First time pc builder.

[SGT Tenor]

Although I have an older computer I'm thinking of building one for myself. I can see the benefits of building one myslef and hoping I'm steppping in the right direction. My original CPU was a Gateway p3 1g 384 meg ram and a ATI 7500 64 meg card.

So far I have the basic stuff CD-rom hard disk floppy from Ky old cpu. I can use those for now until I have enough to get a cd/dvd player and a better card.


Right now I'm looking into this motherboard

865PE ATX Motherboard, Socket PGA478 for Pentium 4 Processors
And I'm thinking of gettign a pentium 4 2.8 with hyper Threading technology.

What I want to know is can I use my old hard drive? Or should I jsut go ahead and get a new hard and a new OS. Much Of the information on the hard drive I'd like to keep and I dont have a zip drive to hold the information. (So far I have ME)

Thanks for a quick response.

[DarkHorse]

I'm almost certain that your old Hard Drive would work just fine. The Gateway is probably the typical IDE interface, and if it's any new board you're getting everything should work just dandy.

However, you'll have to do some configuring if you're going to just plug the old HD into the new mobo. Do a search for the "ENUM" trick and see if you feel confident doing it.

Another option is to get a new (and probably much better) HD and get XP on it, which has a "Files and Settings Transfer Wizard" which will simplify the process. I personally haven't done it, but you can ask around. This will also allow you to keep your old HD after you transfer the files, so you have two computers...always a good thing!

Finally, have you checked the Build Your own PC Guide? It has some things you might not have anticipated.

BTW, building your own is the only way to go. You'll never go back!

[james8547]

If you can spare the $$$, I'd recommend getting XP. ME is really horrible compared to ME. I have ME in my old Dell.

Also, there are some good bargains with new HDs. These devices usually lasts 4-6yrs. So if yours is near the end of its life, I'd go get a new 1 rather than wait for HD failure.

[imbest123]

The hard drive would work but if you have the money to spare get another and just use 2 hard drives ont hat one computer. I also agree with james that Windows ME is horrible.

[bigandy]

You could stay with the old HD, but I recommend going with a new one. Like james said there are some good deals out there on new HD's, and it will be more reliable than your old one. I have also experienced trouble with moving old HD's to new computers. I helped my friend assemble his PC, he wanted to do this with an HD from his old HP, and we experienced so many problems that he finally just broke down and bought a new HD and OS and did a clean install, and used the old HD as extra storage.

[lil Jimmie]

I'd go with a new HDD and OS (XP)

[RayH]

Techinically, your old hard drive would work. But it's like getting a new suit and wearing old tennis shoes.

The old drive would be much slower than a new hard drive and a lot smaller. It would slow down the system enough. Your 1 GHz is sufficient for most applications. So if you're going to go faster, go faster!

[SGT Tenor]

so you're saying that I should get a new hard drive. I plan to. My old hard drive only holds 20gigs. My question is do Can I jsut use that and start without putting an OS in? I plan to get XP as well but I was just curious on how I can mangage to get a new CPU going with just my old drive. I assume that I still need to install and OS If that's it I will do just that.

[kissfan]

I think what is being suggested, is that until you get a new HD and OS, you can use what you have. Look back in the post and you will see reference to the Enum trick, this works for most people, but not all. You should back up all your stuff before trying, especially the registry.

When you get a new HD and OS, you can slave the old one either by using Cable Select or jumpering master/ slave, and have access to all your files.

from a personal point of view, I prefer to do a clean install of the OS, when changing out a motherboard.


HTH

[SGT Tenor]

Ok I'm going top get a new hard drive and install XP then Add my older hard drive will that be better? For one thing my DSL connection (Winpoet is on that ddrive and I don't know where my old Earthlink cd is.