Cheap but classy up-grade

[Bruce]

recently my Epox MoBo died (can't complain too much as it has been running for about 16 hours a day for the last 18 months and it was given to me), i wanted to get an NForce 2 400 Ultra board as a replacement but was unable to get one quickly so settled on an ABIT NF7-M with a 333 NForce 2 chip so i could be up and running (it was bad enough being without a PC over the easter), I managed to find the board i am after and it is on order to be delivered next week. I was now faced with a dilema, i have 2 MoBos, fortunatly i have an XP2200+ as well as my XP3000+ (this is dicounting the old T-Bird and associated bits, enough to biuld onother PC with nothing needed), Now my Case is fairly decent with an pretty new 400w PSU so though i would have a look around for a cheap case for the "spare" MoBo and CPU. I was looking around and Maplins had a nice case for just under 50 notes reduced from 120, a Lian-Li PC6002. I would never have considered it at the full price but could not resist it for 50, especially has i had a soundcard to return for a refund (i bought it but did not need it as the NF7 boards have nice Dolby 5:1 sounds allready). So after all this i will have a PC that may not be faster than what i have at the moment it will look smart, and will be left with another PC with a XP2200+, with Dolby sound, and G4 on board graphics, sans PSU, and drives, which i should be able to sell to recover some of my costs :)

[MadMaster]

Yep, I thought about that myself, try to slop together a computer with all the extra hardware I have, but it never materialized.

[Bruce]

I could build at least 3 with all the stuff i have, and if i made do with only 200 gig on the top system the only thing they would have missing would be moniters, but and it is a big but they would all need Operating Systems, I have copies of Windows 95, 95b, 98, ME and XP, One can be built with an OEM version of ME that came with one an old 1 Ghz T-Bird PC used for parts, but the XP2200+ system would need XP SR1 for USB 2 support, and even if i did no tbother with that the only other OSs that are not upgrades and therefore rely on a previous operating system to validate them are the Original Windows 95 on Floppies and the 95b CD (I only need one of these for licencing reasons), both a little out of date :). This would mean i would have to buy another coppy of XP, and that is not an option :)

And then there is the problem of putting it of till tommorow (which never comes). Mind you i did manage to build a second PC back in the 20th century for my son from discarded parts (I upgraded my moniter so had a spare 15 inch) and it ran for years with 95b, untill his "expert" mate put a "new" (duff) HD in and it died.