Help with some questions about making a computer.

GamerX

GamerX

New Member
Hi, i decided to make a new computer instead of buying an 1,200$ computer

that wont have all i want. So i was looking at mother boards and proccessors

but i have a question. Can i use my old HD and CD Drive with a new

motherboard and just update the drivers? Or will there be a chance they

wont be compatible? If anybody knows it would be helpfull. Thanks!
 
It depends on the drives as far as speed and capacity. 500gb sata drives are down in price substantially and can often provide more drive space then you would normally use. For a large drive if needed seeing a second storage partition for backing things up like your photos or other files is common.

A newer optical drive maybe even a sata over the ide type is another thought since sata uses a thin data cable over the typical flat ribbon type seeing better air flow. A newer optical drive will likely see a faster burn as well as read speed.

Some will suffer a loss on hard drive space for a faster Raptor drive with 10,000rpm over the usual 7,200rpm for the OS drive. Yet you should have no problems by simply moving your present drives into a new build.

You will need to see Windows installed fresh there however with the rest of the new hardware. That often means a fresh primary to worh with and backing things up you want to save. Here I moved one to two ide hard drives and a pair of sata drives into a newer build with ease. One drive and the two optical drives there were left since that case is still in use.
 
GamerX said:
Hi, i decided to make a new computer instead of buying an 1,200$ computer

that wont have all i want. So i was looking at mother boards and proccessors

but i have a question. Can i use my old HD and CD Drive with a new

motherboard and just update the drivers? Or will there be a chance they

wont be compatible? If anybody knows it would be helpfull. Thanks!
Click to expand...

To answer your question, yes you can use your harddrive and CD drive. About all motherboards have 1 IDE and 4 and above Sata ports. The best bet is to do a clean or repair install with a new board.
 
Cool thanks. if any1 has any suggestions on motherboards more than welcome i was thinking about the Asus Striker ll Extreme or maybe the Asus M3A32-MVP. Any way thanks
 
 
Yes but...

You can if you are on a tight budget for maybe $100 on newegg.com you could a new harddrive and DVD/CD combo that are nicer than your old ones. Besides your old one are probably IDE with their big, airflow blocking ribbons. Get the newer SATA, they are faster and don't block airflow. They are also less likely to fail on you.

Depending on what mobo you get, you may only have one IDE so you'd have to run the CD and HDD off of the same ribbon, which is OK, but not ideal.

NOTE: this is all assuming that the old ones are fairly old and IDE.
 
The hardwares you select will mainly depend on the type of system you are planiing to build. As far as sata drives they aren't any faster due to still being restrained by the ATA100/133 dilemna despite the faster bus.

The main benefits are the thinner data cable for increase in air flow there and the lack of the need to set the jumper to master, slave, or cable select since each drive is on it's own separate cable.

For just a basic build transferring the old drives wouldn't be any large problem while looking for room to expand perhaps dual OSing or working with large files like uploading video from a camcorder will see drive space go fast. On the other hand going for a high end gaming this and that can easily reach the $1,200 mark.
 
Well i want to use my old harddrive because its a new SATA without the big band and is like 600gb. I think i might go for the new PHENOMs for AMD if i get a AMD motherboard. The only thing im confused about and has always confused me is the powersupply can i use my old one? Or do i have to get a new one that fits my new motherboard? This has always confused me if any1 has an answer instead of opening a new thread thanks.
 
If you have a good 500w or larger supply you shouldn't need another but simply move that into the new case. Of course you could also leave it in the old case to have a spare case onhand and for new. Most of that will depend what finally goes into the new one.

A 640gb WD model or another brand? I can't see why you would have any problem at all since you simply need to see that go in and the need for a new copy of Windows on a fresh primary. That will see all leftover drivers and install logs, then useless temp folders gone from the old build with a fresh start.
 
ALright cool well when im done deciding i will prolly post it on hereand see what people think before i buy it all. And the Harddrive is WD yea but can i use that as thee primary and just do a windows recovery or repair?
 
Once you swap out the board, video and(and if) sound cards you will be looking at a full clean install to see the best results. You have to remember the chipsets will be different as well as sata and memory controllers on the new board alone.

Then you will likely be selecting a brand new and newer video card for sure. That's essentially a brand new machine where Windows will need a brand new hardware profile. If you were simply swapping an identical board as a replacement then you could get away with a repair install in XP. For Vista any change means a full install due to the way the new version locks in on hardwares there.
 
Alright cool, i have a vista cd but im not ready for that vista still isnt stable enough for me and i dont think it can run all the programs i need to run prolly will wait a few months before going to vista.
 
Vista has been the primary OS here on this build since last August and now has SP1 on without anything. XP on the other hand is now failing to properly detect the MS optical mouse used as the device connected as well as seeing problems with the beta version of IE 8.

Yet XP's SP3 is supposed to have over 1,000 much needed fixes for that version? I think it did more to goof up things in some ways then MS finally fixing their bugs! :P
 
I was looking around putting somthings together online seeing what mightbe good could ya tell me what i might need to chnage in it so far

Case : Nikao Black Neon ATX Case w/ Temperature control, front USB & iEEE

Board : ASRock Wolfdale 1333FSB, Onboard Video, PCI Express, Sound, LAN

CPU : Intel Pentium D 945 3.4GHz, (Dual Core) 4096K

CPU Fan : Spire Socket 775 Intel fan

Video Card : Undecided

Sound Card : Undecided

Will that processor be good for gaming you think? Also the CPU fan says it

can cool up to 3.8 duel core and quad core you think i should upgrade that?

Not sure still just looking at this because it seems to be a pretty good deal.

Just would like to know if it would be able to hold up for present and future

gaming. Thanks!
 
First thing I wouldn't even look at an Asrock board to start with. Those are the epitemy of the industry as far as being llllowww enders! The better boards for a gaming build have always been by Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, Abit, DFI when you hear from others that regularly use these brands.

Intel clocked AMD some time back with the Core 2s replacing AMD as the top choice in that sense. Yet the 3ghz speed seen with the Socket AM2 6000+ X2 model used here is a leap over the older 2.2ghz models in older builds. The Pentium line is pretty well ancient history at this time for any new build. Most are jumping Intel quad core models.

NVidia and Creative's Xtreme Gamer and Fatality lines are what most favor for both video and sound cards. When looking at cards at this time you will want a board that sees a PCI-Express 2.0 capability for the new and newer video cards coming out.
 
Hmm what about
ASUS P5GC-MX , 1333FSB, Onboard Video,PCI Express,DDR2,Sound, LAN

As far as the processor i relized Pentenium is in the dark by know but its

making me angry that processor clock speed is meaning less and less know,

you cant just look at the GHz an say if its great or not most of the time kinda

confuses me. As for intel quad core i would rather change motherboards and

go for a phenom from amd because i heard that the new phenoms are pretty

good for thee price. I did see an Intel core 2 duo E4600 2.4GHz or the E4700

for 2.6 think that would be a better buy?

BTW thanks for all your help so far.
 
GamerX said:
As far as the processor I realized Pentium is in the dark by know but its making me angry that processor clock speed is meaning less and less now, you can't just look at the GHz an say if its great or not most of the time kinda confuses me.
Click to expand...

In my opinion here are two good pointers which will tell you how good the processor technology is:

1) How many Arithmetic Logic Units (ALUs) does it have? Single Core Processors have two Arithmetic Logic Units. Dual Core Processors have four and Quad Cores have eight. With current software, in my opinion, you want at least 4 ALUs.

2) How much cache does the processor have? Cache is high speed memory that enhances the processing speed of a system. I would look at processor that have at least 2 megabytes of cache but the more the better. (There are also different levels of cache. Level 1, Level 2, and sometimes Level 3. Cache is abbreviated L1, L2 or L3. L1 cache is usually very small measured in kilobytes (KBytes). L2 and L3 cache are where the larger amounts of memory are located.)
 
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