Tower/desktop advice

jeffk

Right I have a pc and it sounds like the hard drive is on its last legs (clicking noise like if u left a record on and it keep looping @ the end of it). Also I’ve started to use Photoshop and design programmes, with 512mb of ram this is a killer.

I’ve checked with someone who works on pcs and they said you’d need a new drive and about 2 GB of ram. I have a mouse etc that I want to keep, so I’m thinking tower or a desktop pc without the monitor/mouse and keyboard.

I have dell and komplett to start looking but are there any recommendations of makes/models etc around €300 very tops.

Cheers in advance.

Deano12345

What processor do you have in your dell ?

If it's a decent (Pentium Dual core,Core 2 Duo) than you might be able to save yourself by taking the processor out of the tower and putting into a more updated motherboard.

€300 is a very low buddget.I can try and put something together on Komplett that you can build yourself but I dont know how good it will be.

jeffk

Deano12345 wrote: »

What processor do you have in your dell ?

If it's a decent (Pentium Dual core,Core 2 Duo) than you might be able to save yourself by taking the processor out of the tower and putting into a more updated motherboard.

€300 is a very low buddget.I can try and put something together on Komplett that you can build yourself but I dont know how good it will be.

Its not a dell its a packard bell, just that people said dell sell towers on there own.

The pc is 5 years old so i doubt it has any of what you said. also im not up to speed on changing parts and that unfortunately.

All i wanted was the basics with decent ram, i assumed with a pc being around 600-700 take away monitors etc would cut it down a lot.

Deano12345

jeffk wrote: »

Its not a dell its a packard bell, just that people said dell sell towers on there own.

The pc is 5 years old so i doubt it has any of what you said. also im not up to speed on changing parts and that unfortunately.

All i wanted was the basics with decent ram, i assumed with a pc being around 600-700 take away monitors etc would cut it down a lot.

Oh sorry,I misunderstood you.

Have a look on adverts.ie

You might be able to get a good deal on a used PC.I doubt you can pick up something new unfortunatly :

jeffk

Deano12345 wrote: »

Oh sorry,I misunderstood you.

Have a look on adverts.ie

You might be able to get a good deal on a used PC.I doubt you can pick up something new unfortunatly :

AH no worries deano thanks for the replies and help!!!!

Deano12345

No problem,anytime

polyfusion

jeffk wrote: »

Right I have a pc and it sounds like the hard drive is on its last legs (clicking noise like if u left a record on and it keep looping @ the end of it).

Hope you don't have any important data on there that isn't backed up elsewhere.

Knowing the processor you have is key to what the best advise is to give you. 5 years ago is a bit before dual/quad started becoming mainstream, so your probably looking at a P4 or celeron perhaps, in the environ of 2.0 GHz. A P4 might be fine (if you were to upgrade other components), but a celeron might be scraping the bottom perhaps.

Anyway, if you don't need the extra horsepower, you could be grand with just a new hard drive, max out the RAM, and get a half decent graphics card, all easily done; processors and associated heatsinks, etc are a bit more advanced. With a crispy fresh OS on there, it will be as good as a new PC. I'm using PC's older than that myself, but paint.dot.net and Picassa is about as heavyweight a graphics program I need.

leninbenjamin

300 is a very low budget. tbh, you'll spend about €50 of that on Delivery costs alone so you're not going to get much PC for your money. you could try the Dell outlet store or adverts as was already suggested.

jeffk

polyfusion wrote: »

Hope you don't have any important data on there that isn't backed up elsewhere.

Knowing the processor you have is key to what the best advise is to give you. 5 years ago is a bit before dual/quad started becoming mainstream, so your probably looking at a P4 or celeron perhaps, in the environ of 2.0 GHz. A P4 might be fine (if you were to upgrade other components), but a celeron might be scraping the bottom perhaps.

Anyway, if you don't need the extra horsepower, you could be grand with just a new hard drive, max out the RAM, and get a half decent graphics card, all easily done; processors and associated heatsinks, etc are a bit more advanced. With a crispy fresh OS on there, it will be as good as a new PC. I'm using PC's older than that myself, but paint.dot.net and Picassa is about as heavyweight a graphics program I need.

Ah the non programme stuff is on the ole external alright.

Its a pentuim 4-2.80GHz.

So the best bet is to take out the hard drive put in a new one and up the ram?

polyfusion

jeffk wrote: »

Ah the non programme stuff is on the ole external alright.

Its a pentuim 4-2.80GHz.

So the best bet is to take out the hard drive put in a new one and up the ram?

I think you'd be fine with that processor with Photoshop and most CAD stuff, as long as you're not running multiple instances of them at the same time. Get as much RAM as you can (2-4GB, will depend on motherboard), and a graphics card will help with the load on the P4. PC should do you fine for another few years (XP support for another 3 or 4 years, which is probably what you're already running), though Windows 7 should be grand on that too.

I think if your looking at CAD/design stuff, you'd be better putting what you can into monitors.

jeffk

polyfusion wrote: »

I think you'd be fine with that processor with Photoshop and most CAD stuff, as long as you're not running multiple instances of them at the same time. Get as much RAM as you can (2-4GB, will depend on motherboard), and a graphics card will help with the load on the P4. PC should do you fine for another few years (XP support for another 3 or 4 years, which is probably what you're already running), though Windows 7 should be grand on that too.

I think if your looking at CAD/design stuff, you'd be better putting what you can into monitors.

Thats great thanks.

Ive a Maxtor 40GB Ultra Ata 133, 7200 RPM drive @ the minute. Does anyone no a similar drive that matches this? Also are they that hard to change?

Will look into ram when the pcs open.

Deano12345

jeffk wrote: »

Thats great thanks.

Ive a Maxtor 40GB Ultra Ata 133, 7200 RPM drive @ the minute. Does anyone no a similar drive that matches this? Also are they that hard to change?

Will look into ram when the pcs open.

Swapping to a SATA drive would give you a great speed boost.That is if your Motherboard and PSU have SATA connections.

Trying to find new IDE drives is difficult

jeffk

Deano12345 wrote: »

Swapping to a SATA drive would give you a great speed boost.That is if your Motherboard and PSU have SATA connections.

Trying to find new IDE drives is difficult

I do get what your saying in principal but in pratice id be lost.

This is actually a replacement of the original drive and i remember a friend done it and it was hard work. I suppose anything done wrong is hard work lol

Deano12345

jeffk wrote: »

I do get what your saying in principal but in pratice id be lost.

This is actually a replacement of the original drive and i remember a friend done it and it was hard work. I suppose anything done wrong is hard work lol

Basically you motherboard needs to have one of these



And your power supply needs to have one of these



If not,then your probably stuck with an IDE drive unless you start swapping parts out

jeffk

Ill have to get it opened over the weekend and see whats what, maybe take a few pictures and post em.

Will i need a special screwdriver to take out the drive?No to get to far ahead of myself.

polyfusion

You could download and run CPUID. It will tell you your motherboard number, how much RAM you have, speeds, etc, processor info. Once you get the motherboard number, google it to get a spec sheet. That will usually show you what ports are available, what type of RAM is suitable, how much, etc.

Might also be worthwhile downloading DiskCheck as well, check the health of your current hard drive. If it's showing a reallocated sector count greater than 0, then definately replace it. If the the clicking isn't frequent, then maybe you have power saving settings that are shutting down the drive, then the clicking noise is when it's starting up again when it needs to access data. Clicking noise is normal, it's just when it's happening every few seconds, and the computer isn't responding that it's definately something terminal.

If you are going the upgrade route, might be worth thinking about having two drives in there, one for OS and applications, the other for personal files.

Deano12345

jeffk wrote: »

Ill have to get it opened over the weekend and see whats what, maybe take a few pictures and post em.

Will i need a special screwdriver to take out the drive?No to get to far ahead of myself.

Usually just a Phillips screwdriver will do

jeffk

Grand stuff ill get the programme and run it an see from there.

Also I will have to check how hard or easy it is to take out also before i run out an get a new drive and cant fit it.

Deano12345

jeffk wrote: »

Grand stuff ill get the programme and run it an see from there.

Also I will have to check how hard or easy it is to take out also before i run out an get a new drive and cant fit it.

Usually its just 2 or 4 Phillips screws (1 or 2) in each side of the drive.

Some cases have a tooless system whereby you just pull/push a lever in a certain direction and then take the drive out

jeffk

Deano12345 wrote: »

Usually its just 2 or 4 Phillips screws (1 or 2) in each side of the drive.

Some cases have a tooless system whereby you just pull/push a lever in a certain direction and then take the drive out

I know my brother had problems on his dell wit the dc drive and that was dead handy to take out.
Looking at the drive on his one, it has catches and screws on the drive and is sat in a cage.

Deano12345

jeffk wrote: »

I know my brother had problems on his dell wit the dc drive and that was dead handy to take out.
Looking at the drive on his one, it has catches and screws on the drive and is sat in a cage.

Yeah,thats the standard for most cases

jeffk

Deano12345 wrote: »

Yeah,thats the standard for most cases

Grand stuff i can use that for an idea of what im doing.

He has a desktop one i think its made to sit flat whereas i have a tower.

monkeypants

Deano12345 wrote: »

Usually just a Phillips screwdriver will do

Avoid using a screwdriver with a magnetised tip if possible.

jeffk

Ah yeh the ole fry stuff if you charge a current in it.

This is sounding more hard work than i thought, but sure time will tell when i open it up.

monkeypants

jeffk wrote: »

This is sounding more hard work than i thought, but sure time will tell when i open it up.

My advice: take your time and don't panic. It's quite simple as long as you keep your cool. When people get frustrated or start to rush things, that's when fiddly little wires and connections get broken.

jeffk

monkeypants wrote: »

My advice: take your time and don't panic. It's quite simple as long as you keep your cool. When people get frustrated or start to rush things, that's when fiddly little wires and connections get broken.

cheers
Its the unknown that has me, if it was as i said like say the dell cd drive slide old one out slide new one in.
Its the what drive do i get , how do i take it out, can i get it back in and of course working
IF IF IF IF IF lol

monkeypants

Go on to YouTube and search for videos showing hard disk replacement. The hardware side is pretty each, not much more than replacing a CD/DVD drive. You'll have to install and configure the OS, which isn't difficult. There are plenty of people on here able and willing to help.

jeffk

Grand stuff cheers for that

IS there anyway people can look @ what the drive is at the minute and tell me what it is now. Ive looked on komplett an have seen drives but which one.

Deano12345

jeffk wrote: »

Grand stuff cheers for that

IS there anyway people can look @ what the drive is at the minute and tell me what it is now. Ive looked on komplett an have seen drives but which one.

What do you mean ?

jeffk

Deano12345 wrote: »

What do you mean ?

This internal hardrive is on the way out so i need to buy another one, but which one.
Are they generic and its just down to size/make and cost?

Deano12345

jeffk wrote: »

This internal hardrive is on the way out so i need to buy another one, but which one.
Are they generic and its just down to size/make and cost?

Try and get 7200 RPM drive with a 16 or 32mb cache.My brand of choice is usually Samsung although Hitachi and Western Digital are good.

Did you find out weather the drive is IDE or SATA yet though

jeffk

Deano12345 wrote: »

Try and get 7200 RPM drive with a 16 or 32mb cache.My brand of choice is usually Samsung although Hitachi and Western Digital are good.

Did you find out weather the drive is IDE or SATA yet though

grand stuff, so of the top of my head as i would go with wd to

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=391606

im guessing thats a normal one and then i can see when i open it up tomorrow and see what connectors are on the motherboard.

polyfusion

polyfusion wrote: »

Might also be worthwhile downloading DiskCheck as well, check the health of your current hard drive. If it's showing a reallocated sector count greater than 0, then definately replace it.

Apologies, I should have said DiskCheckup: http://www.passmark.com/products/diskcheckup.htm I'd definately check out your hard drive using this to see if it really is on it's way out.

Anyway, your link is to a SATA drive; you may need an IDE one. Only knowing the motherboard number, or opening up the PC will tell you what you need to get.

BTW, do you have XP disks to install on the new hard drive? It's possible that Packard Bell didn't supply you with disks, in which case, there is likely a recovery partition on your current hard drive.

jeffk

polyfusion wrote: »

Apologies, I should have said DiskCheckup: http://www.passmark.com/products/diskcheckup.htm I'd definately check out your hard drive using this to see if it really is on it's way out.

Anyway, your link is to a SATA drive; you may need an IDE one. Only knowing the motherboard number, or opening up the PC will tell you what you need to get.

BTW, do you have XP disks to install on the new hard drive? It's possible that Packard Bell didn't supply you with disks, in which case, there is likely a recovery partition on your current hard drive.

I never thought of the discs. Ill have to get the stuff that came with the pc i think its up in the attic. Better see if i have them before i go taking out the drive and buy a new one.

jeffk

right the tower is opened, it is you basic connections(the same as one i seen being changed on youtube).
A p5 on the power and the standard white/grey ribbon connection as i would call it.

The drive thats in there is a
western digital caviar lba 234441648 120gb

Does this make sense to people to recommend a similar new one. maybe smaller in capacity.

The ram is a pc2700u-25331-z, is this easy to find in 1gb

Also i have a recovery dvd for emachines will this work on the new drive to get xp running?

polyfusion

Thought you said there was a 40GB Maxtor in there?

That RAM will be easily enough found, though if you knew the motherboard number, you might find it might take faster RAM, which may be easier and cheaper to find (believe it or not).

The recovery DVD probably won't work if it was designed for an eMachines PC. It will have information pertaining to the PC it was designed for, and when it interrogates the motherboard, it will find a mismatch and fail to install.

Cables sound like IDE, but your motherboard may still have SATA ports, which we could determine from a picture or the motherboard number.

jeffk

polyfusion wrote: »

Thought you said there was a 40GB Maxtor in there?

That RAM will be easily enough found, though if you knew the motherboard number, you might find it might take faster RAM, which may be easier and cheaper to find (believe it or not).

The recovery DVD probably won't work if it was designed for an eMachines PC. It will have information pertaining to the PC it was designed for, and when it interrogates the motherboard, it will find a mismatch and fail to install.

Cables sound like IDE, but your motherboard may still have SATA ports, which we could determine from a picture or the motherboard number.

So did i, i had a box sitting around and i assumed it was put into this pc, maybe it was for the pc before it.

Its a packard bell-emachines pc. My brother uses driver image xml can i backup the pc with that and run it on the new drive without the xp or recovery cd?

Is there a easy way to get the motherboard number without opening it backup?

polyfusion

If the disk came with the PC, then it should work.

You can image your current disk, and transfer to a new hard drive, it should work fine, I do it all the time. The only thing you have to watch is that the image will fit on the new hard drive; shouldn't be a problem going to a bigger hard drive, but may be going to a smaller drive (will depend on how full the original disk is).

CPU-Z will tell you all about your hardware: http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

I'd still run DiskCheckup on the PC and check out the health of the hard drive if I was you.

jeffk

Sorry for the delay was checking the fans and drive itself.

Turns out the rattling is coming from the fan where you put the plug in.

Are these hard to buy and does the wiring loom come with it?

polyfusion

So maybe your hard drive is fine?

What you're describing sounds like the power supply unit (PSU). Could be a bearing in the fan making the noise, but as long as its turning, then it's fine; changing the fan isn't difficult, but you'd need to be confident with what you're doing and electricity to attempt the job. If the noise is bothering you, it's easy enough to get a new one. You just need to check it's wattage, and get another of same or higher wattage. The wires/connections come with it, but you'd need to make sure that it has the same connections that you're already using.

jeffk

Yes id say so, i opened it up and ran through the clicks. checked the hardrive, the fan on the cpu and then noticed where the clicking is coming from.
All the drama over a drive failure but it does sound like a drives going.

Yes sorry i googled it there, basically the whole box where the plug goes and the wires to the cd drive etc goes.

Grand stuff thanks, is there any ones you would recommend?
Again looking on komplett as it seems to be the cheapest and im more or less beside the pick up point.

Gurgle

jeffk wrote: »

I have dell and komplett to start looking but are there any recommendations of makes/models etc around €300 very tops.

Forget makes and models.
For €300, you can easily put together a decent dual-core system well capable of everything short of high-end gaming.
-edit- just read the rest of the thread, nevermind