Where does a noob find help for building own computer?

[Nelson37]

If you have some time, just start watching parts prices and specs for a while, to get a feel for the market.

There are things you can painlessly upgrade - more fans in the case (if the case is big enough), more RAM (if the mobo has the slots, and that one does, just bought one), additional Hd can be added. You shouldn't have a problem with most any standard power supply.

To upgrade the CPU, you have to remove the old one and either sell it or throw it out the window. This is where you put the extra $50.00 or $100.00 you have to spare. Same with video card if you are into gaming. I was when I bought the almost same video card you are looking at, a while back for $100.00 more. The card I want now is about $200.00.

There's a line that goes "The PC you REALLY want has ALWAYS cost $5000.00".

Set a budget, do your research, and when you're ready, order the parts. Once you have purchased, STOP looking at any prices for quite a while, you will just depress the hell out of yourself at how much you could have saved by waiting, or what you could have gotten for just $50.00 more.

If you value the dollars over the experience of building and/or the flexibility, you cannot beat Dell for dollar value of a pre-built PC. It's when youy want to add a new card or upgrade and you learn it just can't be done that the flexibility of doing your own build pays off. How often does that happen without a full upgrade scenario?

[usually_quiet]

GX280s ... there are two bays for hard drives ... one used already and an empty one up above.

And if you look at my "Computer Details" ... I did build that one myself and I have been using it since 2004.

... and only recently ... a few weeks ago ... I took out the [single core] 3500+ cpu and put in a dual core 4200+ cpu ... I've got a dual core 4400+ to put in

Information about Dell's motherboards is not all that easy to find. It's good to know that the processor on the GX280 board could be replaced with something more recent.

I looked at the drawings in the PDF version of the GX280 Quick Reference Guide that covered all the configurations. In the drawings for the small mini-tower models, which were what I saw for sale, the hard drive bay looks like it will only hold only one HDD with a proper amount of headroom. When I searched it, there was nothing about a second HDD for any of the models, and there was no option for adding one on the refurb store site I visited. That is what made me think it is a single HDD case. I should have looked at the user guides for the small and regular mini-towers instead.

[stiltman]

All mini tower cases for GX series and some Dimension series will hold 2 DVD/CD drives and 2 HDD
The mid tower case was the new transition to the new box design, which has much better air flow.

Plus they finally got rid of the clamshell design

[usually_quiet]

I'll admit it's a little awkward to work inside a clamshell case, but not terrible. I greatly prefer it to the Gateway computer I had before this one. That case had 6 or 8 fasteners to be unscrewed in the back, and then had to be lifted up and forward, or up and back, I don't remember which. It was heavy steel and hard to hold onto. Tricky to replace correctly too. I thought I had died and gone to heaven the first time I had to open up my Dell to work on it. ...So much easier.