rebuild a computer

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Posted: 1/11/2006 11:55:48 AM EDT

My brother in law gave me his 8 yr old Gateway that was hit by lightning (power surge). I was wanting it just for the case and dvd-rom. What do I need to do to put in a new motherboard and processor? I have installed componenets but never have done a motherboard and everything else. It is a PIII 450 mhz, and the power supply is out. I was hoping to replace the power supply and find out it works but haven't got that far. I then started thinking about putting in an AMD processor for gaming and need some of the tech guru's guidance on this. Is it hard and expensive to do ? Should I just salvage parts and pitch this?

Posted: 1/11/2006 1:09:38 PM EDT

[#1]

Honestly, I would ditch the case, and build from scratch. Very little, if anything is going to be salvageable and be good enough for a gaming system. Computer components are cheap nowadays, and newegg.com is your friend.

If the case is ATX, then you could re-use it if you wanted to. A lot of the newer gateways have their own proprietary designs, and some motherboards just wont fit in them, but that one is old enough that is may just be a standard case.

Whats the budget?

Posted: 1/11/2006 1:30:16 PM EDT

[#2]

My first computer was a P3 450. it still runs just fine but i only use it as a storage unit.
give us a budget to work with and we can offer some guidance. mmk

Posted: 1/11/2006 3:39:50 PM EDT

[#3]

How can you tell if it is an ATX case? I guess I am looking at getting it running for 10 yr old kid games, which work fine on a PIII 1 gig MHz, so I guess I need to rephrase it. I just want to make a cheap PC with good components, not high end. It is a 1999 model, I don't know how to tell if it is ATX

Posted: 1/11/2006 4:29:57 PM EDT

[#4]

Here is the motherboard I am looking at. Will there be any conflicts going from a PIII to a AMD??

Posted: 1/11/2006 4:36:13 PM EDT

[#5]

Quoted:
Here is the motherboard I am looking at. Will there be any conflicts going from a PIII to a AMD??

No, you can switch the computer from Intel to AMD without any problems as long as you reinstall windows (or Linux) and the motherboard/processor are compatible with each other. I would also recommend buying a new case, you can get one for around $25 with a power supply.

ETA-

The motherboard you linked to uses DDR RAM, the Gateway you have probably uses SDRAM.

Also, here are some guides for building a PC
en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_To_Build_A_Computer

www.motherboards.org/articlesd/how-to-guides/924_1.html

www.pcmech.com/byopc/

www.buildyourown.org.uk/

Posted: 1/12/2006 4:49:13 AM EDT

[#6]

The mother board you linked to is made by PC Chips, run away, they're crap. also it's for a socket A which has been discontinued by AMD. go with a socket 939. mmk

Posted: 1/12/2006 9:43:41 AM EDT

[#7]

Honestly you should look into a form factor PC AKA LAN Party box for gaming. It is easily portable.

Newegg is a really good site as well as tigerdirect. Here is an example of a LAN Party box.

Tigerdirect

Posted: 1/12/2006 10:46:51 AM EDT

[#8]

Quoted:
Honestly you should look into a form factor PC AKA LAN Party box for gaming. It is easily portable.

Newegg is a really good site as well as tigerdirect. Here is an example of a LAN Party box.

Tigerdirect

I just built the AOpen EX761 listed first on the Tiger Direct web page. It's socket 754, not 959, but you get alot of bang for the buck. Add a processor, ram, a hard drive, a combo drive and mid-range video card and you are set.

Easy to build. Excellent and somewhat amusing instructions. I'd do it again in an heartbeat.

Good luck.

Posted: 1/12/2006 10:56:35 AM EDT

[#9]

Gateway sometimes uses non standard cases and power supplies in my experience.

-Foxxz

Posted: 1/12/2006 4:26:12 PM EDT

[#10]

In thes mini towers did you have to use a seperate fan for the CPU ?

Posted: 1/12/2006 4:46:01 PM EDT

[#11]

Quoted:
In thes mini towers did you have to use a seperate fan for the CPU ?

If you are talking about the ones in the TigerDirect link, the one I built had a honkin' huge copper CPU cooler that was part of the barebones system.

Posted: 1/12/2006 6:42:31 PM EDT

[#12]

If you just want something for the kids to play with, and most of the games you want to install are as old as the system or older then this should get you going. Thier shipping on that unit is about $15.00 to the east coast. Between the Geeks system and what you have you should be able to put together a somewhat useful system dirt cheap. That Compaq system is about the same vintage as your Gateway, and uses basically the same technology. If not fired your ram, CPU, and drives should work fine in it.

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