Dell Zino

Jovem

Hi,

I have a Dell Zino HD....a couple of years old. I have windows 7 and Ubuntu running on it and everything works, albeit really badly. I would like to do one of two things 1) Upgrade the machine to allow it to function properly - Quick boot, fast itunes launch, decent video playback or 2) break up the Zino using the parts (combined with others) to build a new machine.

1. What is your budget? [€as little as possible, sub 350]

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? [HTPC/Internet]

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? [Ideally,I'd like to maintain my existing set up by retaining and reusing the hard drive]

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? [Dell Zino 300HD with Atom processor, DVD drive, HD connections)

5. Do you need a monitor? HD TV

5a. If yes, what size do you need. [26"]

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? [N/A]

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? [No]

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? [Ideally no)

8. How can you pay? [Paypal/Credit Card/Laser]

9. When are you purchasing? [In 3 days]

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? [North Dublin,would like to do it myself]

Thanks in advance

Jovem

Jovem

Here's a little more detail on the donor machine:

Processor
1.80 gigahertz AMD Athlon
128 kilobyte primary memory cache
512 kilobyte secondary memory cache
64-bit ready
Not hyper-threaded

Main Circuit Board
Board: Dell Inc. 0MFHTR A00
Serial Number: ..CN7016399I004Y.
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: Dell Inc. A01 09/03/2009

Memory Modules
Slot 'DIMM0' has 1024 MB (serial number 1C5D2147)
Slot 'DIMM1' has 1024 MB (serial number E7598147)
2048 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory


Drives
210.91 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
48.96 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space
TSSTcorp DVD+-RW TS-L633C ATA Device [Optical drive]
WDC WD3200AAKS-75L9A0 [Hard drive] (320.07 GB) -- drive 0, s/n WD-WMAV2L632376, rev 02.03E02, SMART Status: Healthy


Local Drive Volumes new – volume encryption
c: (NTFS on drive 0) 210.91 GB 48.96 GB free

Controllers
ATA Channel 0 [Controller]
ATA Channel 1 [Controller]
ATA Channel 2 [Controller]
ATA Channel 3 [Controller]
Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller

Display
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 [Display adapter]
Philips PhilipsTV (5) [Monitor] (32.1"vis, December 2006)

Bus Adapters
Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller (2x)
Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller (3x)

Multimedia
ATI High Definition Audio Device
High Definition Audio Device
Tunebite High-Speed Dubbing

Tea_Bag

well your problem is the zino tbh. An atom based PC is never going to do anything particularly well, except annoy you over time. your best bet would be to sell it as a whole working item and start over. I'd keep the second 320gb HDD (it sounds like it has 2?)

are you saying you need a monitor in that budget? if not, €350 will buy you a very capable HTPC.

Jovem

Thanks.

After checking further, processor is 1.80 gigahertz AMD Athlon and there's one hard drive.

Rationale for using components is to avoid heavy data / os transfer.

Cheers

Jovem

OK, Tea_Bag....if you reckon start afresh....happy to go there.

Here's the type of form factor I'm after:

http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=42393&agid=1199

Essentially want a solid performer, fast boot times, good video playback. I'm not a gamer and so have no need for anything expensive. If I can't get a reasonable price for the Zino, I will try to re-use the HDD / DVD drive

If you could suggest a spec appropriate for this case, I'd really appreciate it

Cheers

Jovem