I know next to nothing about computers, let me say that first.
For a while I’ve been having issues with my PC that I had built 6+ years ago. The other day I lost power and now the computer will not turn on, at all. In the rare event that it does turn on it brings up text that says something about the primary drive being bad…I can’t remember the precise words but it was along the lines of ‘fucked’.
I have a brand new dvd-rw drive in the box, and a video card that’s about 6 months old. Am I better off getting something through Dell, or going to a local computer fix it up shop with these parts and have them diagnose and fix what needs fixing?
I’d like to have something with a legal version XP installed. I will be using the computer for 3D modeling and Photoshop/Illustrator work, as well as internet.
^ yup, pretty much. You’ll be able to build one hell of a machine for what you’re looking for in the 4-600.00 range (depending on what you keep and reuse).
I can help ya out if need be, no need to take it to a shop that might try to rape you if you’re not sure what you’re doing.
Putting in the dvd-rom and the video card is seriously easy. If you can wrench on a car, you can work on a PC. Seriously things go in one way and if they don’t go in you have the wrong piece of hardware… simple as that.
As far as the XP, get ahold of someone through SUNY or UB and get a copy of XP Pro for like 5-10 bucks.