[poetry8]

hi, i have an old pc thts been outta service for 3months and has had some parts taken out,mainly the disk drives and the hard drive. i have some spare disk drives and i have a spare 10gig hdd,i also have a 256ddr ram stick spare.will i be able to set everything up usin these,i will get a bigger hdd at the end of month wen i get paid. but with a 10gig will i b able to get it up and runnin? the reason my friend stopped usin the pc was cause 1day outta the blue the disk drives and the two front usb slots all stopped workin.instead of checkin it out he just scrapd it n got a laptop. what dya think caused this and dya think i will have the same problem even tho im usin different disk drives? i took the whole thing to pieces but all i could find is this: the only markings on the mobo are ' ga-8simlnf rev 2.0 ' i couldnt turn it on so i do not no what bios it has altho there is a chip on the mobo tht reads ' 686 amibios c186 9320 ' so im guessin it is an american megatrends bios. also i dont have a copy of windows xp right now but again i can get 1 wen i get paid. does this matter? the only reason i am doin this pc is for my lil bros bedroom so he can use it to surf the web,do his home work and maybe(once the new hdd is in) use limewire to get some music.there will b absolutely no gameplay at all on this machine.it will be very basic. can anyone help?

[cyrax]

What's your budget?

[Mall57]

if you on a verry tight budget, just go to pricewatch find there mobo/cpu/ram section and get the cheapest amd athalon they hav (probably $140 shipped) im assuming you still have the case a psu also left over?

[aliasaid]

Originally posted by cyrax
What's your budget?

[poetry8]

erm i hadnt realy set a budget i think i have most of the things i need minus a bigger hard drive and an operatin system. i have the case,i have a psu, i have the mobo and a intel celeron 2.6ghz processor,sound is onboard,i have a dvd rom drive and a cd rw drive.i have a 10gig hard drive,i have 256 ddr sdram.i have all the conectors,i have an ethernet card,i have a tv tuner card,graphics are onboard 128,i think tht is all i need but any other advice is welcome

[VictorGreen]

just go with linux for an operating system if all you want to do is homeowork and websurfing. Save yourself some money on the OS!

[poetry8]

what are the main differences between linux and windows? are there any things tht are unavailable in linux tht are available in windows or vice versa? and how do i get linux, i believe it is open source so where do i dl it from? thnks?
o and how do i actually begin building the pc? is there a specific way or do i just put it all together and power it up?

[aliasaid]

i don't really get what you're doing...

isn't the comp already assembled and you're just sticking in a hard drive?

[FlashDude]

The first thing I would try is swap out the PSU, It sounds like that is the problem. Either that or the board itself is toast. That Is a Gigabyte board Probably this one A 10 gig hdd would be fine to start with.

Edit* I think that board is OEM, Maybe Packard Bell, It might be better to get the drivers from the OEM.

To try linux I would suggest Feather Linux, Its a Knoppix remaster, is very small and everything you would need for what that PC is going to do. After you Download and burn the iso just boot it as a live cd then when you are in the GUI, just select hdd install and you will be very pleased.

Sorry for all the Edits

Get Feather Here

[Crysalis]

unless he knows linux, i wouldn't suggest it to him....