BigFin

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Hi fellas,

I'm new to building computers and am lost at where to start. I have with an asus board and a celeron 366mhz prosessor that I took out of an old HP Pavillion 4450 computer and put in a new case with a AIG, #HEC-300AR-T, 300watt PSU. I would like to eventualy give this computer to my children after salvaging some of its parts for a new build. I have one problem though, I just discovered that the CPU fan quit working and am now runing an old case fan as its only cooling along with the power suply fan. I don't know how long the CPU fan has been broken, but my computer has been giving me error masages for a while and also crashing. I orininaly thought it was the hard drive because I heard a loud grinding sound that eventualy went away a while back. The computer seems to be running fine now. I will continue to watch it for a few days.

I want to build a all around computer to be used for some gaming, (I would like to be able to play some of the new war games and car racing games) video presentations, photo editing, word prossesing, and finances. I also don't know weather to make it portable to use for the presentations, or to use my old midtower case with the AIG PSU, or to use a new case for the build. Also my current OS is Windows98se; can I use it? I'm on a very small budget.

BigFin

PS: I have an ATI Radon 8500 agp video card that i tried use ing with my current system, but had problems. I would like to try and use it somewhere.
 

godlyatheist

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first off, the HDD should be checked for broken sectors. Grinding is never good and I suggest a new one

That celeron can survive with little cooling due to it's low speed, but for your new build you want A WORKING FAN OTHERWISE THE CPU WILL DIE!!! get some cheap fan for that old computer if you want to reuse it

how tight is your budget???, please don't say less than 500. the 8500 won't get you new game to play, but i can make it useful
 

bourgeoisdude

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"I orininaly thought it was the hard drive because I heard a loud grinding sound that eventualy went away a while back."

Your CPU fan did that most likely--yes get a new cpu fan right away if you want your processor to survive.

EDIT: Ahh...100th comment. I love my Avatar :)
 

sallad

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If you are on a really tight budget, building a computer is usually more expensive than just going to the store and buying one from a big-name company.
 

BigFin

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Thanks Guys,

My old computer seems to be running fine with the case fan, but I will get a new cooling fan soon. THERE IS NO WAY I WANT TO GO OUT A BUY A STORE BOUGHT COMPUTER!!! That is out of the ? as i ran into the problem of not being able to upgrade with the one I have now. I don't want to have that problem again, because I don't want to be stuck in the stone ages in a couple of years. I have very limited funs and cant aford a rebuild very often; my current computer is 7yrs old.

Sorry to say but I only have $500.00 max to work with. As I said I may want to make this computer portable, I am considering a microATX board with onboard graphics. What do you think about the ASUS A8N-VM CSM board? Can it hook up to one of those vidio projectors? I was also looking at HORNETS line of products, what do you guys think?

BigFin
 

Quiksilver-1

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Okay.

Does that $500 budget include monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc?

How much of your current system could you salvage?

Or

Do you want a whole new computer within your budget?

Do you want to buy online or in a local store?
 

BigFin

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I already have the keyboard, moniter, and the mouse. I think I'll savage the CD player and the LS120 super disk drive. I have a WD 80gig Caviar hard drive, but it's the WD800JB IDE drive. I may bring it back to the store and get the JD one that is SATA capable. I may also salvage the power supply. I have nothing rewrtable. One ? If I have a cable connection can I still make this computer portable?
I'm thinking of buying all the parts online. No store bought junk. As mentioned before I want this computer to last a long time, (I don't have much money for rebuilds), and not get stuck in the dark ages.

BigFin
 

godlyatheist

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no need to get a sata one, there's no difference

a dvd-rom/cd-rw drive is like $20 if you get the Lite-On on newegg

One ? If I have a cable connection can I still make this computer portable?
I'm confused as to the meaning of this

u can reuse the PSU if it has 300-350W

since you are buying online do some homework on www.pricegrabber.com and www.pricewatch.com
BUT BECAREFUL ABOUT WHICH VENDOR YOU ARE BUYING FROM!!! MANY OF THEM ARE SCAM.

For additional security, go to www.resellerrating.com. Check to see how a store compare to newegg, zipzoomfly, tigerdirect, and monarchcomputer, etc.
 

BigFin

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Thanks GA,

What I ment by the ? is: I want to connect to the internet by a cable modem. If I do this at home, and then take my computer with me when going somewhere, can I reconnect my computer to the net or will I have screwed up the connection by disconnecting in the first place? I want this computer to be portable like a lap top.

BigFin

PS: My PSU is 300W so I think I'll reuse it. Do you know anything about AGI PSU's?
 

gahleon

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500 is a tough amount to work with I would suggest buying the part that dont expire quickly such as the case monitor soundcard keyboard mouse and what not then saving a little and getting the rest of the stuff together. I would also check some of the toms guides to see what they have to say on the build your own section. They have some articles on building a great gaming machine for cheap.
 

cowcow

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Actually there is an article in maximum pc this month about building a pc for $300. It's not too bad, here are the specs:

MSI RS480M-IL Socket 754 (Has an open pci-e slot for future vid card upgrade) $80
AMD Sempron 2800+ (With the extra $200, you can upgrade the proc if you want) $75
80 gb seagate hd $45
Lite-On 16x double layer driver $42
Generic Case (you can probably find one on new egg or salvage)

Of course then you would need an os, you can either pay for microsoft xp or
use linux.

Oh and BTW, the mobo is a micro-atx board so it's smaller and more portable like you want it to be.
 

godlyatheist

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What I ment by the ? is: I want to connect to the internet by a cable modem. If I do this at home, and then take my computer with me when going somewhere, can I reconnect my computer to the net or will I have screwed up the connection by disconnecting in the first place? I want this computer to be portable like a lap top.

ethernets are plug-n-play so you can plug into any outlet and surf as long as there's no firewall or proxy ports stopping you.
 

BigFin

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Thanks for the input guys. I've been tossing around the idea of a laptop vs. a small form factor computer. As mentioned before I'm looking for a all around computer and can't aford to upgrade often at all. I want to be able to do video presentations, photo editing, finaces, web surfing, e-mail, along with some gaming. I WAS LOOKING AT MONARCH COMPUTER'S HORNET PRO BAREBONES, what do you think of it?

BigFin
 

godlyatheist

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which hornet pro (gamer riot or custom or...) is it? Anyway, the prices seem reasonable. maybe the PSU wattage is a bit on the low side. Give us every part you chose on there and we'll see what will work for your budget.
 

BigFin

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I'm thinking the Amd64 barebones with the asus board A8N-VM CSM. I'm not sure if I'll go with the 270w PSU or the 350w one. Also I may buy the memory else wher if I can find it cheeper. What memory would you suggest?

BigFin
 

godlyatheist

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I would go with the 350W one, but depending on what video card you choose, it just might be enough.

Get the value rams, corsair, patriot, ozc, in that order. I would stick with 1gig right now given your budget. Rams just got a massive increase in price for some odd reason, so they are like above $80 now for 1gig.
 

BigFin

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Thanks GA,

The Board I'm considering has onboard video, but also has a PCIe slot for future upgrades. For now I'll just go with the onboard video. So maybee the 270w will be enough, what do you think?

I saw that Tiger Direct has Ultra brand ram for sale @ $29.99 for 512MB of 400MHz PC3200 DDR ram. What do you think about ULTRA memory? Also do you think I'll need the case fans?

BigFin
 

godlyatheist

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I don know about 270W, could be barely enough. Again, I wouldn't go below 300W. IF price is a prolem, pay it. More power means stability

onboard video is fine, but don't expect to play any new game, like Doom, HL, CSS, BF2, COD2, etc.. Oh, almost forgot, onboard video is burrowing your system memory, so a 64mb onboard video will take 64mb of ram out of the 512 mb you're getting.

The Ultra ram is fine, they were going for as low as $9.99 once. Just becareful about the rebate. Ultra uses the onrebate.com rebate, which 1)ask you for more info than your doctor and sells them 2)most of the time doesn't give you the rebate, that's what they are famous for 3)charge a fee off of your rebate, so a $10 rebate is really only $9

Case fan is kinda a must cause the case is small so heat builds up pretty fast.
 

parlee

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any comp less than 600 bux buy from dell. building a comp with reused stuff from a celeron 366 i think usaid? is pointless, those are pretty ancient, i suggest getting a new fan ad giving that comp away to ur children, then spending the 500 bux on some dell desktop, they have sorta decent ones for that price, for 500 dollars your not gonna have a gaming machine... plus itll be easier to buy in the store and youll get latest techs... like a cd burner lolz.. im sure dell will have a p4 3.0 for around 500...
 

bourgeoisdude

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Well...somewhat agree. To me, Dell is good because of its warrenty. Therefore I would never recommend buying a cheap dell with the 90-day warrenty. I used to work for dell, and while recently they have gone slightly downhill, their support still outmatches the rivals (except Apple). Whatever though. Build a new socket 939 system I say.
 

parlee

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true... but this guy doesnt seem to know exactly what hes doing... well at least thats the way it seems to me, if hes gonna be building a comp for me i wouldnt trust it :D no offence... but if this is ur first build look for some help dont try to go at it alone especailly with expensive parts
 

BigFin

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Thanks GA,

I guss I'll go with the 350w in case of future up grades. I'm going onboard video only because of finances. I may try and get a video board down the road.

Thanks to you other guys also. Yes your right this will be my first build, I've only done a few upgrades of my previous computer. As stated though in earlier posts this computer will only be used for some gaming. Its primary use will be for video presentations, using a program like Pwerpoint, desk top publishing, digital photo editing, word processing, and finances.

Thanks again,

BigFin

Buiding because I don't want to be limited to a propriety board.
 

godlyatheist

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any comp less than 600 bux buy from dell
Partly true, but here the system I'm building, for $675 shipped

A64 3200+
MSI K8N Neo4-F
Aspire ATX CW-500W
Ultra Wizard UV
WD 80GB SATA
6800GS
reuse optical

Now, downgrade that 3200+ to 3000+ saves you $20, 6800GS to 6600GT saves 70$, add $20 to optical if you build from scratch

Thats's about $600 shipped, and it will rock any dell at that price range in gaming.

Again,it is not a micro-atx thing so.......