over. Its easer to build your own. I spent about $730 the first time around then of course I got some better stuff later. I did use my monitor, keyboard and mouse though. So if you plan on selling your dell then I would say expect to spend around a $1,000 on all your parts. Unless of course you just sell the tower.
Definitely go with newegg when buying parts, they have great customer service and some pretty good prices.

 

[bradthegreat]

You could also look into buying some barebones systems - I know Tigerdirect and Newegg both have them. They basically come with mobo, memory and CPU. You can look around and find some you like - they're normally pretty reasonable $$wise and you can get good parts too. That way, you don't have to worry too much about compatibility and crap like that. I don't think I'd go that route personally, but I've seen many do it and it is a good starting point if you're not feeling to good about getting everything yourself...just a suggestion!

 

[link590o]

i'm with sam on that one.

i'm working on my own project. initially i was working with a budget maximum of 600 bucks in mind. i'm hoping to also expand it to 800. like you are. it'll just take me longer. i'm building an excellent amd machine with the money. but there are a few key differences in terms of what i'm buying. i'm not getting a hard drive, or cd/dvd rom drives or burners. nor am i getting an operating system. i'm instead sticking with the other basic options. saving money by not purchasing those other extra tidbits, and reusing some parts will save me a bunch and let me splurge on some extra good parts.

with any luck, the machine that will cost 800 will be made with the following:
antec case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129154
$119.99 + $18.99

antec neo HE 550 watt
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817103941&Tpk=Antec+Neo+HE+550W
$99.99 + free

geforce 8800 gt pny 512mb
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133205
269.99 + 6.33

amd athlon 64 x2 6000+ 3.0 ghz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103773
159.99 + free shipping

asrock aliven mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157108
$54.99 + $6.33

Gskill memory 2x 1gig sticks
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231098
$54.99 free shipping

whaddya think?

 

[Falco4088]

thats pretty nice, the only thing is i dunno how much to sell this computer for, i thought 800 would be reasonable, but i would like to keep my monitor so thats gonna turn alotta people off, so with that in mind i'd have to use one of my old bulky monitors until i could afford a new flat screen.

 

[samjohnson]

When did you buy your dell E310. I got mine about a year ago and only paid $500 for it. I don't have a clue how much you paid for yours or when you got it but I doubt anybody is going to pay $800 for a Dell E310 when they could pretty much get a brand new one for that much.

 

[link590o]

yeah that's pretty true. and many will not want to buy it at the "new" price considering it was used. it'd have to be in near factory-issued condition with some pretty decent parts in it to fetch anywhere close to that much. and as you said with your monitor, it won't fetch that much without it in the deal.

most flat panels are like...a hundred dollars or so for a decent 17inch these days. so considering sam paid 500 new for it, without the monitor it'll fetch closer to 350-400. that'd be my guess. what EXACTLY is in it, hm? if we had an idea of what parts are currently in the box, we could get a better idea of what it might sell for.

not only that, but finding a buyer will be a problem. your average computer buyer, if you're one of us isn't going to want a computer with only a PCI slot, or that can support only 2 gigs of ram. if it were me, i'd stick with that aliven i posted. supports 8 gigs, pcie 16x slot, am2 socket, 4x 240 pin pc2 6400 ddr2 800 ram slots.

you'd have to find someone that didn't care, or didn't know about what they were buying. a noob or someone looking for a p.o.s. on the cheap.

 

[samjohnson]

Actually mine came with the monitor, keyboard, and mouse.
I actually reused my monitor, keyboard, and mouse when I built my current machine.

 

[kisrum]

you'd have to find someone that didn't care, or didn't know about what they were buying. a noob or someone looking for a p.o.s. on the cheap.

or donate it to whatever charity collects them and write off $800.00.

 

[link590o]

you could certainly try. i'm not sure if what he's looking for is straight cash though. so donating and writing it off might not be the solution.

 

[Falco4088]

i'll get the full specs tonight, i gotta go to work, so i'll post it all later