Building a PC from barebones kit + cannibalized HDD

[radhak]

I need to replace my desktop (Dell from 2003), but am averse to paying a ton of money for a brand-name which might work just as good or bad as any I could put together.

Today's advt from TigerDirect had me thinking : if I could buy this nice barebones kit for $300, and simply moved my current SSD hard-drive (which has the OS/MBR on it) to it and made it the primary, I would have a new computer ready, but with all the OS and programs that I currently have, right?

What say - would that work? My instinct says it will freak out on the first boot-up, but should manage quite right after that.

I do have another HDD of 300 GB on this, but not sure I'd need it, or the 3GB DDR memory. I would reuse the LCD monitor, and simply trash the rest.

Of course, I have installed Windows 7 Pro (32 bit) on my Dell; I guess I will need to figure out a way to upgrade to the 65-bit one later, if feasible.

[twistsol]

Usually, moving a hard drive to a new computer doesn't cause it to freak out, but Windows should prompt you for all the new drivers for each bit of new hardware. That's the theory, but in practice it's iffy as to whether it works and whether you end up with a stable system. I've done it when I've toasted a motherboard and need to get back up and running quickly to finish some work.

Upgrading to 64 bit Win7 from 32 bit is a different matter. You have to start from scratch with a clean windows installation. No upgrade path exists. That of course means reinstallation of all apps and drivers as well plus the perpetual installation of updates and restarting until you're up to date.

Build vs buy? you might as well ask what's the best religion. I have a couple of the TigerDirect bare bones systems here, they generally include really low end components. You never get more than you pay for. I also have a completely prebuilt HP from the same era. Cost difference wasn't significant and the performance is about the same as well.

[dbhost]

First off, you will need your installation key for the copy of Windows... I assume you have that. Run Sysprep on the donor system prior to pulling the drive. When you boot it up on the new host, it should prompt you for the installation key, drivers etc... and then you are good to go... Just a fair warning though, that would include any viruses or spyware you had on the old box... You may want to make sure the system is good and clean before doing this...

[LinuxRandal]

Was the version of Windows that came with that Dell pc, or did you upgrade or full install at some point in time?
Your getting some decent advice, but if it is one of those "this pc only" windows installations, it will not be liked.

[chopnhack]

From my own limited experience I have always felt better about loading windows into the new system. It just seemed to me that it tailors itself better to the new hardware versus using a drive with so much accumulated driver info and other bloat that is no longer relevant to the new setup. my 2 cents

Radhak, this is a micro atx format, do you have need of more expansion slots than what is provided?

[Daryl]

That is a rather old hard drive to rely on. Since you own that version of Windows you can get the disc for a nominal fee and have a new install.

[TCOTTLE]

newegg.com has some nice bare-bones kits.
As an IT admin for 14 years, in my experience, prepare to do a fresh install on your SSD, rather than trying to transfer the old drive to the new PC, you could try to copy your files to the 300 GB drive, then install windows WITHOUT the 300 GB drive installed in the new system.
After you have reinstalled the OS, put your 300 GB drive in. I suggest this because windows 7 has a nasty habit of putting OS files on whatever drives it sees during install, which in turn makes it a PITA to remove a drive you may not want in the system in the future.
I don't know if you will violate the eula, but the 64 Bit and 32 Bit product keys are interchangeable.

[radhak]

Some further detail : while the desktop is much older, the SSD is just 6 months young. At that time, I did have to install win 7 from the disk (which I have, with the product key), so a fresh install, just for switching to the SSD hdd. I was hoping I would not have accumulated too much bloat in these months; only wishing to avoid installing all the other apps from scratch. But if I cannot upgrade to 64bit easily, it might come down to a fresh install - otherwise I will not be able to utilize all the 8GB ram.

I was planning to buy the kit with the 1.5TB HDD, but making that large hard-drive as the secondary drive, leaving my SSD for the OS/MBR. But keeping the larger drive detached while installing the OS seems a neat idea.

Micro-ATX format eh? Need to count how many slots are provided. Not sure I have anything special in mind, but don't want to be shackled too soon. Maybe I might want to add a TV tuner, but not much more. Extra HDD don't use explansion slot, I remember.

[Cochese]

Your success will lie in which disc you have - OEM or retail.

[dbhost]

Your success will lie in which disc you have - OEM or retail.

And which OEM. Since he is running Windows 7, on a system originally built in 2003, I highly doubt it was a bundled version. However, it could have very easily been an OEM copy bought with the HDD or other upgrade components.

The worst part is, he has me thinking about building a new Barebones box. And I like that one... Just leave Winderz off of it so I can install RHEL 6 (Scientific Linux 6 actually). I need a 64 bit box with a decent amount of RAM to prep for my RHCE RHEL 6 exam...

[Cochese]

If it's a system builder license, the key is permanently tied to the motherboard. Which means more than likely a new copy will be needed to purchase.

Do note that as of last year, you could do a clean install from an upgrade disc, it just took a little longer. Would have to see if that loophole got closed or not.



We should have a computer building thread. Who wants to start it?

[LinuxRandal]

Do note that as of last year, you could do a clean install from an upgrade disc, it just took a little longer. Would have to see if that loophole got closed or not.

Granted it has been quite a while since I installed Windows, but that wasn't anything new. Windows 98 was like that (it looked for one file, that you could put on the drive), and I thought 2000, was the one that asked you to put your original disc in, if an empty C: drive was found.

[radhak]

The Win 7 disc is a retail version. No Strings Attached. (why does that make me think of lissome women and my college days ?!? )

The licensing will not be a problem. Just calculating if it is worth it - in my time, effort, and the money saved. Especially the effort : for the little time spent in putting in a hard-drive, I save the time of reconfiguring/installing all apps that I currently have. And that's a huge pain, believe me.

Chr's, any branded machine with similar specs easily crosses to twice the money, even around $800 (eg - the 8GB RAM supplemented by the 2GB Video on the Radeon HD 5450 graphics card). The bigger problem is that they generally don't come in the configuration you want : either the memory is less, or the graphics card is weak, or the HDMI-port is missing, or something. And by the time you go up the ladder looking for all you want, you end up with a configuration that costs way more because they have added something you don't need : like a 1oK rpm 160GB hard-drive !

Of course, this kit has drawbacks too : while it comes with 8GB memory, that's the max it can take; I'd like the leeway of adding more memory down the line.

[alpha]

Here is a link that to a forum that should answer your question:

http://www.sevenforums.com/general-d...-computer.html

The forums and tutorials are excellent on that site.

Bob

[LCHIEN]

you may find the performance of a 2003 ATAPI (parallel inferface) HDD to be significantly slower than a current SATA (serial inferface) drive. Might consider upgrading that , too. I bought a 2 TB SATA drive for under $70 shipped last week.