If you are an experienced computer user, you may be able to save a lot of money and get some valuable experience by combining the parts from several different computers and using them to build yourself a great computer for a very low price. Whether you get your parts from thrift stores, classified ads or your own old computers, building a computer from old parts will be an excellent learning experience, and when you have your finished PC you can be proud that you built it yourself from the ground up.
Instructions
1. Gather together all of the computer equipment you have in one place, then go over the equipment to determine what you have and what you need. You will need a computer case, a good motherboard, a hard drive and a DVD drive or burner. If you are missing any components you can check your local thrift store or computer shop, or you can check the local classified ads. If you plan to build your own systems, you may even want to place an ad of your own, offering to take in unwanted computer equipment.
2. Choose the computer that has a good motherboard and use that as the foundation of your new computer. The motherboard will be the hardest component to move, so this will make it easier to build your computer.
3. Test each of the hard drives you have by connecting them to a working computer. You can use a USB drive enclosure to transform those internal hard drives to external hard drives, and that will make it much easier to test each of your drives. These enclosures are inexpensive and once you have one you can simply plug in the USB cable and read the drive. Discard any failed hard drives and keep the rest.
4. Insert your good hard drives into free bays in your computer case, then connect the flat gray IDE ribbon cable to the drive. If you have an IDE cable with three connectors you can connect the end of the cable to your primary drive, the middle connector to your secondary hard drive and the other end to the IDE slot on your motherboard.
5. Test your DVD drives by connecting the power cord from the power supply on your computer to the DVD-ROM or DVD burner, then testing the eject button. If the DVD drive is working, slide it into an available bay, secure it with screws and attach an IDE cable to the back of the drive. Attach the other end of the cable to the secondary IDE controller on your computer's motherboard. You will see the two IDE connectors sitting side by side on the motherboard.
Tags: hard drives, your computer, build your, computer case, computer equipment, computer motherboard, computer motherboard will