Building my own

[inspectorgadget]

I am considering building my next computer. I have some experience with an old 486 that I upgraded everything that was upgradeable. I know my way around a computer and have read quite a but but that is about it. What I would like to do is purchase a case, Mobo, cpu, RAM, and video card (all are compatable) and rob my current pc of the rest of the components that I need to complete the job. The question that I have concerns the hard drive from my existing computer. For financial reasons I would hope to use this drive in my new pc until I can afford to upgrade to a new HDD. The hard drive contains my OS and all of my files, etc (I will back up everything, of course). I wonder if the contents of the HDD will run o.k. on my new computer or will I need to go ahead and use the baby's milk money to purchase a new one at this time? What do you all think? I could really use some help before I get in too deep.

[Budfred]

Welcome to http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif

You can probably use your old hard drive, but you will need to do some adjustments to let it run properly on the new board since it will have settings for the old system. You could also back it up and reinstall clean which would make it more likely to work without a problem. If you did decide to go with a new drive, they go for about $1/gig if you watch the sales and get it with rebate. Come back here for more help as you progress if you need it and good luck...

[saphalline]

What are you going to use this computer for? I mean, it can't be all that much if you're using a 486 right now! Gaming is probably out, so I doubt a separate vid card would be necessary. And if price is a concern, I'm thinking you're gonna go with AMD. I'd say that the KM266 chipset would be a good idea.

Check out the Biostar M7VIG Pro (http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?DEPA=&submit=Go&description=m7vig) at Newegg, one of the best online computer vendors. The M7VIG Pro has onboard video, onboard sound, onboard LAN, support for both SDRAM and DDR RAM (DDR is cheaper), and even has USB 2.0! Only $57 and free shipping.

Piecing together some other parts, you can get an AthlonXP 1700+ for $50, Kingston 256MB DDR333 for $38, a DVD-ROM drive for $35-40, a Chieftec DH-01 case (no power supply) for $30, and a Sparkle 300W power supply for $27. That's a grand total of only about $242! :eek:

Considering that the Western Digital 40GB WD400BB hard drive is on sale for $66 with free shipping, I think you could afford a new hard drive. Especially since a hard drive for a 486-class machine isn't likely to be all that large ;) - unless you've upgraded it...

[inspectorgadget]

Thanks for the replies. I guess my inquiry was a little confusing. I upgraded a 486 several years ago but have since purchased a Compaq with a Cyrix 266MHz Cpu. The HDD in question is a (small, and slower than I would like) 4 Gig from that machine. As for Newegg, I have recently purchased my Case, Asus A7V333-X/L Mobo, Athlon 2000+ Heat sink and fan, Appolo AGP 64M DDR vid card through them for $261 total, and have yet to recieve (expected to arrive in 3 days!). I got a 256M DDR(PC2700) Ram stick for around $22 incl. tax and after rebate from CompUsa. The experience so far has been very positive.
My question concerning the HDD is whether it will be a problem switching it from my Compaq to my new machine with regard to Bios settings, etc. I would rather transplant the HDD with OS and files without the having to reload my OS because I only have the Compaq restore disk with the OS embedded in it somewhere. Once again, thank you for your replies to my problem. This forum has been VERY helpful to me.

[Budfred]

Given that it is a Compaq, you may have more trouble than usual trying to install the drive intact. The proprietary nature of a Compaq makes upgrades and such more difficult, but the software may even be keyed into the original computer config so that transfer may not be possible. This will certainly be true of the Restore disks. You may want to bite the bullet and start looking for a copy of Windoze. If you want XP, you can get an OEM copy from Newegg for about $100.

Also, Newegg is usually real reliable. Have you checked Fedex tracking to see where your shipment is. If it isn't already on the way, I would call Newegg and ask them what is up...

[inspectorgadget]

O.K. I received my order from Newegg in world record time and building my computer went relatively well. I did encounter a problem with the Compaq hard drive like Budfred suspected. I don't know if this problem is easily overcome. When I boot the system, windows begins to load(I see the WIN98 logo with clouds) then in a couple of seconds I get a blue screen message that says "Aureal 3D can only be run on a Compaq system...hit any key to continue. The worst problem that I have is that when I hit a key I immediately get cursed with the Blue Screen Of Death telling me that Windows has caused an error and to hit ctrl+alt+del to restart the computer. When I do this I get a blank screen with a mouse pointer.
From what I can gather Aureal 3D is a video driver of some sort. I have tried everything that I can come up with to solve this problem, to no avail. I didn't know if this was something that I could remove from the WIN.INI or someplace else to allow the boot up to finish loading windows. I have installed a new graphics card but cannot load it's drivers for obvious reasons. If I can't solve these problems then I will buy a new HDD, but I think that it stinks that I can't reload WIN 98 from the Compaq restore disk. Thanks for all of your help.
Newegg is truly the best...order shipped next day and arrived in 3 days as ordered. I strongly suggest ordering from them.

[Orion]

Yeah, it's a safe bet that with any version of Windows (even XP Pro) you must reinstall Windows when replacing a motherboard. Considering that you went from a proprietary Compaq *ugh!* to replacing just about everything, I'm surprised you can even see a Win98 boot screen! :eek:

Do you have just Win98 restore disks from your Compaq, or do you have an actual Win98 full version install disk (like you should have gotten)?

[Budfred]

I am afraid that is the deal that big companies make with MicroSoft to get Windoze at a discount. The set the copy up so that it can only be used on their machine... I suspect that even if you manage to get around that one driver, you will just run into another.

The only way that you might be able to use that version of Windoze is if you can identify the primary installation files of Windoze and copy them to your hard drive and install from there. The hard thing there is that they are probably compressed and you would have to do some pretty fancy hacking to separate them out....

Sorry....:(