Help on 1st build (sort of)

[caseopele]

Hi everyone! I hope someone can give me some advice. I currently have a Gateway G6-450XL but I found a Dell Dimension 4100 on the street. I need to know if it's possible to put all or some of my current hardware into the Dell. I'll list some of the technical stuff about my Gateway. Please forgive any mistakes I may make, everything I've learned about computers comes from me breaking them and figuring out how to fix them.

450 Megahertz
Intel Pentium II

Pioneer DVD-Rom DVD-115

Maxtor 80gb hard drive - 6Y080P0

Radeon 9000 Series video card

Gateway VX900 monitor

Creative Audio PCI (ES1371, ES1373) (WDM)

VIA OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller

Crucial Memory - 1278mb 168-pin DIMM 16m X 64 SDRAM PC133 CL2

Cordless Optical Trackman

To keep this post somewhat short I'll just post a link to the specs of the Dell.

http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...zuul/specs.htm

My Gateway has been acting up alot lately, I reformatted my hard drive and reinstalled XP but it didn't help. I've started using Photoshop more often, scanning alot of things and I've had to rescan so much stuff due to my computer freezing on me. I appreciate any help, thanks for reading!

[DarkPacMan77]

both computers are subpar for most newer, advanced games/ photoshopping applications. I would suggest selling both, and putting it towards a new build.

(sorry if that is the cop-out answer to give, but it is what i would do)

[jayb1234]

1278mb 168-pin DIMM

Assuming that is a typo and you meant 128Mb, that is the bare minimum for running XP.

If you want it to run better, adding more RAM will help a lot.

Whether RAM from one of those machines will run in the other or not might be a problem.

Either or both might have proprietary RAM specifications.

That Dell page shows the processor is better than what you have , but you need to know if it even works or not, what specific processor it is and whether you can run it in the Gateway before you think of swapping parts.

See if the Dell works or not, and if it does, what processor it has in it.

I would lean towards swapping parts to the Gateway if they are compatible, since you have Windows for that one already.

[caseopele]

Hi, thanks for replying! As far as selling both machines, I don't think that's an option. You find computers like these on the streets all the time where I live, plus I don't really have the money to buy a new one. I appreciate the suggestion, it certainly would be a good thing to do.

The 1278mb was a typo, it's 128mb but I have 3 slots in my Gateway. The Dell has room for 512mb, and is 2 years newer. I actually have 2 hard drives, the 13gb that came with the Gateway (which I have XP installed on), and the Maxtor 80gb (which I have my programs on). Also, the Dell is Pentium III, while my Gateway is only Pentium II. Assuming the Dell is in working condition (it looks to be, no physical damage or dirt), would it be possible to just transfer my hard drives and video card? Would I have to change anything in the BIOS or reinstall XP?

Thanks for your help!

[Cricket]

Have you even tried to start the DELL up yet? Have you even opened up the case to look inside yet?

Honestly, trying to cobble together a computer from two name brand computers will probably be a frustrating ordeal, especially for someone who hasn't built a computer yet. You could give it a shot and see what happens...you may be successful.

But first thing to do is see if the DELL even works.

Cricket