Q: Im ready to turn my families Dell in to a good computer. All they used it for was the Internet and Microsoft Word. Im not really on too much of a price range, im Guessing $500-$600. Yes i understand I could buy a new computer for the same price but i need to tune up my computer skills a little. Also I already have the HDD, Sound Card, Operating System, etc. So I think it would help to build from my previous computer. Ok so here are my Current Stats- Processor--Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz RAM--512MB RAM (Easy Upgrade there) OS--Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition SP2 Video Card--ATI RADEON X300 Series SE Sound Card--SoundMAX Digital Audio Hard Drive--200GB HDD Disk Drive--HL-DT-ST DVD-ROM GDR8163B Ok now what i Want to Put in (All of what I want is from Newegg.com) Processor--Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 Wolfdale 2.53GHz 3MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor RAM--CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory OS--Going to keep XP Home SP2 Video Card--ASUS EN8500GT TOP/HTP/256M GeForce 8500 GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready Video Card Sound Card--Planning on Keeping the same one unless i need a new one Hard Drive--200GB is plenty Disc Drive--I think the one i have now is good Ok with all that what else do i need. Do I need a new power supply? I KNOW i need a new motherboard but just one that is inexpensive because i don't plan on overclocking it. So thats it. Anything else that I would need to put in my computer with the new processor let me know. Wait i put the wrong Video Card The real one i want is PNY GeForce 8500 GT / 512MB DDR2 / SLI Ready / PCI Express / Dual Link DVI / VGA / HDTV / Video Card Wow...the thing is I already have a Laptop and ther eis no chance on earth my parents are going to let me buy another computer. So my only chance to get a gaming computer is buy upgrading the Dell. There is no chance with the OS. I mean I could always pop in a feew extra bucks and see if works....so what are the problems witht the OS again. Also would it work better if I went and bout Windows Vista because my laptop has Vista and i love it There is nothing wrong with Vista. I have had it since it came out...
A: You'll save yourself time and headache by abandoning the upgrade-the-8400 approach and building a completely new unit from scratch. The hardware upgrades aren't too bad. You'll need new RAM, new motherboard and CPU. If you're looking at an 8500GT instead of more power-hungry midrange cards, your old power supply might be sufficient. Most motherboards come with integrated sound, so there're no need to transplant your old sound card (assuming there even is one) The kicker is this- with Dells (and other branded machines like Compaq, IBM etc) you really DON"T have a copy of the OS which can be used following a motherboard upgrade. Obviously it's desirable to keep the currently functioning OS and applications and just upgrade the hardware, but this often isn't possible. Why? When a motherboard is replaced, your first bootup MUST be from the the original operating system CD to run a repair install. This re-detects the motherboard chipset drivers and installs the correct ones for your new hardware. After that completes, Windows needs to be reactivated using the product key. Skipping this and attempting to boot normally all but guarantees a blue screen of death (when chipset drivers don't match, things crash HARD) and may even render the drive unbootable in severe cases. But most Dells don't HAVE a regular operating system CD you can boot from, to perform this step. Many came with a restore CD which attempts to load the original factory image, in other cases there isn't even a CD, just a recovery partition on the hard drive. Neither of these will work for a repair install. So you need a Windows XP retail CD to boot from and run the repair. If that works (it usually does, but not always) then you need to re-activate XP. But wait.. the version of Windows you booted & repaired with, may not match the version preinstalled by Dell. This means the Dell product code won't work, and there might be lingering version conflicts between some OS files. Calling Microsoft is dicey, because the licensing agreement from Dell considers that OEM copy of XP "tied" to the original hardware, meaning that motherboard and CPU. Replacing them with identical models should one fail is ok, migrating to newer hardware isn't. Sometimes only a complete wipe & fresh install of Windows does the trick- at which point one wonders "why bother with upgrading"? Here's an entirely new system on Newegg, just needs a better graphics card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227082&Tpk=ibuypowe%2be7200