Hello everyone, first time posting here, glad to be here!
So I'm getting into the IT field with just about zero prior experience (other than my own haphazard obtained knowledge of computers over the years). And was recently given a really nice slightly older Alienware X 51 computer by a friend to use or mess around with. It doesn't work at the moment the person says, but it's because it's missing the HD. Although they did say something else may be wrong with it, but they couldn't remember. So what I want to do, is take the parts I can salvage from that computer, buy a few new parts I need (like a case, SSD, PSU, motherboard, etc), and put them all together to build my first PC! So I can learn how to put it together, make sure it all works, etc.
I've been doing a LOT of reading and trying to figure out what a lot of stuff means, how it works, what works with what, etc, and doing alright. But still, it's a LOT to understand and I'm not finding answers to all my questions I have even after long hours of research.
This PC build will ONLY be used for regular computing. Email, internet, Office, etc. NO gaming, no video or music editing, nothing like that. I don't need or care about a GPU. I'm trying to just build a simple, snappy, but reliable personal computer.
Please remember: all of my questions or statements are from "what I can tell" in my research. I may or may not be right. But I'm trying and reading non stop since I decided to undergo building my own PC. As always, I'm making educated guesses off my research, hence why I'm asking for help from more knowledgeable users here. So please be polite and considerate, knowing I may not even know what you're talking about, but appreciate the help.
So I'll just start small first and go from there with my questions.
First question: I want to keep this nice Processor the computer came with. It's an Intel i7-2600 3.4GHz, LGA 1155 chip, and as far as I can tell, it's still a pretty fast chip overall. Maybe not "the best" for crazy gaming or whatever requires lots of speed and processing power, but I'm just using this as a home computer. So it'll be super fast for what I'll ever do on it. My MacBook Air has a 1.4GHz and is super fast for what I do. So I'm building this new PC, based around this processor.
So with that in mind, I need to think about the Motherboard next (and then after I figure out each part, I'll move on down the list to each part if I have a question that I can't find the answer to). So I've read that buying a new motherboard is a really good idea, and in general, do not reuse old motherboards. Plus the owner of this computer told me there is something not right with the computer, other than the HD being gone. So I'm just going to clean house and put a new motherboard in, since this computer is older and could have issues. Plus I feel I can possibly upgrade here and get something better that will help this build be relevant for longer. Making sure it has plenty of USB ports, a fast WiFi adapter, at least 2 HDMI or ports to run 2 monitors, and other stuff I may need in the future. From my initial research, it "seems" like this i7 processor I have, has an LGA 1155 socket type? Which upon doing some research means it's limited to older style motherboards?
So I'm just trying to figure out what motherboards I could buy, that aren't too expensive (preferably in the 80-150 max range). But also have a decent amount of options that could make this computer build be a little more modern. Ability to have 16-32mb of RAM, PCI
Second question: I'd like to buy and install an M.2 SSD drive or SATA 3.0 SSD drive, as my initial research shows I can't get a motherboard that will support NVMe M.2 SSD hard drives. Because the processor uses an LGA 1155 socket. And that socket type only fits on older motherboards? So if that is true, then I need to find the next best HD option, and that looks like either an M.2 SSD drive or a SATA 3.0 SSD hard drive (correct me if I'm wrong).
Thank you in advance, and nice to meet everyone
So I'm getting into the IT field with just about zero prior experience (other than my own haphazard obtained knowledge of computers over the years). And was recently given a really nice slightly older Alienware X 51 computer by a friend to use or mess around with. It doesn't work at the moment the person says, but it's because it's missing the HD. Although they did say something else may be wrong with it, but they couldn't remember. So what I want to do, is take the parts I can salvage from that computer, buy a few new parts I need (like a case, SSD, PSU, motherboard, etc), and put them all together to build my first PC! So I can learn how to put it together, make sure it all works, etc.
I've been doing a LOT of reading and trying to figure out what a lot of stuff means, how it works, what works with what, etc, and doing alright. But still, it's a LOT to understand and I'm not finding answers to all my questions I have even after long hours of research.
This PC build will ONLY be used for regular computing. Email, internet, Office, etc. NO gaming, no video or music editing, nothing like that. I don't need or care about a GPU. I'm trying to just build a simple, snappy, but reliable personal computer.
Please remember: all of my questions or statements are from "what I can tell" in my research. I may or may not be right. But I'm trying and reading non stop since I decided to undergo building my own PC. As always, I'm making educated guesses off my research, hence why I'm asking for help from more knowledgeable users here. So please be polite and considerate, knowing I may not even know what you're talking about, but appreciate the help.
So I'll just start small first and go from there with my questions.
First question: I want to keep this nice Processor the computer came with. It's an Intel i7-2600 3.4GHz, LGA 1155 chip, and as far as I can tell, it's still a pretty fast chip overall. Maybe not "the best" for crazy gaming or whatever requires lots of speed and processing power, but I'm just using this as a home computer. So it'll be super fast for what I'll ever do on it. My MacBook Air has a 1.4GHz and is super fast for what I do. So I'm building this new PC, based around this processor.
So with that in mind, I need to think about the Motherboard next (and then after I figure out each part, I'll move on down the list to each part if I have a question that I can't find the answer to). So I've read that buying a new motherboard is a really good idea, and in general, do not reuse old motherboards. Plus the owner of this computer told me there is something not right with the computer, other than the HD being gone. So I'm just going to clean house and put a new motherboard in, since this computer is older and could have issues. Plus I feel I can possibly upgrade here and get something better that will help this build be relevant for longer. Making sure it has plenty of USB ports, a fast WiFi adapter, at least 2 HDMI or ports to run 2 monitors, and other stuff I may need in the future. From my initial research, it "seems" like this i7 processor I have, has an LGA 1155 socket type? Which upon doing some research means it's limited to older style motherboards?
So I'm just trying to figure out what motherboards I could buy, that aren't too expensive (preferably in the 80-150 max range). But also have a decent amount of options that could make this computer build be a little more modern. Ability to have 16-32mb of RAM, PCI
Second question: I'd like to buy and install an M.2 SSD drive or SATA 3.0 SSD drive, as my initial research shows I can't get a motherboard that will support NVMe M.2 SSD hard drives. Because the processor uses an LGA 1155 socket. And that socket type only fits on older motherboards? So if that is true, then I need to find the next best HD option, and that looks like either an M.2 SSD drive or a SATA 3.0 SSD hard drive (correct me if I'm wrong).
Thank you in advance, and nice to meet everyone
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