First ever build. Need some help...

[ssidiver]

Greetings,

I've turned over from the dark side. I decided to get rid of my Apple iBook in order to build a Windows based computer.

Luckily, my mother was more than happy to trade me her Dell Dimension 2350 desktop for my ol' iBook.

I have already ripped the Dell apart for any parts I could use to put into the new rig. Basically, I'm stuck with two 512 MB RAM chips and a GeForce 5500 PCI v-card. I would like to start from point blank with everything else.

First and foremost, I'm looking for a mobo that will work with the two Dell RAM chips and the PCI v-card. After that, everything is up in the air.

I know there is a new processor coming out soon, so I'm going to wait and see what it does to the market in terms of prices for other chips. I'm open for any suggestions for any brand of CPU.

I guess, in a since, that is the most important thing as picking a HD and optical drives out shouldn't be hard. Although, are all HDs and drives able to work with ALL mobos?

I'm more worried about buying hardware that will not work with each other than anything else.

Also, I have the Dell Dimension 2350 case and a huge Gateway case from back in the day. The Gateway case is big enough to house anything and has three slots for RAM instead of the two in the Dell case. If I were to use the Gateway case, I was hoping to pick a CPU out that could handle whatever amount of RAM the three slots would give me.

And, if you experts think that neither the Gateway or a Dell case is a plausible idea, let me know that I'm cheap and I have to suck it up and buy a new case and *gulp* a power supply.

I'm not worried about the price of anything right now, I just want to know what my options are. After I see them all, I'll look at prices. Thanks for any help you can give me!

-Brad

[Cricket]

What kind of RAM is it? DDR? SDRAM?

Is that a PCI video card or a PCI-Express 16?

What do you mean the Gateway case has 3 RAM slots when the Dell only has 2? Are you talking about the motherboards inside the cases?

Honestly, you should build from the ground up instead of trying to use the RAM and video card from the Dell. You might be able to use the drives from the Dell (hard drive, optical drives and floppy drive) but you probably won't be able to use anything else.

Cricket

[glc]

Not wise to recycle the Dell parts. Put it back together and use it for a basic machine. Also not wise to recycle the Gateway case. Mixing old and new technology does not work well.