Takhisis 2.6 (Part 1)

The Old

The Dell tower I've been using since 1997 has really been acting up and I think it's finally at the end of its life. However, my computers never really die... at least not 100%. All of the usable parts usually get moved over to replacement system. Before I move on to the next evolution of this system, I just want to go over what I've done to this 11 year old tower.

Original Dell Parts: All that's left of the 1997 system are the motherboard, a 128 MB RDRAM module and the primary IDE hard drive. The hard drive already had issues early on with a defect somewhere towards the end of it's 60 GB. I partitioned it into 3 drives so that C:\ would be error free.

256 MB RDRAM: I added this shortly because I needed more memory for Photoshop work. I didn't max this system out to 512 MB because RDRAM was never cheap. In hindsight, I should've never ordered and RDRAM system. This module won't make the move into the next evolution.

Firewire Card: This was my cache of spare parts... probably picked up from a computer that was going to be trashed, so it didn't cost anything.

USB 2.0 Card: I got this part recently through a rebate offer... didn't end up costing anything!

Front USB/Firewire Kit: This part allowed me to route 2 USB 2.0 & 2 Firewire ports to the front of the case for easier access.

Pentium III 1 Ghz CPU: The stock CPU was a 933 Mhz model. The slight upgrade also came from my spare parts.

DVD-ROM: This system at one point had both a DVD-ROM and a burner, but I moved the burner to a more powerful system in my parents' house. In stock form, the system was a typical 1997 tower. It had a CD-ROM & CDRW.

200 GB HDD: 2 years ago I found a 200 GB drive on sale for $40 (great price back then) and added that as a secondary IDE drive, chained to the Dell C:\ drive. I used this for storing DVD video, which pretty much made this a media center system.

Cooling fans: Originally, this system only had one fan in the back that had a plastic contraption routing old air to the CPU. This fan eventually got clogged and stopped working. I removed the whole setup and added 2 fans instead... one CPU fan and a replacement for the rear.

Ethernet Card: This was added by Time Warner when I subscribed to their Internet service. It won't make the cut because pretty much any system newer than this one already has a built-in ethernet.