dismantling an old pc

[jas1]

this might seem a stupid question to all you wiz kids,i have an old pc, packard bell,about 8 yrs old, i am thinking of building my own pc, so i thought it would be a good exercise to strip it down and get aquainted with what is going on in the pc. Any advice would be welcome. Thanks. Jas1

[Spools]

That's actually a great idea. Getting the feel of seating RAM or the heatsink on a CPU with parts that you don't mind damaging is excellent experience. Another thing you might want to do is spend some time getting to know the motherboard by finding the model number and looking up the manual. You could also spend some time practicing wire management in the case.

[raftero]

in my opinion it's not such a good idea, the old computers are so different that it gets confusing, building one is much simpler, parts go together easier and there is a place for everything and its really not very difficult to build a good basic computer.

[Nikon]

how i do agree that it may be simpler to build a new machine, many of the mechanics involved in the actual contruction of a machine have not changed in years.
motherboards still use standoffs, which can be difficult to align properly while seating the mobo(usually due to the rear i/o panel)

rebuilding old machines (that worked) is how i learned the basics of computer construction.

interfaces may have changed, but to be honest, ram still seats the same way, so do CPU's, heatsinks, videocards, well not really anything has changed.

i believe it is a great experience to do that. go for it!

one note: unless you have no intention of using the rebuilt machine again, avoid removing the heatsink from the cpu unless you have thermal paste to replace the old stuff. if you have some that you dont mind using on an old machine, then by all means remove the heatsink/cpu.

cpu's have some kind of lever or clip to lock them down to the mobo, make sure you release the locking mechanism, and cpu will lift free easily, do not pry it out of the mobo, and do not force a cpu into a 'locked' socket.

[jas1]

i have been advised to double my 2 gbs to 4gbs, i run vista, with 2gbs if i put 2 x 2gbs into my pc, will it need setting up somehow.hope somebody helps me out. jas1
dell inspiron 530. any specific component to use. thanks

[David M]

Originally Posted by jas1 i have been advised to double my 2 gbs to 4gbs, i run vista, with 2gbs if i put 2 x 2gbs into my pc, will it need setting up somehow.hope somebody helps me out. jas1 dell inspiron 530. any specific component to use. thanks

Check Crucial.com to see what type of RAM you need. The price will give you a sense of whether or not it is worth it. More RAM is only useful if your applications are accessing the hard drive because they are already using all of the two gigs that you have.

A 32 bit OS will recognize something less than 4 gigs of RAM, so having more than four gigs would be of no benefit.

http://www.crucial.com/

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/888137

[Nikon]

actually....
Memory Upgrade: Is It Time To Add More RAM? : Introduction

[glc]

If you are using 32 bit Vista and you presently have two 1gb ram modules, get a matching 1gb kit of two 512mb modules and put them in the other 2 slots. The Inspiron takes either DDR2-667 or DDR2-800 ram, match what you have in there already as close as possible.