Scrapheap challenge media PC

benlanky

benlanky

benlanky

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Joined
1 Aug 2005
Posts
477
Hi

Just been up into the loft to update a couple of things on my old / rescued from a skip at work Dell Dimension 8250 pc, which has been running my music library pretty well for the past year or so. I'm updating things a bit and want to run some more powerful software, maybe do a bit of media PC stuff and had a scrabble around in the loft for what I could find.

So far I've come up with a Gigabyte K8 Triton mobo with AMD 3700 processor still attached, Arctic cooling freezer 64, about five keyboards, an old CRT monitor, a couple of fans and a few mice :D

I also have a USB external HD with all my music on it (backed up elsewhere) but that's it.

So, as far as I can tell, I need:

Hard drive (nothing large needed)
RAM - cheap as chips
Case - preferably quiet, but most importantly cheap :D
PSU (I doubt the Dell's one is salvageable...)
I can use the onboard graphics and sound, as i will just be using it as a streaming device to save me having to use my main pc.

Any thoughts about what I can get, anything I can use from the Dell (not holding my breath on that one) and anything I've missed?

Thanks for any help
 
Here's the specs of the mobo - website is http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=1958

CPU Socket 754 supports AMD Athlon64/ Sempron processors
Chipset NVIDIA nForce4 4X MCPs (media and communication processors)
Super I/O: ITE IT8712 chip
Integrated peripherals
Marvell 88E1111 Gigabit LAN PHY chip
Realtek ALC850 Audio AC'97 Codec
Memory Type: DDR400/ 333/ 266 -184pin
Max capacity: Up to 3GB by 3 DIMM slots
Internal I/O Connectors 4 x Serial ATA connector
2 x UDMA ATA 133/100/66 Bus Master IDE connectors
1 x FDD connector
3 x USB 2.0/1.1 connectors (supports 6 ports)
2 x cooling fan pin headers
CD in
Expansion Slots 1 x PCI-Express X 16 slot, supports PCI-Express interface Graphics card
2 x PCI-Express X 1 slots
3 x PCI slots (PCI 2.3 compliant)
Back Panel Connectors 4 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
1 x RJ45 ports
Audio (4 x Line-out/ 1 x Line-in/ 1 x MIC) connector
Coaxial S/PDIF input/ output function
PS/2 Keyboard/ Mouse
1 x COM port
1 x LPT
Power ATX power connector and ATX 12V connector
Power-off by Windows 98/ Me/ 2000/ XP shut down and switch
Form Factor ATX form factor
30.5 x 24.4 cm
H/W Monitoring System voltage detection
CPU temperature detection
CPU / System fan speed detection
CPU warning temperature
CPU fan failure warning
BIOS 2M bit flash ROM
Other Features Support NVIDIA Firewall
XpressTM Installation
XpressTM Recovery
Download Center
Q-FlashTM
@BIOSTM

How about a 'Compucase 6CS3 Black Midi Tower with 400W PSU' here: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-029-OK and HD: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-023-HI - not bad for the cheapest on the site ;)
 
Any thoughts about the bits I've posted so far? How about these for a system:

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM £25.99

Compucase 6CS3 Black Midi Tower with 400W PSU £21.99

Crucial 1GB (2x512MB) DDR2 PC2-4200C4 Dual Channel Kit £13.99

Sub Total : £61.97
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £12.41
Total : £83.33

Sorry about the formatting, how do you get those nice screenshots that people show?

Anything I've missed? Or am I following a daft route here? Any other ideas?

Thanks :)
 
click on view cart on ocuk, make sure you can see all of the components, look on your keyboard for a button called Print Screen, usually above the Insert Key and to the right of F12. Press this button once then..

open microsoft paint, right click, paste, or edit, paste. crop the image so only the cart shows, file, save as, .jpg, upload to www.imageshack.us then post the link as an image in here :)
 
Im sure you could pick up a half decent PC from the MM or the bay for under £100. But if you have most of the bits, then building might eb the best rout for u.
 
what are you aiming to with it stream mp3s, divx, freeview, pvr, emulator-arcade cabinet (mame, snes9x, etc)

whats the processor capable of (in intel money) lost track of amd when they bought out the xp series and stopped using the actual clock speeds in the naming?

if its just streaming surely that hdd is overkill you be better of blagging a 7gig drive from an original xbox which has been modded, (people are always giving these away for the cost of postage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdD9ypqoBk4) which is plenty big enough for an OS
 
If you want a cheap (or even free) case try your local pc shop. One of our local ones regularly do upgrades for people such as just changing the case. Usually there is nothing wrong with the cases and they just fancy a change. This pc place piles the old cases up in the back room and then takes them to the tip on a Monday morning. I went in one Saturday morning looking for a cheap case (originally to cut up for a case project i am working on) and he mentioned these cases. He showed me through the back and told me to take my pick. I came away with a pair of Antec NSK 4400's with the proper Antec psu's. Not a mark on them and no dust in the psu's either. There was one front blanking plate missing from each and also one rear pci blanking plate from each missing. Apart from that you would think they were new. They would'nt take anything for them as they would otherwise just be taken to the tip. Both have pc's inside them and are going strong. If you don't ask you don't get. :D

The Gigabyte K8 Triton was actually a decent board and should overclock that 3700+ by a bit. However, that 3700+ is worth a lot of money as it was the fastest 754 cpu (apart from the mobile 4000+ which was very rare). I sold one on the bay last year for £124, which was considerably more than i paid for it. If you sold it you could get something like a E2180, Gigabyte P31 DS3L and 2GB of PC 6400 with the money and have a much more powerful system.


***Edit*** Just checked the bay for completed listings and it seems the price is £65-80 for a 754 3700+ these days.
 
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It's mostly for streaming music using Squeezecentre (www.slimdevices.com) which takes up a bit of processor power, but if the ancient Dell P4 could run it, I'm sure the AMD will. Can't remember how it compares to an intel, but the 3700+ was pretty decent at the time (about 2 years ago).

I could probably buy a ready made pc from somewhere, or even a powerful nas drive, but I've had those bits lying around in my loft for ages and it's more fun to create a monster!!

I'll also be running rdesktop so I can control the PC with a Nokia n800 and run my music library from it, which is what I was trying to do last night when the Dell slowly collapsed inward......

Cheers
 
Found the specs for the 3700+ Clawhammer - great name :)

S3700_spec.png


On the other hand, I could sell my existing bits and go for this instead, any thoughts on the spec? http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17903031

Thanks
 
Just been into my pc repair place next door and he has loads of spare cases and maybe a spare HD, all I would need would be the psu and a bit of time to get it working. Thanks for the tip :cool:
 
benlanky said:
Just been into my pc repair place next door and he has loads of spare cases and maybe a spare HD, all I would need would be the psu and a bit of time to get it working. Thanks for the tip :cool:
Click to expand...

It was well worth trying in my past experience. Glad it worked for you too. :D
 
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