Wiredgeek Wrote:I've rebuilt three dells out of the retired wreckage of five dells in the last five days, so I'm getting a kick out of this thread. (My new 'Garage Computer' is a sweet little Optiplex 210 - lapped the CPU and heatsink, upgraded the thermal goop, got 2gb of DDR in it, still the same 'ol P4 3.0, up to 500gb of disk and a weird low-profile ATI vidya card, but I'm pushing 1600x1200 to three monitors and am just as clappy as a ham).
Ah huh, did you also remember to check the electrolytic caps on the mainboard 'cos that model Optiplex ya got's not far off the ones that got the batch of dodgy caps. From memory I'm pretty sure it was the Optiplex 260-280 which copped 'em. The firms that had 'em and which I refreshed were quite happy to see 'em go as they generally failed around the time the warranty ended.
Drogan there are books and websites dedicated to building a computer. In fact I'll link a book http://www.makershed.com/ProductDetails ... 0596526865]here I've spotted it in me local Borders a few times and considered getting it but as I've been messing with computers for awhile I'm at the point of not needing a book or guide sheet to assemble one. Then my PC's also a combo of grandpa's axe & a car nut's project car I'm always tinkering and replacing parts as cash & tech allows. I've pretty much hit the limit of what I can do with a LGA775 Core 2 Duo system, with out going to SLI or overclocking.
In the end it basically boils down to: do you feel confident enough to solo build a PC, if so can you get the parts to build the equivalent or better than a major brands PC of the specs you want cheaper and/or sooner then they could ship a complete system to you.
--Rod.H