Build Your Own

Home PC Computer System

A friend of mine just lost his relatively new computer (service warranty expired a month before) due to a lightning strike while he was away. Apparently a capacitor was blown clear off the motherboard. Visual inspection shows everything looking good otherwise, but we won't know for sure untill we replace the motherboard to start. His is a perfect example of when to consider reusing parts from your old computer when building your new home PC computer.

Using Parts From Your Old Computer

The answer to this question is unique in nearly every situation. To start, is your old computer available to take spare parts out of? There are usually several reasons why it wouldn't be.

1. You want to sell, donate, or give the old machine to a family member.
2. You want to use your old computer for another use, such as using it as a server of some sort.
3. Your old computer is too old, or the parts which you wish to reuse are broken, and so will be of no use.
4. A lot of parts are incompatible with the new computer.

In the first situation, you want to sell the old computer. In order to do this, you need to leave in enough parts in order for the computer to function correctly. These include: graphics card (if it's not on the motherboard), hard drive, motherboard, processor, power supply and RAM. However, it is usually a kind gesture to leave, at least, a rudimentary sound card and an ethernet card so the person you are selling your computer to can use a network and play sound and music. Other than these basic parts, you can use the other parts for your new computer if they meet the other criteria above. One important point to remember is that if you are selling your old computer, it is generally a wise idea to erase the hard drive before giving it to it's new owner. Special precautions must be taken to ensure that you are not giving away your sensitive or personal information when you sell your computer. Don't forget that a simple 'delete' command does not actually erase the data on your hard drive. The original data will still be present and can later be recovered by someone else using special programs and/or equipment. To avoid this, programs are available that will effectively 'shred' your data, making it unrecoverable.

I've known people to wipe their drives by passing a magnet over them, but this method effectively currupts ALL information meaning operating system and software too, so proceed with caution if you have the necessary install disks.

Along with using some parts if you are selling a computer, you can also use non-vital parts if you want to use the old computer as a server. For example, if you plan to reuse your old computer as a utility server, you can easily remove parts such as external drives and the sound card, as these have no use in a server, and they can easily be reused in your new computer, if they are of good enough quality and sufficient performance.

Another important fact to remember is that sometimes you may not be able to use old parts because they do not work with your new computer. For example, even if you recently upgraded to a very fast AGP card, if your new motherboard has a PCI-Express 16x slot, you will have to get a new graphics card, as the old card simply won't plug in to the available slot. RAM from your old computer will also often be unusable in your new motherboard.

Since monitor technology moves quite slowly, you can probably keep your current monitor and use it on the new computer, if it's of sufficient size and clarity for your work. The same can go for keyboards (unless you want to upgrade your keyboard to a better model), as well as mice, printers, scanners, and possibly speaker sets. On the inside, you may be able to take out the floppy drive, CD-ROM or other optical drive, and possibly the sound card and hard drive (depending on how good they are, of course). Personally, I prefer to have a D-Drive if for no other reason than to store files I want to keep handy, but keep my C-Drive clutter-free ie mp3's, ebooks, etc. Sometimes so much is used from the old computer, that the line between an upgrade and a new computer can become very blurred.

Reusing a hard drive from an older computer is an easy way to keep your data from your old computer, though, with most Windows operating systems, moving a boot drive from one motherboard to another will entail a series of reboots and installation of new drivers; in the case of newer Windows systems, like 2000 and XP, an entire 'refresh install' may be necessary, to allow Windows to install a new Hardware Abstraction Layer.

The Complete PC Upgrade and Maintenance Guide, 15th Edition