Barebones Help

[ch8ch]

I want to build nothing extraordinary...basically transfer most of my hardware (Burners and HDDs)from my current Dell but don't know the cheapest and most effective way...

Not really much of a gamer but love multimedia

What are barebones all about and what do you get if you go that way...

sorry so vague but you have to start somewhere I guess...too many forums and too much info has me totally confused

sorry

 

[Kage]

Well first of all, welcome You've probably chosen the best forum around for computer advice, so well done!

As for barebones, I'm guessing you want basic parts to buy to make an entire system that you can use old parts with?

What are the list of components you'd want to pass over first of all? Just hard drives and burners?

 

[ch8ch]

Well....I have 2 good DVD RWs a Sony 52x and HP w lightscribe got a lot of life left in them...a 160 Gig Hitachit HDD a Western Digital 80 gig and a small Seagate 20 in an external enclosure for starters....

SATA I believe ATA 100....

The Dell I have is only 4 years old and lately it's been crashing on startup and telling me to update the BIOS which is at the best it can be..and I 've had this setup for over 2 years....someone suggested I change my battery....
but that hardware failure may be imminent...

So thats kind of a brief description of where I'm at.

The PC is still running good except for the occasional abrupt shutdown.

 

[ch8ch]

BTW this machine has been totally upgraded (hardware wise) and it's original age is about 4 years...

The MOBO is about the only original parts left oh and the useless 3.5 floppy

New power supply (425 watt) PC Power and Cooling (custom for Dell)

the drives I mentioned....

maxed out at 1 Gig ram

nvidia GeForce FX 5500 AGP 4X 256 video

Firewire card (3 port)

Soundblaster LIVE

To name a few

DELL

Dimension 4400 w/ 2.8 P4 400 512 (up from 1.7)
1 GB DDR 2100 (Maxed out)
PC Power Cooling 425 w PSU
HP DVD
Sony DVD
Soundblaster Live
Hitachi 160 GB HDD Master
WD 80 GB HDD Slave
Seagate 20 GB external enclosure (was the original HDD)
3 port Firewire card
Nvidia Geforce FX5500 256 Vid