Computer components, replacement advice?

Consider created by nicolasrivera24: Computer Components Replacement Advice?

Hello! My computer is very old and I was planning on replacing the hard drive that I have. All I wanted to know is if I buy a new, modern hard drive, will I need to replace the wires or anything that connects to the old hard drive that I am using? (I am currently using a Dell Dimension 8400 with an old 149GB internal hard drive) Will I have to buy a new motherboard or new connections, or can I just buy the hard drive (I was planning to buy “Deskstar Coolspin Serial ATA/600 Internal Hard Drive 3TB”) and connect it? I am also going to buy a new processor and video card (my current video card is “Radeon X1600/X1650 Series” and my processor is “Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.20GHz”, and I was going to buy a modern video card of around $ 150-200, and an “Intel Core i5(or i7)”). Do I have to change my motherboard or anything in my old computer, or can I just take the video card/processor out and replace it with the new processor/video card?

Last thing: Do I need to install the processor, video card, and hard drive after connecting it, like “Install New Hardware” feature on Windows XP (which is my OS)? And how will I configure my hard drive to work for the new hard drive, like do I have to transfer all WINDOWS files and all my other files to the new hard drive, or do I need to re-install the Windows OS on the new hard drive? (If you have an external link to hard drive installation, that would be perfect).

Thanks for all the help, I am fairly new to replacing computer components so some detailed instructions and external sites with more instructions would be great, thanks! If you need any more info please post it and I will add the info ASAP (please reply quickly after asking for more information, thanks)

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Best solution:

Answer by DrDave

From the questions you ask, I SERIOUSLY suggest you have a PC shop do it for you because you haven’t a clue here.

Answer by Charlie Tuna

No offense, but by reading your question, I think you are biting on more than you can chew. I can tell you this much: for the cost of the parts and the difficulty involved in replacing them, you are much better off buying a new computer. Time is money, and this task will take time and you are leaving out a lot of other things.

Answer by Andy L.

The parts of a PC are listed here, where you can actually do a paper build of a PC:

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/partlist/

I looked at the Dell Dimension 8400 and it is obsolete.

http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/dell-dimension-8400-pentium/4507-3118_7-30919189.html

It shows IDE instead of SATA. It is Windows XP. The case(enclosure) is not great. The power supply is old and weak. The DRAM is old and minimal. There is nothing worth re-using in a new build, and therefore nothing worth upgrading.

You cannot add a SATA Hard Drive. It only takes old IDE drives. To change the processor you need a new motherboard. In changing the motherboard you lose the operating system. The RAM will not work on a new motherboard. Your system is beyond upgrading. Time to buy a new one or learn what it takes to build your own.

Answer by Billy

Chances are that your dell doesn’t use sata. I believe there are converters out there, but hold on before you go searching. If you plan to upgrade your cpu and gpu, you’re going into a new pc territory. Intel changes their cpu sockets very frequently now, so you’d definitely need a new motherboard (this also applies to gpu’s, I doubt the motherboard has fast enough slot.) You would also require a new power supply to give these new high end components enough reliable juice, which yours cannot. For a new hard drive, I can’t help you there, I tend to just wipe everything. I back up anything important like docs on a usb. So, long story short, don’t try to change anything out in that computer, it’s really not worth the effort. You’d be better off starting from scratch.

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Computer components, replacement advice?