Sunday, May 02, 2010

PC Rebuild Part One

Okay, so I started this last night....but didn't get the hardware part of it done until this morning and then started on the software fun.

I don't know if I explained why this even came up but it seems that a video card overheated and fried part of my old motherboard (MOBO). I built that computer in 2003 so I am not unhappy with the performance or distance I got out of it, but it was obviously time to upgrade.

Since I haven't had to build a machine from scratch since 2003, I had to do some serious research into the new technology out there. I wasn't going to be able to just replace the motherboard, I had to do a complete rebuild because things had changed so much.

So I talked to some computer people, did some research online and finally ordered everything I would need (minus the powersupply (PSU) which I bought locally so it would fit my old ATX case) from TigerDirect.

Priorities being what they are, I had all the parts here for a couple of weeks before I actually got down to it, but this weekend was open so I did it. I had already gutted all the stuff out of the my old system that would be useable for others and gave it away. That would include a old PSU, old RAM, a old CPU, a old video card, and a old sound card, and I found someone that would take them off my hands. I planned to make my old hard drive into an external (actually did that weeks ago), and reuse my DVD burners.

I removed the bad motherboard last night, and the old floppy drive and started the rebuild. The hardware was pretty easy to do, and I have done it before so I was pretty sure what to do. I had to recheck the manuals and the web a couple of times just to make sure I was connecting new things correctly (since most of it is new technology to me). When I was done, I had a new MOBO, a socket 3 AMD Phenom II CPU, 4 GB of DDR3 RAM, a terabyte SATA hard drive, a 500 GB SATA hard drive, two DVD burners and about a gazillion USB ports...

This morning when I booted it up, I was able to get into the BIOS, make a few adjustments and start down the software road....stay tuned for the next installment on this...

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Two Years Ago on In My Words...Patio Turmoils

1 comment:

Chicken said...

Sounds good sis. Do you mind telling me how much you paid for the parts for the new machine? I have a friend that needs a new computer and I'm pricing one out for her.