I might build a new PC

[Stephen Coates]

I have ordered the following:

Gigabyte GA-P31-ES3G iP31 Socket 775 5.1 channel audio ATX Motherboard - £47.17 inc postage from Ebuyer

Gigabyte GV-R455D3-512I Radeon HD 4550 512MB ATX DVI-i Graphics Card - £29.28 from Amazon

OCZ-S400 OCZ StealthXStream 400w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply
SG-712S500 Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB 16MB Cache Hard Drive SATA II 300MB/s 11ms 7200rpm - OEM
IL-CE6300 Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 2 x 2.8Ghz 2MB Cache 1066 FSB Dual Core Processor
CRU-B642GK Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C4 800MHz Dual Channel Kit
£187.27 inc postage from Novatech

So the total has come to £263.72.

I only ordered one hard drive. I would like to have two but I can always get another one in the future when I have more money. I will be reusing harrison's old CDRW drive which is currently in my PC. I guess if I end up having to use DVDs I will use my 10 year old Hitachi DVDROM. Will also be reusing the floppy drive and case.

I'm not sure whether I will keep my 120GB Maxtor IDE hard disk will the old Dell stuff or whether I will put it in this new system. That would mean I can't have the DVDROM, but I am thinking about possibly getting a Blu Ray drive at some point in the future and that would be SATA, so this isn't a concern in the long term.

Hopefully this will all work nicely. It should all be delivered before friday.

Now for the hard part, deciding what Operating Systems to install and how to partition the disks.

[Harrison]

You should have a very nice PC once built Steve. If you need any advice or have questions when building it please let me know.

The hardest bit is fitting the stock Intel heatsink's to the motherboard/processor. Follow the instrustions that come with it exactly and it should be fine. Make sure you align the processor correctly with the motherboard socket before seating it with the lever, and when putting the heatsink on, make sure the 4 catches on the feet which clip through the motherboard are rotated correctly. It can be worth looking at a couple of videos on how to install them on the Intel site, and also on youtube, just so you get an idea. It looks easy but can be a right bitch to actually get into place and secure.

I find it best to fit the PSU into the case first before the motherboard or anything else. And to fit the processor, heatsink and ram before you install the motherboard into the case. But make sure you do this on a flat non static surface. I have a large coffee table with the glass top I use for this, and also a large wooden desk. Both great for antistatic environments.

[Stephen Coates]

I will definately take care with the heatsink. And don't worry, I won't use any sellotape .

I thought first, before assembling it in a case I could connect it all up on the table and test that it works, kind of like my A1200T was before I finally manage to get a tower, but I'm not sure this would be a good idea.

I am wondering how well it will all fit into this case, with it being a Dell one. The case does have a fan (probably an 80mm one) situated next to the Pentium III's heatsink. This is clearly part of the case and not the heatsink unit, but there is a piece of plastic covering these bits up so the fan will only suck warm air away from the pentium III and not from the rest of the case. I expect this fan could remain in place and possibly be replaced with a bigger one.

Hopefully I will be able to install Linux and Windows onto the same hard disk. Last time I attempted that I had trouble setting GRUB up.

[J T]

Did the Dell originally have a standard motherboard or a proprietary one? I've heard that dell often use things that are slightly non-standard to make user-upgrading hard.

I don't know if this is true, or just anti-dell moaning (possibly the truth is somewhere in between)

don't worry, I won't use any sellotape

Awwwww, not even a little bit, just in the corner of the case, for old times sake?

[Harrison]

Dell often use their own Motherboards and it has been common practice for them to design their cases so that only their own components will fit. Normally this means standard PSUs don't fit and Dell motherboards fit up-side-down compared to a standard ATX motherboard.

However Steve's existing PC is quite old, so it might be from before Dell started doing this.

[Stephen Coates]

I havn't done an exact comparison, but the size of the Dell PSU should be identical to an ATX one. I believe the only proprietry thing about the Dell PSU is the pin layout on the connectors and the colour coding. The voltages and connector are otherwise the same as an ATX one.

As for the motherboard, I'm not sure about the exact sizes of it. All I know is that it is manufactured by Intel. I will wait for the new Gigabyte board to come tommorow (hopefully) and find out. If it doesn't fit I will get a new case.

My Radeon HD 4550 came today. As often happens, I was in the shower when the postman came, and fortunately, he left it in the electricity meter box . Saves waiting 48 hours and a trip to the delivery office. Do postmen tend to carry keys for meter boxes?

[Stephen Coates]

Slight change of plan. I decided to get a new case. Then I will be able to keep the old Dell system together.

This is what I bought: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...EOIBSA:GB:1123