I have gotten interested in the past few days in building my own computer (after getting sick and tired of maxing out an old Dell box... ugh). I have a lot of components picked out, and a number of things that I will be pulling from my current computer. But, being totally new to this, I don't know that everything is compatible and will work smoothly.
Hardware I have and plan to use in the new build:
- Two Seagate hard drives (80gig/160gig) which I think use one IDE port (of the two on the mobo I am considering).
- Two optical drives. I am not sure what connection they use to the mobo; I assume it will be built to handle a few fairly new optical drives and that this won't be an issue.
- EVGA e-GeForce 6600LE 256mb AGP8X video card (AGP Slot)
- Creative Technology SoundBlaster Live! 24-bit Sound card (ATI slot)
- Dell E771a monitor
- Dell keyboard and optical mouse
- Floppy disk drive
- LAN card (3Com EtherLink XL 10/100 PCI card) (ATI Slot)
- USB 2.0 card (ATI Slot)
Hardware I plan to purchase:
- Centurion 5 ATX Mid-Tower Case
(
http://www.compusa.com/products/prod...Mid_Tower_Case )
- Gigabyte Technology GA-8IPE1000-G rev 3.x ATX Socket 478 Motherboard, for Intel Pentium 4 HT Processors
(
http://www.compusa.com/products/prod...78_Motherboard )
- 300 Watt ATX Power Supply
(
http://www.compusa.com/products/prod...X_Power_Supply )
- Pentium 4 , 3.00 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, Socket FC-PGA4 478-pin Boxed Processor with HT Technology
(
http://www.compusa.com/products/prod...7&Pn=Pentium_4 )
- Kingston memory (2x1gig). I know for sure this is compatible.
(
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...cegrabbermerch )
- Chipset Cooler Kit (I have absolutely no idea if I need this thing... let me know)
(
http://www.compusa.com/products/prod...1975&pfp=srch1 )
All the reviews that I have read for the case seem to be very positive, and the motherboard seems to be pretty reasonably priced. But to be perfectly honest, I have no idea what I am talking about when it comes to motherboards and processors. From all that I can see, these parts seem to be compatible.
I think I may need a more powerful PSU, advice would be appreciated.
I would like to stay in remotely the same price range as the listed components, but if anyone has suggestions for different set-ups that would be greatly appreciated.
Okay, that's it for hardware questions. Now, operating system and software. I have Windows XP installed on one of the drives that will be making the changover into the new machine (The other drive is used for mostly music storage). Will I need a new copy of Windows? If not, will I be able to plug everything in and go? What will need to be installed individually? Sadly, I don't know how any of software business works. I have installation CDs for Windows that came with my Dell.
As for installed programs; I have downloaded and installed numerous programs that I don't have intallation files for. Will I be able to drag my "Program Files" folder to the non-system HD, then plug that in later? If I initialize and reinstall Windows on the system HD in the new box, will I be able to drag that folder onto the new system drive and have my programs work?
I hope at least some of this makes sense.
Thanks in advance,
Scott