This build is driving me crazy, please help end it

Triassic

Distinguished
Jul 25, 2009
15
0
18,510
I have a long long story that I don't feel like recounting. Super short summary: I've spent over 20 hours researching and then another 15 trying to replace certain components in my system. But one thing after another has gotten in way. The straw the broke the camel's back: I spent $60 on a Dremel to take off screws that were tightened freakishly hard into the motherboard and then the thing breaks within the first 5 minutes. But whatever, all that matters is that I DON'T WANT to build a custom PC anymore.

All I want now is for this goddamn build to be over with, as soon as possible. This has been overall a miserable experience, and it needs to end.

So here's where my question comes in. I have several components (graphics card, memory, power supply and harddrive) that I want to put into a premade system.

---There are several factors that I need: a large case (graphics card is 10.5 inches long, power supply is fairly beefy), a PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot (for the graphics card), 4 memory slots (memory is 4 x 1024 DDR-SDRAM), a 3.2 GHz CPU (or one I can overclock to 3.2) and good cooling (graphics card gets hot). Also, one quick question: Can any hard-drive work in any computer? I currently have a 400 GB drive that runs Windows XP 64 Bit and was hoping I could just swap in the default hard-drive with that one.---

I really wish I had the energy to figure this all out myself; enough to do another 10 hours of research on prebuilt computers, but I'm beat mentally. So I turn to the experts: could you possibly help me? I hate being 'that guy', the one who doesn't do any research for himself, but I'm completely exhausted. I just want this all to end.

And yes, I know how inefficient this is, and no, I don't need any encouragement. I know it's silly to spend all this money on a new computer only to replace everything, but I really don't care. This build has been going on for far too long. So if you could please please help give me a moment of your time and help me out by finding a cheap computer that can handle the above (a cheap one, if possible, I don't care who makes it), I would make a frickin shrine to you and worship at your altar. Thanks for your time.

Note: If you need the specific components I'm looking to replace the default ones with, I can find some links. Also, I selected Dell as the sub-category for no reason other than that it required me to select a sub-category. I don't have a preference to who the manufacturer is.
 

rockyjohn

Distinguished
Please post the links for the items you are trying to carry into the new system so we know exactly what they are.

For instance, do you really have DDR-SDRAM memory rather than DDR2? That is OLD - finding a new system for sale today with it might be a real issue. I don't expect you to answer since you are trying to forget your problems with you aborted build - but I have to wonder why you would be using that memory today in a new system and is it really compatible with the rest of the system you selected. And, if it is the memory, who reviewed your components to ensure compatibility? Off course we also need to know other details about the memory and another for example, you have a PSU supply you want to reuse but you say it is "bulky" - read a problem or an issue - and then you dont' tell us how large it is.

Regarding HDs - generally any HD can work in any computer (none of my comments refer to Apple - just don't know much about them at all) as long as it has the required IDE or SATA connectors on the mobo. However, you can't generally take the HD with the operating system on it and insert it into a new system inspecting it to boot up as is. When Windows loads, it loads drivers specific to the hardware for that system. It might work - depending on the two systems - or might work with some fussing and updating drivers - but that does not seem like something you should consider given your current temperment. You could however, put it in your new computer as a slave drive, save your data, reformat the drive, and reinstall the OS and then have a dual boot system - but I doubt it will be worth the work and hassle for you.

To proceed you really need to first provide the list of the actual components with a link to newegg or another vendor.

I am sorry you had so much trouble with your build. I cannot understand all that time if you had knowlegeable others review the compatibility of your component list, had good instructions to follow, and posted on forums when you ran into issues. If nothing else you should have felt you were making significant progress and were near successful completion.

I had a lot of problems with my last build - but all were primarily related to memory timing issues. It was frustrating to me to have such issues when I used memory from the compatiblity list of the mobo manufacturer. It took a fair amount of time and trial and error work to get it to work - much more than I had expected - with a lot of time spent just waiting while putting the system through repeated memtests. But I was being walked step-by-step through it by an expert at the official Gigabyte site so I had faith it would pay out and, while it took several days elapsed time (that is not several days of me working directly on the system but rather waiting for memtest runs to finish), I saw it to the finish and am glad I did.