Hey everyone. I've been working on my dad's 10 year old computer over the last few days & it's pretty much shot. Now he's looking to buy one. Well I am trying to convince him that he could get better for ALOT less if he let me build him one instead. This is where I need your help. Bear with me for just a sec. Alright so he mentioned that he was looking into THIS..."because it was Quad-Core". He isn't very savvy when it comes to up-to-date hardware, & I've been trying tell him that not only are the parts they throw in these machines cheap as hell(considering what they charge), but 775 boards are becoming obsolete, AND he doesn't need to spend 1200+ USD on this machine (personally I don't think it's a good deal) especially since he plans to retire in the next month - save your money ya know. Now if I build him one myself he already has the following hardware he could use in the new build(why pay for it again right?): ==Brand new Mid ATX Case ==Hard Drives 1 250GB WD black Internal (currently a secondary) 1 500GB WD black internal (currently a secondary) 1 1TB Internal (brand new - never used) (Also needs to run a 1.5TB & 500GB externals) ==CD/DVD Roms ==Legit copy of Windows XP Pro(no he doesn't want 7) ==24" Monitor (4-5 months old) ==ATI Video Card (forgot which off the top - but it is old) ==Power supply (I am buying this for him for his B-day) Now to my point & question(s). This leaves him with having to buy the Motherboard, Processor & Memory. I was looking into the following for him. What do you think? Intel Core i3-530 Clarkdale 2.93GHz 4MB L3 Cache ASUS P7H55-M PRO G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) This comes to $300USD(free shipping) & he doesn't play extravagant games either by any means. His grand kids play a few small ones he has but that's not regularly. This is NOT including the power supply obviously!Which is another question. What exactly would you recommend? I am having trouble deciding on one because I have never seen anyone try to run as many drives as he is. If anyone can help me out I would very much appreciate it, & thanks in advance!
Old video card will be AGP or possibly even PCI so won't be much use in the new system. New systems only allow 2 IDE hard drives, so if all the old drives are IDE, you will have to put them in external enclosures and run them over USB. I'd advise against the Asus motherboard, they tend to be unreliable and not last very long. I'd swap it out for a Gigabyte P55 board of similar specification. G-Skill memory is OK, but you'd also be better off with Corsair I suspect. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145260 Also bear in mind using Windows XP limits you to a maximum of 3.25GB of RAM in most systems. This PSU will do: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139017
