What brand of PC?

That Antec case is good, but don't forget about power supplies. You don't want to cheap-out with a ps either because you generally get what you pay for. Antec and Thermaltake both have some good case and ps combos that are better (will last longer and run more reliably) than the unbranded, no-name power supplies.
 
I usually build my own computer but I figured I would chime in on a Dell Deal just to get a 24" monitor:



Description: Dell XPS 700 Intel Pentium D Processor 920 (2.8GHz,800FSB) w/Dual Core Technology and 2MB cache



Order Group Quantity Item Description

1 1 222-2570 Intel Pentium D Processor 920 (2.8GHz,800FSB) w/Dual Core Technology and 2MB cache

1 1 311-6082 1GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz

1 1 310-7963 Dell USB Keyboard

1 1 320-4362 24 in (24.0 in viewable) 2407FPW Wide Aspect Digital Flat Panel Display

1 1 320-4806 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS

1 1 341-3666 250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/ DataBurst Cache

1 1 341-3764 No Floppy Drive

1 1 410-0792 Microsoft Windows XP x64 Edition

1 1 310-7965 Dell USB 2-button mouse

1 1 313-3607 No modem requested for Dell Dimension

1 1 313-4304 16X DVD+R/RW CD-RW CombinationDrive

1 1 420-5780 Sonic Cineplayer

1 1 420-5791 Roxio Creator Basic/MyDVD Basic

1 1 313-4339 No Optical Drive

1 1 313-2758 Integrated Audio

1 1 313-4514 No Speaker Requested

1 1 313-3471 Symmantec AntiVirus x64 Edit

1 1 412-1397 No Productivity Software requested

1 1 950-3339 3 Year Limited Warranty

1 1 412-0359 Soft Contracts - Qualxserve

1 1 960-3642 Warranty Support,2 Year Extended

1 1 960-8680 Warranty Support,Initial Year

1 1 984-0927 Dell Hardware Warranty, Initial Year

1 1 970-5200 Type 15 - Third Party At Home Service with Nights and Weekends, 24x7 Technical Support, Initial Year

1 1 984-0928 Dell Hardware Warranty, Extended Year

1 1 960-9502 Type 15 - Third Party At Home Service with Nights and Weekends, 24x7 Technical Support, 2 Year Extended

1 1 960-2697 Dimension XPS, Specialized Support

1 1 465-4663 Windows Vista Capable

1 1 464-9572 No Preinstalled Software



Original Total: $1913 or something like that

30% off coupon

12% off for choosing extended warranty

2% off for DPA (Dell Prefered Account)

$50 off coupon



After tax, came out to $1200
 
Ok, I think I have decided to just upgrade my current system. I am going to go with upgrading it to 1 gig of ram, replace my two burners with two new Samsung Lightscribe burners and add a 250 gig hard drive. Then reinstall windows and that should be a nice setup for me I think.
 
Another question. Can I buy a new case and take all of my comments formt he Dell and put them into the new case without problems? I really don't like the case my Dell is in.

Thanks.
 
It's been years since I've built a desktop, but:

- You need to make sure the form factor is compatible. For example, if the Dell motherboard is an ATX form factor, so you need an ATX compatible case. Make sure the power supply is the same or greater in the new case.



RAM and a hard drive upgrade is is a good idea IMO. For basic use you don't need the latest processor or graphics card anyways.
 
Danase:



The key to determining what you want to build is what you are going to use the computer for and your budget. For my last build, I kind of wanted a machine that will last me a few years since I don't upgrade boxes that often and be able to handle whatever I dish out since I do things like tinker with Photoshop or make mixes.



To give you a rough idea, this is what my build consists of currently:



Abit KN-8 mobo: $82.99 (Price has dropped on Newegg)

AMD Opteron 165 (Denmark) processor: $327.00

Lite-On DVD RW w/LiteScribe: $45.99

Antec TP II 550 W power supply: $89.99

XFX 7900 GT PCI-X 16 256 MB Video Card: $299.00

Lite-On Combo Drive: $26.99

Case: $50 (Bought from a buddy of mine)

Mitsumi Floppy Drive: $7.99

Sound Blaster Audigy ZS 2 Platinum Sound Card: $100 (Bought from a buddy of mine)

Hard drives: I already had them lying around.



You are taking the best approach possible by asking questions here and talking with your friend. Everyone will be glad to help you. :D
 
Ok, I ended up with two Samsung LightScribe DVD/Burner Drives. I was going to go with a 320 gig harddrive but I decided on a 160 just to save some dough. Plus my 60 gig drive is only half full so I will have plenty of space with the two. Then I am adding 1 gig memory on top of the 512 I have now. It all should be in tomorrow. :)
 
Sweet. Bumping up the memory should help out with some problems. A re-installation of the O/S may also be in order. I usually re-install annually. Althought with XP, I am not noticing the severe performance degradations associated with a long running install like with previous versions of Windows.



At any rate, I DOUBT that you'll be able to switch your dell hardware over to another case. Mass marketers of PC's generally are somewhat proprietary. They may or may not conform to the current ATX form factor.
 
andyman said:
Sweet. Bumping up the memory should help out with some problems. A re-installation of the O/S may also be in order. I usually re-install annually. Althought with XP, I am not noticing the severe performance degradations associated with a long running install like with previous versions of Windows.

At any rate, I DOUBT that you'll be able to switch your dell hardware over to another case. Mass marketers of PC's generally are somewhat proprietary. They may or may not conform to the current ATX form factor.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I forgot that I will be reinstalling XP just to start ona clean slate. And from the searching I did it would be a pain to switch cases.

Thanks for the help!
 
Ok, next question. I know how to install the cd drives and ram but what about the new hard dirve? Anyone know of any write ups online at how to install one and what I will need to do?

Thanks!
 
Well, unless your motherboard is really obscure, it should be just as simple as puttin in the DVD drives. In a nutshell, your motherboard has two 40 pin connectors (the flat ribbon cables with 40 wires each), these are for IDE type drives. There's another flat ribbon cable for the floppy disk drive (30pin I believe). Basically, you can run two IDE drives off each connector. You may have a total of 4 IDE drives. A MASTER and a SLAVE on each cable. There are small jumpers (tiny rectangular black "thingy's" on the back of each drive. They are always located between the ribbon cable connector and the power connector. There should be a diagram on each drive showing where to place the jumper to make it MASTER (MA), SLAVE (SL) or CABLE SELECT (CS). What you'll want to do is set one hard drive to MASTER, and set the other to SLAVE. Put them on the same cable (cable should have three indentical connectors placed along the ribbon). Do the same for the DVD drives.



If this makes sense, your connections will run like this:

connector-cable-connector-cable-motherboard



In practical application, apply the "template" above to the "diagram" below:

HardDrive1-cable-HardDrive2-cable-motherBoard

DVDdrive1-cable-DVDDrive2-cable-motherBoard



It may be confusing to read, but It's incredibly simple once you've done it. If my explanation doesn't help, I'll try to explain it a different way.



Good Luck,

Andy
 
Thanks Andy!

I was just reading on how to do it and it seems easy. My next question is what about formatting the new drive and all of that jazz?
 
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