Going from Dell to AMD

[scuzzy]

Back in 1998, I bought a Dell Dimension XPS computer (PII-350) to replace an old, beat up Packard Bell 486-33SX. Remember those? I recall paying around $2,000 for the Dell, which came with a 6.4GB HDD, 64MB of RAM, and Win 95. No monitor nor speakers were included in the price.

Since buying it, I've upgraded every component I could. The case, power supply, and the motherboard is all that's left of the original setup. Even the FDD is a replacement. Today, it boasts a Pentium 850MHz CPU, a 20GB HDD, 384MB RAM, and Windows 2000. However, I have plenty of spare parts around the house to bump up the system to an AMD XP 1800+ system with a 120GB HDD, 512MB of RAM, and an ATI Radeon 9000 Pro AGP card.

Of course, the Dell case does not lend itself to easily changing the core guts of the system. The case was specifically built for the OEM mobo, which means the mobo mounts and case wiring won't directly translate to the ASUS A7V266 mobo that I have. Not to mention that Dell had its own idea of how to wire a power supply.

So I headed off to NewEgg and found a fairly nice Foxconn TLM-436 case to replace the Dell. I wanted an inexpensive case on the smaller side that had USB connectors readily available, and I found it with this little gem. I will immediately trash the worthless PSU that comes with the case, and replace it with with either an Antec True Power 430W, or a Smart Power 350W, both of which I have hanging around the parts bin.

Since I'm going from a beige case to a black one, I also ordered an NEC ND-3540 DVD burner to match the new system.

Of course, this pretty much means that I'm outright replacing the Dell with an entirely different setup. I'll likely donate the Dell to a local charity, after a good wiping of the hard drive.

[scuzzy]

I should probably mention that I also ordered an MSI KM3M-V Micro ATX motherboard to fit in the new case.

I'm not too sure how well a full-size motherboard would cram into a micro ATX case.  ;D

[Whizbang]

Xoxide also has fan screws with LED lights in the heads.  You really need those.   ;D

[Carskick]

Do you have DDR memory to go with it, or are you going to use the PC100 or 133 you have in your old system?

[scuzzy]

I'll be using my old, trusty (crusty?) PC2700 (2x256MB).