It’s getting a little toasty in here, better up the RPMs on those beastly case fans..
Do modern motherboards have IDE connectors? I built my computer last year and I think it was SATA only. You might need an adaptor card to use the old drives.
I am the farthest thing from a PC expert you will find, but a couple of years ago I found
myself in pretty much the same position you are in.
I had a 10+ year old business computer that was getting really slow, but I really liked the case. I thought all I’d need to do was change out the motherboard and CPU.
Long story short; the only things I was able to re-use were the IDE hard drives, (I had 4 of them) and my DVD burner. I picked a motherboard with a couple of IDE controllers (along with SATA controllers) for that very reason.
Also, I searched out a banging deal on a gamers case with mucho fannage for cooling.
I think I paid ~ $50.00 for it.
The whole thing cost me ~$470.00 at the time, including a new installation copy of Win 7. (I remember because I wrote it off my taxes.)
I could have bought a more-or-less comparable machine off the shelf for about the same money, but I like building things, and I know what went into my new computer.
Good luck.
They’re getting harder to find. Adapter cards are the way to go but you can also get connectors that will connect between SATA and IDE. Just make sure it is bidirectional if you will be using it for a hard drive. These are often designed for use with read-only optical drives.
edit- if you get an adapter and want to boot from the ide drive, make sure the card has that capability.
Re-using 10-year-old hard drives is not planning for success.
It depends what you use them for. After 10 years, the same form factor probably tops out at about 10 times the capacity. So if in 2000 the top capacity for a consumer drive was say 100 gig (IDK, I’m pulling that out of my ass) by 2010 it was probably closer to 1000 gig (again, my memory sucks for this sort of thing). IOW, it doesn’t really pay to keep it running that long anyway even when it’s an option.
On the other hand, I have a bunch of computers I run for a distributed computing project and all I really need the HDD for is to boot the OS and run the project software. So in some cases I have old 300gig IDE drives running in state of the art 2 processor Xeon motherboards. It just so happens that server boards tend to maintain backward compatibility longer, so I may as well take advantage of that.
For building a new desktop, using 10-year-old drives is stupid. Not that the OP mentioned it.
You’re feisty today!
It really all depends. Just saying they still have they’re uses. “New” doesn’t make a drive more reliable you know. A lot of people think that and get sloppy about backing up their data only to find out otherwise. 
For what it’s worth, I bought my first PC in 1990, a Gateway (2000) 386DX/25. Long story short after quickly learning everything about them I then spent nearly the next twenty years or so building my own (and friends’ & family’s), simply because it was always cheaper (if not always easier). The last PC I built was the one before the one I have now, as I decided it was then both easier and cheaper (or at least not more expensive) to buy them pre-built (but still online, not from a store). In fact, unless you’re looking to build the ultimate gaming PC it’ll probably cost you more to build one yourself.
A thing to remember, and this has been true even back in the day, is that for the most part nothing on a motherboard can be upgraded piecemeal. IOW any specific motherboard can only accommodate a small number of very similar CPUs, and usually only one type/form-factor of memory. About the only thing you can upgrade are videocards, but again unless you’re gaming you won’t really need to do that. Adding/upgrading things like drives to a pre-built PC is still cheap & easy.
First of all, yes you would probably be able to use the case but it is not recommended. The newer ones are build for larger fans and better airflow and for the relatively low cost it is well worth it. That doesn’t even take into account that you’ll want USB connectors in the case.
Your power supply needs to be replaced. First of all, you will not have the right connectors. There will be no 20+4 for the mobo and even if there were, most mobos have an added 4 pin or 8 pin connector. If you want a high-end video card you will need a 6 pin connector. IDE is pretty much done so you’ll be using SATA drives and you’ll need power for that.
Second, there is a real question of whether or not 500W will actually run a new machine. While some componants use less power than 5 years ago, some use more and if you are running 2 drives + a cd/dvd drive + high end video card + fans you may find that your machine won’t even power on. I would consider 700W to be the minimum for today’s computers and in my next build, I’m wondering if I need to pay the premium and get a 1000W PSU simply for expandability in the future.
As for building it yourself, I do it because I like to control precisely what goes in my build. Even if it is an increased cost* I think it is well worth it.
- I think that when quality of the componants are taken into account and expandability that a knowledgable build that uses parts from TigerDirect or Egghead is better from a cost-benefit perspective than a storebought unit.
You can’t reuse anything from a PC more than 5 years old or so. Don’t try. A new case and PSU can be as little as $50 after rebate, you don’t necessarily need to spend $100. Despite the guy above me, you don’t need anywhere near 500 watts to run a PC without a discrete graphics card, let alone more. What you do need is a quality 80 plus power supply that actually will output its rated wattage, with most of the power on the 12V rail (both of which an old PSU will not do, even if it did have the right connectors). A 700w power supply is only needed for running two high end discrete video cards, and a 1000w supply for running three. A 7850 and overclocked i5-3570k run fine on a 430watt supply and an A10-5800k without a discrete card would run on a 250watt supply, not that you can find a good supply in less than 350 watts (seasonic), unless you are looking for a pico psu.
If you are trying to save money you need to watch slickdeals.net and buy stuff when it goes on sale. For example this PSU is often $20 after rebate, and is the cheapest PSU worth buying: CORSAIR CX Series CX430 430W 80 PLUS BRONZE Active PFC ATX12V & EPS12V Power Supply - Newegg.com
Unfortunately power supplies in particular are a minefield - you could go to Newegg.com, sort PSUs by price low to high, and you would have the first 4 or 5 pages of supplies that are absolute garbage no one should be buying with maybe 2 decent PSUs in there. Generally Antec and Corsair make the only power supplies worth buying at under $40.
The OP specifically said he wanted a build that was easy to keep up to date. Even if we concede he doesn’t need 700W now, with the graphic heavy software today he may want a topend card eventually. What happens when he doubles his RAM? My old build wouldn’t start after the latest upgrades with the 450W PSU and that was with 1 drive, 1 video card, and 2 fans and 4 GB RAM.
And Coolmax has a couple of 700W at $60-70. Decent 400W PSUs are around $40. I think that the extra 300W are cheap as a $20-30 upgrade.
I don’t even know why I bother with threads like this, but this is misleading at best.
Prebuilt machines can often be cheaper for a very narrow set of specifications only because they are designed to satisfy ONLY those specs. That means that you will either never be able to upgrade or do so only with difficulty. So is it true that prebuilt is cheaper - yes and no, depending on what you mean and why you’re asking. Personally, I would say no.
As for motherboards, this is what plugs into them
- PCI cards
- SATA, IDE
- USB
- memory
- CPU
edit - crap - hit wrong button
PCI-e is up to gen 3 but is backward compatible
SATA is up to III (6gbps) but is bk compatible)
USB is up to 3 and also bk comp but not for mb connectors
dram - virtually ALL current consumer m/b use 240 pin DDR3 dram and this is completely interchangeable - the exact speed it will run at might have to be configured, but it will work in any other current m/b.
CPU - there is fair amount of variety in Intel CPU sockets with the current ones being 2100 and 1155 I think. However that is down significantly from the previous variety. AMD has always been more conservative and tried much harder to maintain bk comp with chips from AM2 to AM2+ to AM3 and now AM3+ sockets.
If you think a Coolmax is a quality supplier in general, there is your problem. Most of the coolmax “700” watt supplies are anything but. The product to compare to in general for something like that is probably a Seasonic (top of the line supplier) 450 or 550 watt supply.
If doubling your RAM means any issues with a PSU, you have a garbage supply. If you can’t run an ivy bridge + any graphics card less powerful than a 670 or 7950 on 450w, you have a garbage supply. A power supply that could actually output 450w could handle it. And the solution isn’t to buy higher “fantasy rated” supplies, it is to get a high quality supply that provides the juice it says in the first place.
Edit to add, most of the cheap supplies are like this one: http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story3&reid=335
Where it is sold as a “550” watt supply, but can’t actually output even 450 watts, and is in its optimal band at 350 watts or less. A comparable seasonic 550 watt could actually output well over 600 watts, and could run at 550watts continuously indefinitely.
Then how about a 700W OCZfor $85? Looks like any 80+ Bronze in the 400W range starts at $40.
You also miss the point that after a few upgrades (i.e. not just 1) that you would be pressing the limits of a 400W supply especially if running a decent video card which is the straw that broke the camel’s back on my intentional low-end build.
OCZ supplies are hit and miss, but generally well above the real garbage supplies. But the point is that you don’t need a 700w quality supply unless you are crossfiring/SLI two very high end graphics cards. If you want to spend a fortune on a quality power supply, get a Gold or Platinum rated from a top manufacturer. One like this: http://www.amazon.com/SeaSonic-550-Watt-CrossFire-Certified-SSR-550RM/dp/B00918MEZG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1365103730&sr=8-1&keywords=seasonic+550w
I will personally guarantee will run any single graphics card except a 690 or Titan with an I7-3770k or any other Ivy Bridge processor. I agree that there are only a handful of supplies <=$40 worth getting. The one I link in my first post is usually the cheapest ($30 today, often $20), sometimes the Antec supplies like this one Antec Basiq BP430 ATX12V Version 2.2 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Newegg.com get that low.
So nice you should buy it twice! 
not really…
I agree. I’ve used a few worksheets and the total comes up somewhere near 400W. Mainly because I have six hard drives. My desire to re-use the old PS was because it had sufficient power and it is an Antec.
Some here seem to be reading things into my statements that I did not say. I’m aware that “for the most part nothing on a motherboard can be upgraded piecemeal”. To be honest, I don’t see any need to upgrade anything else but the CPU and motherboard at the mid-point of the machine’s lifetime. Some respondents seem to be gadget geeks that must have the fastest equipment in order to run games. I do not play games. Process Explorer tells me that my current Dell’s problem is CPU. I currently have 3GB of RAM and plan to upgrade to 8GB because that seems to be the current minimum. I don’t expect to double my RAM or add a video card during the life of this machine. It seems unlikely that I’ll exceed whatever power requirements that I decide on the initial build.
For the record, I said that SSD drives are not practical for my current position. All of my drives are SATA (though an older spec). I see no need to invest in new ones at the time of this build. The AMD A10 may be “pretty low power” but it has a benchmark of 4684 to my current Pentium’s 641. I believe that it will be fast enough. The improved motherboard architecture should also be a favorable boost.
I’ve been watching the various deal sites and many good ones come up every day. That’s why it’s important for me to know what I’ll need to be looking for. While I have a rough order in which I plan to buy components, it’s helpful to know when to jump ahead of the list.
I’m also of the opinion that self-builds do not underprice retail builds for generic data hammering. But I’m very frustrated that Dell made it difficult to pop in a new motherboard a year or two ago when I first decided that I needed an upgrade.
For a case and PS, I’ll want to buy above average hardware. It will be there for the life of the machine. For a motherboard and CPU, I don’t plan to go crazy. I expect to replace them five years on. Anything I spent big bucks on now would be available for half the cost a year from now.
This has all been very helpful to me and I will purchase new components for everything
Do you ever plan to game ? The A10-5800k is a great CPU (I have one, in addition to a Phenom II x4, I5-2500k, I5-3570k, I7-3770k). Just about perfect for someone who wants to do occasional/light gaming, for an HTPC, or who wants to play games but is on a budget too tight for any discrete graphics card. But if you never plan to game an i3-3220 (less power usage & heat) or an FX-6300 (more powerful CPU - but no integrated graphics - need a AM3+ board with integrated graphics or a PCI-E graphics card) are about the same price and especially an LGA1155 board provides more of an upgrade path.