Home Built PC
I've been building my own PC for years. The main benift is you can build the most advance PC available if you source your parts from Fry's. If you don't have Fry's in your region then consult your phone book. Expect to pay about $600 but the following list is about $800 without a printer.
What I recommend is:
Before removing your old main board format a floppy diskette as system floppy. Copy the following files from your old hard drive onto the floppy. Start two Explorers to do this. From the ./SYISTEM32 folder copy:
fdisk.*
format.*
sys.*
xcopy.*
Intel Main Board for Pentium Processor
At least 2Gbytes of main memory
Pentium processor of at least 3GHz
Forget onboard video get the best NVidia video card
Intel sound on board is ok for minimum use but Sound Blaster is best
Intel LAN is very good for use with Broadband internet
Mouse Microsoft - I like the trackball
Keyboard - Microsoft Internet Keyboard Pro
Monitor - 15" minimum I have a 19" for my old eyes
Get a antistatic wriststrap to use when installing parts
Hard Drive - 20 to 200 GBytes Largest if you do PC video or photos
Cd - Get 2 one for read/write and one for read only.
Floppy - Your present one is ok
Case - I recommend a mid-tower. Unless you have space considerations
Case info - Each case is designed for limited types of main boards. Check.
Power strip - Get one with a fuse and spike control
HDD setup:Install the new HDD
{If you don't want to do this the Windows XP cd will prep and bare HDD.}
Reboot and press F4 or Del for setup. Check HDD setup if its not correct click on the HDD setup and chose the correct type. Info should be on the HDD.
Use the setup disk that comes with the HDD or the HDD may be pre-formatted
or
If you have the original Window XP setup diskette you can use it to prepare an HDD for copying.
Boot on the floppy you created earlier
Type fdisk (Enter) and follow the menu prompt. Unless you have a need one partition is best. It will ask you if you want large file name, say yes.
Type formant C:/s (Enter) to prep the HDD for copying. This may take a long time if the HDD is large. Don't interrupt this process or you need to do everything again including removing the last partition and redoing Fdisk.
Insert the Window setup floppy and let it boot. The disk wil enable all PCI nodes and ports. It will also enable your CD drives for reading the Windows XP dvd-rom. put the Window CD into the drive. Follow the prompts.
Or hook up your old HDD as a slave and xcopy *.*.
Remove diskettes, any CD-ROMs, Old hard drive. Now reboot the PC to the new HDD. If you get a DOS like prompt your ready to install windows. Reboot on the Windows diskette. Insert the Windows cd and follow prompts. If windows says the program can't run log to the cd and enter SETUP.
When everything is installed log on to
http://www.intel.com and download new drivers for your mainboard. I recommend a folder for each driver for ease of identification. It can be confusing downloading drivers because Intel's descrption is not included in the download. You'll need the intel model number to id the correct downloads.
