Clueless girl in need of some PC advice!

[lori21]

hey guys

I posted here last week about my computer dying on me, well iv just about give up trying to fix it and decided rather then pay someone over 100 pound plus to fix my 3 yr old evesham for me im just going to buy a new one!!! Im looking to spend no more then 250 really, all i want is the base unit i have a nice screen and speakers etc from my old computer, iv looked on ebay but tbh i dont have a clue whats good and whats not! if anyone could help me out make a few suggestions on what i should be looking for that would be great!! thanks!

Lucy xxx :)

[gwai lo]

Can you salvage the hard drive/optical drive? Are you going to overclock? What are you doing with this computer?

[Cara Veteran]

hey guys

I posted here last week about my computer dying on me, well iv just about give up trying to fix it and decided rather then pay someone over 100 pound plus to fix my 3 yr old evesham for me im just going to buy a new one!!! Im looking to spend no more then 250 really, all i want is the base unit i have a nice screen and speakers etc from my old computer, iv looked on ebay but tbh i dont have a clue whats good and whats not! if anyone could help me out make a few suggestions on what i should be looking for that would be great!! thanks!

Lucy xxx :)

Hey Lucy,

It might be useful for you to post a few of the things that you are looking at and that would give everyone a basis to work from in helping you decide what is good and what isn't. :)

[funkymunky]

Also ? or $?? - edit: just noticed it does state pounds in your post, DOH!!

We'll try to help:))

[Colin-uk Veteran]

usually a good indication of whats a good deal will depend on what your actually going to use the pc for :)

but for general usage, internet browsing, reading email and making office docs, you can find some decent spec machines at ebuyer.com

[lori21]

heya

im hoping my hard drive from my broken PC is ok, so hopefully il be able to put it inside the new one as a slave drive is that what its called? and whats overclocked?? im not sure see clueless! umm yh and 250 pounds is what i have to spend :)

im just looking at a few on ebay now i will post the links see what u guys think thanks alot ! xx

my current broken pc has 1.5 Ram which is working could i use that in a new one also? if theres room to slot it in of course

[Colin-uk Veteran]

yeah its called a slave drive. but i think what you'll find in modern pc's now is that they'll use SATA instead of IDE. SATA doesnt use a master/slave system, it just has 1 hard drive on one channel (cable) so you dont have to mess around with jumpers or dodgy ribbon cables with all those pins that can get bent.

overclocking is where you setup your processor in the BIOS to run faster than its supposed to, i wouldnt really recommend it unless you really knew what you were doing as you could possibly damage your hardware.

if your current pc is around 3 years old, its quite likely that you wont be able to use your current ram in your new pc as it wont be compatible.

[gwai lo]

No one damages their hardware from overclocking any more unless they seriously overvolt their equipment.

Anyway, chances are the RAM in your old system is DDR, and the standard being used now is DDR2...there should still be a few budget boards around that have slots for both. With your budget, I'd try to save as much hardware as possible.

Can anyone summarize what happened in the other thread? Replacing hardware sounds like a much better idea than buying a new system with that budget.

[PL_ Veteran]

What about building your own? I'm not sure how clueless you really are... :p

[kylejn]

heya

im hoping my hard drive from my broken PC is ok, so hopefully il be able to put it inside the new one as a slave drive is that what its called? and whats overclocked?? im not sure see clueless! umm yh and 250 pounds is what i have to spend :)

im just looking at a few on ebay now i will post the links see what u guys think thanks alot ! xx

my current broken pc has 1.5 Ram which is working could i use that in a new one also? if theres room to slot it in of course

Well, you could also buy something called an enclosure to put your old hard drive in. They don't cost too much, maybe $30 USD, and it basically will let you use your old hard drive as an external drive that you can just hook up with a USB cable or something.

Overclocking is just making the processor go faster than it's designed to go. However, the further you push the limits, the greater the chance of it burning out, so don't mess with it unless you know what you're doing.

As for the RAM, it's possible that you can put it in the new machine, but it all depends on what kind of RAM the old machine is using versus what the new machine can accept. Plus, you would need the slots.

What about building your own? I'm not sure how clueless you really are... :p

*nods*

[Kenji]

This is the best pre built PC you can get with your budget.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143523

[lori21]

lol build my own!! my ex boyfriend used to build computers and i would watch him do it i learnt abit but nowhere near enough to even think about building one from scratch!! shame hes not around anymore!! iv tried replacing the hardware on my old one i bought a new graphics card and new psu in effort to get it working, costs so far 70 pounds, and its still not working, i dont know how to replace anything else, someone at uni told me my motherboard could be buggerd inwhice case i may aswell just buy a new computer, mines 3 yrs old now and when i bought it new it cost me almost 1200!!! im just thinking if i can buy a machine thats loads better then my old one for couple hundred pound id rather do that then mess about tryin to get it fixed anymore, i really need a computer aswell right now fnal exams starting v soon and nothing to help me revise :( i just want something i can stick my old hard drive in and access my stuff off tbh

My old one just died one night it slowed right down and then the power just went, i put in a new psu unit and it started running again but the screen didnt come on just got an error message saying no signal on the screen, so i replaced the graphics card with an identical one and still nothing :(

[inactive]

my guess is all she wants from what she's saying is a decent internet type machine. (i.e. nothing fancy)

so a decent CPU and probably 512MB of ram on XP etc etc i think you get the idea ;) (i.e. gets decent performance)

[M.F.D.K]

This would be perfect..

INTEL DUAL CORE E2180

500GB SATA

4GB DDR2

8600GT 512MB

500GB 16MB CACHE HDD

20X DVDRW

All that for ?260 including delivery.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/INTEL-DUAL-CORE-E218...1QQcmdZViewItem

or

INTEL DUAL CORE E2180

320GB SATA

4 GB DDR2 20X DVDRW

320GB 8MB CACHE HDD

20X DVDRW

?215

[Cara Veteran]

im just thinking if i can buy a machine thats loads better then my old one for couple hundred pound id rather do that then mess about tryin to get it fixed anymore

I'm not sure about the prices over in the UK but I highly doubt you are going to be able to purchase, or build, a very nice system for a few hundred ?s'. I know over here in the US a decent machine can be had for around $700-$1000 but even that is outside the budget set aside by you so you might be better off getting someone to look over your system and give you an idea what is wrong.

A decent individual will give you a free consultation about the problem and then help you decide if you should spend your money on repair or a new system.:))

Edit: M.F.D.K - WOW, nice find, talk about a smoking deal!>

[Nehemoth]

lol build my own!! my ex boyfriend used to build computers and i would watch him do it i learnt abit but nowhere near enough to even think about building one from scratch!! shame hes not around anymore!! iv tried replacing the hardware on my old one i bought a new graphics card and new psu in effort to get it working, costs so far 70 pounds, and its still not working, i dont know how to replace anything else, someone at uni told me my motherboard could be buggerd inwhice case i may aswell just buy a new computer, mines 3 yrs old now and when i bought it new it cost me almost 1200!!! im just thinking if i can buy a machine thats loads better then my old one for couple hundred pound id rather do that then mess about tryin to get it fixed anymore, i really need a computer aswell right now fnal exams starting v soon and nothing to help me revise :( i just want something i can stick my old hard drive in and access my stuff off tbh

My old one just died one night it slowed right down and then the power just went, i put in a new psu unit and it started running again but the screen didnt come on just got an error message saying no signal on the screen, so i replaced the graphics card with an identical one and still nothing :(

And what about the old one?

I guess we can help you to ensemble from scratch

[lori21]

This would be perfect..

INTEL DUAL CORE E2180

500GB SATA

4GB DDR2

8600GT 512MB

500GB 16MB CACHE HDD

20X DVDRW

All that for ?260 including delivery.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/INTEL-DUAL-CORE-E218...1QQcmdZViewItem

or

INTEL DUAL CORE E2180

320GB SATA

4 GB DDR2 20X DVDRW

320GB 8MB CACHE HDD

20X DVDRW

?215

that would be pretty much perfect, i was looking at those ones, shame its such an ugly case th:(:(

[ViperAFK]

that would be pretty much perfect, i was looking at those ones, shame its such an ugly case tho :(

haha yeah I hate those gaudy cases too. I would definitely get a pc because imo repairing a 3 year old or more pc isn't really cost effective because it is still likely to haven more problems in my experience and often replacing parts on them is more expensive because of the old tech. If you are just using the pc for basic productivity and dual core with 2 gigs of ram should do fine. That ebay pc is one helluva deal though.

[+shift. MVC]

4GB RAM + 500GB hard drive?! :woot:

[lori21]

hmmm maybe i could buy it and put all its insides into my old computer case!? i have x spider case right now somthing like that! saying that tho id probly break somthing in the process and be back to square one lol xx

[+shift. MVC]

Doing that wouldn't be a problem if you were UBER careful. But accidents do happen.

If you have confidence in your abilities then go for it. Just make sure you don't fry any equipment with static discharge.

[Cara Veteran]

hmmm maybe i could buy it and put all its insides into my old computer case!? i have x spider case right now somthing like that! saying that tho id probly break somthing in the process and be back to square one lol xx

Its possible to do that, however you might just bite the bullet and use the slightly uglier case until after your finals and when you will have more time to sit back and work to get it done properly. :)

[lori21]

Its possible to do that, however you might just bite the bullet and use the slightly uglier case until after your finals and when you will have more time to sit back and work to get it done properly. :)

thats a good point actually, i could just hide it under my desk until uni finishes then ask a friend to come help me change it all over, he would come now but to busy with work and lives 100 miles away! :(

I like this one bit over budget but i could try cox my dad into topping up my budget for me! altho it has no operating system :( could i run windows off my old hard drive if i bought one of those enclosure thingys ??

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...A:IT&ih=014

[Cara Veteran]

thats a good point actually, i could just hide it under my desk until uni finishes then ask a friend to come help me change it all over, he would come now but to busy with work and lives 100 miles away! :(

I like this one bit over budget but i could try cox my dad into topping up my budget for me! altho it has no operating system :( could i run windows off my old hard drive if i bought one of those enclosure thingys ??

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...A:IT&ih=014

I'd more suggest using the copy of Windows you already own to install on the new drive and just use your old drive, externally, as a data storage device. This is a fairly simple process that most people here on Neowin can help you through. :)

[Colin-uk Veteran]

I dont think you can run windows off a drive thats in an enclosure because its exterrnal.

like Cara said, i'd use your original hard drive as a data drive.