I was reading another computer thread and I saw the phrase ‘barebones’ computer mentioned. I already have a monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers and DVD-R that I want to keep. Would a barebones computer contain enough to replace everything else (case, motherboard, cpu, RAM, etc)?
How much would it cost if I went to a computer store with all the parts and asked them to assemble the computer for me?
Is there anyway to keep info in my old hard drives reasonably accessable without attaching them to the computer? Would burning the good info on DVD and transferring it that way be the best way to transfer info? My current hard drives aren’t in very good condition, one is 10 years old and I am having some problems with speed in my current computer so I’ll probably get a new harddrive.
What I intend to keep are the speakers, mouse, keyboard, monitor & DVD drive. I can probably keep some of the RAM and the ethernet card but I need to replace the video card, case (the case is too small and dirty), CPU and motherboard. So what is my best option for this?
In your case it does sound like a barebones setup is the best way to do it.
Generally your barebones kits come with a minimum of case/power supply, motherboard and processor. Some of them contain more parts, and some actually contain less.
Really what you have to do is look around and see if you can find a kit that has what you need. If you can’t find one that is exactly what you are looking for, go ahead and look for something similar as you can always add parts to it.
Building your own is in my opinion the only way to go if you want some thing specific, and I will always continue to build mine…
I’ve bought a couple of barebone kits. They did not include CPU or RAM. Just a motherboard and power supply, already installed in a case. Often the motherboard has video, LAN and audio built-in.
It’s a neat way to get a non-standard motherboard+case, e.g. an ultra-compact system. For full-size desktop PCs, there isn’t much advanrtage compared to getting a case and motherboard separately.
If you know how to replace a hard drive, you should be able to figure out how to assemble a complete system. If you’re uncomfortable doing it yourself, I think you’re better off throwing away the old parts and buying a $300 PC from Dell.
You can put it into an external enclosure, converting the hard drive into an external USB hard drive.
Most stuff you want will transfer over, the videocard and RAM might not. Why do you need to replace the videocard? If you don’t play 3-D action games, you can make do with a very cheap videocard for general use.
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I priced out what it would cost to put together a low-end system, and it came to right about $300 without shipping–about what the low-end Dell costs. It is my opinion that if you take the time you can research parts online before buying and only buy ones that got good reviews and had few problems, where with a Dell you get whatever they stuck in the box–but looking and assembling is a hassle as well. You may be willing to pay to avoid that.
What OS do you have on the PC right now, and do you know you have an installable-version CD for it? If not, the a copy of WinXP Home will cost $80 or so more.
If you wanted to do this as cheaply as possible, then a new case (w/power supply included) would be maybe $30, a new hard drive would be $80 for 160-200 Gb (I advise Seagate) and maxing out what RAM your PC has probably wouldn’t cost over $50.
As for transferring over your old files, any hard drive you buy now will be huge compared to one from ten years ago. I would just make a separate folder on the new hard-drive, connect the old one as a slave, and copy everything off the old one onto the new one and then disconnect the old one. This way–anytime you need to, you can pick through any of your old files easily.
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I’m using a Geforce 2 Titanium. I don’t know if I need a new card but GeForce4 MX440s are only $40 now so that is a minor price to pay. However I can play games fine with my Geforce 2 Titanium.
Where do you find enclosures to put internal hard drives in to make them external USB hard drives and what are they called?
WinXP home is only about $5, colleges & universities sell them cheap to students.
I already have a master/slave setup. I have a 20GB hard drive that is 10 years old, then I bought an 80GB hard drive a couple of years ago to set up as a slave. But my system is slow so I’d rather just start from scratch and only transfer over word files, MP3s, video files and things like that. But a device that let me hook up those 2 hard drives through the USB hub just in case I need some of the stuff would be nice.
The hard-drive enclosures are sold at lots of PC parts retailers, just go to the “hard drive” category and look under “accessories” or “external enclosures”. I paid $25 for mine. It’s a USB-2 cable but there are also firewires. I had an old Western Digital 60Gb hard drive around that I stopped using after just a couple months because it was so damn loud–and in that enclosure, it is even louder. I definitely won’t be leaving it plugged in uneccessarily.
As far as “WindowsXP for $5”, some colleges do that. Mine had student discounts on a lot of big-name software, but nothing that deep. Either way, the most you might have to pay now is about $80 online for a full-install CD of XP Home.
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The Geforce 4 MX cards were nothing more than renamed Geforce 2’s, which are getting pretty long in the tooth these days. The integrated video chip on this $85 MSI motherboard, would likely be faster than your current card, or a Geforce 4 MX. Slap in say a Sempron 64 2800+ for $80, grap a case on a good power supply (make sure to get a good one here - Antec, Thermaltake, and Sparkle, all make good PS in my experience.) for $50 and 512 MB of DDR RAM for $45, and a 160 GB HD for $80-$90, and you are set.
Athlon 1.2Ghz, 512MB DDR RAM, Geforce 2 Titanium, ethernet card, 20GB HD, 80GB HD, DVD-R, CD-R, maybe some other stuff too I am not sure but that is most of it from what I remember. I think the soundcard is integrated in the motherboard.
I think my old harddrives have some spyware. All I know is my computer can be pretty slow at times so i’d rather start from scratch and only transfer over important programs, documents and A/V files.
The ram is likely not salvagable. It is likely to be pc2100 and you’d probably need pc3000+ for any modern computer.
If you upgrade to a PCI-E motherboard(which you’d want to) your videocard will also be not be salvagable.
spyware shouldn’t migrate from your old harddrive into your new harddrive because the spyware isn’t turned on by the fresh Windows install. To be absolutely safe only put in the 80 gig(which doesn’t have windows right?) copy everything you want to save over then wipe the drive clean.
The 20 gig is more iffy, I don’t know if windows will scan that drive and integrate the old registry into the new registry. Because of that i’d use your DVD copy method.
Also, depending on your install of Windows, putting the hard drive into a new system with a different motherboard and processor often doesn’t work. Windows generally only installs the drivers it needs for your particular motherboard, so your new board probably isn’t supported (by your current installation). You may be able to fix this without wiping and reinstalling, but I wouldn’t count on it.