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[shyboy]

Hi Guys and Gals,
Wisely or not, I'm thinking of trying to upgrade an old PC which I haven't used for 5 years, as a project, and wonder whether this is a sensible proposition. The main purpose would be to drag myself into the 21st. century knowledge-wise, and to provide a second outfit for flight sim. gaming, internet access, word processing etc.
There seems to be plenty of info. and guides on the Internet, which I think I could follow OK, but I would appreciate an opinion from the experts on whether the idea is feasible for a raw beginner with no basic knowledge. Cost considerations would not be critical, and I'd like to be able to upgrade further in the future if my skills improve, and/or I live long enough. 8-)
Opinions would be much appreciated.
Bill.

[Marks DTM Calib]

Much easier to do than it used to be as you no longer need to REALLY understand the details of how bus based devices connect!

Ow the fun of IRQ's, DMA's etc....

[Allenm]

As Mark says, it won't teach you a great deal other than how to slot things together whilst wearing an anti-static wrsit band.  Also, unless you have access to cheap components then it is often cheaper to just buy a new one!  The only real benefit of building your own these days is the ability to create a balanced system, optimised for the use the machine will get.

If you do go for it, then anti-static protection is a must, don't believe those who will tell you they have never used it and never had a problem,  the effects can be more subtle than just breaking it!

[richardirv]

I think building your own PC is a very satisfieing project, I don't do that much myself but have built my own 2 PC's, a Gaming Rig & Media Rig for the LCD, And then the odd one for family and friends etc.
Unless you are really going to read up and follow guides to the letter my suggestion is try to find someone who has done it before and let them show you what to do, which is what I did, once you have done one you should have the confidence to go solo.

If the PC you are thinking of upgrading is 5 years old or more, my advice would be to start from scratch, 5 years is a long time in PC years and if you are thinking of gaming  then I doubt anything you do to it will be good enough for todays games, especially flight sims like FSX.

If money is an issue and If gaming is only a luxury then you could build a nice little machine for well under £300 and then save up and add a daddy graphics card later.

Rich

[TheBoy]

tbh, a 5yrs old PC has no usable parts in it, so cheaper just to go out and buy one.

If you want the satisfaction of building one yourself, thats one thing (but can work out expensive to get the best from it, as some components simply don't work optimally together). It will always be cheaper to go to HP/Dell/whoever for a new one if its a significant upgrade.

[TheBoy]

Much easier to do than it used to be as you no longer need to REALLY understand the details of how bus based devices connect!

Ow the fun of IRQ's, DMA's etc....

Less of an issue on lost cost mobos now due to how they connect up PCI/PCIe now - but the reverse of that is poor documentation on such mobos, so you have to plug a card in to see what irq its wired to.

[Marks DTM Calib]

Much easier to do than it used to be as you no longer need to REALLY understand the details of how bus based devices connect!

Ow the fun of IRQ's, DMA's etc....

Less of an issue on lost cost mobos now due to how they connect up PCI/PCIe now - but the reverse of that is poor documentation on such mobos, so you have to plug a card in to see what irq its wired to.

Which is what I said....reality is the chances are the only card you will plug in will be a graphics one!

Where as of course you used to have an audio card, I/O card, Drive interface card, graphics card......modem....

[richardirv]

tbh, a 5yrs old PC has no usable parts in it, so cheaper just to go out and buy one.

If you want the satisfaction of building one yourself, thats one thing (but can work out expensive to get the best from it, as some components simply don't work optimally together). It will always be cheaper to go to HP/Dell/whoever for a new one if its a significant upgrade.

The only thing I find is that DELL etc seem to use budget/cheap components and I find you can build much higher quality machines for very similar prices. And to get a dell to play games you need an XPS and they ussually don't come cheap. Customised components to suit needs wins all day for me.

[Laz]

Have a good think about what you want to do.  You mention gaming, and that is always the thing that is going to drive what spec you need. As mentioned building your own can be very satisfying, but it can also be very frustrating and time consuming, a hidden risk here is that as soon as your extended family find out you built your own system they immediately think you have become Bill Gates and you become the local 24/7 tec support.
 The price of pre built PC these days its hardly worth the effort. Have a look at some of the stuff Aldi has now and again, they had a rig for £499 a couple of weeks ago that was simply amazing spec, I priced the bits up from E-Buyer and it came to about £450. Although I admit Medion (Aldi tec brand) are not as well supported as Dell etc, Aldi have a no quibble return policy if worst came to worst.

[TheBoy]

Much easier to do than it used to be as you no longer need to REALLY understand the details of how bus based devices connect!

Ow the fun of IRQ's, DMA's etc....

Less of an issue on lost cost mobos now due to how they connect up PCI/PCIe now - but the reverse of that is poor documentation on such mobos, so you have to plug a card in to see what irq its wired to.

Which is what I said....reality is the chances are the only card you will plug in will be a graphics one!

Where as of course you used to have an audio card, I/O card, Drive interface card, graphics card......modem....

Hmmm, looking at my (almost dead) desktop which runs with side off to disperse the smoke that will bellow out any second now...

Forgetting the video card, I see a soundblaster live car, a gigabit nic card (the onboard gigabit has long since blown up), scsi card, and a firewire card.


Actually looking at it, it needs replacing, but its become a battle to see how long I can keep it running for

[TheBoy]

tbh, a 5yrs old PC has no usable parts in it, so cheaper just to go out and buy one.

If you want the satisfaction of building one yourself, thats one thing (but can work out expensive to get the best from it, as some components simply don't work optimally together). It will always be cheaper to go to HP/Dell/whoever for a new one if its a significant upgrade.

The only thing I find is that DELL etc seem to use budget/cheap components and I find you can build much higher quality machines for very similar prices. And to get a dell to play games you need an XPS and they ussually don't come cheap. Customised components to suit needs wins all day for me.

Generally not budget components, though often no vga card.

Dell in particular tend to use decent chipsets, unlike many others, and the chipset is the most important part - anything else can be rectified.

As a consumer (or even as a system integrator), you will never get close to Dell's (or others) pricing for similar spec, certainly at the sub £500 market.  For starters, you will struggle to get a Windows licence for less than £60

[shyboy]

Thanks for the replies, gentlemen.
Although I agree with Richardirv's points about satisfaction etc. I can see that the first requirement is to learn the necessary IT foreign language, and perhaps I would be biting off more than I could chew, bearing in mind that senility may loom large on the horizon.
If there was a very substantial saving I would persevere, but think that perhaps I should confine myself to my known comfort zone and continue to play with Miggies for my kicks.
Laz. Thanks for your advice. I bought a Medion 22" LCD monitor from Aldi recently and it seems perfectly satisfactory. Just hope it has a long life.
Thanks again for all your comments.
Permission to change my mind, Sir?

[TheBoy]

Much easier to do than it used to be as you no longer need to REALLY understand the details of how bus based devices connect!

Ow the fun of IRQ's, DMA's etc....

Less of an issue on lost cost mobos now due to how they connect up PCI/PCIe now - but the reverse of that is poor documentation on such mobos, so you have to plug a card in to see what irq its wired to.

Which is what I said....reality is the chances are the only card you will plug in will be a graphics one!

Where as of course you used to have an audio card, I/O card, Drive interface card, graphics card......modem....

Hmmm, looking at my (almost dead) desktop which runs with side off to disperse the smoke that will bellow out any second now...

Forgetting the video card, I see a soundblaster live car, a gigabit nic card (the onboard gigabit has long since blown up), scsi card, and a firewire card.


Actually looking at it, it needs replacing, but its become a battle to see how long I can keep it running for

And guess who will be having the old OOF server in the new year  

[Martin_1962]

I rebuilt a PC, kept case DVD burner and FDD

New MB
New CPU
2GB RAM
2 x 1TB HDDs
Graphics card
New PSU

£490 roughly

Bought middle market stuff like Samsung drives for quietness, Asus MB and GFX card, Intel Quad core CPU

[TheBoy]

I rebuilt a PC, kept case DVD burner and FDD

New MB
New CPU
2GB RAM
2 x 1TB HDDs
Graphics card
New PSU

£490 roughly

Bought middle market stuff like Samsung drives for quietness, Asus MB and GFX card, Intel Quad core CPU

Never mind, hope it lasts.  When (not if) if fails, you'll find Asus slow and cumbersome to deal with.

As to price, thats not great - I paid £399 + VAT (inc delivery) for the OOF server 18 months ago (I checked this morning to see which version of Vista licence it had).  That is probably similar spec (when bought) except the pair of disks were smaller.


I rate the 1Tb Spinpoint F1 drives, to the point I have ordered a pair for the OOF server. Quiet, fast (OK, not up to SAS perfromance), good value.