Scrap current system....?

[chadw97]

The computer I am on right now was a cheap Walmart desktop. The processor is a cheap AMD, the motherboard is not the best, and the power supply is only 220 watts which was fine for general web use and very minor gaming.(Minecraft). However, my hard drive and cd drive work fine. Also, I have 4gb of ram which is fine I think. What I want to know is can I buy a new case, processor, psu, motherboard, and video card and reuse my hard drive, ram, and cd drive to save $150. Because my hard drive is 1TB and it has an OS and a lot of steam games that I can't really play.


(This is my first build and my main question is can I reuse a hard drive, 4 gb ram, and cd drive?)

 

[BriboCN]

Yes, assuming the components are supported by the new motherboard. Youll need to identify the type of ram you have. Go locate a program called CPU-Z load it and look at the memory setting. it should display the type of ram being used and the speed of it. Find a new motherboard that supports the processor you want and can use the ram you already have. Check to make sure your hard drive and cd rom drive both use sata based connections to attached to the mother board. If you need to know what a Sata plug is just Google it. They almost are guaranteed to but I would hate for you to be the last person on the planet with IDE drives and me to say everything will work fine.

 

[chadw97]

Yes, assuming the components are supported by the new motherboard. Youll need to identify the type of ram you have. Go locate a program called CPU-Z load it and look at the memory setting. it should display the type of ram being used and the speed of it. Find a new motherboard that supports the processor you want and can use the ram you already have. Check to make sure your hard drive and cd rom drive both use sata based connections to attached to the mother board. If you need to know what a Sata plug is just Google it. They almost are guaranteed to but I would hate for you to be the last person on the planet with IDE drives and me to say everything will work fine.

Yes, they are Sata. Thanks for the response. Now, I don't have to buy a new OS, hd, or ram so thanks for helping me save money!

 

[BriboCN]

My pleasure, best of luck

 

[killerhurtalot]

Yes you can. But you need to buy another copy of the os since the pre-built desktops use oem copies and that's tied to the motherboard.

What kind of ram do you have? all the modern processor/motherboards use DDR3 RAM. From what you described, it sounds really old and might be on DDR2 RAM...

 

[stickmansam]

Off topic but I am still running IDE 133 Barracuda 7200.9 and its still faster than the WD Green 5400 =P

 

[unksol]

You're not saving much money, and you end up with a dead desktop laying around. You'd be better off to sell it or find some other use for it. You're going to have to buy and reinstall the OS anyway. Memory is cheap and you don't even need a DVD drive.

You could buy a cheaper HDD and throw it in there with the original OEM OS and keep yours. But you still have to wipe and reinstall windows on your drive