BleepingComputer.com: Budget Build

About a week ago my trusty 8yr old eMachine desktop took it's last breath. I was surprised I got as much use out of it as I did. My first thought was "upgrade". Wrong. My system was so out of date that anything I did would not be much of an upgrade.

For sometime now I have been wanting to build a system to take advantage of the availability of streaming video. Right know I have a laptop that works great for this purpose but why watch a movie on a 15" screen when I have a 40" LCD monitor in the house. What I really planned on doing was putting a parts list together and comparing the price to a ready built system from a retailer. A few months ago while cleaning out a storage room at work I came across a desktop that the boss was going to throw out. I asked if I could have it not really knowing if it was of any use to me or not.

Here is what I brought home:

Dell HP Desktop (Small Form Factor Case)
Intel Celeron Processor
40 Gb Seagate Barracuda Harddrive
Manufacture Date: 2005
Windows XP Home Edition



Parts List:

I want to use the current motherboard to keep the cost down and obviously reuse the case.

CPU

Memory

Harddrive

Videocard


One question I do have since I've never done anything like this before is --- How can I tell if all this will work with the motherboard I currently have (i.e. I don't know what type of CPU Socket I have)?

The hard drive should work

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/syst...en/ug/specs.htm

Quote

If it is a GX260 or GX270 they both had a issue with the motherboard failing.
Apparently the capacitors overheat & fail due to poor air circulation though the case.

Read this thread,

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,13709831

If it is a GX260-270

I would inspect the motherboard capacitors & see if any have bulged /domed tops or leakage.
I would also look at the back of it.
Dell's usually have a sticker that show the actual manufacture date.

If you look around the power button what model does it show ?

You provided a link to a socket 775 CPU & I'm not sure it will work on that old of a Dell.

I have a Optiplex 170L here, Ship Date: 4/4/2006 [off of Dell site], that makes it around 3 years old & it is a Socket 478.

heh, there were about a million of these at my university up until last year.

That case was used for MANY different models from the GX115 Pentium 3 up.
I have a stack of black Dell "clamshell's" out back & the newest one is a GX150.
It's ompossible to glance at one & say that a GX??? .

I kind of figured these computers were a dime a dozen. I work for a Texas based Grocery store chain and every store has this same system in every office. I guess the consensus is to replace the motherboard. After starting this thread last night, I did a little more research and learned that I probably wouldn't be able to use a PCI Express Video Card. So I will probably go with my original plan of just using the case. Without a motherboard and power supply I'm up to $289.96

Can any one recommend a processor and motherboard combo that will perform well for streaming video?

Also, I'm having trouble finding a power supply for this type of case. According to the newegg power supply calculator I need just over 300W . I figure I'll go with a 400W. The one in the case is only 160W I don't think this will be able to handle the hardware I plan on adding.

Thanks to everyone who responded to my post. I'm used to building offroad Jeeps not computers so I appreciates everyone's help.

You would be much better off buying a cheap tower case & a decent power supply.
Those dells use a proprietary power supply that is pretty weak & can't be upgraded.
You would also be very lucky to mount a different motherboard in that case.
Those "clamshell" dell's just aren't conducive to do custom builds.
Save yourself a lot of hassle !

fairjoeblue, on Jul 29 2009, 12:43 AM, said:

No truer words spoken.

Those small cases are about a proprietary as it gets, it won't even fit full size PCI/PCIE cards.
Get a proper case so you don't have to put up with the misery of trying to make things fit in that Dell.

If you're going for cheap this should work. If you want decent and fairly cheap, this would work.

Really it depends what your total budget is, it sounds like you don't need much so you can easily get away with a $40 case or less. Best to be determined once you find out what internals you want and get a case to fit them. It's much easier than trying to fit internals to a case.

Thanks Igle. I like the Cool Master. I'm working on a new wish list. Price still comes in at just under $300. Still better than some of the pre-built ones I've looked at.

This is what I've come up with so far.

Case

I'm assuming that m-Atx in the case description means Micro Atx.

Motherboard
CPU
CPU and Motherboard combo, so I know they work together

Memory
HDD
powersupply

How does this look?