Switching out Towers

George Duncan Sypert · From: Colo Spgs, Co, USA

I am interested in switching the internal parts of my Gateway mini Tower to a mid or full tower. Does anyone know if this is possible without a lot of problems? Is it possible to use any brand of tower or would it have to be a Gateway of the same manufacture period? I have never had my tower open so I don't know what I would be getting into at this time.

I want to add a CD burner and currently have a CD/DVD drive and a Zip drive and no empty ports. I wanted to keep the zip but possibly buying any external zip drive and useing the then available port for the CD burner would be the best.

Thought I would ask some of you with more experience before I do anything.

Thanks for any and all advice. George

Michael Garnett · From: Seattle, WA

That's gonna be pretty expensive, and unless you're experienced, very difficult to boot. If you buy a new tower, you're most likely going to have to basically build yourself a new computer with outdated parts. The folks at the "pre-fab" computer places (gateway, compaq, hewlett packard, dell) make their computers to 2 specifications.

1.) They are optimized for space and use the cheapest parts available. This means it's going to be difficult to change up the "guts" of the computer.

2.) Although they use standard parts, there might be certain quirks with the addition or subtraction of certain installed components. Your motherboard would most likely not fit into another tower without decisive "afro-engineering" steps.

Myself personally, last july, finally got tired of my old Compaq breaking, and set out to build my own computer, so when it broke, I would have no-one to blame but myself. If you're going to buy a new tower, you're probably not going to find one without its motherboard already built in. You might TRY to take the processor out of your Gateway and transfer it to your new motherboard, but why bother? The most expensive processor (Pentium 4, 2.2 Gigahertz) only runs 500 bucks, and a decent processor will probably run you less than $100 online. If all you're doing this for is to have a CD burner on your computer, why not buy an external one? You can get one that will run from a USB port for once again, less than $100.

Now I'd like to pose this. If you haven't opened your tower, how do you know there's not an open slot to put a burner in there? Most computers come from the factory with AT LEAST one open slot for some other piece of software, be it another hard-drive, or another CD drive. It might just be covered up with a plastic facing that is removable.

Try those things before you go buy another tower, because that's a heck of a can of worms to open. Hope this helps.

Garnett

George Duncan Sypert · From: Colo Spgs, Co, USA

Thanks Michael for your reply. I believe that you are correct in that it would be a large can of worms.
The mini tower that I have has no space or room for another drive on the face plate.

Basically what is the general opinions on the difference as to quality, speed, etc on an exteral CD Burner vs an internal. I do have several USB ports available.

I hate it when you tell me that Gateway uses the cheapest parts.

Doesn't everyone?

Thanks again. George

Michael Holland · From: Nashville, Tennessee, USA

George,

I think your safest option would be to buy a USB external burner. Browsing eBay I see you can pick one up for about $100. It's not going to be the super fastest one available, but you plug it in and it works. If you disassemble your PC and put it into another case, there are uncountable problems that can occur with the configuration. And since yours is a 'name brand' that makes it all the more difficult. I can move my home built PIII 450 from case to case if I need to, but Gateway and Compaq and Dell build their own little weirdnesses into their boxes. After all, if you want to change your PC in any way, they are there to sell you a new one!

Michael Garnett · From: Seattle, WA

I didn't necessarily mean that they'll use the crappiest parts, not having owned all the different brands personally. I drew the line at Compaq. No more for me. No more package deals for $999.

You might want to look other places than e-bay also. a personal favorite of mine is
www.pricewatch.com

They've got the cheapest prices for hardware. Looks there like the fastest USB port burner will run you $94 dollars, and it's a 4X4X6 Read/Write/Rewrite. Plus, that's a guaranteed price, you don't need to bid on it.

Gotta run to work.

Garnett

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

Compaq and the old Packard Bell were the cheapest thing you could buy, and they took a lot of shortcuts to make them cheap. I don't like Dell, Gateway, or Micron either because they all use a proprietary bios that can cause you all sorts of problems...sometimes with something as simple as adding more memory. I've never had a computer that wasn't custom-built by a local specialist with readily available parts, and I've never had a hardware problem of any kind in almost 14 years of computing. My friends have had hard drives quit and power supplies go kaput, along with numerous other problems because the mega-builders buy whatever is cheap and plentiful. It may cost you a few more bucks up front to have a machine custom-built, but it pays off in reliability alone. If you must go the Major-Name route, have an "e-machines" built to your specs. They are surprisingly well built for the money, and there's nothing proprietary in them.

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

Custom built or generics are not for the masses. Most want a machine that wil work when they turn it on and someone to call when it doesn't work (for any reason). Having been in PC's and PC help desk support, are for those with some knowledge.

Brand names (all) use proprietry boards or cabinets and generic motherboards (and some power supplies) are not compatible with the brand names. But again, for the masses most are not going to screw with that and when it breaks they take it out and get it fixed or throw it away and buy a new one.

As far as brand names, who knows? except I've always heard e-machines, either the first or second reincarnation, was the #1 machine to avoid as it was the new "Packard Bell".

Erv Niehaus · From: Litchfield, MN, USA

I've had good luck with E-Machines. I have a friend that is a programmer for a software company and that's all they use. They probable have 20 or 30 of them. A few years ago, I purchased a tower from Tiger Software and transfered what I wanted to salvage from my old computer to it. This worked really well and it is still alive and kicking.
However, I don't think I would bother doing this again what with the cheap prices out there right now.
Uff-Da!

Blake Hawkins · From: Florida

My last 4 computers have been built in regular Tower enclosures. They came with lots of hardware and I have changed the mother boards twice with no problems.
The towers came with 250 watt power supplies and I have had no trouble at all with them, and one is now 9 years old.
What I have had trouble with is Monitors.
Every one I've owned has required service in the first three years of it's life.
The brand I will never buy again is CTX.
I have one that is three years old. Cost $499 new and CTX has no support for it. Will not sell me a diagram and no parts are available.
I have heard that CTX is the biggest computer manufacturer in the world...but their products are apparently throw away items.

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

Blake, CTX is "low end" Korean. I heard at one time that CTX was Samsung's low end line but I've never been able to confirm that. When I worked at SSA we (our procurement department) bought some CTX color monitors because of price. After we raised a fuss, the procurement people got the message that "cheaper" wasn't better. We had so many problems with them we just trashed them.

Blake Hawkins · From: Florida

Thanks, Jack, I guess I live and learn.
Although my two CTX monitors were the lowest price I could find at the time, one cost $900 and the other $499.
Last week I saw a 17" CTX in Sam's Club for under $200.
They must also have a plant in Tawan, 'cause both of mine say "Made in Tawan."
Originally they had a service center in Atlanta but closed that about 3 years ago.
Blake

Bill Crook · From: Goodlettsville, TN , Spending my kid's inheritance

While not wishing to rain on anybody's parade,I have several sub $200.00 monitors in use for for 3+ years and show no signs of problems. One is a CTX,the others,are no-name knock-offs.

The key here is to:
NOT run the monitor/TV at max brightness and contrast levels. In fact, one of the monitors is a re-furbished unit. Notice that I also said T.V. I have one(I won't mention the brand) that has been in use since 1974 and it still looks/works as good as the day I purchased it.

I guess my main point here is :

If you take a reasonable care and use a bit of common sence with your electronic devices, they will last a loooooooong time and give you a good return on investment. Just look at the "Peavey" amps for instance, They just keep on going. A bit of care and TLC go a long way.....

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

Bill, I don't want to rain on your Parade, but CTX is not "commercial" grade equipment and will not last in a 24 hrs per day commercial environment. You can't equate low end monitors to Peavey or any other musical equipment. You can't compare apples to oranges.

As far as "commerical" 24 hours per day/7 day a week environment in a computer room, the CTX lasted less than two months, I had IBM monitors that had not been turned off in over two years and still going strong. I had a Racal Datacomm modem diagnostic system with a color monitor that was over 5 years old.

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