Upgrading/Building Desktop

[I realize I started a thread like this a couple of years ago but my scenario is a bit different this time around so spare me.]

Anyone here given it a try before? I have a laptop which is fine and dandy but unfortunately I've been told that I can not put a graphics/video card in it. It's a Gateway and came with Intel integrated chipset graphics driver which essentially means that it has the ****tiest graphics (it's not even a card) that a computer can have. I have been told that I can not install a video card although as to whether that's due to size restrictions, actual compatibility issues, or both I am not entirely sure. If it were a size issue could I not just make modifications to the enclosure of the motherboard and internal parts to make it accommodate the new card?

Anyway I'm thinking I just have to accept that I won't be able to play any good games on my laptop. This leads me to the real topic of this thread...

My best friend has a fairly old Dell Inspiron desktop that has a Pentium 4 2.8GHz processor, 256 RAM, and I believe an ATI Radeon graphics card in it (a ****ty video card still). The desktop is very old as you can tell by the specs BUT is it possible to use that tower and install a new motherboard, CPU, graphics card, and memory to replace the stuff on the old one?

I guess in essence the main question would be whether I could install the CPU/Motherboard in the old desktop/tower since that is the only thing that would prevent clean installation of new RAM and graphics card. Since the old desktop used an Intel Pentium chip I think it would make sense to use Intel as the manufacturer of the new Motherboard and CPU since apparently Intel has a solid line of CPU's in the i7 (quad core) and also utilize ATX motherboards. But does anyone know if it is possible or makes any sense for me to put a solid Motherboard and CPU into an old desktop?

For instance would I have to worry about the power supply at all? Or is there a possibility that the old hard drive would not connect correctly to the new motherboard?

Also how on Earth do you actually install a new motherboard into a tower? Are there places to mount it?

For the record I am in the VERY early stages of putting the nice desktop together (ie still in the logistics and purchasing stage) but I guess I am just wondering if anyone else here has done anything like this and if so whether they have any advice.

I have mostly been using NewEgg.com to do most of the window-shopping (for lack of a better term) and am pretty much amazed at how cheap some of the parts are. For instance you can get Quad-Core processors for under $200 and graphics cards that can run all of the most recent games at highest settings for $200 and lower. I don't know if there are places with even cheaper prices but NewEgg was the one that I have consistently had recommended to me. Do you guys think it'd be a bad idea to buy computer parts via Craigslist?

If I had known that parts were this cheap I would have started making a customized computer a long time ago.

I'd check out tomshardware.com/forums if I was you.

I build all my own computers, as well as computers for friends and family, and I still go there every time for advice on components and anything else I can think of to ask.

To answer a couple of your questions:

Yes, worry about the power supply. It's a leading cause of system failure and most people never suspect it.
Yes, in the case there are mounts for the motherboard that you screw into to hold it in place.
Don't go with craigslist. Take some time to decide what specifically you want, and put together a wishlist or shopping cart on newegg. Then go over each part and look for combo deals, rebates, and free shipping. I've saved well over $100 in orders using that.

If you've got more questions or would like some parts suggestions feel free to PM or email me. veteranwgm@yahoo.com

It also helps to have a budget in mind, and stick to it, otherwise things can get out of hand quick. (Oh another $20 here, $10 there, $30 over here etc adds up quick)

Your lucky, I'm bored

I'm going assume you want bang for your buck performance.

First off we'll budget $70 for the case, you can pick any reg ATX off newegg or anywhere else for that matter

We'll cover the following
Mobo, CPU, RAM, GPU, HD, PSU, OS, well I never paid for Windows.

CPU: Dual Core 3.0 GHz $165
MOBO: Gigabyte MOBO $130
RAM: 4 GIG Ram $90
GPU: GTX 260 $190 (Will play ANYTHING)
HD: 500 GIG HD $60
PSU: 850 Watt Reliable PSU (protect your investment) $120

I did this build very quickly. however the total cost $760 plus shipping.

Please do not skimp out on the PSU!!!! It's the barrier between your PC and the power grid you want it to be able to handle spikes, and brown outs!!!

As McLaughlin said, don't skimp on power supply. Get a 750W power supply, it's the best ~$60 you'll spend.
As for the tower, it really depends on the tower and as to whether or not it's going to get enough cold air flowing through it. Some of the newer video cards run really hot, I have a ATI Radeon 4870, and it would've turned my old case into a toaster oven.

You shouldn't have any problem hooking up your old hard drive to your new motherboard. I'm guessing, given the age of your computer, the hard drive is an IDE connection (the ribbon) as opposed to SATA (the smaller, usually orange or red flat wires). Your new motherboard should still have at least 1 IDE slot, but if you want to use less space, you can easily pick up and IDE to SATA converter card (they retail at about $15) and use the SATA slot to hook up your hard drive.

For the record, I just built a system in August, I did alot of research (Tom's Hardware, Newegg etc.), and I put together a pretty powerful system while staying within a reasonable budget, all in all I spent about $720 after shipping costs.

Originally Posted by Nik00117

Your lucky, I'm bored

I'm going assume you want bang for your buck performance.

First off we'll budget $70 for the case, you can pick any reg ATX off newegg or anywhere else for that matter

We'll cover the following
Mobo, CPU, RAM, GPU, HD, PSU, OS, well I never paid for Windows.

CPU: Dual Core 3.0 GHz $165
MOBO: Gigabyte MOBO $130
RAM: 4 GIG Ram $90
GPU: GTX 260 $190 (Will play ANYTHING)
HD: 500 GIG HD $60
PSU: 850 Watt Reliable PSU (protect your investment) $120

I did this build very quickly. however the total cost $760 plus shipping.

Please do not skimp out on the PSU!!!! It's the barrier between your PC and the power grid you want it to be able to handle spikes, and brown outs!!!

I'd opt with an AMD Phenom 720 x3, it costs $119.00 on new egg right now, and I have my overclocked to 3.5ghz, and I could still go higher, I've seen people pushing it as high as 3.8 on some sites.

As for video card, I ended up going with the 1gb 4870 over the GTX 260, in benchmarks the 4870 1gb either outperformed or performed on par with the GTX 260, and it costs only ~$150.

Great, two more great suggestions! Justneed to change out your mobo since it's going from Intel to AMD.

I just put together a monster of a system, case two monitors (on 25 inch one 21 inch) 3 TB, GTX 280, 4 Gig Ram, Quad core, loaded everything shipped $2,000

Back in 2005 I built a rig, 7600GT Dual Core 2.6 GHz, reasonable PSU, no mointor, just a 750 GIG HDD I think I paid like 1,200 or so... I went back built the same PC cheap as chips.

In all honesty if you can budget yourself $650 to $700 which is what it's going cost to built your an extremely nice computer buy new...

Newegg rocks, yes you may be able to get better prices elsewhere (tigerdirect etc) however I find generally you won't save more then 2-5% which equates to a savings of what $35???? That's providing you even save anything.

If you're going for gaming and bang for the buck, I'd go with AMD/ATI, but if you're going for maximum raw power the i7 wins, hands down.

I also agree with Mercuryblade about the video card. And now that the 5800 series cards are out, the 4800 stuff should get even cheaper.

My dad and I have used NewEgg for years, and have yet to find a better site with customer service and price better than NewEgg's. We've been building PC's for years. Let me give a word of advice though, don't skimp yourself. Go with the best you can and the highest budget you can afford, cause the lower you go, the faster youre gonna have to rebuild another PC to keep up with the quickly evolving technology of games and trust me the extra 2-300 you will spend will be worth it. That is if youre a pretty avid gamer. If you like to casual game and dont mind average performance or graphics then it doesnt matter as much, but i'm hardcore and need the best I can get for the best deals. We recently rebuilt mine for the 5th time in probably 10 years, and this was one of the biggest upgrades. IIRC it was all-together (monitor, speakers, keybord etc) $1800-2000 over the course of 2 months. Still a great machine after a year.

Thanks a ton for the advice guys. Naturally it will take several months for me to complete building this thing but I will keep you guys updated on my progress. Apparently GameFAQs has a forum where a lot of users will help pick out the best (affordable) gaming hardware.

Originally Posted by d'Anconia

Thanks a ton for the advice guys. Naturally it will take several months for me to complete building this thing but I will keep you guys updated on my progress. Apparently GameFAQs has a forum where a lot of users will help pick out the best (affordable) gaming hardware.

Keep an eye on some of the newegg deals and combos if you are really looking to save some money. A lot of times you can save anywhere from $10-$20 or more when you buy a CPU and MOBO bundle, or case and power supply bundle. It doesn't sound like a lot, but one of the first things you'll notice when you start putting together a list of stuff, is things tend to add up, fast.

Prices are constantly changing. If it will take months I would just pocket the money until your ready to buy because the prices will drop.

CPU - Quad Core AM2+ Phenom 2 X4 3.0ghz Black edition - $165
Memory - 4GB G.Skill DDR2 RAM 2x2 GB - $90
GPU - Radeon HD 4870 1GB - $160
ECS BLACK SERIES GF8200A Motherboard - $80
OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ700MXSP 700W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply compatible with core i7 - Retail - $100 ($66 after MIR)

So for about $600 all you need is a case, hard drive, cd drives and an operating system.

Thats a power house of a system

My friend does this for a living (building) and his personal PC is from cyberpowerpc.com. He said the effort/price ratio was in favor of cppc.

Just checked that link out and while it's pretty cool and you have PLENTY of options you really don't save much of anything. I really like some of the cases they have on there.

For the home user who doesn't know how to build this is a good option.

Originally Posted by galileo

My friend does this for a living (building) and his personal PC is from cyberpowerpc.com. He said the effort/price ratio was in favor of cppc.

I'll agree with you there, you really only gotta plug this thing in.

Building a rig from pieces will take at minimum 3-4 hours till it is assembled and the OS is up and running (assuming no hardware issues off the bat).

With this it arrives and you plug it in.

Originally Posted by WBBIRL

Building a rig from pieces will take at minimum 3-4 hours till it is assembled and the OS is up and running (assuming no hardware issues off the bat).

But you have to consider... this is one of the most enjoyable parts of building a new rig! Watching it slowly come together peice by peice... starting with a fresh OS... installing new devices and drivers... oh Lord

For compatibility purposes I think I'm going to wait til I have enough money to buy it all together. I don't think it's going to do me much good to have all but one of the components missing. Shouldn't really take me more than a couple of months.

Thanks for the advice and suggest links. As for a cooling unit it's my understanding that I won't really need one (other than stock) unless I'm going to be overclocking which, as I'm expecting to get a quad-core, I'm not planning on overclocking anytime soon.

Originally Posted by jed

But you have to consider... this is one of the most enjoyable parts of building a new rig! Watching it slowly come together peice by peice... starting with a fresh OS... installing new devices and drivers... oh Lord

Nerd alert!

And yah, I totally agree, there is something very satisfying about putting together a bunch of fresh computer hardware, and then starting it up for the first time.

Thanks for the advice and suggest links. As for a cooling unit it's my understanding that I won't really need one (other than stock) unless I'm going to be overclocking which, as I'm expecting to get a quad-core, I'm not planning on overclocking anytime soon.

Your right, my last rig I actually didn't do any aftermarket cooling and it ran just fine.

Originally Posted by jed

But you have to consider... this is one of the most enjoyable parts of building a new rig! Watching it slowly come together peice by peice... starting with a fresh OS... installing new devices and drivers... oh Lord

Of course! Hitting that power button for the first time and seeing the machine post is like feeling your first boobie.

Okay so I'm pretty sure I'm gonna get either a Radeon 4870 or 4890. One question I'm wondering is a.) do I *really* need a 4890 over a 4870 or is there not *that* much of a difference, and b.) should I go for an i7 or i5 (quad cores) CPU?

I guess one thing I'm trying to convey is that I'm going from essentially not being able to play ANY games on my computer to building this new rig. Maybe I shouldn't be shooting for best of the best graphics for starters, ya know? Just being able to play good games on medium or high quality will probably be enough for me to get my o-face. And I could slowly replace parts as I go to slowly upgrade it even more.

If you can afford to get the better GPU and CPU I would. I mean how much of a price difference are we talking?

I just realized something. Will I have to Buy a completely new version of Windows for the new computer? Because if so, that'd be a huge hassle and waste of $100+.

Also, what is the easiest way to tell whether different components are compatible or not?

Um, I have never bought windows in my life. I use it though.

THe easiest way? Well you rmotherboard has that information

Yeah I just realized NewEgg.com has a 3-item bundle that comes with MotherBoard, Graphics Card, and Processor from either AMD or Intel. Since I'm going to be using the case and other stuff from an old Dell (that uses Intel) I think I'm gonna go with Intel. I'll buy the DDR RAM separately (6GB I think) and the total will be under $700 or so. That way I'm pretty much guaranteed to have compatibility.

Sorry this thread has drawn on for so long. I suppose I'm a bit indecisive (mostly because there are so many damned options).