thanks and TBH my budget is around £50 lol Could i not use the dell PSU ? and i dont have an acc on new egg.
No. You can't use the Dell PSU as they might use propietary connectors, and if you plug it in your mobo it'll destroy it. And also it propably is pretty bad quality.
i know that you are probably determined to use parts from that dell but for the most part is not user friendly. The psus at best last until the pc is out dated, my IT class at school has had in 3 months over about 5 or 6 psus fry and take most of the caps on the mobo with it. Generally dell equipment is pos and is best to be left alone in my opinion. Just some advice. Also where are you located? USA or UK or some other country? it would help to know so we can spec a build out at a etailer located near you.
Yes, i am located in the UK, England. Oh, and i've just bought a DVD drive off ebay, £3.60 can read and write cds and can read DVDs. (samsung) make.
on a £50 budget, you're probably stuck with the dell for now. spend as little as possible to get it running, save up some more, and buy a better machine when you can. next step: get a video card and try to boot. don't listen to the haters in this thread, ebay is your best bet for used components. and a used hard drive is perfectly fine as long as you keep your backups up to date. only with the dell motherboard. pin #11 on the main connector only delivers 3.3V, and standard ATX motherboards expect 12V. so if you keep the dell, DON'T upgrade the power supply or you will fry the motherboard.
Yup, lets just hope this drive comes and i'm always looking out for a harddrive and video card, DVI is just a better graphic than VGA [standard] isnt it? But i dont really need top end graphics so ill just probuably look out for a dual vga ? and the TV out [circle] doesnt this enable me to use my tv as another monitor? Oh and whats the memory on it mean ? thanks.
Not to confuse you (even more ), but DVI can be both VGA and "better" as DVI supports both analog and digital video. The analog part is 100% backwards compatible with VGA. When looking for anything to do with DVI make sure you pay attention to the type of DVI: DVI-A is exactly the same as VGA, just with a different type of connector (don't think I've ever seen that, though) and can be converted to a standard DSUB VGA connector with an adapter. DVI-D is a pure digital connection (and compatible with HDMI). You cannot get an analog signal from it. Some monitor inputs are DVI-D only and a few graphics cards also only sport a DVI-D interface. Mostly you'll find DVI-I devices, though. DVI-I is capable of both analog and digital signals. One more thing. Dual DVI and dual link DVI isn't the same. The former suggests two DVI connectors, while the latter states that the DVI connector is capable of more bandwidth than a single link connector. Dual dual link DVI-I connectors are pretty common. As for hard disk drives prices, they (like so much else) always remind me of taxi fares. It costs a certain amount of money just to climb into the taxi, but going twice the distance won't double the fare. So getting a larger HDD will only set you back a small amount more than getting a smaller HDD, at least up to a point. I'm definitely agreeing with the previous posters who advised you NOT to waste money on that Dell pc. Noone uses RDRAM these days and AGP cards are going the way of the Dodo too. Apart from the drives, nothing you would put into that pc would make sense to reuse later on, if at all possible. And even the drives may be useless later on, if they're using the PATA IDE interface (the one with the 40 pin flat ribbon cables). The case MAY be worth holding on to, but only if it supports any type of industry-standard motherboard size (probably mATX, if anything). As previously suggested try saving some cash and then look at an AMD solution based around a cheap single or dual core CPU and a 780G-based motherboard.
QFT. That convinced me to make a quick research. The prices are approximate, and so are the €/GB values. The prices are from Verkkokauppa.com. 40GB HD costs 40€; 1 €/GB 160GB HD costs 45€; 0,28 €/GB 320GB HD costs 60€; 0,18 €/GB 500GB HD costs 65€; 0,13 €/GB 750GB HD costs 90€; 0,12 €/GB 1TB HD costs 120€; 0,12 €/GB
Hey, On my card i'll be looking for dual DVI-I ? (AGP) so then i can have 2 VGAs / DVIs. Harddrive - Looking at them prices its worth an extra £5 to get 4x the size. If im scrapping the dell i need a new case, any cheap sites :d thanks all. Card - how about something like this; http://s115.photobucket.com/albums/n292/DrRollo/?action=view¤t=DSCF2239.jpg http://i8.ebayimg.com/08/i/001/21/72/e118_1.JPG http://i20.ebayimg.com/07/i/001/21/50/d7b6_1.JPG (that isnt my photobucket)
Yes, a card with two DVI connectors would let you add two monitors. If those DVI connectors are of the DVI-I type you could mix and match monitors with analog and digital inputs (although digital inputs are vastly preferable due to the better image quality). Dual DVI connectors have only become standard since early in the PCIe/late in the AGP era, and mostly on more expensive cards. The de-facto standard for many AGP and most PCIe cards is a DVI-I connector and a VGA connector, as proven by the cards you link to. The card in the first link has a VGA and a DVI connector. This card to be exact. The DVI connector is of type DVI-I. This would enable you to hook up two analog monitors or one analog and one digital. The card in the second link also seems to have a VGA and a DVI connector, although I cannot confirm the make and model of the card other than that it's nVidia-based. As with the previous card you can hook up two analog monitors or one of each. The card in the third link has two VGA connectors. Since it's passively cooled with a very small heatsink I'd say this is the worst performer of the lot, depending on what you want to do. The 9600SE-based card in the first link would be my top choice of the three. If you would want to buy a cheap(!) card for the Dell it has to be AGP. If you decide to build a new system on however small a budget PCIe (PCI Express) is your graphics connector standard of choice. A 780G-based motherboard, as mentioned by me earlier, has integrated graphics that would put any of the above 3 cards to shame, as well as giving you the option to throw in a more powerful dedicated graphics card later on.
How come nobody mentioned looking in Bit-Tech's 'For Sale" area. Probably same some coin on postage from a user on the forum who's close to home. john
in regard to the asus, i have placed a bid and it's ending later on tonight lets hope i get it! same can't be said for harddrive outbid again.
Didnt get the asus =[ but im bidding on another an; Sapphire Radeon 9250 128MB AGP8x Video Card it says but im not sure about compatability on these can i just buy any and it will fit the slots?
Well, yes and no. There's this little issue of proper signalling. This page sums it up nicely. It probably won't be much of an issue with most of the cards out there, but it's worth noting nonetheless.
Ok: Just bought a Seagate Barracuda 7200 ST340014A 40Gb Hard Drive for £11 - Used. Unfortunately because im on a budget the cards are going a bit high but theres more on everyday so i'll keep looking - one thing about the card i don't understand is the memory on them. Will upload pics soon. - Edited 15th Dec 08
Hello again everyone, sorry i havn't posted in a while i was searching round for bits and now i think i have everything!! New bits and pics (still need help ) [SORRY! MY PICS ARE AWFULL] 1. Ziga CD-ROM Drive - Ugly and white but should do the job untill i upgrade. 2. Western Digital 300GB IDE - Untested a. Front b. back - should it look like this? Alot of video cards dont know the make of some but dont know the spec / details of any; bought bulk untested, which one should i use if any. 1. ATI single VGA [ATI N424] a. b. 2. VGA, TV, Yellow hole << (?) [this has a different tv adapter hole thing may be something to do with the yellow hole next to it, all the others are 3 little holes on top row, then 4 little holes then a rectangle type shape but this on is, 2 holes, 2 holes then the rectangle thing] 3. DVI and tv [SF-PC44DH256 Ultra2 Edition, GeForce 6200 (PCI) 256mb, DDR2 + DVI-I + HDTV OUT = CRT] 3 red ones 4. ATI, VGA, DVI, TV [ATI R92-D3L] 5. ATI, VGA, DVI, TV << (on metal plate says Video?) [ATI R96 C3] 6. Not ATI - VGA, DVI, TV? Radeon 9600 Pro, 128mb DDR with DVI TV, C3D 6036] I have a usb 2.0 and ethernet card coming in the post aswell will upload pics when come. Thanks for help Mark [Edited added info on model numbers and things]
The problem with your images is that it's practically impossible to identify the exact components. Of course I can make out that it's a WD hdd (which is good, if it's not faulty) and that there're several ATi graphics cards. But that's about it. I know one thing, I'd never touch a graphics card where someone has posted pictures without the cooler. The odds that we're talking about oc'ed to death components are just too high.
